How do individuals cope self-threats with consuming behaviors? Analysis based on the orientation-path integration model

Abstract

Consumption is an important avenue for consumers to cope with self-threats, which are ubiquitous in daily life. Providing that consumers’ self-concept is multi-dimensional and the process of coping with self-threats involves cognitive, affective, and emotional factors, current research sometimes confounds the sources of self-threats and coping behaviors, resulting in dispersed, incoherent, and even conflicting conclusions. Hence, in this study, an integrated orientation-path model is proposed based on the review on the existing consumer studies related to self-threats. In the model, we summarized various types of consumers’ coping strategies to self-threats, analyzed how different strategies compensate one another on multiple levels, and revealed the multiple associations between self-threats and consumption behaviors. The model can be applied to understand how individuals construct coping strategies based on the comprehensive value system of products and their perception system. This study contributes to current consumer research by providing extensive understandings on coping strategies to self-threats and the underlying mechanism, and at the same time, offering insights on how individuals react to threats (e.g., Coronavirus) they encountered in everyday life.

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