Widen your research with these suggested journal articles. Links to SAGE articles have been provided freely.

1. Belk, Russell W. (2014), “Digital Consumption and the Extended Self,” Journal of Marketing Management, 30(11–12), 1101–1118.

This article discusses how digital technologies have brought changes to the extended self. Russell Belk also addresses how the “affordances” of digital technologies can encourage readers to reconsider the extended self and also how the advances in the digital environment can affect consumers and their relationship with objects.

2. Christensen, Clayton M., Taddy Hall, Karen Gillan, and Karen S. Duncan (2016), “Know your Customers’ ‘Jobs to be Done’,” Harvard Business Review, September, 54–62.

Christensen et al. here try to tackle the problem firms face today about innovation – even though they know more than ever about their consumers, there still isn’t formula for creating the best product for the market. The authors discuss the “hire” and “fire” approach that consumers adopt when buying products where consumers buy or “hire” products to help make jobs in their life easier.

3. Shankar, Avi, Richard Elliott, and James Fitchett (2009), “Consumption, Identity and Narratives of Socialization,” Marketing Theory, 9(1): 75–94.

In a world where you can’t escape branding and consumerism, what place does identity hold? The authors debate how people’s consumption habits help shape their identity and how this can be manipulated by social influences.