Social identity as a useful perspective for self‐concept–based consumer research

Abstract Psychology's study of the self‐concept has generated numerous paradigms with different underlying assumptions. In this article it is argued that these assumptions must be considered before a self‐concept paradigm can be meaningfully applied to consumer research. The major premise in this article is that the recent work on social identity is a particularly meaningful paradigm to adopt for consumer research that implicates the self. This argument is developed with a conceptual discussion of major self‐concept issues, an overview of basic self‐concept paradigms in psychology, and a synthesis of possible factors that may be considered in future theories of social‐identity–based consumption decision making. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.