Self-signalling in consumer choice: conceptual underpinnings and empirical evidence

Abstract

Scholars increasingly acknowledge the importance of self-image motives as a key factor in explaining consumer behaviour, leading to more attention on concepts such as self-signalling. Self-signalling is understood as consumers' act of signalling information about their internal qualities to their own self through choice and behaviour. The present dissertation moves beyond the current state of the literature in self-signalling by exploring its conceptual underpinnings, proposing a mechanism that underlies the phenomenon of self-signalling, and by establishing boundary conditions for self-signalling in consumer choice. More specifically, by conceptualizing an integrative self-signalling framework and deriving testable proposition through an integration with the more established signalling theory, this dissertation considers a broader net of yet overlooked concepts that are relevant to the self. Overall, across three papers, this dissertation presents an integrative approach that unpacks why, how, and when consumer value gained from a choice is influenced by a self-signal.