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This interpretive consumer research study interrogates the idea that people turn to consumption as a means of self-determination. Proceeding from the understanding that the consumer enacts the development of their identity within the marketplace, it takes as its subject those in transition. Its context is a support group community of people brought together by an illness - multiple myeloma. Here, through a phenomenological approach designed to explore the lived experience of illness, the thesis discovers community to be the enabling context for the consumer’s negotiation of both selfhood and the market. Conclusions are drawn about the incremental, complex nature of identity work, and the collective practices that empower it. It is found that the marketplace requires significant mediation, but that the social resources of the community can equip the consumer to navigate its challenges. This transformation is manifested in the newly-diagnosed patient’s journey from dislocation and passivity to the empowered status of ‘skilled consumer’. The importance of the often-overlooked emotional texture of exchange within consumption communities is highlighted. In conclusion, it is offered that this study extends the concept of communities of practice into the field of consumption.

Empowered by the internet and eWOM, online consumption community members now have a greater impact while considering customers’ purchase intentions. This qualitative study intends to examine the factors that impact these community members’ purchase intentions, by addressing the research question: How do internal behavioral and value creation factors impact customers’ purchase intentions in an online consumption community? Moreover, this study proposes a research model of purchase intention in an online consumption community inspired by the theory of planned behavior. As this study considers investigating human behaviors in the online sphere, a netnographic research design is applied. Utilizing the CAQDAS software NVivo 14, the study highlights the nine most engaging factors that impact the community members’ purchase intentions differently. Based on the findings, this study finally offers a research model that can be used in a similar research context.