Date of Award
2001
Degree Type
Dissertation
First Advisor
Nikhilesh Dholakia
Abstract
Using the tools of interpretive consumer research my dissertation explores individual online investing in stocks and mutual funds. Investing in the stock market means more to the individual than the pursuit of a rational financial strategy. Approaches to study investment behavior developed by disciplines such as finance and economics have produced subject-specific but from a marketing perspective empty knowledge. An analysis informed by marketing and consumer theories is able to construe investing as consuming and bring into being a richer and more contextualized description of the lived experience of online investing. Based on a hermeneutic reading of 30 in-depth one-on-one interviews with online investors from Germany and the US, three global themes were identified: speed/agency, enchantment, and edgework. Each global theme is made up of partial themes, which together present a complex representation of the lived experience of individual online investing. The results suggest that individual online investing cannot be reduced to the pursuit of risk-adjusted returns by self-interested and (bounded) rational actors. Investors see the stock market and stock ownership as a site for engaging with the larger world, intense sensations, and personal empowerment.
Recommended Citation
Zwick, Detlev, "The speed of money: Investment as consumption in age of computer-mediated communication" (2001). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1800.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1800
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