Experiential responsible consumption

Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 284–297

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

Experiential responsible consumption

Ebru Ulusoy ⁎University of Maine, Maine Business School 5723 DP. Corbett Business Building, Orono, ME 04469, USA

⁎ Tel.: +1 207 581 4944.E-mail address: [email protected].

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.07.0410148-2963/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

a b s t r a c t
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:Received 1 January 2015Received in revised form 1 June 2015Accepted 1 June 2015Available online 4 September 2015

Keywords:Responsible consumptionExperiential consumptionAlternative breakVolunteer tourismTransformative learningSelf-transformation

Responsible consumption is an increasingly observed phenomenon. Previous research has largely investigatedthis phenomenon as a conscientious activity by rational individuals. An understanding of the incidental, commu-nal, and experiential aspects of responsible consumption and how these aspects affect consumers remains rela-tively limited. This study utilizes qualitativemethods to explore the self-transformative dynamics of participationin an experiential responsible consumption context that is radically different from everyday life. The context ofthis study is the alternative break (AB) program in the United States in which student volunteers spend theirspring break helping others or improving the environment. In this context, responsible consumption becomesan act of hybrid of moral, rational, social, and ludic agencies. This study shows that some people participate insome forms of responsible consumption incidentally without any specific ideological motivation; they perceiveit more emotionally than rationally, and they are transformed by the experience into people who integrate re-sponsibility considerations into their identities. The analysis reveals that there are six interrelated factors that re-sult in these transformations: organic community, unpretentious fun, embracing the other, developing andutilizing capabilities, challenge, and self-reflection. Participants exit AB tripswith heightened feelings of empow-erment and feel more committed to responsibility considerations and responsible behavior due to thesetransformations.

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Responsible consumption has traditionally been investigated as a ra-tional form of consumption where aware citizen consumers collect allinformation available about the solutions to social and environmentalproblems that result from careless or mindless mass consumption.They “consciously evaluate” these issues, and then work on changingtheir consumption behavior to make a difference either in theirown lives or in the lives of others (Antil, 1984; Caruana, 2007; Follows& Jobber, 2000; Hobson, 2002; McDonagh & Prothero, 2014;Zolfagharian & Pentina, 2011). Although focusing on the instrumentalrationality and deep-seated values of individual consumers is extremelyimportant in exploring why and how people act as responsible con-sumers, understanding communal and experiential dimensions of re-sponsible consumption activities can be just as significant (Rasmussen,2014). In today's experience and community-oriented culture, we ob-serve the increasing role of these dimensions in shaping the experiencesand values of consumers in almost every consumption context, includingresponsible consumption ones, such as the Burning Man festival(Kozinets, 2002) or trends like freeganism (Nguyen, Chen, & Mukherjee,2014). These are the dimensions that lead to an emotional connectionwith contexts and causes, and they are shown to be as important as

rationality in creating responsible and altruistic behaviors (McCarthy &Tucker, 2002; Schwartz, 1977). However, the research on these aspectsand how they shape consumers' responsible self-concepts is limited.This study aims to fill in some of these gaps in the literature.

Two overarching research questions that guide this study are:(a) why are some people willing to spend a spring break with limitedfree time engaging in physically and/or emotionally challenging socialor environmental work when they have options that are marketed asmore attractive, such as amythical carefree fun vacation that has almostthe samemonetary cost, or could be just relaxing? (b) How does partic-ipation in such a vacation option contribute to the self-concepts ofconsumers?

The context of this study is the alternative break (AB) trip phenom-enon in theUnited States, a formof volunteer tourism(voluntourism) inwhich participants spend their money and time to participate in a ser-vice trip during spring break, a time traditionally devoted to relaxationand fun. Even though AB participants are volunteer tourists who go onservice-trips, as the findings of this study show, they do not necessarilyhave specific ideological motivations to engage with social or environ-mental issues that typical volunteer tourists have. Most initially partici-pate in AB trips to have a different and unique experience withouthaving any deep understanding of what they will be doing or of whatit means to give back. In the process of participation, they perceive themeaning and value of what they do emotionally as a member of a com-munity rather than individually and rationally. Hence, consumption in

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285E. Ulusoy / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 284–297

this context can be considered an extraordinary experiential type of re-sponsible consumption.

Through a qualitative study of this activity, this research explores themotives of participants, as well as the experiential, emotional, and com-munal drivers of personal and communal transformations that takeplace in an out of the ordinary contexts of responsible consumption. Italso explicates the meanings these transformations have for the partici-pants. In so doing, this study advances the understanding of the multipledimensions and effects of responsible consumption beyond instrumentalrationality.

2. Conceptual background

2.1. Responsible consumption and identity

In this study responsible consumption is defined as “the consump-tion that has less negative impact or more positive impact on the envi-ronment, society, the self, and the other-beings.” It is an umbrellaconcept that highlights various types of consumption terms that repre-sent specific practices such as sustainable consumption — consumersconsider the impact of their consumption on society, the environment,and the economy, and use resources taking future generations into con-sideration (Phipps et al., 2013); ethical consumption — consumers aredriven by puremotivations (Cooper-Martin &Holbrook, 1993;Memery,Magicks, Angell, &Williams, 2012), though not every consumption thathas ethical content impacts thewell being of others (Francois-LeCompte& Roberts, 2006); consumer citizenship — consumers prioritize and ac-tively contribute to the maintenance of just and sustainable develop-ment by caring and acting responsibly on family, national, and globallevels (Schrader, 2007); socially responsible consumption — consumersprioritize their contribution to social issues and make it a point to buyfrom companies that care about these issues (Antil, 1984; Webb,Mohr, & Harris, 2008); and green consumption — consumers privilegetheir contribution to environmental issues over other issues (Cho,Thyroff, Rapert, Park, & Lee, 2013; Haws, Winterich, & Naylor, 2013).Even though any of these practices refer to responsible consumption,each emphasizes different aspects of it. Responsible consumption isused in this research as the broader term, as it is not limited to taking fu-ture generations into consideration, to maintaining justice in develop-ment, to concern about social or environmental issues, or driven onlyby altruism. Overall, it is a complex phenomenon that has multipledimensions.

Consumers are increasingly interested in various forms of responsi-ble consumption, and the number of consumers who identify them-selves as ‘responsible’ is a growing segment, and this growth is theconsequence of increasing awareness about social, environmental,and/or ethical issues (Schrader, 2007) that result from mindless con-sumption in today's society (Giesler & Veresiu, 2014). Responsible con-sumers are conceptualized in previous studies as consumer citizenswho have duties and rights, are aware of these duties and rights, andact on them (Schrader, 2007). However, taking on an identity as “re-sponsible” is not always a rational, straightforward process. Responsibleconsumers create meanings of different responsible identity typesthrough a process of reflecting on diverse contexts and people, as wellas on multiple layers of cultural, structural, social, and individual mean-ings (Bruner, 1995; Burke, 1991). When consumers perceive thesemeanings as positive and intense, responsibility identities become sa-lient. In other words, responsibility becomes an important determinantand dimension of their attitudes and behaviors (Reed, 2002). Yet, iden-tities related to consumption are reflexive and dialectical in nature(Abrams & Hogg, 1999; McAdams, 1996). Identity meanings constantlychange as consumers endlessly reflect on ever changing contexts(Bisogni, Connors, Devine, & Sobal, 2002; Kleine, Kleine, & Kernan,1993).

The literature on responsible consumer identities and behaviorsconcerning the priorities of consumers is fragmented, and it is fragmented

as well regarding how andwhy consumer develop responsible identities.Yet, there are two conditions for responsible consumer identities that arecommon in most previous research: 1) consumers actively seek, process,and interpret information about responsibility, and 2) they activelychoose to act on it (Schrader, 2007). Hence, responsible consumption isclosely related to feeling certain obligations and having specific values.Responsible consumers manage their behaviors rationally according tothese obligations and values (Giesler & Veresiu, 2014). According to pre-vious research, cognitive internalization of information is what influencesconsumer identity negotiation and expression, and it shapes theirmotiva-tional structure for responsible behaviors (Zolfagharian & Pentina, 2011).

Yet, as mentioned earlier, responsible consumption is a complexprocess and the literature on it involves further questions that haveonly been partially answered, such as whether consumers are motivat-ed either altruistically or by personal interest, and why consumers whosay that they have a positive attitude toward behaving responsibly donot act accordingly. Therefore, it is useful to explore different contextsand types of responsible consumption in-depth.

2.2. Voluntourism and self-transformations

One context of responsible consumption concerns tourism, as masstourism has a variety of significant negative impacts on society andthe environment (Durbarry & Seetanah, 2015; Mathieson & Wall,1982) such as tasteless and problematic development, environmentalharm, social alienation and homogenization (Butler, 1990). The discus-sion about responsible consumption is expanding in the tourism field,and alternative forms of tourism are increasing. Voluntourism – an al-ternative form of tourism that combines traditional tourist activitiessuch as sightseeing with volunteer service work activities that rangefrom construction to environmental protection (Brown, 2005) – is posi-tioned as a responsible formof consumption (Wearing, 2001). Typically,volunteer tourists (voluntourists) are citizens who travel “with a pur-pose” (Brown, 2005; Caruana, 2007). Previous research proposes thatvolunteer tourists aremotived by the desire for immersion in a differentculture, “to give back,” and “to make a difference,” (Brown, 2005), un-like the fun-oriented motives of mainstream tourists. Voluntouristsare motivated by an ideology that prompts them to diverge from themarket-driven priorities that drive mass tourism (Brown, 2005;McGehee & Andereck, 2009). Voluntourism is proposed to have manyidentity related outcomes, such as self-actualization, self-fulfillment,sense of empowerment, independence, increased self-awareness, self-development, and self-renewal (Brown, 2005; Coghlan & Gooch,2011; McGehee & Santos, 2005; Stebbins & Graham, 2004; Wearing,2002; Zahra & McIntosh, 2007).

Even though most research is limited in its understanding of howand why these identity outcomes take place in voluntourism contexts,two main themes that can be inferred frommost research are transfor-mational learning and experiential consumption. It is important to ex-plore how these two themes interact in the shaping of responsibleconsumer identities.

2.2.1. Transformational learningVoluntourism is a formof transformative learning (McGehee&Santos,

2005;Mezirow, 1991; O'Sullivan, 1999;Wearing&Neil, 2001),which, ac-cording to O'Sullivan (2002, p. 11) “… is a shift of consciousness that dra-matically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world.” For themost part, transformative learning engagement is due to a “disillusionwith existing sets of reference and the search for something new.”(Coghlan & Gooch, 2011, p. 718). It shifts one's understanding of one'sself and one's self-locations, relationships, understanding of relations ofpower, and visions of alternative approaches to living (Mezirow, 1991;O'Sullivan, 1999; O'Sullivan, 2002). It has a significant role in developinga sense of responsibility, as it can help one to develop a sense of connec-tion with others in need through role relationship, chance encounter, ordirect appeal (Berkowitz & Daniels, 1963; Berkowitz & Daniels, 1964).

286 E. Ulusoy / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 284–297

The two main drivers of transformational learning emphasized involuntourism literature are hands-on service learning and structuredindividual and group reflections. Service learning is an activity inwhich participants engage in hands-on work that addresses humanand community needswithin structured opportunities designed to pro-mote learning and self-development (Bringle & Hatcher, 1996; Jacoby,1996). Participants develop and apply skills in real-life contexts, whichenhance their self-concepts and enact their responsible identities. An-other self-enhancing facet of service learning is that participants findthe chance to develop cognitive and emotional connections with thecontext and communities in need in these contexts (McCarthy &Tucker, 2002).

Structured individual and group reflections is a process in whichparticipantsfind a chance to put their lives, thoughts, feelings, and capa-bilities in perspective through thinking about their experience, aboutwhat they learned from the experience, and how they can make achange based on this learning. These reflections are an opportunity forparticipants to critically develop, revise, and evaluate identities bystepping outside of everyday situations and practices (Taylor, 2007).

Even though transformational learning framework has been to bemoving from cognitive oriented perspective to the inclusion of effectivedimensions (O'Sullivan, 2002; Sipos, Battisti, & Grimm, 2008; Taylor,2007), the use of this framework in voluntourism literature has beenstill relatively limited to understanding cognitive transformations ofparticipants.

2.2.2. Extraordinary experiential consumptionExperiences that take place in themarket are perceived as significant

consumption behavior that relates to the enactment and construction ofconsumer identities (Pine & Gilmore, 1999). Experiential consumptionframework suggests that consumers have a need for fun, fantasies,and feelings (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). In that sense, this frame-work focuses on aspects of consumption that go beyond the confinesof cognitive psychology and utilitarian economics. Experiential con-sumption is a significant driver of consumers' evaluation of consump-tion contexts and outcomes (Arnould & Price, 1993; Bigne, Matilla, &Andreu, 2008), even in the most serious contexts, such as hospitals(Lonsway, 2007).

A type of experiential consumption that is largely investigated inconsumer behavior literature is extraordinary experience consumption.Extraordinary experiences are “intense, positive, intrinsically enjoyableexperiences” (Arnould & Price, 1993, p. 25). They are primarily classifiedinto categories of transcendent experiences— that lead to total absorp-tion into the experience (Celsi, Rose, & Leigh, 1993); immersive experi-ences — that create a deep involvement of the consumer in the presentmoment, which can happen either total and immediate or partial andprogressive (Carù & Cova, 2007); and transformation — that createschanges in the thought or feelings of consumers and helps them takeon identities that are different from their everyday identity (Belk &Costa, 1998; Lindberg & Østergaard, 2015). According to Carù andCova (2003) and Lindberg and Østergaard (2015), extraordinariness ofexperience means arousal of emotions at the expense of the cognitivedimension.

An experiential perspective has the potential to supplement the ratio-nal approach in responsible consumption contexts such as voluntourism(Rasmussen, 2014). Voluntourism indeed can be conceptualized as aform of extraordinary experiential consumption, as it is geared towardhedonism and differs from ordinary activities. It consists of special andmemorable moments that lead to notable transformations of the self(Abrahams, 1986). Furthermore, it is short term and clearly defined.Most participants choose voluntourism to immerse themselves in cul-tures that are out of the ordinary for them, tomeet newpeople, and to ex-perience different lifestyles (McIntosh & Zahra, 2007; Stebbins &Graham,2004). Overall, voluntourism experiences elicit strong emotional re-sponses from tourists (Coghlan & Pearce, 2010). The two main conceptsin extraordinary experiential consumption framework that relate to

voluntourism are immersion and transformation. Voluntourism is largelyan immersive activity as people become one with the context in a shorttime. Finally, participants experience various transformations throughvoluntourism as is explicated in this study.

3. Methodology

3.1. Context

The context of this study is the alternative break (AB) program atone of the flagship universities in New England, a region of the North-eastern United States consisting of six states. This is a volunteer organi-zation led by students, and the trips it organizes enable students toengage in direct service that focuses on issues specific to a location.More than200 universities in theU.S. offer AB trips. TheAB organizationthis study focuses on is the biggest student organization on the campus.Participants take trips throughout the U.S. and occasionally overseas.Student applications, which must be submitted in person, are acceptedin the beginning of September, and the selection process is highly com-petitive. Students usually camp outside the building where applicationsare accepted the night before application day. In late September, select-ed students are placed into groups of twelve comprised of ten regularmembers and two site leaders.

Going on AB trips is a significant ‘experience consumption’ for par-ticipants because 1) it is costly in terms of money and time, as studentspay a fee to go on the trips and, after the placement of students ingroups, the groups spend six months participating in weekly organiza-tion and group meetings, local service work, fund-raising, and bondingactivities, and 2) students are relinquishing a period of time traditional-ly devoted to fun and relaxation. During the spring break, typically inMarch, the groups, each accompanied by a facultymember, an organiza-tion staff member or a graduate student advisor, spend aweek at a loca-tion chosen by site leaders. For a fewweeks after returning, participantsmeet periodically to present their groups' reflections on their trips.

This alternative tourism activity provides a unique context for un-derstanding the transformation that participants experience concerningresponsibility. AB trips are positioned as an alternative to typical springbreak vacations characterized by excessive and self-indulgent behaviorgeared toward fun and pleasure both of which have strong social sup-port (Williams & Burns, 1994). In a sense, it is almost a counter-normative consumption context.

3.2. Sampling and data collection

Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviewswith AB participants and observations of meetings of the whole organi-zation and individual groups between Spring 2013 and Fall 2014. Re-searchers preferred a qualitative path to data collection because thisfield of investigation is in its exploratory stage, and experiential andcommunal dimensions are phenomena that require an in-depth under-standing of feelings, and how these feelings interact with thoughts andbehaviors. To gain insights into student participation on AB trips,researchers conducted seventeen interviewswith undergraduatemem-bers of the organization. They also interviewed the studentorganization's staff advisor aswell as two trip advisors, one a staffmem-ber – a technician at theDNASequencing Facility – and the other a grad-uate student in Mathematics. One of the researchers learned about thisprogram from a student in a class discussion. The researchers first chat-ted informally with this student to understand the structure of the pro-gram and to begin creating the interview guide. They then announcedthe initiation of this study in the school where the studywas conducted.As a consequence, two participants of the programwho satisfied the re-search requirements came forward. Researchers started their interviewswith these students, and refined their interview guide. A review of litera-ture on voluntourism, experiential consumption, transformative learning,and self-concept helped them in creating the guide. Researchers used the


snowball samplingmethodby asking the participants they interviewed torecommend other possible candidates from different schools and variousAB groups at the university. Overall, researchers chose purposive sam-pling method for two reasons: 1) AB is a unique voluntourism programthat takes place only at universities. Therefore, a student & advisor sampleis the only sample that is appropriate to use to explore this phenomenon,2) researchers needed to interview students with different backgrounds(their major, the types of trips participated, and the number of timesthey went on trips) to assure maximum variation sampling rationale(Miles & Huberman, 1994). Table 1 provides a list of the participants'pseudonyms and a brief description of their backgrounds — sex, collegemajor/minor, and the number of times they have been on AB trips.

All informants volunteered to participate in the research. The inter-views, most of which were conducted face-to-face, lasted between 45and 160 min. Two interviews were conducted over the phone. Follow-up interviews were conducted with four participants who had takenmultiple trips to elicit further reflections on their experiences. All inter-views were semi-structured. Researchers tried to develop an atmo-sphere that made participants feel comfortable speaking freely aboutpersonal experiences and feelings (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009).

Researchers primarily asked questions about how and why the sub-jects became involved in the program, what they thought about thesetrips before they participated, their experiences and feelings duringthe trips, their feelings and thoughts about these trips after their partic-ipation, and the effects the AB experience had on how they perceivetheir self-concepts and their lives. The researchers encouraged the in-formants to tell stories, both positive and negative, about what hap-pened during their trips. They continually elaborated on interviewees'answers to gain a deeper understanding of their feelings and thoughts.As the study progressed, interviews became more structured. The uni-versity at which the data is collected offers various programs and initia-tives addressing responsibility issues. Therefore, the researchers werecareful about asking respondents directly and indirectly during the in-terviews whether they were aware of/involved in some other sustain-ability or responsibility related programs at the university level tounderstandwhether theywere influenced by any of these. Pseudonymsare used to assure confidentiality.

To gain perspective on student participation, researchers unobtru-sively observed three programmeetings of thewhole student organiza-tion that lasted anywhere between 3 and 4 h and sixteen groupmeetings that lasted anywhere from 1 to 3 h. The rationale for non-participatory observation was to minimize the influence of theobserver's presence on the behavior of the students (Adler & Adler,1994). During meetings, the researchers sat in a far corner of the roomand took field notes during and after these meetings. These notesform the body of the observation data. This data was valuable for

Table 1Participant profiles.

Pseudonym Sex Major Number of timesparticipated at AB trips

Derek M Finance/Econ 1Erica F Civil Engineering 1Jeff M Mathematics 3John M Music Ed/English 1Jill F New Media/Business Adm. 1Zack M Accounting/Finance 3Ben M History/Anthropology 1Emma F Nursing 3Ian M Bioengineering/Business 3Jess F Anthropology/English 1Molly F Environmental Engineering 2Mary F Food Science & Human Nutrition 1Emily F Management/New Media 3Matt M Political Science 1Lauren F Political Science/Women's Gender

and Sexuality Studies Program3

Kara F Communication/Art History 3

gaining a deeper understanding of the interaction amongvarious partic-ipants in the organization and how these interactions impacteddecision-making in the organization and the groups. It also helped re-searchers understand the complex structure of the organization. In ad-dition to direct observation of meetings, researchers also collectedvisualmaterials such as pictures and videos taken by participants duringtheir trips. In each interview, the researcher who conducted the inter-view asked the participant whether he or she had in their immediatepossession any pictures or videos from the trips taken. When such vi-suals were available, some of the interview conversations evolvedaround them. Conversations based on these visuals helped create amore informal chat that enabled participants to articulate meaningsthat constituted a personalized understanding of responsibility, theother, and community elaborating interview responses (Heisley &Levy, 1991; Wallendorf & Belk, 1987). These materials also helped re-searchers better understand the context of the trips.

3.3. Data analysis

In analyzing the data, researchers followed the procedure suggestedby Spiggle (1994). First, they identified analytic themes in each inter-view, in the observation data, and the visual materials. The analysis ofthe interviews started at the interview stage and built on critical pointsin each interview. The findings from each interview, the observationnotes, and the visualswere compared tofindings in other textual and vi-sual data to detect both patterns and irregularities (Corbin & Strauss,2008). There was a constant interplay between data collection anddata analysis (Goulding, 1999).

Finally, the researchersmoved back and forth between their findingsand the relevant literature on volunteering, transformative learning, re-sponsible consumption, experiential consumption, and self-concept toenhance their understanding of the process of transformation of selfon AB trips. Emergent themes from the data analysis are presented inthe Findings section.

4. Findings

The findings reveal the existence of multiple, interrelated factors thatlead to transformation of self on AB trips. Contrary to the findings of mostof the previous research on volunteering and responsible consumption,the findings of this study show that people might participate in responsi-ble consumption activity incidentally and for experiential reasons, andthat they might experience significant self-transformation as a result ofa highly emotional process. Such an experiencemightmake the responsi-bility identity more salient. The findings describe the experiential andhighly emotional process of self-transformation that occurs on AB trips.

4.1. The self-transformation process on AB trips

Most of the informants stated that they accidentally learned aboutthe AB programand participated in it to explore a unique alternative va-cation, and they did so without any deep motivation or expectation.Thus, unlike participation in other responsibility-focused communitiesincluding voluntourism communities, participation in the AB communi-ty is not, generally speaking, value or rationality-based; rather, it is inci-dental and play-like. The AB program has an almost mystical surpriseappeal in that participants know, based on what they hear from previ-ous participants, only that it will be an exceptional experience so theyhave very little idea about the content and the meaning of the experi-ence. This expectation of a surprise extraordinary experience is the pri-mary motivation for many to participate at AB program:

“Like I said, people don't know what they're in for and assume thatok service work, bla bla bla, they sign up, whatever, you don't evenknow, you wait, you wait like till we get on the plane, like you waittill you land. It's just, everybody's excited. That's a given that it's


exciting. But then what you get to experience is just, I don't know,you can't put a price on it.” (Molly)

The only rational motivation for participating in an AB trip men-tioned is “resume building,” and only one informant mentioned it as aperipheral motivation when asked about it. Regardless of their initialmotivation to participate in the program for the first time, all the infor-mants talked about how they experienced self-transformation duringtheir trips and how they have become citizenswho consider integratingthe concept of responsibility in their identities and even in their lifeplans. Participants ascribe meaning to their self-transformative experi-ence based on the emotional heightening and the new sense of commu-nity they acquire during the trips.

All the informants talk about their AB trips as being self-transformative in the sense that they play an important role in theirself-realization, self-development, self-esteem, and self-extension.Most participants feel revitalized after the trip. For some participantsAB trips are a significant life and self-transforming event. Next, the fac-tors that lead to self-transformations are discussed.

4.1.1. Organic communityTalking to and relating with other people in a community and shar-

ing the experience with others have been among the most emphasizedsignificant aspects of extraordinary experiences (Arnould & Price, 1993)and transformational learning (Coghlan &Gooch, 2011;Mezirow, 1997;Sipos et al., 2008), as these processes are mostly dependent on the needfor support, trust, friendship, and intimacy (Taylor, 2006). This is notsurprising in a culture where emotional communal affiliation is some-thing that people seek but cannot easily find in their everyday lives(Muniz & O'Guinn, 2001). Voluntourism in general and AB trips in par-ticular involve the act or process of people consuming something to-gether with or in the presence of others, therefore they are communalconsumption contexts (Algesheimer & Gurău, 2008).

“It's cool that there are twelve students in your group, I love that…You really get to know people who you have no idea first, you don'treally talk to each other, it's kind of awkward but by the end of thetrip you're best friends, you always hang out afterwards. And it's acompletely different experience once you go there, the fundraisingbefore you on the trip is a little bit tedious… But, you get there,you get to hang out with these guys for 24/7, it's like a little familyfor a week. And you do, you work part of the day but rest of theday, you play games, you hang out, you sit by the fire. So it's reallya bonding experiencewith the other people, that'swhat I lovemost.”(Emily)

The findings of this research expand the understanding of themean-ing and significance of community in experiential and responsibility-oriented contexts by emphasizing different aspects of community.First of all, previous research on responsible communal and experientialconsumption such as consumer-supported agriculture groups(Coskuner-Balli & Thompson, 2007), Burning Man festival participants(Kozinets, 2002), and the hardcore freegan community (Nguyen et al.,2014) emphasizes the like-mindedness of individuals who share thesame lifestyle and/or hold the same deeply seated environmental or so-cietal values. These communities are exclusive concerning the values ofparticipants. Indeed, this like-mindedness is the main reason why peo-ple create such intentional communities. On AB trips participants do notget involved in a specific community because they share commonvalues and like-mindedness with others. Rather, community develop-ment is a different process in the AB program because participants donot hold prior, deeply seated ideological motivations. They do notchoose their communities, but rather they fall into certain communities.In AB trip settings, community provides the support that individualsneed to actualize their real selves, thus they are not limiting themselvesto living up to an ideology.

Even though previous research on responsible communities empha-sizes the importance of sharing the same rational values for the cohe-siveness of communities, this research shows that the development ofa community based on inclusiveness of different people with differentvalues and expectations, and emotional flow without specific ideologi-cal limitations or agendas can be just as cohesive, as they are perceivedas organic and intense. Participants find the commonalities in emotionsrather than cognitive values.

“In the last two trips I've been to, everyonewas pretty down to earth,and we all had only that in common, but we were also pretty goofy.Like, everyone's silly in someway once you get to know them,we'reall weird, and at AB we do not need to hide that. So even the peoplethat were different, we all bonded over something.Wewere all bestfriends by the end of it.” (Kara)

This finding supports the research on the importance of communitas-type community development (Arnould & Price, 1993; Turner, 1974), atype of development in which participants share a special life-experience in a rather unstructured, intensemanner that facilitates a pos-itive emotional connection to other participants. On AB trips, participantsfeel an intense identification with the community as a result of sharinggenuine emotions and relinquishing the impressionmanage that governstheir everyday lives (Goffman, 1959), as the comments above and belowillustrate. They feel free from their normal social roles and statuses andfind their emotions as a common ground for equality (Belk, Wallendorf,& J. F., 1989).

“I'm Sig Epsilon, I'm assuming there's a an archetype for each Greekorganization. The coolest thingwith AB is that anyone can enjoy it nomatter what archetype you are, who you are. Anyone can join andanyone can have a phenomenal experience at the end. And everyonecan have that bond, no matter what group you're in, you can be inany group and know that your experiences are not too different,causewe all had similar, not the same but similar bonding questions,and cried the same and laughed the same.” (Derek)

Such anorganic and inclusive development of the communitymakesthe community almost sacred for members. It is mainly these inclusive-ness and emotionally intense aspects of the AB communities that con-tribute to the self-concepts of the participants. The organic aspects ofcommunity development – not ideology, values, or rationality – helpparticipants to be more open-minded and flexible about exploring var-ious interactions involved in and possibilities of different ways of livingoutside the boundaries of what they consider “normal” or “regular.”These genuine interactions are felt to be more desirable. In that senseAB communities function as a utopian ideal (Kozinets, 2002). Erica'sself-questioning of her everyday life is based on powerful interactionson AB trips and reflects the increased self-awareness that most partici-pants experience during their trips:

“There is really something special about an AB trip. Life should belike an AB trip. We went to Georgia this past spring break, and we'rein the middle of nowhere… And there's just twelve of us, nobodywas using their phones, nobody was on the laptop, there's noworries, it was actually peaceful. It actually made me step back andrealize “wow, we really worry about so many insignificant mattersin life that just shouldn't be worried about. Because this is what it'sall about, living like right now.” It was just nice. And getting to knoweleven people that way is very special. Because any other way is justthe normal you know, this was like in a confined little area, new ex-perience, we're doing service work together, we're working as ateam, so it's definitely… there is no comparison to this trip.”

Based on the aspects of communities discussed above and can be in-ferred from participants' comments, it can be proposed that communities


make the AB trips highly immersive ones, as participants feel that the dis-tance between their AB experience and themselves is reduced or re-moved (Carù & Cova, 2006, p. 6). The aspects discussed so far show thatthemeaning of the AB community is created as a result of progressive im-mersion. Yet, the meaning of community is sometimes derived from im-mediate immersion:

“Interviewer: What made it special?Lauren: the people we were with. Our groupwas amazing. And I amnot taking away from, maybe I am, but, our Georgia group was awe-some, every group brought something different, but Florida was likeunbelievably great. Everybody loved each other, there was like in-stantaneous, like the first meeting we had we, it was like we werea family, there was no need like half time to form a bond, therewas just us in the first minute”

The immersive aspects of community building, progressive or im-mediate, transform the identities of members. Most participants men-tion the community as the most significant part of their experienceand of the meanings they attribute to their overall experience. Similarto what Ellis (2011) observed in his study of music camps, individualsand the community participating on AB trips transform together, andthey transform each other in the process.

A significant transformative aspect of the AB communities is thatparticipants feel liberated because they perceive unconditional spir-itual and therapeutic support that they cannot find easily in theireveryday lives (Bauman, 2000; Moisio & Beruchashvili, 2010). Par-ticipants feel that they can live and express their “real” inner selvesthat they feel the need to suppress in everyday contexts. They feelenchanted by the feeling of finding themselves in family-like,close-knit community that is more natural and liberating than theother close-knit communities they belong to in their everydaylives. Finding the chance to emotionally reflect on their experiencesfreely in a totally supportive community plays a big role in evokingthese feelings of enchantment. The freer the participants feel to re-flect on their emotions, the bigger the transformation they perceivein their self-concepts.

“You never knowwhere the emotional thing is gonna come out. It ishard to prepare for it, cause you don't know what it's gonna be, youdon't know what the trigger's gonna be… In my case realizing that Ihad thrown so much of my life away because I believed within my-self that I was no better than dirt, and having the group membersconfront me about that to finally break it, so that's something thatI've gone through the transformation in life there. So, I've run thatgamut and I've run it with other people… So, they asked me a ques-tion very bluntly, and I answered it very bluntly, and all of a sudden Igot ripped apart. I don't knowwhere I'd be if it wasn't for those threepeople who did that that night. I don't knowwhere I'd be. But, that'sthe reason that I keep coming back and doing this, because some-where down the line, it's bareme. These trips transform each personin their own way.” (Jeff)

Jeff's comment exemplifies the transformative nature of these expe-riences on self-concepts. On AB trips, participants find the opportunityto go beyond immersion into experience to transformation of their ev-eryday identity into other possible identities. This transformation ofidentity, also discussed by Lindberg and Østergaard (2015), is an essen-tial result if consumers are to obtain the full experience.

As a result of these emotionally deep immersions and transfor-mations, AB communities earn a special, almost sacred place in par-ticipants' lives. The AB communities they create during the ABprogram become an important part of participants' extended self-concept (Belk, 1988). In other words, participants add this commu-nity in their self-concept. One of the striking findings is that thetransformative effects of this self-extension extend beyond the

actual time of participation. Most participants have an enduringsense of belonging to and commitment toward the communities.

“So after it's done, what do we do now? Is a big question… Whenyou share the worst things about your life to someone else, howdo you just walk away from that? Cause those are precious things,you know, your heart, your feelings, those are precious things…I'm glad to say that it's been the same since the trips. We may notbe able to hang out all the time, but when we see each other it's al-ways a good thing, we've always had the great bond, the feeling is al-ways there, will last however forever I suppose…” (John)

Such belongingness to specific AB communities leads to participants'high commitment to the overall AB program and its responsibilityvalues.

4.1.2. Genuine funResearch on extraordinary experience andhedonic consumption has

largely addressed fun as one of the main concepts in such experiencesalongwith feelings and fantasies (Holbrook &Hirschman, 1982). Yet re-sponsible consumption and transformational learning literatures haveleft out this important component of human experience (Rasmussen,2014). In modern society, indulgence in hedonic experiences of unseri-ous, casual leisure is perceived as the opposite of acting responsibly atwork (Stebbins, 1992). Overall, fun is one of the main concepts of he-donic, experiential consumption.Work, on the other hand, has been po-sitioned as the duty of responsible adults. Karl, Peluchette, and Hall(2008) discuss how this phenomenon is observed in people's identities:“For somepeople, fun atwork is neither expected nor deemed appropri-ate… For example, some felt they were being treated like children in-stead of dignified rational adults” (p. 75). This dichotomous thinkingdominates the literature on service-work trips (Brown, 2005), and it isalso exemplified in an article on AB trips by the student newspaper atBoise State University: “One week of confined fun or one of boundlessgoodwill?” Yet, the findings of this study show that it is not only thepeople who seek leisure who need fun to express their identities andfulfill their potentials (Brumbaugh, 2010; Stebbins, 1992). Participantsin responsible consumption contexts also might seek fun and value ithighly:

“Compared to, just the you know the traditional spring break, it's justas much fun I'm sure. It's just a different type of fun. I mean if theycan really take away the alcohol and take away the beach, it really,Iwould put them in the same category: fun. Not the same experiencebut the same level of fun. You have to do it to believe it.” (Ian)

This research shows that the service-work the informants do, inother words giving-back, is experiential consumption (Holbrook &Hirschman, 1982)filledwith fun and feelings asmuch as it is rational re-sponsible consumption. AB participants perceive themselves as a hybridofmoral, social, and ludic agentswho are transformed by fun asmuch asby “doing good,” a point Jill reinforces:

“It was striking and was fun. We probably looked weird to peoplethere. But, we were, as we were working, it was like an assemblyline, and we were just simply singing and working and time is pass-ing by, we're laughing… that those moments stand out to me, be-cause you know, you can do work and you can have fun. It doesn'thave to be serious and you're still learning a lot.”

Most participants feel that the mix of fun and responsibility makestheir experience more meaningful and relatable. They believe thatboth are necessary parts of their self-actualization and self-enrichmentas well as self-expression. Zack reinforces this point:

“It is nice to show people that you can go on a spring break and havefun in a responsibleway, howyou canmake a difference and you can


have a fun trip together. That's gonna be at the end of the day waymore meaningful [than going on a regular spring break trip]. Youknow? It's not just like you're closed in this indoor space we workat, it inspires people to kind of see something else too, but to alsoto contribute, so you get the best of both worlds.”

Even though the participants talk about the importance of fun intheir experience, they attribute different meanings to it, often compar-ing it to fun they have in other contexts. Participants carefully differen-tiate the fun they have during their trips from their everyday-life funand mainstream, touristy fun. For instance, typically, at least one “freeday” is set aside so that participants can engage in typical tourist activ-ities. However, in their accounts of fun, none of the informants talkedabout this part of their experiences as fun unless they were specificallyasked about it. Formost participants the fun on AB trips is different fromfun in other contexts, especially in other spring break contexts, becausethey consider it more genuine. What they mean by “genuine” is theirbuilding emotionally deep and playful relations that are instantaneousin nature without any external influences such as alcohol.

Ben exemplifies this point: “It's alcohol free and shows that you candefinitely be your real self and have a lot more fun like without havingto use a substance.” All informants emphasize the importance of the op-portunity without boundaries to discover their authentic selves. Thegenuine fun in experiencing their silliest mode of existence makes par-ticipants feel liberated.

“it's like a different kind of fun thanmost college student expect… Sowe define our own fun like we don't use that to have fun, we useeach other as a group like hanging out like doing dumb jokes…”(Matt)

Participants feel free to live and express their emotions. Fun on ABtrips means “being in the moment,” letting all else in the world go andfully embracing their experience in a community that does work thathas a potential that could make a change in others' lives (Szmigin &Carrigan, 2006). Participants find the opportunity to explore and expe-rience a more sincere meaning of work as emphasized by Jess:

“AB is a lot of fun. It has a lot of seriousness behind it already, but, it'smore of a fun organization… And there's really no better feeling, Ithink overall there's something special not only about the peopleyou're with, but to know that you're really just working to work,and you're notworking because you expectmoney, you're notwork-ing because you expect anything, you're working because you're“hey, I wanna help you guys” And that's nice… It's overwhelmingof great.”

Such fun is about the creation of intense feelings and immersion(Carù & Cova, 2006), as well as about acquiring the pleasure of self-respect, and immersion intensifies the feelings of the participantsabout bonding with others; participants who do not know each otherbecome special for each other in a very short time. This rapid bondingleads to an energy and spirit in the community that transforms boththe community and the individuals.

“We all sat around the fire the last night and we didn't know eachother all before like the trip… at the end of the night we were likenookingwith each other, hugging each other, around the fire, tellingstories, telling jokes, wewere all just so super funnywith each other.It was the most fun I've ever had. I was so happy, cause we were allso close to each other, we could tell each other anything prettymuch.” (Emma)

This type of fun is unique for most informants, as most of them onlyexperience it on AB trips. As a result, fun takes on a more sacred mean-ing during these trips. Participants cannot understand the value of such

fun cognitively and feel more emotionally attached to it. Furthermore,fun at AB trips is not contaminated (Belk et al., 1989) by profane factorssuch as alcohol or commercialization, a point mentioned earlier. The ef-fects of having fun typically lead to emotional responses that are longlasting and profound. The new perspective that participants developon “fun” trips contributes to the sacred and memorable qualities ofthe trips. Overall fun becomes an important aspect of the transforma-tional process that “brings a change in sense of possibilities for personaljoy.” (O'Sullivan's, 2002).

4.1.3. Embracing the otherThe “other” has always been an important part of discussions on re-

sponsible consumption. Responsible consumption has been conceptual-ized as other-centered, as altruism and selflessness have been amongmost prominent motivations for many value-driven people (Handyet al., 2010). Yet, altruism is not a clear-cut concept and one's relation-ship with other always is a negotiation of self-interest and a concernfor others (Domen, 2006).

Transformational learning framework addresses the importance ofbuilding connections with people one helps through service-work. Em-bracing others through first-hand interaction – mainly the disadvan-taged or vulnerable populations, which participants seldom encounterand thus don't learn about in their everyday lives – is an expected out-come for voluntourists. Previous research on voluntourism looks pri-marily at host populations as the other (McIntosh & Zahra, 2007). Thefindings of this research show that “other” is a broader concept, andAB trips help participants understand and connect with various others,including animals.

“When I saw them running around in the nature and I'mhappy now,but, I can't help feel how freaked out and scared the animal hasbeen… So, I've been definitely more conscious of the natural worldaround me, or the sentient natural world around me, like the ani-mals. I definitely appreciate it more. I have a black lab I love somuch,definitely appreciate her companymore, and now feel how hopelessshe was, because she potentially came from a bad situation.” (Jeff)

Through unique, first-hand, face-to-face experiences that involvedeep emotional interactions AB participants find intense connectionswith the other they were never aware of or ever thought about before.Emotional immediacy helps welcome others sincerely, which is impor-tant in constructing one's identity (Ferreira, 2001). Most of the infor-mants say that after the trips, they feel more connected to the world,other people, nature, animals, and, ultimately, themselves as a resultof feeling others' issues deeply, and the emotional embracing theyexperience:

“Having experienced the AB that it's a cathartic experience that'sgood for anybody. When you get to that common ground with peo-ple that you would normally never get to common ground with, orsocializewith, and see the issues they dealwith, that's life changing.”(Mary)

The empathic concern and compassion that participants develop bycoming to understand others' perspectives (Batson & Shaw, 1991) andreflecting on their emotions during the trips compel participants tomove beyond awareness and care to assume different identities.

“Other people with different disparities, like economic disparities,I've always been aware of that, especially grown up in a very smalltown and come here. However, you feeling awareness and reallyfeeling it for the first time is really is two different things. That'sprobably themost life changing experience… I can say that I've kindof fallen love with the world even more after that. Those are proba-bly the life changing experiences, these little, little road marks, andespeciallywhen Iwent intoAB thinking that, I really didn't think thatanything was gonna change too much. I was open to change, I was


open to seeing, you know, my mind was always open for thosethings, but I didn't think it was going to.” (Ian)

The self and the other blend in these identities. Participants develop“… a conception of oneself as simply a person amongothers all ofwhomare included in a single world” (Nagel, 1970, p.99).

“I grew up in an impoverished area. So I grew upwith a lot of kids inabused homes, so I definitely gravitate to those kinds of kids evenmore now. I go home, and almost half of my graduating class are stillthere and they've never gone to college, never had the opportunityto. I just see a lot of potential in those kids after what I have seenin AB trips. I wanna help them, but, considering that I don't lookdown on them or looking at them from outside, outside the fence, Ifeel their lives and I am right therewith themas far as I'm concerned.So, I think that's where my mindset changed.” (Matt)

Embracing the other is an exceptional part of the self-transformationmost participants experience on AB trips, as it evokes a gamut of emo-tions. Jess elaborates on how her perspective about others and the is-sues that impact them, as well as her own life, has broadened as aresult of the feelings she developed on her trips:

“Wherever you are there are so many personal stories and there arealways volunteers who are there truly because theywanna be there.Because they have a very personal connectionwith the problem, youknow, some lady's sun died related to the issues, shewas there, help-ing every single daymaking sure that that doesn't happen to anyoneelse. You knowvery very very emotionalwhen you go see these peo-ple and understandhow they live and live their life for aweek, it putsyour whole life into perspective, how much you have and the whatthe world is out there.”

Overall, the process of embracing the other creates the value ofvoluntourism for many, as it contributes significantly to perceivingtheir identitiesmore positively, and amore positive identity permits in-dividuals to reorientate their life and values (Zahra & McIntosh, 2007).Most participants feel that they have begun to see themselves as partof a big picture and think of themselves as more selfless than theyused to be, even for a limited time. In other words, embracing theother helps participants practice selflessness identities that in their ev-eryday lives they usually cannot.

“Sometimes we're just so consumed in our own lives, causeeverybody's selfish…We forget that other problems exist in theworldaside from ourselves. And I think that the benefit is being selfless, andlearning how to be selfless. Because, we don't practice that enough;most ofwhatwedo everyday starts and endswith you. To take aweekand be like “ok, I'm gonna live others' lives, I'm gonna be one of them”… dedicating a week to somebody who lives there who is asking ofyou, for no exchange… So, that's the value, being selfless, and learningabout it a little bit, feeling how great being selfless it” (Erica)

These findings also contribute to the discussions of experience con-sumption as to whether consumers build relationships with the otherbecause they have a genuine concern for others, for romantic reasons,or out of necessity to reach their individual goals (Tumbat & Belk,2011). Findings show that in experiential contexts that are geared to-ward responsibility, concern and care for the other become a significantpart of identity transformation, and therefore participants take their re-lationship with the other one step further and embrace the other.

4.1.4. Developing and utilizing capabilitiesAB trips are full of transformative individual and social learning op-

portunities. Participants navigate between “utilizing capabilities forself-realization” and “developing capabilities for self-development” on

these trips. The need for such navigation is deeply embedded in the pro-ductivity orientation (Keinan & Kivetz, 2011) and experience orienta-tion in today's culture (Pine & Gilmore, 1999). Previous researchshows that developing new capabilities is an important motivator andoutcome in both responsible consumption and experiential consump-tion contexts. In a similar vein, it is proposed that one reason why peo-ple might not wish to enact a responsible identity is their capabilities(Kleine et al., 1993). Additionally, capabilities that consumers bringinto experiencescapes are proposed as resources important to a highlevel of involvement by and immediate immersion of consumers(Lindberg & Østergaard, 2015). Developing new capabilities is an oppor-tunity for consumers to take on new identity roles in both responsibleconsumption and experiential consumption contexts. This phenomenonis observed also on AB trips. Participants want to be helpful by getting in-volved in projects that they can relate to physically,mentally, or emotion-ally. But, they also see AB trips as opportunities for new experiences, andthey want to try new things. Molly talks about this phenomenon:

“Since I've been on two environmental trips already, I probablywon't do another one, I think I'd like to do either a trip dealing withanimals, or dealingwith sick children. I know I am better at environ-mental issues because of my major, but, I think it is time to try newthings for myself and figure out what else I can be good at.”

Overall, newly developed, technical, social, and emotional capabili-ties is one of the most important factors that help participants advancebeyond immersion and experience a transformation in their identities(Lindberg &Østergaard, 2015; Shakian&Wilhite, 2014). The diverse ca-pabilities that can be developed and utilized during AB trips over a shortperiod time is valued highly by the participants, for they recognize thatutilizing their capabilities enriches others' lives, their selves, and theirown lives.

“First of all, I never thought I could lay tile, so that was exciting,“wow, I could actually do that”, second of all, to know that like, that,apparently they were not building their building codes, they weregonna be shut down if they did not retile their floors, so they werekind of, not kind of, theywere relying on volunteer groups to actual-ly do that for them, and thankfully they were able to get it done. So,to be part of that, that was nice. To know that we were helpingsomebody, literally, you know, make it or break it for them, andwe helped make it for them.” (Jill)

Thefindings of this study show that developing and utilizing a diver-sity of capabilities are important because they are also related to self-esteem in addition to the self-enhancement of participants.

“I can build trails and I can fix things around the house. They're allvery different…And I can use the saw…Really an incredible amountof things that I've never thought I would ever learned, and you learnall of it in aweek. I just think it's so cool that a person can have like somany different skills and values. To know everything, not just onething, but to learn about all these different things. I think I now feelmore confident about myself [laughs].” (Emma)

It can also be inferred from the remarks above that the ability to rec-ognize the efficacy of their skills and actions is important to many par-ticipants, as this recognition increases the value they place on thecapabilities they developed and utilized, which in turn raises theirself-esteem. When participants feel that developing and utilizing capa-bilities help themmake a change in the lives of others or in the environ-ment, one of the most critical obstacles to motivation – the perceivedlack of efficacy to effect change and consume responsibly (Valor,2008) – is reduced for them, and as a consequence many participantsexperience a transformation that motivates them to engage in service-work.


“This is kind of what you do is really hands-on work and it is kind ofreally easy to see that you make a difference. Something might becompletely desolate at the beginning, and by the end of the daythere's huge difference. It's kinda putting that before and after pic-ture visualizing it. You feel fulfilled and so proud. You don't even careif your legs and your arms hurt. Youmight have some pains all over,but, it's just easier to know that you'remaking a differencewhen youcan actually see the final product.” (Mary)

Most participants return to the sites at which they worked ormaintain communication with the sites when they did not seethe outcome of the projects theyworked on during their trips. Partic-ipants feel a heightened sense of self-realization and self-development as a result of observing the progress of the projectson which they worked. Progress assures them that they developedand utilized their capabilities effectively and that these capabilitiesare indeed meaningful. Emily's remark underlines the importanceof capability utilization for making a difference in how participantsfeel about the trips and themselves:

“I think it's a life changing experience. You don't know that until yougo… It's hard to explain. But you get this feeling that youmade a dif-ference, like seeing that kid smile, or you've built a house for a familywho couldn't afford it, the feeling afterwards is the best feeling in theworld.”

During AB trips, most of participants' capabilities and the resolutionsthey created to the issues they encountered are developed cooperative-ly and managed in a community of people with diverse backgroundsand perspectives. This diversity adds to the perception participantshave that their actions are highly effective (Papaoikonomou, Valverde,& Ryan, 2012), and this perception results in self-development, asMatt indicates:

“We embrace diversity, we don't want people who are all the sameto be on one trip. We wanna see different perspectives and wewantpeople to share their different perspectives, so that you can learn asmuch as you possibly can about the experience that you're havingwith all these other people. That's really part of the beauty of it. If Igo on a trip with bunch of my high school friends, it might not beas meaningful and I wouldn't learn as much.”

4.1.5. ChallengeAs discussed in previous studies, neither experiential consumption

nor responsible consumption is a smooth process. They are full of phys-ical and emotional challenges and conflicts (Giesler & Veresiu, 2014;Tumbat & Belk, 2011; Zolfagharian & Pentina, 2011). This research sup-ports this discussion and shows that these challenges are an importantpart of experiential responsible consumption and self-transformation insuch an experience.

The challenges participants experience during AB trips offerdisorienting dilemmas and the emergence of confusing emotions as isthe case in many voluntourism contexts (Coghlan & Gooch, 2011). Allthe informants talk about how they leave or stretch their comfortzones in many ways as a result of the emotional, social, physical, andcognitive challenges they experienced during the trips, and they explainhow it is primarily through the challenges they experienced a change intheir worldviews and self-concept in a positive way. Jess addresses thispoint:

“I think in a lot of ways, AB is the most uncomfortable thing you canever do and I think that's what sets yourmind towhy you need to bearound different people and do all sorts of different things… So,there's definitely stretching the comfort zone, definitely. Especiallywhen you're talking about yourself, definitely.”

Most participants deliberately seek challenges even though they feeluncomfortable initially because they realize that new challenges provideopportunities to test their limits and realize their selves in a relativelysafe context. As Jeff says, each challenge faced “… sort of forces you tobe adaptable….” Participants perceive that becoming more adaptable byovercoming challenges is a significant part of self-development becauseit requires developing and integrating various newperspectives, informa-tion, and cognitive and emotional skills. Yet, such self-development is nota simple, immediate process; it might requiremultiple steps over time, asIan emphasizes:

“This year I want to changemyexperience a bit… I think Iwant to doa transition towards abused-neglected children. I don't know if I canemotionally handle sick children yet, but, the reason why I didn't doabused and neglected children because I didn't know if I could emo-tionally handle them, and so, I feel that I can now, after seeing andexperiencing what we did this years in the ranch with the animals.I think that was a good place to start and now I can work withhumans.”

As emphasized in extraordinary experience consumption litera-ture, each challenge can be interpreted as an experience of self-renewal (Lindberg & Østergaard, 2015). As the findings of thisresearch shows, this holds true also for certain challenges in experi-ential responsible consumption contexts. Self-development throughmeeting challenges is related to a sense of pride and self-sufficiency,feelings that result when participants realize that they make a differ-ence in their lives and the lives of others, a point also underlined byLauren:

“A lot of things you know can be very heart wrenching if you're notprepared forwhat you seewhen you get somewhere and they can bevery heartwarming once you realize the servicework that you're do-ing is making a difference. In my first trip I worked with the abusedchildren which was really intense, I've never worked with kids be-fore, so it was emotionally ruining, everyonewas crying, it was pret-ty upsetting, but, once you do it, it's rewarding.”

Overall, participants find overcoming emotional challenges to be themost rewarding one concerning their identities. The turbulence of feel-ings participants perceive throughout the experience makes their self-transformations more intense, and if they endure the process, morerewarding.

4.1.6. Self-reflectionAn important characteristic of extraordinary experience consump-

tion is that consumers find an opportunity to question their lives, theirplace in theworld, and their potentials. As a type of extraordinary expe-rience, vacations “… offer an opportunity to re-evaluate and discovermore about the self, to act out one's self-image as a way of modifyingor correcting it.” (Brown, 2005: p. 481).

Responsible consumption is also a reflective process for many. Con-sumers reflect on identities based on cultural, social, and individualmeanings to define what responsibility is and its value in their lives(Giesler & Veresiu, 2014; Zolfagharian & Pentina, 2011). Structuredcommunal and individual self-reflections are at the heart of transforma-tional learning of responsibility, as they are the stages before self-actualization (Coghlan& Pearce, 2010). Transformational learning theo-ry postulates that this is mostly a cognitive reflection that encouragesparticipants to continually reflect rationally on theirworldviews, behav-iors, future plans, and thoughts during their trips. Cognitive reflection isimportant on AB trips as well. Most participants realize and create theirvalues and mindsets about various social and environmental issues asthey reflect on their experiences and experiments during their trips,and these experiences motivate them to reflect on how they view


themselves. Molly highlights the effects of this self-reflection and self-development:

“I guess I've always called myself someone of optimist, but now Iguess I feel more optimistic than I've felt before. It's one of thosethings I guess I didn't realize about myself. And you get to knowyourself prettywell doing these things, through doing service trips…There's a lot to be said about the introspective experience that goesalong with all of this work, and knowing more and more about theworld and yourself, knowingwhere the issues exist and what futureaction youmight be able to take to sort of get rid of some of those is-sues. These trips make me question all those things.”

It can be inferred from Molly's remarks that AB trips are importantintrospective experiences in which participants go through a processof constructing, evaluating, and renewing their self-concepts, and, ac-cordingly, they reconsider their behavior and future plans. Zack elabo-rates further on this, adding how such introspection shapes futurebehaviors.

“So, I, I'm in love with AB, and I thought to myself “you know whatwould be really cool, you know, if I kind of expanded my horizonsa little bit, stepped out of my comfort zone and travelled by myselfsomewhere”, and so I sought out an organization that I could signup for some kind of cause and so I did it.”

The process of self-reflection is based on participant's unique experi-ences of community, fun, encounters with the other, capability utiliza-tion and development, and challenge. Even though cognitive reflectionis central to the voluntourism experience, as both previous researchand this data show, emotional reflection is the most important aspectof the trips for the participants interviewed for this study when itcomes to questioning and constructing their identities. Emotional re-flection makes the new or renewed identities more essential andmore relevant in participants' lives.

“The night thatwe all learned about theworst events in our lives, theworst thing that has ever happened to us, definitely. In fact, we'releft crying for the rest of theweek. The emotional conditioning it cre-ated was phenomenal… It was a very cathartic moment, and left us,it has leftme still, left us all emotional, all the rightways though. Yourealize how hard andwhen you listen everyone and it's getting clos-er to tell your story, all the details that you've pushed down in away… So, I've definitely beenmore emotional, I feel closer to people,in general, and I enjoy being around people a lot more now becauseof it. So that's probably the most profound thing I came away with,the most life changing moment.” (John)

Participants experience emotion-based self-evaluation andself-discovery for the most part unexpectedly and intensely. Eventhough participants are aware of the reflection practice beforethey go on the trip, they expect this to be rather a cognitive process.This surprise factor seems to intensify the emotional experienceand be perceived as liberating for their self-concepts. A sincere en-vironment of emotional sharing brings an emotional immediacythat helps participants knock down their barriers and make themsusceptible to a deep, positive self-transformation. For many ABparticipants, this is the most unexpected and extraordinary aspectof their experience.

“I think if you were to askme how I felt about the trip before, I prob-ably would talk about the animals, that I wanted to help animalsmore. You know sometimes it kind of felt like that, but, man, it reallyturned out to be a lot more about understandingmyself rather than,more than I had initially thought. That was pretty interesting.”(Matt)

Tiwsakul and Hackley (2012) argue that an important part of one'ssense of self and self-realization is being constantly open to challengesfrom alternative perspectives. On AB trips participants are expected toreflect in front of others on their feelings and thoughts about whatthey observe, as well as connect their observations to their everydaylives. Thus, social reflection, which opens them to the viewpoints ofothers, is an important driver of reflections on their identities. The par-ticipants in this study emphasize how social interactions on AB tripsforced them to incorporate multiple perspectives on issues. At the endof the trips, participants have a better idea about where they want tostand in relation to those issues.

AB trips offer participants an opportunity to learn to express them-selves in new ways. Overall, reflection and communication experiencesthat extends beyond socially constructed everyday life boundaries is animportant step for participants to get in touch with their authenticselves:

“Tuesday night the questionwaswhat theworstmoment in your lifewas. So, you literally can't phase a question any worse than that…We just started crying, and just, you're spilling your heart to people,in all reality, are strangers until that point, so, how do you feel notlike a real human at that point? You know, no matter where youcome from,whatever your difference, your race, ethnicity is orwhat-ever that you feel.” (Jeff)

Overall, having the opportunity to embrace and enable their realselves as a result of self-reflection that knocks down their emotionalbarriers is an important step for many participants to facilitate the cog-nitive self-reflection that enables them to work further on theiridentities.

4.2. Outcomes of the transformation

The transformations participants experience during their AB tripscreate subjects who acquire deeper meanings of and feelings aboutbeing responsible, regardless of their initialmotivation for participation.Two primary results for them are the acquisition of a sense of empow-erment and a broader sense of responsibility.

As participants experience self-realization, evaluation, awareness,development, extension, and acquire self-esteem, they feel more emo-tionally and cognitively empowered concerning responsible behavior.After the trips, participants feel that they are better informed about var-ious social and environmental problems and the various solutions tothem. Perhaps a greater impact is that they feel more emotionally con-nected to various issues. They incorporate more responsibility-relatedperspectives and actions in their everyday lives that they could not con-nect previously and this process creates a sense of empowerment.

One of the primary goals of AB trips is “sparking the personal trans-formations that can make a lasting difference for individuals, organiza-tions, and communities” (http://www.alternativebreaks.org). An ABtrip is an epiphany for many participants (Woodside & Megehee,2009) as they develop a deeper emotional and cognitive understandingof the meaning of their lives, others' lives, their roles in social and envi-ronmental issues, the contributions they can make in finding solutionsto these issues, and what it takes to help. As a consequence of this en-hanced understanding, they experience a radical shift in how they seetheir identities and their place in the world (Coghlan & Gooch, 2011).For most participants an AB trip is almost like a process of findingsome significant missing parts in their feelings and thoughts, as is ob-served in some other extraordinary experience contexts (Arnould &Price, 1993; Belk & Costa, 1998).

During AB trips, social learning transforms participants' selves andshapes their beliefs, preferences, and actions. Overall, AB trips evoke asense of purpose, promote serious contemplation, encourage concernfor others, provide the opportunity to further an interest, and thusthey generate a sense of deep personal fulfillment (Stebbins &

http://www.alternativebreaks.org


Graham, 2004). This process provides opportunities for participants tosearch for and realize more occasions to participate in broader, sustain-able practices (Sahakian & Wilhite, 2014).

However, one aspect that is important to understand about thesetransformations is that even though participants sense certain changesin their identities after the AB experience, they are careful to stayaway from labels because they have come to believe that labeling re-duces the value of responsibility-related experiences and the genuinevalues developed during these experiences, as can be observed in oneof the researcher's conversation with an informant:

“Zack: People that are service oriented, those people, I've alwayskind of, people who are little self righteous and I've been very con-scious of that and I hope I haven't come across that way.Interviewer: What do you mean by self-righteous?Zack: You know, the idea that I'm helping the world, look at me I'mhelping the world, I am doing this, I am sacrificing whatever it takesto sacrifice in order to helpme… In fact, before I joined AB, one of thereasons why I didn't join AB sooner was that I thought a lot of thepeople who do AB are very us and them… So, I almost stayed awayfrom service-work.”

Yet not all participants who feel cognitively and emotionally en-lightened adopt a ‘responsible citizen identity’ that involves all as-pects of responsibility. They experiment intensely with variouspaths to responsibility and decide on what type of a responsibilitymakes more sense to them and that appeals to their feelings. Theytake on certain identities to which they feel they have a betterconnection:

“You don't necessarily become an active citizen in all the things, yousee different things, and it's like the issues that speak to you, so sure Icare about the environment, but maybe I am not an active citizenwhen it comes to the environment. When it comes to social causes,I can relate to these issues… It's all about where the community sitsor the issues sit when you're making decisions in your normal life,like what is a priority for you when it comes down to that?” (Ben)

Almost all informants emphasize that they feel empowered and re-vitalized, and that after the trips they started to incorporate responsiblethoughts and actions as an important aspect of their short and long-term plans. As a result of transformative learning, AB participants dofeel more qualified to seek solutions to issues, and the increased self-esteem that results shapes most participants' sense that they have abroader responsibility to others, the society, and the environment.Overall, the experience that results from the dimensions discussedabove makes the responsibility-related identities more relevant andthus salient in participants' lives:

“I think that every person has the potential to do this, to do this kindofwork, It's just amatter of, because once you do it, it's like addictingand you love it, you think the world of it, but it's getting a person tosee and to believe the value behind it.” (Emma)

5. Discussion

Despite the fact that responsible consumption is becoming an increas-ingly important topic, the development of responsible behaviors by con-sumers has proven to be remarkably difficult phenomena to predict(McCarty & Shrum, 2001). For the most part, what consumers claimabout the values they hold about responsibility and how they behaveare different (Belk, Devinney, & Eckhardt, 2005, p. 276; Carrington,Neville, &Whitwell, 2014). One reason for this difficulty is that the depic-tion of the responsible consumer as a rational information processer who

is aware of social and environmental issues, collects all the available infor-mation available andmakes the best rational decision still dominates ourunderstanding (Bajde, 2006). Investigating responsible consumer identi-ties based on this approach is not sufficient to explain certain responsibleconsumption phenomena.

This study makes a significant theoretical contribution, for it ex-pands the understanding of the complex and multidimensional phe-nomenon of responsible consumption by incorporating its experientialdimensions and exploring how these interrelated dimensions contrib-ute to identity transformations of consumers. This understanding is animportant contribution, as responsible thought and actions interactwith and are framed by experience orientation in today's consumer cul-ture (Peatie & Collins, 2009).

This research contributes to three main areas of discussions relatedto responsible consumption and experiential consumption. The firstconcerns how consumers participate in extraordinary experience andresponsibility-oriented contexts. The findings show that consumersmight be guided to participate on some responsibility-related contextsby a loose set of beliefs concerning responsibility, or they might justbe willing to experience something new and unique. In other words,contrary to what is frequently discussed in most responsible consump-tion literature, responsible consumption context participation might beincidental rather than driven by deep-seated values. Findings on con-sumer participation also expand the discussions on participation in ex-traordinary experience consumption contexts. Consumers do notalways seek an experience that revolves around a specific activity or in-terest that they prefer enjoyingwith like-minded consumers. A willing-ness to try something new without necessarily knowing the exactdetails of what they are getting into might be their primary motivationto participate in experiential contexts such as voluntourism trips.

The second area of contribution concerns the factors that lead toidentity transformations consumers experience in responsibility-oriented or extraordinary experience consumption contexts. The find-ings of this study show that organic community, genuine fun, embracingthe other, developing and utilizing capabilities, overcoming challenges,and self-reflection are the primary interrelated dimensions of self-transformation in an extraordinary experiential responsible consump-tion context. Furthermore, this study proposes that in each of these di-mensions, the main element of experience consumption – feelings –play a crucial role in the enhancement and transformation of the self-concept and development of responsible consumer/citizen identities(Eugena, Castaño, & Quintanilla, 2010; Kozinets, 2002; Rasmussen,2014; Sipos et al., 2008). Responsible consumption contexts can bejust like other extraordinary experience contexts in terms of heighten-ing consumer emotions. Another finding that is common in each ofthese dimensions is that responsible behavior and identities developedin an experiential context involve a combination of self-interest andother interests (Bajde, 2006). As the interview excerpts make evident,affective dimensions of the experience compel people to connect with“the other” at deep levels and incorporate an interest for others duringthe experience, even when participants are initially motivated by self-interest. An additional important finding common to each of these di-mensions is that their impact on consumer identity transformation re-lies on a multi-phase – rather than immediate – affective experiencein which participants go through periods of immediate and progressiveimmersions (Lindberg & Østergaard, 2015).

The final area of contribution concerns the transformations that con-sumers experience in their identities. Consumers have various identitiesthat they develop in different consumption contexts. Yet not all theseidentities have the same importance. The more salient an identity is, themore effective and activated it is in one's life (Reed, 2002). Similar tothe effects life-events create on consumers for developing responsibilityconsiderations (Schäfer, Jaeger-Erben, & Bamberg, 2011), extraordinaryexperiences can create shifts in consumers' perceptions of responsibilityduties and actions by allowing them take on new identities as a resultof reflection and adoption processes. When responsibility-oriented


identities becomemore salient for consumers, they identities are activat-ed and become one of the prominent identities forming their global self(Kleine et al., 1993). The emotional heightening in experiential responsi-ble consumption contexts plays a big role in the process of makingresponsible-oriented identities salient. By adding their extremely affec-tive characteristics, the findings of this study expand our understandingof responsible consumer identities that are usually proposed to be drivensolely by rationality and ideology in their responsibility behaviors. Identi-ties emerging as a result of such process can be called “alternative hedo-nist,” an individual motivated partly by altruism and partly by self-interest (Soper, 2008). These findings also support new perspectives onthe evolvement of the theory of transformative learning from a rational,cognitive base to include affective and spiritual dimensions (O'Sullivan,2002; Taylor, 1998).

These findings expand our understanding of experiential consumeridentities as well. Previous research proposes that many consumers donot want to translate their experience into cognitive material after somehedonic experiences (Arnould & Price, 1993; Hirschman & Stern, 1999).This research shows that translating hedonistic experience into cognitivematerial enriches both their perspectives for life and their self-concepts.In other words, participants' responsibility-related identities derive fromthe integration of hearts, hands, and heads (Sipos et al., 2008) eventhough emotions dominate the process during the experience.

Another significant finding of this research is that even though par-ticipants develop responsibility-oriented consumer/citizen identities,they carefully avoid labeling such identities. They rather prefer naturallyinternalizing the values of such identities rather than using them as ameans of impressionmanagement (Goffman, 1959) likemoral protago-nists do (Luedicke, Thompson, & Giesler, 2010).

6. Conclusion and implications

By focusing on experiential and communal aspects of responsibleconsumption, this research offers an understanding of how consumersmay adopt responsible consumer/citizen identities experientially andemotionally evenwhen they participate in a context of responsible con-sumption incidentally andwithout any deeply committed responsibilityvalues or motivations. By doing so, this research contributes to discus-sions on responsible consumption and responsible consumer identitiesas well as experiential consumption. As the findings show, for someconsumers, responsible consumption may result from an emotionaland experiential process rather than from adopting a given structure ra-tionally. As the study shows, some consumers are affected by immer-sion into intense emotional experiences when incorporating moreresponsibility-oriented aspects into their identities. Therefore, it is im-portant to approach responsible consumers as social and ludic agentsas much as moral agents.

Overall, this study has some implications that may help to motivatemore consumers to behave responsibly and more altruistically in themarketplace. It demonstrates that rational appeals for responsibleconsumption are not likely to motivate all consumers to behave moreresponsibly and altruistically. Altruism occurswhen people aremotivat-ed to help others as a result of internal values (McCarthy & Tucker,2002), and affective influences motivate people to assist others(Schwartz, 1977). As this study shows, experiential dimensions thatare incorporated in a responsible consumption context are importantfor motivating consumers to internalize responsibility values. When re-sponsible consumption is considered or adopted strictly as a rationalact, consumers may not deeply feel the importance of responsible con-sumption and the changes it generates. The lack of an emotional dimen-sion could create a barrier to responsible consumer actions in manysituations even if consumers have a positive attitude toward responsibleconsumption. Yet, when consumers experience responsibility andperceive its importance emotionally, they internalize the values and be-haviors of the responsible consumer and incorporate these in their shortand long term plans. Their perception of their civic duties changes, and

they start to incorporate this perception in their life plans. Presentingresponsible consumption as an experiential process might be an effec-tive way to direct a significant population's attention to topics relatedto responsible consumption.

Yet not every experience is meaningful and deep enough for con-sumers to impact on their identities. To promote or facilitate feelingsof obligation more effectively, marketers need more knowledge aboutthe possible contingencies for developing them (Prothero et al., 2011).This study theorizes the dimensions of the experiential aspects ofresponsible consumption and how they work together to transformconsumer selves. Consumers feel empowered, renewed and make re-sponsibility related values a significant part of their identities whenthey 1) find an organic community inwhich they feel emotionally liber-ated, 2) feel genuine fun by living and expressing their real selves with-out any influence, 3) embrace the other by feeling their lives and issues,4) develop and utilize capabilities that would allow them feel self-esteem and self-development, 5) overcome various challenges and in-corporate the strength they consequently develop into their identities,and 6) constantly reflect on their feelings, thoughts in the supportivecompany of others in a responsible consumption context. This transfor-mation might have important implications for changing responsibility-related attitudes and behaviors of consumers.

Despite its contributions, this research has two limitations. First, thesample of informants consists of participants in an AB program at asingle university, thus some contextual differences due to the demo-graphics of students and/or the university culture might exist. Itwould be interesting to compare experiences of students from differentuniversities that offer AB trips to determine if there are anymotivationalor transformational differences. Second, this research investigates a re-sponsible consumption context outside everyday life where people'semotions are heightened. It would be interesting to explore communaland experiential responsible consumption processes in everyday life.

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Experiential responsible consumption