Influence of Mindfulness on Consumption: A Qualitative Study of Indian Consumers

Abstract

Mindful consumption is an evolving concept that explains the role of consumers’ mindful mindset (such as caring for self, caring for nature, and caring for the community) on their consumption choices. Consumers are increasingly engaging in various kinds of social media to gather opinions and reviews of customers which helps them in making more ‘informed’ consumption choices. And then we have the construct of mindfulness which is a meta-cognitive capability of every individual which determines their degree of attention to any new information and the way they interpret that information. In this paper, we will present the findings of a qualitative study that has been conducted on Indian consumers to arrive at a conceptual model and a set of propositions that depict the direct and indirect relationship between mindfulness and consumption. Based on the qualitative study, we also list a set of research questions that could direct future empirical research on mindful consumption in emerging markets (e.g. India).