Agency-Communion Orientation

Agency-Communion Orientation

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

A shopper's lean towards personal goals and standing (agency) or towards relationships and harmony (communion).

What it is

In the 2011 paper on friends and consumer spending the orientation sorted who spent more with a friend present, with male and female shoppers given as examples of the two. It is drawn from work by Didem Kurt, J. Jeffrey Inman and Jennifer Argo (as applied to spending) (2011).

In effect

In the article on why we spend more with friends, it is used to explain why one friend produced different effects for different shoppers.

What it does not say

It describes a lean towards personal standing or towards relationships, not a fixed type of person. The paper gave male and female shoppers as examples of the two orientations, and the finding concerns the orientation.

Sources

  1. Kurt, D., Inman, J. J., & Argo, J. J. (2011). The Influence of Friends on Consumer Spending: The Role of Agency-Communion Orientation and Self-Monitoring. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(4), 741-754.