Critical Realism and Consumption Transformations: The Mechanisms of Dropshopping with Interdisciplinary Implications

Document Type : Qualitative Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management & Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/cbsj.2025.142898.2797

Abstract

Despite increasing environmental awareness, there is a kind of attitude-behavior gap in their consumption behavior. The aim of the present study is to investigate factors affecting the Z generation’s dropshopping with the critical realism approach. Therefore, it tends to identify the required mechanism according to the layered nature of the critical realism approach- three layers of experimental, actual and real- and by going through three main steps of explaining events, retroduction and empirical confirmation. The statistical population of the present study were experts in four fields of psychology, sociology, economics and marketing, 25 of whom were interviewed in a semi-structured manner using the purposive sampling method. In order to analyze the data and information, Charms’ constructivist approach was used. The coding of the data was done in three levels: initial, focused and theoretical, and in line with each question, the structures and mechanisms of the Z generation’s dropshopping were identified. Finally, in order to perform the experimental confirmation and examining the third (real) layer of the critical realism, which shows the relationships between observable and unobservable structures and mechanisms, the approache of confirmatory interviews with experts was used to confirm and validate the hypotheses obtained from the identified mechanisms. The results show that the mechanisms of "networks and media, financial and economic issues, effective communication network" are significant mechanisms by being located in the third layer of critical realism which should be taken into account and studied in examining and recognizing the buying behavior and the Z generation’s dropshopping.

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Main Subjects

References

 
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Consumer Behavior Studies Journal
Volume 12, Issue 2
September 2025
Pages 214-233

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