Abstract:

The impact of others on consumers’ perceived risk and perceived risk reduction has frequently been acknowledged within consumer research, yet conceptual tools to study it remain undeveloped. This article introduces the idea of collective risk. Collective risk emerges when consumers try to mitigate their perceived risk through moving it from the individual to the social realm. It is a shared social momentum, communally articulated for a specific consumption activity, providing consumers with a sense of agency and resulting in the overall gain of marketplace empowerment. Grounded in theory from psychology, sociology and consumer behavior, this research elicits some of the complex processes involved in the communal articulation of collective risk through extensive netnographic case analysis of Hotline, an online file sharing community. The findings illustrate that the risk involved in the consumption of Hotline is equally distributed among Hotline consumers and that Hotline consumers are less likely to expect unpleasant outcomes or events – and collective risk is more likely to emerge – as the number of Hotline consumers increases. Findings also reveal that Hotline consumers produce, transform, and continuously develop a collective risk space through discursively negotiating risk relationships. Furthermore, collective risk at Hotline illustrates the urge to theorize technology within the social fabric of consumption rather than merely as an external factor. Results elicit the complex interrelationship between collective risk and the perceived risk construct and illustrate the urge to develop – what I call – a transparadigmatic understanding of consumer risk.