Assembling rotations: how consumers put objects they collect to use

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to theorise “rotations”. Through the theory of rotations, the authors explain how consumers manage the tensions they encounter when putting objects they collect to use. Design/methodology/approach – This study analyses data from 41 interviews with digital music and sneaker collectors through the lens of DeLandian assemblage theory. Findings – Consumers use collected objects to benefit from their useful functions and they manage the tensions of these uses by assembling “rotations” of objects. Rotations are extracted from within a wider collection and are updated to balance desires to preserve and use the same objects. Research limitations/implications – This research develops insights germane to digital music and sneaker collecting contexts. However, it offers transferable implications. These concern objects being desirable to collect for their functional uses in addition to their special meanings, that objects’ capacities for such uses can be eroded because of use, and that digital and physical object materialities can result in rotations operating at different scales and speeds of consumption. Practical implications – The practitioner implications engender opportunities for objects that are primarily valued for their useful functions to find roles in collections via rotational use alongside more traditional collectables that are valued for their meanings. Originality/value – This study contributes to marketing scholarship by accounting for contexts in which collected objects are used by consumers. Moreover, it contributes to research that uses assemblage theory as a lens by conceptualising a recursive loop relationship that can drive cascading changes between multiple consumption assemblages.