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Although both scholars and practitioners have shown considerable interest in consumers’ disposition behaviors, little is known about how consumers decide between different modes of redistribution, such as selling, giving, or donating. This study aims to understand the complexity of consumers’ redistribution practices by taking consumer agency into account and, in doing so, emphasizing the strategic dimension of redistribution practices. Drawing from a set of qualitative methods, we show that redistribution of unused objects is a strategic action governed by a portfolio of resources and competences that consumers deploy, resulting in three different redistribution strategies: market-oriented, convenience-oriented, and community-oriented. We also demonstrate that each strategy comes with different market or non-market-oriented practices and highlight the role of closeness with the recipient in consumers’ decisions. Doing so, we help charities and retail managers understand what limits redistribution practices and how these practices can be encouraged.

International audience; Based on a 6-months-ethnography research, we study how consumers choose between giving, selling or throwing away. We show that this decision depends on three dimensions: product-related factors, consumers’ skills and habits, and practices’ goals. These results constitute strong managerial implications for charities, C2C platforms and redistributions’ actors.

International audience; Marketing research on giving behaviour has overlooked gift-giving, even though this topic presents social, ecological and economic issues. Therefore, we conducted 16 interviews to better understanding gift-giving meanings, distinguishing three types of objects: ordinary products, basic necessities, and precious objects. Our results identify five major meanings : philanthropic giving, symbolic redistribution, symbolic transmission, material redistributio n and calculated giving. They vary according to the orientation of the gift (for a personal purpose or simple generosity) and the value attributed to the gift-giving (intangible or tangible). This research also highlights the importance of distinguishing the object that has been donated, since gift-giving is not considering in the same way for the various identified objects. Finally, this study has strong managerial implications for charities by allowing them to understand donors' discourses according to three types of objects.

International audience

International audience

International audience; Based on a 6-months-ethnography research, we study how consumers choose between giving, selling or throwing away. We show that this decision depends on product values, consumers’ skills and habits, and practices’ meanings. These results constitute strong managerial implications for charities, C2C platforms and redistributions’ actors.