I have been long intrigued by the symbolic communicative properties of consumer goods. I am especially intrigued by questions such as:

• How do the products we use in our day to day lives shape our understanding of who we are?
• What is the relative contribution of products, vis a vis other social structural factors such as media and social acquaintances, to the construction of our understanding of who we are?
• How can products and possessions help or hinder a person's efforts to cultivate or dispose a particular identity?

As a convenience to interested readers world wide, much of my academic work is available online (see below). Included are articles published previously in The Journal of Consumer Research, The Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Advances in Consumer Research. I hope this distribution method makes it easier for those of you in Eastern Europe who have difficulty accessing research materials in general and my work in particular. I will also publish here material not available elsewhere. As there is some mercy in my heart, I have no intentions of putting my dissertation on-line.

Rob Kleine's Symbolic Consumer Behavior Articles (selected) -- arranged chronologically:

Kleine, Susan Schultz, Robert E. Kleine, III, and Debra A. Laverie, "Exploring How Role-Identity Development Stage Moderates Person-Possession Relations," Research in Consumer Behavior, Accepted pending minor revisions.

Laverie, Debra A., Robert E. Kleine, III, and Susan Schultz Kleine (2002), "Re-Examination and Extension of Kleine, Kleine, and Kernan's Social Identity Model of Mundane Consumption: The Mediating Role of the Appraisal Process," Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (4 March), in press.

Laverie, Debra A., Susan Schultz Kleine, and Robert E. Kleine, III (2001), How Identity-Related Social Structural Commitments, Appraisals, and Emotions Vary Across Identity Life Cycle Stage: A Preliminary Investigation," in eds. S. Shapiro and Susan E. Heckler, Proceedings of the 2000 Conference of the Society for Consumer Psychology, in press.

Jacobs, Richard S., Kenneth R. Evans, Robert E. Kleine, III, Timothy D. Landry (2001), "Task and Social Disclosure Reciprocity Within the Sales Dyad: An Initial Encounter Perspective," Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, in press.

Kenneth R. Evans, Robert E. Kleine, III, Timothy D. Landry, and Lawrence C. Crosby (2000), "How First Impressions of Customers Impact Effectiveness in an Initial Sales Encounter." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, 28 (4 Fall), 512-526.

Kleine, Robert E., III, and Susan Schultz Kleine (2000), "Consumption and Self-Schema Changes Throughout the Identity Project Life Cycle," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 27, eds. Stephen J. Hoch and Robert J. Meyer, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 279-285. (Also available: presentation slides - illustrated with my photos)

Kleine, Susan Schultz, Robert E. Kleine, III, and Chris T. Allen (1995), "How is a Possession ‘Me' or ‘Not Me?' Characterizing Types and an Antecedent of Material Possession Attachment," Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (December), 327-343.

Kleine, Robert E., III, Susan Schultz Kleine, and Jerome B. Kernan (1993), "Mundane Consumption and the Self: A Social Identity Perspective," Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2 (3), 209-235.

Laverie, Debra A., Robert E. Kleine III, Susan Schultz Kleine (1993), "Emotions and Values: An Important Link in Understanding Consumption Experiences," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 20. eds. Michael Rothschild and Leigh McAlister, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 70-75.

Kleine, Robert E., III, and Jerome B. Kernan (1992), "Strategies for Object Identification and Confidence: Influence of Appearance, Amount of Context, and Familiarity, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 75 (December), 739-745.

Kleine, Robert E., III, Susan Schultz Kleine, and Jerome B. Kernan (1992), "Mundane Everyday Consumption and the Self: A Conceptual Orientation and Prospects for Consumer Research," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 19, eds. John F. Sherry, Jr. and Brian Sternthal, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 411-415.

Kleine, Robert E., III, and Jerome B. Kernan (1991), "Contextual Influences on the Meanings Ascribed to Ordinary Consumption Objects," Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (December), 311-324.

Tetreault, Mary A. Stanfield, and Robert E. Kleine III (1990), "Ritual, Ritualized Behavior, and Habit: Refinements and Extensions of the Consumption Ritual Construct," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 17, eds. Gerald J. Gorn and Richard W. Pollay, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 31-38.

Schultz, Susan E., Robert E. Kleine III, and Jerome B. Kernan (1989), "'These Are a Few of My Favorite Things': Toward an Explication of Attachment as a Consumer Behavior Construct," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 16, ed. Thomas Srull, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 359-366.

Kleine, Robert E., III, and Jerome B. Kernan (1988), "Measuring the Meaning of Consumption Objects: An Empirical Investigation," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 15, ed. Michael J. Houston, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 498-504.

Kleine, Robert E., III, and Jerome B. Kernan (1987), "Toward an Epistemology of Consumption Symbolism: Some Preliminary Considerations," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 14, eds. Melanie Wallendorf and Paul F. Anderson, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 573.

Kleine, Robert E., M. Carole Macklin, and Norman T. Bruvold (1986), "Print Ads and Pavlov: Are they Compatible?" in Proceedings of the 1986 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, ed. Ernest F. Larkin, 97-102.