Us and them! Consumer resistance as an act of antistate opposition in Iran

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate consumer resistance in an undemocratic country, exploring how consumers resist against an authoritarian regime through consumption. Sixteen in‐depth interviews were conducted, and the qualitative data were used to create a conceptual map. Results suggest that consumers interpret corporations' relations with the state in four different stages which are highly undesirable, resulting in resistance behaviors on a continuum ranging from a reduction in consumption to preventing others from consumption. This paper provides insights into how consumers conceptualize their goal, themselves, and their enemy in resistance against the state, manifested in anticonsumption behavior. The results help managers understand how consumers perceive their relationship with the state and how they formulate and regulate their resistance behavior. Additionally, it provides evidence that in undemocratic regimes, using official sources of information as an information channel might result in a backfire effect. This paper adds antistate resistance behavior to the literature and provides evidence that in undemocratic countries, the totality of the sovereign state replaces all other forms of adversaries in resistance behavior.