Silence in the consumer experience: A conceptualization and research agenda

Overview & Synopsis

Despite the pervasiveness and ambivalence of silence in consumption experiences, consumer research on silence is still scarce and draws mostly on a static and organizational perspective of the consumer experience. Drawing on the review of existing perspectives in the multidisciplinary literature, the contribution of this article is threefold: first it extends current knowledge by offering a comprehensive definition of silence and building a typology of silence experiences. Second, this article develops a framework identifying the functions of silence and highlighting the potential factors affecting its effects. Finally, this article proposes an agenda to stimulate future research on silence in view of the consumer experience.