Abstract: Residential mobility has become a salient feature of contemporary life. Prior work in marketing and psychology has documented that mobility can shape consumer preferences through diverse mechanisms. However, existing evidence remains fragmented and sometimes contradictory, partly because most studies implicitly treat identity as a single, unitary construct and examine one dominant pathway at a time. This paper advances an identity management perspective to integrate and reconcile these mixed findings. We argue that residential mobility reshapes consumers’ identity structure (from relatively stable, bounded identities to more dynamic and multi-layered identities), which in turn activates distinct identity management motives. These motives systematically guide downstream consumption choices, producing divergent behavioral outcomes across contexts and individuals.
Building on Forehand et al.’s (2021) identity management framework, we develop an integrative model that links residential mobility to consumer responses through changes in multiple identities and the activation of identity management motives. The model is organized around three core identity management pathways: (1) reducing identity inconsistency, (2) maintaining identity balance, and (3) compensatory consumption. Each pathway is examined in a dedicated sub-study with clearly specified psychological mediators and theoretically grounded boundary conditions. Our overarching contribution is not simply to show that mobility “changes consumption,” but to explain when, why, and for whom residential mobility activates particular identity management strategies, thereby reconciling seemingly conflicting findings in prior research.
Study 1 (Reducing identity inconsistency): Mobility and identity-relevant consumption. We theorize that residential mobility reduces self-concept clarity (SCC) by disrupting identity continuity and increasing exposure to heterogeneous cultural and social contexts. Lower SCC motivates consumers to seek self-diagnostic cues and restore identity coherence through identity-relevant consumption. Thus, we predict that high (vs. low) residential mobility increases preferences for identity-expressive products, mediated by diminished SCC. Importantly, we introduce product materiality as a boundary condition: because physical products provide stronger permanence, possession-based reassurance, and symbolic stability than digital alternatives, mobility’s effect on identity-relevant consumption should be stronger for physical (vs. digital) products. This study contributes to the literature by connecting mobility to SCC as a precise identity mechanism and by explaining why dematerialized consumption may be less effective for identity repair under mobility.
Study 2 (Maintaining identity balance): Mobility, self-construal, and risk decision-making via optimal distinctiveness. A key unresolved question is whether mobility increases risk aversion (through uncertainty and loss focus) or increases risk taking (through openness and adaptability). We reconcile these findings by proposing a contingent effect driven by identity-balance motives grounded in Optimal Distinctiveness Theory (ODT). Mobility destabilizes consumers’ social anchoring and identity balance, but its effect is moderated by consumers’ self-construal. For independent consumers, mobility heightens differentiation needs, encouraging distinctiveness signaling via comparatively riskier choices. For interdependent consumers, mobility heightens assimilation needs, encouraging conformity and relationship maintenance via safer choices. Accordingly, we predict an interaction: mobility increases risk-taking among independent consumers but decreases it among interdependent consumers. We further posit a dual mediation mechanism: differentiation needs account for the positive mobility-risk link among independent consumers, whereas assimilation needs account for the negative link among interdependent consumers. Together, these mechanisms reconcile prior contradictions and identify testable psychological “switches” that shape the direction of mobility’s impact on risk decisions.
Study 3 (Compensatory consumption): Mobility and self-improvement consumption through threatened personal control and internal agency. Mobility often entails repeated adaptation demands and weaker social support, which can undermine perceived personal control. Drawing on Compensatory Control Theory, we argue that control threats prompt consumers to adopt strategies that restore agency. We propose that self-improvement consumption (e.g., skill-building services, fitness training, educational courses) serves this function by strengthening internal agency beliefs—confidence in one’s ability to manage challenges. Accordingly, we predict that mobility increases preferences for self-improvement consumption, and that reduced perceived personal control explains this effect. We also identify implicit theories of personality as a boundary condition. Incremental theorists (who view abilities as malleable) are more likely to interpret mobility-related disruption as manageable through effort and thus should show a stronger positive mobility-self-improvement association. Entity theorists (who view abilities as fixed) should show a weaker association because self-improvement is perceived as less efficacious. This study positions self-improvement consumption as an identity-relevant compensatory response to mobility-induced control threat and clarifies who is most likely to adopt this adaptive strategy.
Collectively, this research makes three key theoretical contributions to the literature. First, it shifts the analytical focus from single-identity effects to multi-identity dynamics and identity management motives. Second, it provides a unifying framework that explains opposite behavioral directions (e.g., risk aversion vs. risk seeking) through theoretically grounded moderators and motive-based mediators. Third, it introduces actionable boundary conditions—product materiality, self-construal, and implicit personality theories—linking identity processes to concrete marketing decisions (product design, segmentation, and message framing). Practically, our framework suggests that firms can tailor identity-repair cues, risk framing, and self-improvement offerings to consumers facing high mobility, enhancing consumer well-being while improving targeting effectiveness in increasingly fluid social environments.

Key words: residential mobility, identity management, multiple identities, compensatory consumption