From i-level to g-level to s-level change: New methods for a new mindset for consumer researchers

To expedite urgently needed system-level changes, as consumer researchers, we need to better understand how individual-level interventions affect the likelihood of group-level changes over time, which ultimately can lead to system-level, societal changes. To help this mindset shift, we offer a conceptual framework, based on complexity theory, to guide this shift by focusing on the study of (1) consumers as elements in a wider system, (2) consumers as active agents of change, while also (3) accounting for the feedback loops among stakeholders in the system over time. We introduce two methods that can be applied by consumer researchers in the context of group-level change and be integrated into experimental work: coordination games and agent-based modeling. These methods can complement qualitative and conceptual consumer research that started to address the need in group- and system-level change by adding a quantitative approach and presenting ways in which experimental work can be applied.