Abstract
Focusing on situations in which people are asked to “put their money down,” this paper considers the ways in which people attempt to influence the commitments that others make. The analysis reflects an interactionist perspective (Mead, 1934; Blumer, 1969) and builds on data gathered through interviews with vendors, observations at trade shows, and participant-observation in a craft enterprise. Examining data which addresses both individual and group purchasing contexts, attention is given to the perspectives from which vendors operate, the tactics they use, and the dilemmas they experience in their attempts to consolidate purchasing commitments. Since people are asked to make commitments in almost every realm (e.g. family, religion, religion, recreation, politics) of their lives, the processes considered herein have wide-sweeping implications for the ways in which people become entrenched in other settings as well.
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I would like to thank Peter and Patti Adler, Craig Bryson, Peter Conrad, and Shulamit Reinharz for their helpful readings of earlier drafts of this manuscript.
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Prus, R. Pursuing commitments: An analysis of the influence work involved in ‘closing sales’. Qual Sociol 11, 194–214 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988955
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988955