T he field of consumer research in general and the Journal of Consumer Research in particular currently find themselves in a crisis of identity. Whatever the historical basis for its editorial policy, JCR has lately come to embrace a variety of topics once thought too arcane or abstruse for a scholarly publication devoted to the study of consumer behavior. Recent examples of this trend would include articles on ritual, materialism, mood, styles of research, primitive aspects of consumption, language in popular American novels, the good life in advertising, spousal conflict, play as a consumption experience, product meanings, and consumption symbolism. In short, it appears that in the last few years the perspectives of an increasingly diverse range of disciplines have stealthily crept into the field of consumer research. These realities can scarcely be denied. They just are. They exist for everyone to behold and for many, including me, to admire and applaud. However, this proliferation of disciplinary perspectives in our field raises some interesting conceptual issues. One of the most important is ontological in nature and concerns the question, "What is consumer research?" In attempting to answer this question, I shall pursue an argument influenced by various efforts to broaden our concept of consumer behavior to include not only acquisition but also usage and disposition activities (Jacoby 1978) and to extend our view of products to embrace not only traditional durable and nondurable goods but also other more intangible services, ideas, and events (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982). Specifically, I propose a definition of consumer research based on the following key points: (1) consumer research studies consumer behavior; (2) consumer behavior entails consumption; (3) consumption involves the acquisition, usage, and disposition of products; (4) products are goods, services, ideas, events, or any other entities that can be acquired, used, or disposed of in ways that potentially provide value; (5) value is a type of experience that occurs for some living organism when a goal is achieved, a need is fulfilled, or a want is satisfied; (6) such an achievement, fulfillment, or satisfaction attains consummation; conversely, a failure to achieve goals, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants thwarts consummation; (7) the process of consummation (including its possible breakdowns) is therefore the fundamental subject for consumer research. From this argument, it follows that consumer research studies consummation (in all its various facets, including its potential breakdowns). Many will agree with this conclusion. Yet most will also acknowledge that the study of consummation is not the meaning that usually leaps to mind when one hears the term "consumer research" in the common parlance. Indeed, it appears to me that, in its general usage, the term "consumer research" lacks a clear meaning. It has grown so encrusted with connotations arising from its association with other disciplines that, by now, it stands for everything, which in this case is tantamount to nothing. I therefore propose a definition intended to provide a core meaning for our field of inquiry. Specifically, I propose that we use the tierm consumer research to refer to the study of consummation in all its many aspects. Consummation thereby designates the core of the concept of consumer research. From this perspective, consumer research stands on its own as a separate discipline and borrows from other established disciplines no more or less than they in turn borrow from each other. Here, I endorse the position recently articulated by Belk (1986, p. 423):