"There's a real value in people telling you what's what": An exploration of female high self-monitoring and herd behaviour

Adopting a qualitative approach, this paper set out to investigate the phenomenon of herd behaviour and its relationship with self-monitoring from a female perspective in the technological goods market. The paper employs an interpretive position, utilising 19 focus groups with over 229 participants across 10 UK cities. The paper identifies the defining characteristics of herd behaviour in this context as being socially orientated, and undertaken as a consequence of the need to belong. The paper adds to the self-monitoring literature by providing in-depth insights into the consumption habits of female consumers, and a product group thought to be a male preserve. Further, this paper questions the essentialist positions that pervade the literature in relation to gendered and self orientated consumption patterns.