IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v14y2013i3p817-842.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Buying Life Experiences for the “Right” Reasons: A Validation of the Motivations for Experiential Buying Scale

Author

Listed:
  • Jia Zhang
  • Ryan Howell
  • Peter Caprariello

Abstract

Although numerous studies have demonstrated the hedonic benefits of spending money on life experiences instead of material possessions, there has been no attempt to determine how different motivations for experiential consumption relate to psychological need satisfaction and well-being. Across five studies (N = 931), guided by self-determination theory, we developed a reliable and valid measure of motivation for experiential consumption—the Motivation for Experiential Buying Scale—to test these relations. Those who spend money on life experience for autonomous reasons (e.g., “because they are an integral part of my life”) report more autonomy, competence, relatedness, flourishing, and vitality; however, those who spend money on life experiences for controlled (e.g., “for the recognition I’ll get from others”) or amotivated reasons (e.g., “I don’t really know”) reported less autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These results demonstrated that the benefits of experiential consumption depend on why one buys life experiences. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Jia Zhang & Ryan Howell & Peter Caprariello, 2013. "Buying Life Experiences for the “Right” Reasons: A Validation of the Motivations for Experiential Buying Scale," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 817-842, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:3:p:817-842
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-012-9357-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-012-9357-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-012-9357-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ryan Howell & David Chenot & Graham Hill & Colleen Howell, 2011. "Momentary Happiness: The Role of Psychological Need Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Ed Diener & Derrick Wirtz & William Tov & Chu Kim-Prieto & Dong-won Choi & Shigehiro Oishi & Robert Biswas-Diener, 2010. "New Well-being Measures: Short Scales to Assess Flourishing and Positive and Negative Feelings," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 97(2), pages 143-156, June.
    3. Leonardo Nicolao & Julie R. Irwin & Joseph K. Goodman, 2009. "Happiness for Sale: Do Experiential Purchases Make Consumers Happier than Material Purchases?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 188-198.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Seonjeong Ally & Oh, Haemoon, 2017. "Sharing travel stories and behavioral outcomes: A case of travel," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 147-158.
    2. Bosangit, Carmela & Demangeot, Catherine, 2016. "Exploring reflective learning during the extended consumption of life experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 208-215.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yi-Ching Hsieh & Hung-Chang Chiu & Yun-Chia Tang & Wei-Yun Lin, 2018. "Does Raising Value Co-creation Increase All Customers’ Happiness?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(4), pages 1053-1067, November.
    2. Maw–Der Foo & Marilyn A. Uy & Charles Murnieks, 2015. "Beyond Affective Valence: Untangling Valence and Activation Influences on Opportunity Identification," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 407-431, March.
    3. Li, Tingting Elle & Chan, Eric Tak Hin, 2017. "Diaspora tourism and well-being: A eudaimonic view," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 205-206.
    4. M. Sirgy, 2011. "Theoretical Perspectives Guiding QOL Indicator Projects," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 1-22, August.
    5. Merrick Powell & Kirk N. Olsen & William Forde Thompson, 2023. "Music, Pleasure, and Meaning: The Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motivations for Music (HEMM) Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-19, March.
    6. Zuoxian Gan & Tao Feng & Min Yang, 2018. "Exploring the Effects of Car Ownership and Commuting on Subjective Well-Being: A Nationwide Questionnaire Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    7. Nelli Ferenczi & Tara C Marshall, 2013. "Exploring Attachment to the “Homeland” and Its Association with Heritage Culture Identification," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Zhang, Jing & Chen, Mingliang & Xie, Zhaohan & Zhuang, Jingyi, 2022. "Don't fall into exquisite poverty: The impact of mismatch between consumers and luxury brands on happiness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 298-309.
    9. Yixuan Liu & Liumeng Li & Guomei Miao & Xinyan Yang & Yinghui Wu & Yanling Xu & Yonghong Gao & Yongzhi Zhan & Yiwei Zhong & Shujuan Yang, 2021. "Relationship between Children’s Intergenerational Emotional Support and Subjective Well-Being among Middle-Aged and Elderly People in China: The Mediation Role of the Sense of Social Fairness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Jeremy Jackson, 2017. "Free to Be Happy: Economic Freedom and Happiness in US States," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1207-1229, August.
    11. Sakari Kainulainen, 2020. "Flourishing within the Working-Aged Finnish Population," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 187-205, March.
    12. Seolwoo Park & Dongkyun Ahn, 2022. "Seeking Pleasure or Meaning? The Different Impacts of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Tourism Happiness on Tourists’ Life Satisfaction," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    13. Liselot Hudders & Mario Pandelaere, 2012. "The Silver Lining of Materialism: The Impact of Luxury Consumption on Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 411-437, June.
    14. Sujit Raghunathrao Jagadale & Himadri Roy‐Chaudhuri & Djavlonbek Kadirov, 2021. "Quality‐of‐life as chronotopefication and futurization: Subsistence consumer experiences in India," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 59-86, March.
    15. Lenka Mynaříková & Vít Pošta, 2023. "The Effect of Consumer Confidence and Subjective Well-being on Consumers’ Spending Behavior," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 429-453, February.
    16. Erin Percival Carter & Stephanie Welcomer, 2021. "Designing and Distinguishing Meaningful Artisan Food Experiences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-13, July.
    17. Annamaria Di Fabio & Maureen E. Kenny, 2018. "Intrapreneurial Self-Capital: A Key Resource for Promoting Well-Being in a Shifting Work Landscape," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-11, August.
    18. Michael A. Busseri & Mojan Naisani Samani, 2019. "Lay Theories for Life Satisfaction and the Belief that Life Gets Better and Better," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 1647-1672, June.
    19. Ma, Jianfeng & Tu, Hongwei & Zhang, Pan & Fan, Lele & Cheng, Bao & Ma, Jie, 2021. "Can work–family conflict influence purchase preference? Experiential vs. material consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 620-632.
    20. Asude Malkoç & Aynur Kesen Mutlu, 2019. "Mediating the Effect of Cognitive Flexibility in the Relationship between Psychological Well-Being and Self-Confidence: A Study on Turkish University Students," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(6), pages 278-278, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:3:p:817-842. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.