Happiness Leisure Experiences in Consumption

The Personal sense of uniqueness (PSU) is positively associated with subjective well-being and has been recently shown its correlation with happiness, influencing consumer’s experience behavior. However, the effects of hedonic and eudaimonic experience on conspicuous and inconspicuous (consumer’s need for status and inner fulfillment) are unknown. The purpose of this research is to address a gap existing in the literature by testing the effects of PSU on hedonic and eudaimonic leisure experiences and how happiness leisure experiences effects conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption. The relationships hypothesized in the model are tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and bootstrapping procedure. Data was gathered using a self-administrated survey, answered by 200 consumers based on consumers’ leisure experiences. The findings of this study suggest that (i) PSU positively and significantly influence hedonic and eudaimonic happiness; (ii) the effect of PSU on eudaimonic happiness is higher than in hedonic happiness; (iii) eudaimonic happiness positively and significantly influence conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption; and (iv) hedonic happiness negatively and significantly influence conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption. This study helps fill a gap in the literature by introducing and testing the effect of hedonic and eudaimonic leisure experiences and the relationship between these constructs and PSU and (in) conspicuous consumption.