Consumer well-being (CWB): conceptualisation, contextualisation and a research agenda

Abstract

Consumer well-being (CWB) is an important multifaceted concept which contributes directly to consumers’ need satisfaction at the material, emotional, social, and physical levels. Despite interest in the concept, contemporary research on CWB is limited in agreement over its definition, measurement and characterisation leaving The term ambiguous, abstract, and with no universally agreed upon conceptualisation. We seek to provide a concise review of current research on the concept of CWB. Our review comprises 265 peer-review articles drawn from scholarly databases, which have been analysed according to a range of theoretical and methodological foci. An in-depth systematic literature review approach was followed. With regard to CWB foci, the review illustrates that CWB research has focused on individual consumer entities with a self-beneficiary foci. Secondly, the review identifies four CWB themes, namely wellbeing, well doing, well having and well becoming. Although, scholars refer to all of these as CWB, they vary in their theoretical conceptualisation, operationalisation and reference to temporal states. Thirdly, the review identifies two mega themes within CWB research namely definition centrality and problem centrality. A framework for CWB is subsequently proposed according to context-based versus object-based modelling. The review concludes by presenting a researcher guideline for CWB and an agenda for future research.

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