I propose two new theories to explain the consumption of aversive experiences: valence conversion and the hedonic equation. The principle of valence conversion asserts that discrete emotions that share a similar set of cognitive appraisals and level of arousal, but are of opposite valence, can be quickly converted from one to the other contingent on internal cognitions, goals and cues from the environment. I propose that fear and excitement meet these conditions; thus, an aversive stimulus that is not too extreme as to prevent the activation of goals related to positive affect can also be interpreted as exciting. The hedonic equation postulates that across four time points (anticipatorily, in the moment, residually, and remembered), if the sum of excitement is greater than the sum of fear, an individual will choose to re-consume an aversive stimuli while controlling for other non-emotive motivations. These two theories together explain why some individuals willingly consume aversive experiences, even if at some points they are unpleasant. / 2019-07-28

Manufactured, experiential, consumption environments are increasingly mimicking the design techniques and principles on display within the Disney theme parks. One particular example of an experiential consumption environment which has been influenced by the Disney-style approach to business is the shopping mall. These commercialized attractions offer a distant alternative, and distraction, to everyday life. The theoretical concept of Disneyization offers insight into what visitors to these manufactured experiential consumption destinations are (assumed to be) searching for - and in-turn receiving. This thesis specifically focuses on 1) the development and design of the New Zealand shopping mall by assessing the extent to which identified elements of the Disney theme parks are replicated within the country's shopping destinations 2) the degree to which experiential consumption environments are being developed within New Zealand. Based upon the review of completed fieldwork, the 'System of Objects' theory proposed by Baudrillard and image association perspectives of Eco are added to the theoretical analysis as a complimentary aside to the Disneyization concept. These works also further highlight the link between experiential consumption environments and those who visit them.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T14:48:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1426770 bytes, checksum: 5e9483885097e3dd757300efd15d0c3f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation is focused on the subjective well-being on consumption in their expanded perspective, investigating this phenomenon in the types of experiential and material consumption and materialism in this context. It is observed that the scope of consumption is fairly representative for the attainment of well-being of individuals, and the question of whether and how consumers reach the happiness who seeks in the market is a key concern, as actions aimed at the welfare of the consumers should be encouraged. Recognizing the presence of the phenomenon of happiness in individuals, but noting that some have higher levels of happiness than others, become increasingly relevant try to understand the factors that bring welfare more effectively in subjects, identifying the reasons that drive happiness in some people more than others. Thus, this research aimed to identify whether the experiential consumption is able to generate higher average levels of subjective well-being in the people than consumption of material goods, intermediating in the study the verification of individual's level of materialism. Consequently, the study provides an alternative vision for the pursuit of happiness on consumption through experiential consumption, in opposition to the materialistic view of the pursuit of happiness by means of material goods. Therefore, we developed an initial review of the literature addressing the topic subjective well-being, focusing on its historical aspects and its developments nowadays and in the consumption arena, in addition to addressing the theoretical perspectives of the types of experiential and material consumption as well as the implications of materialism in this context. Thus, with the constructs "Experiential Consumption Happiness", "Material Consumption Happiness" and "Materialism" defined from the theoretical perspectives, it was necessary validation of measurement instruments since the survey-based studies that had been made in the international context. Therefore, first of all the scales have gone through a process of reverse translation from English into Portuguese, in order to adapt the meaning of the items. Then the questionnaire was applied to the first sample, with 94 students, in order to make adjustments and improvements of the survey instrument to the next sampling. The second sample was composed of questionnaires collected online, reaching the margin of 253 respondents. This sample allowed the consolidation of the constructs in terms of validity and reliability of the scales used. Subsequently, we analyzed the mean differences in the types of experiential and material consumption in groups with high and low materialism. Generally, results indicate that the average of happiness in experiential consumption are significantly higher than in the material consumption in low materialism group, while the average of happiness in consumption experiential are smaller than the material consumption at high materialism group, and this difference is not significant. / Esta dissertação tem como tema central o bem-estar subjetivo no consumo em sua perspectiva ampliada, investigando esse fenômeno nos tipos de consumo experiencial e material e o materialismo nesse contexto. Observa-se que o âmbito de consumo é bastante representativo para o alcance do bem-estar dos indivíduos, e a questão de se e como os consumidores alcançam a felicidade que procuram no mercado é uma preocupação fundamental, pois ações que visem o bem-estar do consumidor devem ser estimuladas. Reconhecendo a presença do fenômeno da felicidade nos indivíduos, mas observando que alguns possuem níveis de felicidade mais elevados que outros, cada vez mais se faz relevante tentar desvendar os fatores que trazem bem-estar de forma mais efetiva nos sujeitos, identificando os motivos que impulsionam a felicidade em algumas pessoas mais do que em outras. Assim, a presente pesquisa visou a identificar se o consumo experiencial é capaz de gerar médias mais elevadas de bem-estar subjetivo nas pessoas do que o consumo de bens materiais, intermediando-se no estudo a verificação do nível de materialismo do indivíduo. Consequentemente, o estudo possibilita uma visão alternativa para busca da felicidade no consumo pela via do consumo experiencial, se contrapondo à visão materialista de busca da felicidade pelos bens materiais. Portanto, foi desenvolvida uma revisão da literatura abordando inicialmente o tema bem-estar subjetivo, discorrendo sobre seus aspectos históricos e desdobramentos na atualidade e no consumo, além de abordar as perspectivas teóricas dos tipos de consumo experiencial e material, bem como as implicações do materialismo nesse contexto. Dessa forma, com os construtos Felicidade no Consumo Experiencial , Felicidade no Consumo Material e Materialismo definidos a partir das perspectivas teóricas, foi necessária a validação dos instrumentos de mensuração, visto que os estudos de base dessa pesquisa haviam sido feitos em contexto internacional. Portanto, primeiramente as escalas passaram por um processo de tradução reversa, a fim de adaptar o sentido dos itens originalmente do inglês para o português. Em seguida, foi aplicado o questionário em um primeiro estudo, com 94 estudantes, a fim de efetuar ajustes e adaptações do instrumento de pesquisa para a próxima fase. O segundo estudo foi composto por questionários coletados online, alcançando a margem de 253 respondentes. Essa etapa permitiu a consolidação dos construtos em termos de validade e confiabilidade das escalas utilizadas. Posteriormente, foram analisadas as diferenças de médias nos tipos de consumo experiencial e material nos grupos com alto e baixo materialismo. De maneira geral, os resultados indicaram que as médias de felicidade no consumo experiencial são significativamente maiores do que no consumo material no grupo de baixo materialismo, enquanto que as médias de felicidade no consumo experiencial são menores do que no consumo material no grupo de alto materialismo, sendo que essa diferença não é significativa.

The aim of this study is to investigate the interrelationships between place and taste through a multi-sited ethnography of music consumption. Place and taste are important theoretical constructs that have been studied extensively across the humanities and social sciences. Yet, there is a scarcity of research that attempts to bring together these constructs in the fields of marketing and consumer research and beyond. In particular, prior consumer culture theory (CCT) research has not taken into account the spatial processes through which consumers enact, perform and further develop their tastes in the market place. More significantly, little empirical research illustrates how different consumption spaces tend to orchestrate and shape consumers’ tastes. As such, this study focuses on the context of music consumption and aims to explore spatial taste formation processes via consumers’ aesthetic experiences in popular (festival) and classical (concert hall) music places within the fields of indie and classical music consumption respectively. The emergent findings are structured upon four chapters (papers) and develop specific research objectives which revolve around the overarching aim of the study, namely the exploration of the interrelationships between place and taste. This study brings together both structural and experiential dimensions of taste and highlights the ontological significance of phenomenological understandings of space and place for marketing and consumer research.

L’étude prend sa source dans une préoccupation qui anime la plupart des dirigeants de fédérations et de clubs sportifs au Sénégal : leur difficulté à mobiliser un public nombreux lors des évènements sportifs qu’ils organisent. Cette situation renvoie à un questionnement sur leur capacité actuelle à répondre aux besoins et attentes des spectateurs, les fidéliser et en conquérir de nouveaux. Dans ce contexte, notre question de recherche principale est de savoir quels sont les facteurs qui influencent la décision des spectateurs d’assister à des évènements sportifs au Sénégal ; en d’autres termes, comprendre les motivations des spectateurs à fréquenter (ou à ne pas fréquenter) les lieux de ces évènements. Pour cela, nous avons analysé les cas de trois types de spectacles sportifs : (1) celui d’un sport moderne d’importation (le championnat de football professionnel) ; (2) celui d’un sport traditionnel (la lutte avec frappe) et (3) celui d’une pratique se situant entre tradition communautaire et modernité - sport moderne « tropicalisé » - (le championnat populaire navétane), afin de mettre en lumière des spécificités explicatives.Les résultats révèlent six facteurs majeurs pouvant influencer la fréquentation d’un évènement sportif au Sénégal : la proximité des lieux de compétition, l’affirmation d’une appartenance identitaire, la passion du sport, la recherche d’interactions sociales, la quête du plaisir et du divertissement, la stimulation émotionnelle. Parallèlement, ils nous ont amené à mettre en évidence quelques critères pouvant conduire à mieux segmenter l’offre de spectacle sportif : la motivation de fréquentation, la régularité, le degré de participation aux actions de supportérisme, le rapport à la violence ; soit autant de critère permettant de construire une offre adaptée aux différentes catégories de publics.D’un point de vue managérial, ce travail de recherche livre des informations utiles aux organisateurs. En effet, elles peuvent leur permettre d’avoir une meilleure visibilité de la demande : d’une part, une identification plus fine des publics sous la forme d’une typologie, d’autre part, une caractérisation actualisée de leurs besoins et attentes et de leurs comportements de consommation ; cette meilleure connaissance du marché devant logiquement les conduire à des stratégies marketing plus efficaces en matière de segmentation de leur offre et de ciblage des différentes catégories de publics. / The study has its source in a concern that drives most leaders of federations and sports clubs in Senegal: their difficulty to mobilize a big audience during the sports events which they organize. This situation raises questions about their current capacity to meet the needs and expectations of spectators, to make them loyal and to try conquer new ones. In this context, the main aim of our research question is to know what are the factors which influence the decision of the spectators to attend sports events in Senegal; in other words, understand the motivations of the spectators to go (or not to go) to these events places. For that purpose, we analyzed the cases of three types of sports shows : (1) that of a modern import sport (the professional football championship); (2) that of a traditional sport (wrestling) and (3) that of a practice between communitarian tradition and modernity - "tropicalized" modern sport - (the popular Navetane championship), in order to highlight explanatory specificities.The results reveal six major factors which can influence the attendance of a sport event in Senegal: the proximity of the competition venues, the affirmation of identity, the passion for sport, the search for social interaction, the pursuit of pleasure and entertainment, emotional stimulation. At the same time, they allow us to highlight some criteria which can lead to better segment the offer of sports show: Their motivation to attend, their regularity, their degree of participation in the actions of “supporterism”, the link with violence , these are enough criteria that can help build an offer adapted to different categories of public.From a managerial point of view, this research work delivers information useful for the organizers. Indeed, they can allow them to have a better visibility of the demand (request): on the one hand a finer identification of public in the form of a typology, on the other hand, a characterization updated by their needs and expectations of their consumer behavior; this good knowledge of the market must lead them logically to more effective marketing strategies regarding segmentation of their offer and targeting of the various categories of public.