Speaker: Dr Belinda Barton, Bond University
Title: The Dynamics of Payment and Pleasure: Monetary and Social Interactions in Shared Consumption Experiences
Date: Thursday, 23rd May 2024
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Venue: Building 24, Copland, Seminar Room 1106
Farshid Keshavarz is the host of this visit.
Abstract:
In the wake of a post-pandemic loneliness epidemic, consumer behaviour has shifted toward prioritising shared experiences despite increasing financial constraints. While prior studies have separately examined the effects of monetary transactions in gifting and financial management within monogamous relationships, the nuanced role and effect of payment dynamics in these shared experiences remains unclear.
Across a series of experimental studies, we investigate how different payment arrangements (split arrangements vs. consumer vs. other consumer pay the full amount) affect consumer happiness within shared experiences. We find that when consumers are with close social ties, they derive more happiness from paying themselves in full (vs. split or other consumers) for the shared experience. Conversely, in the absence of social connectedness (i.e., with a weak social ties) consumers are happier when they are able to conserve monetary resources (i.e., split or other consumer pays). These patterns are consistent regardless of the value of the experience admission and within ecologically valid parameters for close social ties, but when the value of the admission increases, consumers are even happier when conserving financial resources among weak social ties. Findings suggest that there is a complex relationship between payment dynamics and happiness in shared consumption experiences that is dependent on the social ties and contributes to a deeper understanding of consumer well-being in experiential contexts.
Bio:
Belinda Barton is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bond Business School. Belinda’s research interests are in the broad area of consumer wellbeing as an outcome of consumption. Within this domain, Belinda is particularly interested in how marketers’ use of scarcity cues and tactics influence consumer attitudes and behaviour as well as how the consumption of experiential products affects a consumer’s happiness and wellbeing. Belinda uses experimental research approaches, as well as meta-analysis to synthesize literature and explore generalizability and moderating effects of existing research findings. Belinda’s research has been published in Journal of Retailing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, and Health Promotion International.