Sense of belonging, international migrants’ spending, and implications for their subjective well‐being

Abstract

A lack of a sense of belonging in the host country has become one of the most common challenges facing international migrants in today's sociopolitical environment.Our two online experiments with 881 international migrant workers in the United States jointly demonstrate that, to cope with their lack of a sense of belonging in the host country, international migrants may spend money suboptimally: more on material purchases but less on experiential and prosocial purchases. More importantly, our studies suggest that prosocial purchases are more effective than experiential purchases in increasing international migrants' subjective well-being. This is because prosocial purchases can lead to both relatedness need satisfaction and beneficence, with each independently contributing to international migrants' subjective well-being.Our research suggests that public policymakers should address the social exclusion international migrants experience when moving to a new country because it can have a negative impact on their subjective well-being. Our research further suggests that one way to mitigate social exclusion is to encourage international migrants to spend money on others rather than themselves.

Mood management through metaverse enhancing life satisfaction

“…The feelings of relatedness from socialization belong to the third‐level need category of love and belongingness, the feelings of autonomy and competency belong to the fourth‐level need category of esteem, and the feelings of creative entertainment belong to the fifth‐level need category of self‐actualization (Oleson, 2004). Given that satisfaction of needs contributes to the quality of life (Costanza et al, 2007; Hang & Zhong, 2022), we expect that the metaverse consumers whose needs are satisfied would experience increased life satisfaction. Particularly, adopting the application of the mood management theory of Reinecke et al (2012) that the desire for mood management through media is to satisfy intrinsic needs, we hypothesize that social metaverse consumption as mood management (i.e., positive mood enhancement and negative mood alleviation) can positively influence life satisfaction of users.Hypothesis Social metaverse consumption as (a) positive mood enhancement and (b) negative mood alleviation positively influences consumers' life satisfaction.…”

“…Given that satisfaction of needs contributes to the quality of life (Costanza et al, 2007;Hang & Zhong, 2022), we expect that the metaverse consumers whose needs are satisfied would experience increased life satisfaction. Particularly, adopting the application of the mood management theory of Reinecke et al (2012) that the desire for mood management through media is to satisfy intrinsic needs, we hypothesize that social metaverse consumption as mood management (i.e., positive mood enhancement and negative mood alleviation) can positively influence life satisfaction of users.…”

Give me the newest! Effect of social exclusion on new products adoption

“…Social exclusion can affect individuals' emotions, cognition, and behavior. It can threaten an individual's existential value and self-identity (Blackhart et al, 2009;Hang & Zhong, 2023). In serious cases, it can induce aggressive driving (Li et al, 2022), antisocial behaviors (Perchtold-Stefan et al, 2022), indirect misbehaviors (Gong et al, 2022), and unethical behaviors (Liu et al, 2023;Tuncel & Kavak, 2022).…”

Combating lookalike product through adapting advertising appeals to consumer value: Strategic implications to brand imitation management

“…Existing research has identified an array of consumer‐level factors that influence demand for counterfeit or inauthentic products across different countries, include individual differences (e.g., Katyal et al, 2022), consumer motives (Le Roux et al, 2019), benign/ malicious envy (Gupta & Lyndem, 2024), moral and economic justifications (Poddar et al, 2012; Siahtiri et al, 2022), cognitive resources (Kim et al, 2012), brand personality perceptions (Bian & Moutinho, 2009), and need for belonging (Hang & Zhong, 2023; Zhang et al, 2023). Consumers, in many cases, are aware of their buying counterfeits through illegal channels for inferior quality at a low price.…”