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To be American is to hoard, to collect. But what if that wasn't a bad thing? Emily Mester's 'American Bulk' asks readers to see our national consumer obsession as more than a modern scourge - to consider consumption a complex character in a larger story of capitalism, imperialism and technology. In sharply witty prose, Mester details how a seasonal stint at Ulta Beauty reveals the insidious performance of retail sales, how Yelp reviews highlight the lengths Americans go to curate their personal ephemera, and why they can't help but find joy at Costco.

Surf tourism, a form of sustainable experiential tourism, directly shapes the socio-economic sustainability of coastal destinations. However, existing research has not uncovered how cognitive appraisal processes and status-seeking motives interact to shape tourists’ behavioral intentions and resilience amid experiential setbacks. Based on a cross-sectional survey design, and grounded in Cognitive Appraisal Theory (CAT) and the Theory of the Leisure Class (TLC), this study empirically tests an integrated socio-cognitive framework using data from 395 surf tourists in Hainan, China. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results demonstrate that cognitive appraisals (outcome desirability, agency, certainty) and status-driven imperatives are powerful predictors of behavioral intentions. Conspicuous Consumption Motivation (CCM) acts as a critical boundary condition, amplifying the positive effect of affective states on intentions, and serving as a psychological buffer that facilitates consumer resilience against tourism setbacks. We further extend a “social-symbolic reappraisal” mechanism—rather than a directly measured variable—through which tourists reframe negative experiences as a “badge of honor” to signal leisure-class status via the moderation effect of CCM. This fills an important gap in existing research on emotion regulation and tourist behavior. This study clarifies the psychological pathway of behavioral sustainability in symbolic experiential tourism and delivers high-impact actionable insights for coastal destinations: operators can leverage the social-symbolic reappraisal mechanism to design identity-focused experience narratives, stabilize tourist flow and revenue streams, increase investments in sustainable infrastructure and marine conservation, and benefit from sustainable management of coastal surf tourism destinations.

Purpose There is a growing trend that hospitality brands are allowing employees to personalize their workplace display. Following this trend in practice, this paper aims to examine the influence of employees’ conspicuous consumption cues (ECCCs) on consumer responses toward service failures in luxury dining. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments were conducted. Study 1 adopted a 2 (ECCC: present vs absent) × 2 (employee physical attractiveness: control vs high) between-subject experiment to test the effect of ECCCs in interactional service failures. Study 2 tested the hypotheses in core service failures. Findings The results of Study 1 indicate that the presence of ECCCs lowers consumers’ negative behavioral intentions in interactional service failures when employees are highly attractive. When employees’ attractiveness is not distinctive, however, ECCCs lead to higher levels of negative behavioral intentions. Mediation test results demonstrate that perceived employee service competence drives this effect. Results of Study 2 show that the joint effect of ECCCs and physical attractiveness is attenuated when core service failures are not attributable to the service employee. Research limitations/implications Extending previous research, this study reveals the impact of employees’ physical characteristics on consumers’ post-failure responses. In addition, the effect of ECCCs on consumers’ post-failure responses was driven by the psychological process of perceived competence. Practical implications Findings of this research emphasize the importance for hospitality brands to practice tight control over employee esthetics. For hospitality brands that embrace individuality in the workplace, results of this research highlight the importance of service training in customer interactions. Originality/value This research examines an underexplored phenomenon in the hospitality service setting: employees’ display of conspicuous consumption cues and its impact on consumers’ responses to service failures.

PurposeDespite the rise in vegan food consumption, vegan restaurants have experienced high turnover rates. Given that non-vegans make up the majority of the customer base, this study explores the critical role of conspicuous consumption motives in driving ambivalence, which, in turn, affects intentions to revisit vegan restaurants.Design/methodology/approachThrough a purposive sampling method, data were obtained from non-vegans who had experienced dining at vegan restaurants. The proposed relationships within the study framework were analyzed using a PLS-SEM model.FindingsResults support the significance of the need for uniqueness and the desire for access to elite social strata in shaping conspicuous consumption motives, consequently increasing ambivalence among non-vegans. Interestingly, ambivalence was discovered to positively influence revisit intentions for vegan restaurants. This positive effect was significantly enhanced by perceived objective authenticity in vegan restaurants.Research limitations/implicationsFindings provide novel insights into the existing understanding of vegan consumption, particularly by focusing on non-vegans and their conspicuous consumption motives in the context of dining at vegan restaurants. Our approach expands the research by highlighting the greater significance of objective authenticity over existential authenticity in the context of vegan restaurants, offering practical insights to enhance their operation.Originality/valueThe study provides compelling evidence that non-vegans’ novel and non-altruistic motivations can generate favorable outcomes. Our model can serve as a fundamental baseline for vegan restaurant management, applied to design appropriate operational strategies to attract more non-vegan consumers and increase their likelihood of revisiting.

PurposeDriven by social comparison and self-congruity theories, this paper's aim was to investigate the associations with Korean millennials' usage of social media, self-image congruity and conspicuous online consumption. The mediating influence of self-image congruity and the moderating effect of self-esteem were also examined.Design/methodology/approachThese data were gathered through an online research portal from 302 Korean millennials. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses and moderated mediation analysis using Hayes PROCESS macro were applied to test proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe result of the structural equation analyses showed strong, positive associations between social media usage, self-image congruity and conspicuous online consumption, while self-image congruity also acted as a mediator between Korean millennials' usage of social media and conspicuous online consumption. Moreover, in moderated mediation analysis, the pathway between self-image congruity and conspicuous online consumption was stronger for millennials with higher self-esteem.Originality/valueMillennials' social media usage and conspicuous consumption are widely acknowledged in consumer research. However, little is known about how millennials' social media usage could influence their conspicuous online consumption through mediating and moderating mechanisms such as self-image congruity and self-esteem. This research extends previous studies by analyzing these mechanisms.

Despite the enduring importance of green marketing literature, it has been argued that limited studies have been devoted to addressing green brand-related issues in the Chinese sports industry. To address this significant void in prior literature, this paper examines the influences of three antecedents (green perceived value, brand attachment, and self-image brand congruity) on green brand loyalty. Following the quantitative research, 532 participant’s data collected from a web-based survey conducted for three months in 2022. The PLS-SEM technique using SmartPLS 4 software has been used in conducting data analysis on 532 valid responses received. The research findings indicate direct and indirect significant effects of green perceived value on brand loyalty via brand attachment and self-image congruity. In addition, conspicuous consumption significantly moderates green self-image-brand attachment relationship. The results suggested that managers must create a strong emotional tie of brands and products with environmentally conscious users, highlighting the firm’s commitment to environmental responsibility and providing sustainable products and services.

Recently, a number of papers draw upon ideas from sexual selection and costly signaling theory to argue that conspicuous consumption has evolved as a sexually selected mating strategy. I outline what are considered to be the criteria for arguing that a trait is the outcome of sexual selection and I explore whether conspicuous consumption is sexual adaptation. Though I share the insight that evolutionary theory can contribute to our understanding of consumption behavior, I argue that existing evolutionary explanations of conspicuous consumption do not examine human evolved psychology and available evidence about past environments. I further argue that cultural evolution theory provides an alternative explanation of conspicuous consumption in modern environments. In particular, conspicuous consumption is understood as a pattern of behavior marked by specific social learning mechanisms. Such an approach reflects the analytical tools of cultural evolution theory and provides a classification of cognitive factors involved in consumption choices.

Conspicuous consumption is a behavior that is becoming prevalent in today's world. Although limited attention has been given to conspicuous consumption in a digital world, it is a behavior that everyone practices, in different degrees. This article sets out to reveal and examine the underlying psychological motivations of online conspicuous consumption. Semi-structured interviews are adopted as a qualitative technique. The interviews were conducted with fifteen Jordanian residents who have access to the internet and social media. The findings reveal that the four proposed psychological motivations (envy, materialism, narcissism, and social comparison) are of significant influence on users' online conspicuous consumption. This study introduces a comprehensive model of online conspicuous consumption that was not addressed earlier in the literature and provides a viable foundation for future research in this context. Furthermore, the results will help marketing managers to better understand and manage their strategies in reference to users' psychological motivations when posting online.

El consumo de bienes superfluos e innecesarios es una forma en que la élite busca destacarse y sentirse diferente al resto de la sociedad en la que vive. Tanto factores internos como externos son fundamentales para comprender por qué esta minoría puede influir en aquellos menos afortunados, incitándolos a imitar sus patrones de consumo. Este artículo pretende analizar, basándose en las teorías de Veblen y otros autores, cómo el consumo conspicuo ejerce una influencia presente y poderosa en la sociedad. La primera parte ofrece una definición del consumo conspicuo, seguida en la segunda parte por estudios contemporáneos sobre los hábitos de gasto de las personas. Finalmente, la última sección analiza cómo la pandemia ha aumentado el gasto improductivo de las élites.

PurposeThe market for luxury is growing rapidly. While there is a significant body of literature on luxury goods, academic research has largely ignored luxury services. The purpose of this article is to open luxury services as a new field of investigation by developing the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings to build the luxury services literature and show how luxury services differ from both luxury goods and from ordinary (i.e. non-luxury) services.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a conceptual approach drawing upon and synthesizing the luxury goods and services marketing literature.FindingsThis article makes three contributions. First, it shows that services are largely missing from the luxury literature, just as the field of luxury is mostly missing from the service literature. Second, it contrasts the key characteristics of services and related consumer behaviors with luxury goods. The service characteristics examined are non-ownership, IHIP (i.e. intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability), the three additional Ps of services marketing (i.e. people, processes, and physical facilities) and the three-stage service consumption model. This article derives implications these characteristics have on luxury. For example, non-ownership increases the importance of psychological ownership, reduces the importance of conspicuous consumption and the risk of counterfeiting. Third, this article defines luxury services as extraordinary hedonic experiences that are exclusive whereby exclusivity can be monetary, social and hedonic in nature, and luxuriousness is jointly determined by objective service features and subjective customer perceptions. Together, these characteristics place a service on a continuum ranging from everyday luxury to elite luxury.Practical implicationsThis article provides suggestions on how firms can enhance psychological ownership of luxury services, manage conspicuous consumption, and use more effectively luxury services' additional types of exclusivity (i.e. social and hedonic exclusivity).Originality/valueThis is the first paper to define luxury services and their characteristics, to apply and link frameworks from the service literature to luxury, and to derive consumer insights from these for research and practice.