The interactive effect of products and consumption frequency on happiness in China

Purpose A substantial portion of existing literature on comparing experiential and material purchases on happiness indicates an experiential advantage. However, this advantage is presumed to occur in developed countries, with developing countries being overlooked. To address this gap in the literature, this paper examines the effect of consumption in China. It introduces a new perspective, consumption frequency (ordinary vs extraordinary), to investigate the interactive effect of consumption frequency (ordinary vs extraordinary) and product type (material vs experiential) on happiness and to explore the underlying mechanisms in China. Design/methodology/approach The study constructs a model about the interactive effect of consumption frequency (ordinary vs extraordinary) and product type (material vs experiential) on happiness and takes self-expansion as the underlying mechanism. The authors employ two experiments and a nationwide secondary survey dataset to test the model. Findings (1) consumption frequency and product type can interactively improve happiness significantly in China; (2) extraordinary material consumption induces a higher level of happiness than extraordinary experiential consumption and (3) these effects are driven by self-expansion, which is an important character for people in developing countries. Research limitations/implications This study is incomplete in its lack of investigation into the boundary conditions, such as materialism in the model. Originality/value This paper introduces a novel perspective, consumption frequency and integrates it with existing research variables (material vs experiential) to propose the interactive effect and the underlying mechanism, self-expansion. This paper contributes to the theory of consumption happiness by introducing the concept of consumption frequency in the comparison of material versus experiential products on happiness. Conversely, our findings contribute to the understanding of happiness in China.