Can Powerless Consumers Achieve Happiness Through Luxury Compensatory Consumption? Exploring the Roles of Self-Esteem and Materialism

Based on terror management theory and psychological reactance theory, this study determines the impact of powerlessness on consumers' luxury compensatory consumption and happiness and investigates the mediating role of self-esteem and moderating effect of materialism. Online survey responses collected from female consumers ( N = 283; aged 20s-40s) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The study reveals that consumer powerlessness can lead to happiness through luxury reward consumption, with self-esteem and materialism playing key roles. While the full sample and low materialists group did not show self-esteem as a mediator, the results indicate that powerlessness reduces self-esteem among high materialists, which then drives luxury compensatory consumption. Additionally, this consumption induced both groups' happiness, with greater influence observed when materialism level was high. This study provides a foundation for understanding the mechanism of luxury compensatory consumption in a threatening environment.