Seeking relief or reward? A utilitarian-hedonic journey perspective on escapism
ISSN: 0309-0566
Article publication date: 28 June 2024
Issue publication date: 25 September 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explores the escapist journey that consumers embark on to reduce self-discrepancy, from the motivation to satisfy personal goals to the fulfilment of these goals. Escapism is a powerful concept for understanding why and how people resolve a perceived self-discrepancy. Previous research has provided rich and diverse insights into the motivations and goals, experience contexts and outcomes that are associated with escapism. However, these notions have been explored in an independent, piecemeal fashion that has hampered the development of cohesive theoretical foundations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a qualitative study, relying on 33 journeys derived from 20 in-depth interviews, to understand and explain how escapism is initiated, formed and relived.
Findings
The findings document the existence of a predominantly utilitarian and a predominantly hedonic model, articulating why and how consumers pursue distinctly different types of escapist journeys. Utilitarian escapism is primarily concerned with the need to avoid negative emotional states, prompting consumers to decide impulsively to engage into routinised experience contexts to find relief. Hedonic escapism is primarily concerned with the desire to achieve positive emotional states. It involves lengthy and thoughtful anticipation, promotes consumers to pursue experiences in out of the ordinary contexts, and is realised when consumers obtain reward.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s contributions present significant opportunities for further knowledge development.
Practical implications
The research findings have substantial practical ramifications for industry.
Social implications
Understanding people’s needs to avoid the stress of everyday life (i.e. utilitarian escapism) and their desires to seek out excitement and pleasure (i.e. hedonic escapism) has important societal implications.
Originality/value
This research provides a robust theoretical foundation for escapism, one that is applicable across multiple settings. Findings are anchored within existing theory to articulate the notions of utilitarian and hedonic escapism, explaining why and how consumers engage in markedly different escapist journeys.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was partly conducted under the support of the French VitiREV project. Any opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the French Ministry of Agriculture.
Citation
Ponsignon, F., Bauman, M. and Lunardo, R. (2024), "Seeking relief or reward? A utilitarian-hedonic journey perspective on escapism", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 6, pp. 1543-1565. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-03-2022-0216
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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