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Although stress has become a prominent research theme in consumer behavior and occupational health, to the authors knowledge there is only one review on the relationship between consumer behavior and stress (i.e., when internal and external factors exceed an individual’s resources and endangering the individual’s well-being) and this was published 10 years ago. Further, research on occupational stress has yet to be fully integrated into the consumer stress literature. In this chapter, the authors attempt to advance research on consumer stress by a drawing on a satisfaction mirror framework which outlines that consumers and employees influence each other through a “mirror” where they positively and cyclically influence each other in a service environment. The authors argue that consumers and employees may likewise mirror each other in a negative cycle of stress and well-being depletion. First, the authors describe how stress is viewed in consumer behavior and marketing. Second, the authors review evidence that consumption serves as a form of coping with stress. Third, the authors discuss the role of consumption as a stressor that may drive consumer stress. Finally, the authors introduce the satisfaction mirror model and outline the bi-directional influence on increased stress and well-being depletion at the consumer–employee interface in service encounters. The model introduced in this chapter serves as a framework for organizing findings related to stress and well-being in the fields of consumer behavior and occupational health. In addition, the model serves as a springboard for developing propositions for future research. Ultimately, the authors hope this chapter both updates and builds upon previous findings on stress and consumer behavior, as well as grounds future research on stress and well-being at the intersection of consumers and employees.

This study aims to investigate the influence of personality characteristics (risk-aversion and self-consciousness) on skepticism toward online services information (STOSI), consumer stress and health.

A between-subjects experiment (n = 228) was designed to compare effects based on third-party organization endorsement (TPO endorsed vs nonendorsed).

Results revealed that personality characteristics positively influenced STOSI, which in turn escalated consumer stress. Furthermore, consumer stress predicted detrimental effects on consumer health (increased blood pressure and heartbeat). Regarding TPO endorsements, both the risk-aversive and self-conscious consumers showed lesser STOSI when exposed to TPO-endorsed ads compared with nonendorsed ads.

This study is one of the first to examine the effects of consumer personality on consumer health through STOSI and consumer stress. In addition, the remedial roles of TPO in coping with STOSI and consumer stress also accumulate to the novelty of this study.

This study aims to investigate relationships among body mass index (BMI), socioeconomic variables, dietary self-efficacy and consumer dietary stress in healthy food buying and explore whether different levels of personal values influence these relationships.

The study is based on an online representative cross-sectional study with 380 food consumers. Structural equation modeling served to estimate direct, mediating and moderating effects between the studied constructs and variables.

Examples of moderating and moderated mediating effects include a negative impact of BMI on dietary stress for consumers with low levels of enjoyment value but no significant effect for consumers with high levels of enjoyment. BMI also had a greater negative impact on dietary self-efficacy when the level of respect/achievement was high (vs low), and respect/achievement positively moderated the mediating effect of BMI on dietary stress through dietary self-efficacy.

This study focuses on analyzing healthy food buying in a particular cultural setting and may suffer from a lack of generalizability to other cultures. The results suggest that research should take into account personal values when investigating stress.

Food managers and health authorities can improve their ability to reduce dietary stress when addressing consumers by understanding the role of personal values in healthy food choice and the impact on mental well-being.

This study offers a novel, more fine-grained conceptual model of how consumers develop dietary stress when buying healthy food.

Comfort foods consumption and linkages to stress coping strategies have received little attention in the business research on food products and services. This paper aims to explore comfort foods consumption among older Americans and how stress-coping strategies are related to their consumption frequency and variety of comfort foods.

Older Americans aged 50–99 years (N = 1,428) in the Health and Retirement Study were surveyed on their frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption and their consumption coping strategies. Data were analyzed and regression models were estimated.

Demographically, baby boomer, male, and non-Hispanic whites reported higher frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption. Comfort foods consumption in frequency and variety was significantly higher (lower) when “eat more” (“use alcohol”) was the endorsed coping strategy.

Research findings furthered research on the consumption of comfort foods among older American adults and added new insights into their coping behavior, both of which may help businesses be more targeted in serving comfort foods to the mature market and the public sector to tailor their services to older adults.

Social scientists, public policy makers, consumer researchers, and marketers have traditionally focused on age‐related differences to understand the behavior of older adults. This research focuses on the processes through which adults learn behavioral patterns and norms that characterize behavior in later life. The socialization framework is first presented as the process through which adults learn roles and norms for old age, and data from a national study are presented to test the hypotheses derived from this model. The results suggest that certain antecedents and processes are important in socializing adults to old age.

Research on sustainable consumption (SC) has shown how, faced with barriers that prevent them from embracing a sustainable lifestyle, consumers experience classic symptoms of distress. Although distress emerges as a constitutive dimension of sustainable lifestyles, research has not yet provided a comprehensive account of how consumers cope with it. This paper aims to provide such an account.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 people who defined themselves as sustainable consumers. A hermeneutic approach was adopted for the analysis.

The analysis shows that consumers enact two different coping strategies: adjustment or episodic coping and structural coping or deradicalization. Both sets encompass reappraisals and meaning-making strategies to maintain motivation while simultaneously appeasing tensions. They also comprise the strategic enactment of emotions to energize the self and/or to appease distress. Coping influences how SC is appraised and lived, as these practices are dynamically changed to navigate structural constraints.

SC campaigns have traditionally focused on cognitive empowerment. However, the evidence suggests that emotional empowerment could be a more effective way to promote the practice.

This paper provides the first in-depth examination of the strategies adopted to cope with distress. The analysis shows that consumers reconfigure how SC is appraised and implemented, while emphasizing the crucial role of emotion work in the coping repertoire. Although SC is stressful due to structural and social constraints, consumers are able to remain committed to it to varying degrees.

Global brands are attracted to emerging markets because of increasing wealth among their middle classes. However, amid increasing levels of consumer financial stress in many emerging markets, evidence points towards increased preferences for domestic products. The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychological constructs that mediate and moderate the relationship between reduced perceived financial well-being (PFWB) and domestic product purchases.

The authors develop a model drawing from three theoretical perspectives: consumer stress and coping, consumer information processing and social identity theory. Hypotheses are tested via structural equation modelling and moderated mediation analyses using data from a survey of Brazilian consumers (n=1,043).

Results show that the positive relationship between reduced PFWB and domestic product purchases is partially mediated by perceived value of global brands and frugality descriptive norm. Further analyses demonstrate that consumer confidence moderates the mediating effects of perceived value of global brands and pro-social consumer ethnocentrism on the relationship between reduced PFWB and domestic product purchases.

The antecedents of domestic product purchases identified in this study indicate opportunities for marketers of domestic and foreign products to respond to reduced PFWB, especially in relation to pricing, branding and communications. Future research should examine implications of PFWB on different populations, including other emerging markets, developed markets and lower-income consumers.

This study contributes to international marketing literature by examining the hitherto unexplored influence of reduced PFWB on domestic product purchases.

The purpose of this study is to construct and validate a generalizable scale to measure service induced perceived stress for customers of personal services with a high level of intangibles having both online and offline components.

Five studies were conducted to this end. The first was qualitative and the rest were quantitative (survey) with a total sample size of 1,300. The last study was conducted in a different country than the first four.

The studies resulted in a five-dimensional SERVSTRESS scale to measure service induced stress for customers with the following dimensions, namely, psychological stress; information stress; complexity stress; personnel stress and outcome stress. The scale was tested in a nomological network.

The present study addresses a hitherto unaddressed gap in marketing literature with the construction and validation of a scale to measure service stress of a customer (named SERVSTRESS) using data from five studies spanning two countries.

The SERVSTRESS scale is relevant for the practitioners as it adds more value beyond the traditional service quality measures and allows the marketer to understand the nature of the stressors (with a specific focus on which is going right and which is going wrong) in the service delivery and allow him/her to take remedial actions.

The originality of the study is in the creation of a new scale to measure personal service stress and uncovering its underlying dimensions.

Needs change as people get older. Procuring resources to satisfy them can generate anguish and insecurities in consumers due to their financial situation. This study aims to analyze the relationship between age and financial stress among Mexican adults and estimate the age of their maximum financial stress.

This study is based on constructing a financial stress indicator using the confirmatory factor analysis and linear regression models with a quadratic term, employing data from the National Survey on Financial Inclusion 2021.

Results show that the relationship between age and financial stress follows a quadratic pattern, with a maximum level at age 56, which varies according to sex, marital status, number of dependents, education and regions. These findings interest financial product designers and policy developers who aim to improve consumers' well-being.

Longitudinal studies and indicators, such as financial fragility, are needed to facilitate refining models over time.

There is no evidence of studies that have addressed the age of maximum financial stress in Latin America. Doing so is relevant because identifying the stages in life when adults are most vulnerable to financial stress helps assess its causes more precisely, thus mitigating its adverse effects.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and map out consumer emotions and their triggers and coping strategies practiced when the consumer has a dissatisfactory footwear product experience.

A content analysis approach was employed to determine various types of consumer emotions and coping strategies and organize them into content categories in a systematic fashion. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 female consumers.

The researchers propose a typology of emotional triggers in the pre- and post-purchase stages which describe consumers’ dissatisfactory purchase experiences with footwear products. Three negative emotional triggers in the pre-purchase stage were identified, including the act of shoe shopping itself, poor availability of products, and unfair return on investment. Negative emotional triggers that caused consumers’ stresses in the post-purchase stage included uncertainty in outcome and unmet expectation. Problem- and emotion-focussed coping strategies were also identified.

This study used snowball sampling for locating a hidden consumer population that was dissatisfied with footwear products. Although the number of interviewees was appropriate for a qualitative study, the size limits generalization of study findings.

Implications of this study for the footwear industry are to provide better products for the consumer to reduce her emotional stress and increase satisfaction. The industry may consider restructuring size assortments, evaluating users’ experiences, improving product quality, performance, and service, and providing customization.

Literature is lacking on the ways in which consumers manage stressful emotional experiences of footwear purchase-related situations. This research is the first to identify valuable information on the mechanism of female consumers’ negotiation process of pre- and post-purchase footwear experiences. It is of value to researchers, designers, manufacturers, and retailers.