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The main research questions addressed by this study focus on Subjective Well-Being (SWB) and to what extent the individual's SWB relates to the individual's need for personal growth. Specific interest is devoted to the effects of intentions (to have personal goals) and behavior (to achieve personal goals).

Can SWB and happiness research help to explain the tremendous growth in demanding amateur sport event participation? Most research on SWB and events has, so far been undertaken on cultural events leaving a gap related to sport events, especially obstacle running events. Bestial is an obstacle race event held in Arucas on Canary Islands, Spain. Apart from competitiveness, the race also contains elements of altruism as many competitors do help each other at various obstacles along the route, in groups (mainly) teams. A sample of 700 participants answered questions about behavior, attitudes and SWB.

The results show significant relations between SWB and both intentions and behavior but also that intentions and behavior are not correlated.

The “Bestial” is different from an average running event in some respects. It is a rather local event for Gran Canaria without international participation. For some participants it is more challenging and enduring but for others it is a team sport where one helps other team members to complete the race. In this study, these two types of participation have not been separated. The test of whether the SWB of participants is higher than the SWB of the average citizen is not satisfactory. Data for the average of SWB in Spain had to depend on a study from another year and where standard deviation was not available.

The results of this work are useful for event managers to improve their design and develop the most appropriate marketing messages.

The study aims for an explanation to why demanding physical activities, such as obstacle races, are so popular. In this study of obstacle race participation, hedonia is regarded as less relevant and focus is on eudaimonia and an assumption that participants in an obstacle race have a high SWB since they can feel that they make progress towards goals. One intended contribution of this study is to distinguish between “to have a goal” and “to progress towards a goal”. Thus, the model proposed is based on hypotheses that SWB is influenced by both. Two types of goals are studied: first a mainly individualistic goal of becoming physically fit and second a more altruistic goal of “becoming a better person”.

In the conclusions, the importance for a happy life of simply having goals for personal growth and the value of anticipation for happiness is discussed.

Unhappiness has been recognized as one of the main factors that cause political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in recent years. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of governance matters on happiness in the MENA region while controlling for other relevant determinants.

The paper applies panel random effects regression analyses by using data from 14 MENA countries over the period of 2009-2011.

The empirical results show that higher level of political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness and rule of law significantly increase happiness in the region. Furthermore, the paper finds that voice and accountability, regulatory quality and control of corruption variables have positive relationship with happiness but are not significant.

Most studies in this area cover developed countries. Since findings for developed countries might not be directly transferable to emerging economies such as MENA countries, therefore, more work is necessary to obtain a clearer picture of the political determinants of happiness in this region.

The study aims to understand how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and happiness are used together in various research studies to serve the ultimate goal of corporate sustainability (CS), which in turn contributes to sustainable development.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was made using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) method in the two most-reputable databases of Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, revealing a final list of 54 studies to analyse.

The review concludes that the literature on CSR and happiness provides three main findings: first, concerning the pillars of sustainability, most of the studies concentrate on people, neglecting the planet and profit, second, employees are subject to the highest number of studies as the target of CSR initiative and third, almost all studies employed the hedonic aspect of happiness in CSR literature.

This particular research finding points to the need for developing a comprehensive framework to assess stakeholder happiness from both hedonic and eudaimonic aspects from a CSR perspective which is then represented under the three pillars of sustainability.

To contribute to the ultimate goal of CS, management would design CSR initiatives for all stakeholders to increase both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness of them.

The literature provides reviews of research in CSR and happiness separately; however, there is not any research revealing how these two concepts are used together in studies and how this association could be read to serve the goal of CS.

This paper aims to advance a configural asymmetric theory of the complex antecedents to hospitality employee happiness-at-work and managers’ assessments of employees’ quality of work performance. The study transcends variable and case-level analyses to go beyond prior statistical findings of small-to-medium effect sizes of happiness–performance relationships; the study here identifies antecedent paths involving high-versus-low happy employees associating with high-versus-low managers’ assessments of these employees’ performances.

The study merges data from surveys of employees (n = 247) and surveys completed by their managers (n = 43) and by using qualitative comparative analysis via the software program, fsQCA.com. The study analyzes data from Janfusan Fancyworld, the largest (in revenues and number of employees) tourism business group in Taiwan; Janfusan Fancyworld includes tourist hotels, amusement parks, restaurants and additional firms in related service sectors.

The findings support the four tenets of configural analysis and theory construction: recognize equifinality of different solutions for the same outcome, test for asymmetric solutions, test for causal asymmetric outcomes for very high versus very low happiness and work performance and embrace complexity.

Additional research in other firms and additional countries is necessary to confirm the usefulness of examining algorithms for predicting very high (low) happiness and very high (low) quality of work performance. The implications are substantial that configural theory and research will resolve perplexing happiness–performance conundrums.

The study provides useful case-level algorithms involving employees’ demographic characteristics and their assessments of work facet-specifics which are useful for explaining very high happiness-at-work and high quality of work performance (as assessed by managers) – as well as algorithms explaining very low happiness and very low quality of work performance.

The study is the first to propose and test the tenets of configural theory in the context of hospitality frontline service employees’ happiness-at-work and managers’ assessments of these employees’ quality of work performances.

The purpose of this paper is to test the applicability of brand personality theory in the perspective of trade show events, and the influence of trade show event personality on exhibitor’s eudaimonic and hedonic happiness and advocacy intentions.

A total of 210 exhibitors (n=210) of three trade exhibitions, organized at Delhi, India participated in the study. A face to face survey method was used to collect the data.

The results of the study provide sustenance for the event personality and exhibitor’s eudaimonic and hedonic happiness model. The event personality factors significantly affected the meaningful and subjective happiness of exhibitor. Happiness was identified as a key influencer for advocacy intentions. Hedonic and eudaimonic facets of happiness had positive effects on exhibitor’s intention to participate, and word of mouth intention.

The current study provides event marketer a tool for measuring event personality. Event personality is vital to build the event equity and to position the event in the market to gain a competitive advantage over the other events. Happiness as a construct is being studied in various social science studies. This study has attempted to establish a relationship among exhibitor happiness, event personality, and advocacy intentions.

This study contributes to the management literature in two ways: first, Eudaimonic and hedonic happiness constructs have never been explored in the brand personality context. Thus, this research adds a new value to the brand personality literature. And second, the brand personality construct is used for the first time in trade show event context that will open a new domain in brand personality, and event research.

The main purposes of this research are: first of all, to re-classify the types of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into primary stakeholder-oriented CSR and secondary stakeholder-oriented CSR from the perspective of stakeholders and, second, to investigate empirically how and which types of CSR can better impact employees' job satisfaction and happiness management.

An online self-administered questionnaire was adopted to test the conceptual model. Questionnaires were sent to Chinese employees and restrict the data to those whose companies had experience implementing CSR. The study employed the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique for data analysis using SmartPLS 4.0 software.

For factors of happiness management, both primary stakeholder-oriented CSR and secondary stakeholder-oriented CSR had significant and positive effects on happiness management. In addition, both primary and secondary stakeholder-oriented CSR positively and significantly affected job satisfaction, with primary stakeholder-oriented CSR way larger than secondary stakeholder-oriented CSR. Job satisfaction, in turn, was positively and significantly associated with happiness management. The results showed that the control variables of gender and education background had significant effects on happiness management.

First, the results provide useful empirical evidence in support of the feasibility that firms could develop competitive and sustainable development strategies by paying more attention to CSR practices. In terms of the primary stakeholder-oriented CSR, managers are recommended to put employees' benefits as a priority and invest in the to offer a healthy and safe working environment or employee support programs. In terms of the secondary stakeholder-oriented CSR, managers are suggested to denote parts of earnings to charity and to people in need. Second, in order to create job satisfaction, firms should put a stronger emphasis on CSR practices. When considering job satisfaction, managers should treat their employees in a socially responsible way and fulfill their demands and rights and place this at the core of their CSR activities.

First, this study makes a contribution to the existing literature by classifying the four important CSR practices into two types from the perspective of stakeholder theory. By incorporating a series of CSR practices and the stakeholder theory, this study provides a comprehensive and reasonable CSR classification, which has not been considered by prior research. Second, this study adds to the literature by defining the construct of happiness management explicitly along with identifying the dimensions of happiness management. Third, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies exploring the relationship between CSR and happiness management. Finally, this study is among the first to investigate the correlation between job satisfaction and happiness management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how psychological capital (PsyCap) and self-driven personality fuse to affect happiness at work in the nursing profession in Uganda.

This paper adopts a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical design. The authors use structural equation modelling to test hypotheses. Using proportionate and simple random sampling procedures, a sample of 900 respondents was drawn from different hospitals in Uganda of which a response rate of 88.9% was obtained.

The magnitude effect of self-driven personality on happiness at work depends on PsyCap, implying that the assumption of non-additivity is met.

Only a single research methodological approach was used, and future research through interviews could be undertaken to triangulate.

To boost happiness at the workplace, heads of hospitals should always endeavour to find a viable self-driven personality and PsyCap blend that can add value to nurses’ happiness in Uganda.

It is essential for health human resource managers to understand, how self-driven personality and PsyCap foster happiness among nurses in Uganda.

This is one of the few studies that focus on testing the interactive effects of PsyCap on the relationship between self-driven personality and happiness at the workplace in Uganda’s health sector.

This paper aims to examine how conversing about experiences and objects affects consumer happiness. In contrast to previous research focusing on conversation frequency, this paper explores how each conversation instance influences happiness.

Four experiments use three different methodologies, namely, actual talking behavior (Study 1), recalled and mental framing interventions and measurement of the focal variables (Studies 2 and 3) and manipulation of purchase conversationality (Study 4).

Consumers derive equivalent levels of happiness from each material or experiential conversation they have. When the object is highly conversational (when it generates as much conversation as experiences do), it advances as much happiness as experiences.

The findings inform precisely how the purchase conversationality model unfolds; clarify previous claims made in the literature; establish the direction of causal effect; and reveal a novel boundary condition of happiness superiority of experiences.

The findings inform marketing managers how to optimally allocate their world-of-mouth (WOM) resources to advance consumer happiness. Additionally, this work shows a mental framing strategy able to increase WOM for objects – i.e. a tool for the manager.

This is the first investigation to disentangle the frequency of conversation from each conversation’s ability to advance happiness. It is also the first to engage participants in an actual conversation and measure changes in their happiness, and therefore, conclusively establish the direction of the effect. Additionally, by manipulating purchase conversationality, this work demonstrates a new boundary condition associated with conversationality.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between fiscal policy (tax revenues and government expenditure) and economic happiness. The panel data are used from 2012 to 2016 for 18 countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The study adopted the Barro (1990) model of endogeneity growth to characterize the relationship between fiscal policy and economic happiness. The study estimated the model by using the pooled ordinary least squares method, the fixed effects method and the random-effects method. In addition, the study used the dynamic estimate of this relationship rather than the conventional static estimate through the generalized method of moments’ method. This leads to overcoming the endogeneity problem between the dependent variable and the independent variables.

The main findings indicated that there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between nondistortionary taxes and economic happiness. Also, there is no relationship between public expenditure and economic happiness, whether productive or nonproductive. The results confirmed a positive and significant relationship between other revenues and economic happiness. The current study recommended the diversification of other public revenue sources to increase its contribution to public expenditure financing and the restructuring of the tax system, particularly nondistortionary taxes. These taxes must be replaced by other revenues or by distortionary taxes to increase economic happiness.

The research represents a strong starting base that can help researchers to conduct more studies on economic happiness by using different measures and comparing their results to find out the determinants of happiness. The relationship between economic happiness and fiscal policy with its different aspects requires more studies, especially the relationship between taxes and economic happiness in our region. The study of the relationship between public expenditure and economic happiness according to economic activities can guide decision-makers to direct the expenditure toward economic activities that achieve the happiness of their citizens. Enriching this study requires the availability of fiscal data for the entire MENA region for longer periods, which allow us to divide the countries of the region into petroleum and nonpetroleum countries, but the scarcity of data is one of the limitations of the study.

The governments of MENA countries should diversify other public revenue sources to increase the financing public expenditure by the expense of tax revenues, especially nondistortionary taxes, which would increase the economic happiness of their citizens.

This study is one of the rare studies that investigate the relationship between fiscal policy and economic happiness at the global level. This study contributed to filling the gap of this issue in the MENA region and enriching global literature through the experience of the MENA region. Moreover, this study investigated all aspects of fiscal policy, in contrast to other studies that focused on one of its aspects. The weakness in these studies is because of the lack of correlation between the sources of revenues and the face of their spending.

The aim of this research is to carry out a bibliometric analysis of the academic literature indexed in the Core Collection of the Web of Science (WoS) on happiness management in companies during the period between 2000 and 2022. In particular, the variables used to keep the scientific production under study are as follows: (1) time evolution, (2) publication format, (3) categories, (4) authors, (5) institutions, (6) journals, (7) publishers and (8) countries.

To carry out the analysis, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology is followed, using the WoS database for data collection and VosViewer to create the network maps.

The results show, among other aspects, the accelerated growth rate of the scientific production studied since 2017, the use of publications in articles as the main format for disseminating research results, the relevance of the business category as the area of study in which most of the scientific production examined falls as well as the predominant role of the publishers Emerald, Springer and Elsevier in the publication of scientific documents on the subject under analysis.

There are different reasons that justify the originality of the study. First, the research advances the understanding of the academic literature on happiness management at the corporate level. Second, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no previous bibliometric studies that have addressed this topic. Third, the research analyses the literature under analysis from the first record to the year 2022, assuming an update of the previous narrative and systematic reviews carried out on the subject studied.