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This study undertakes a comprehensive exploration of the relationships between psychological ownership (PO) in playful consumption and its substantial impact on consumer happiness (CH). Specifically, this study aims to investigate the moderating effects of personality and game performance on the association between PO and CH.

Subsequently, this study proceeds to evaluate consumer happiness in the context of playful consumption experiences through two distinct studies, one quantitative and the other experimental. For Study 1, a randomized sample of 453 respondents from Pakistan is utilized, and data is analyzed using SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) techniques. In Study 2, this study employed an EEG emotive insight device, offering valuable insights into the factors associated with psychological ownership. This experimental approach allows exploring the neuro-marketing perspective of players engaging in playful consumption activities.

The research findings demonstrated multiple positive associations with psychological ownership (PO). Perceived control, competitive resistance, emotions, customer participation, personality and performance all exhibited significant positive correlations with PO. Furthermore, the study highlighted that game performance has the capacity to enhance feelings of happiness among participants.

This study offers innovative insights into the mechanisms that underpin consumer happiness and serves as a reliable guide for policymakers, applied psychologists, consumers and marketers who play a role in shaping the future in the domain of happiness and well-being through playful consumption experiences.

This study offers new insights into the processes that drive consumer happiness and provides a vigorous guide for policymakers, applied psychologists, consumers and marketers who shape the futures in the field of happiness and well-being through playful consumption experience.

TikTok social media app has become one of the most popular forms of leisure and entertainment activities, but how hedonic consumption experiences (comprising fantasy, escapism, enjoyment, role projection, sensory, arousal and emotional involvement) of the TikTok app determine users' intention to use the app and its resulting impact on the actual usage behavior remains limited in the information systems literature, especially featuring the hedonic consumption perspective in entertainment industry.

This study employs uses & gratification theory to answer the “why” via predicting the role of hedonic consumption experiences that serve as gratifications to trigger technology acceptance behavior (especially, in form of users' behavioral intention to use the TikTok app and its further impact on usage behavior). This study utilizes the partial least squares-structural equation modeling approach to perform data analyses on 258 TikTok app users.

Our results provide a strong support such that users' playful consumption experiences (i.e. escapism, role projection, arousal, sensory experience and enjoyment) positively influence their intention to use the TikTok app and its resultant effect on users' actual usage of the app. In contrast, fantasy and emotional involvement fail to influence users' intention to use the TikTok app.

To the best of our knowledge, our investigation is one of the first studies to apply the hedonic consumption experiences as potential gratifications that derive users' intention and its subsequent influence on the actual usage of the TikTok app. Our study results would assist marketing and brand managers to redefine approaches and tactics to create effective strategies that implement essential determinants to increase behavioral intention among entertainment service providers.

Playing video gaming is one of the most popular forms of leisure activities. This study looks into a specific video game genre, under the category of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that lead to the consumption of MOBA games. Three factors, imaginal, emotional and sensory experiences, are investigated through an integration of the hedonic consumption model, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT).

The study analyses a sample of 292 MOBA game players using the PLS-SEM model. The study comprises two stages; in the first stage, an estimation model was used to test the constructs' quality and legitimacy. In the second stage, we assessed the theoretical model to test the relationship between the principle constructs.

The study found that factors related to emotional experiences, namely enjoyment, emotional involvement, and arousal, led to greater intention to play MOBA games. Similarly, two factors related to imaginal experiences, escapism and role projection, also positively impacted while fantasy carried a negative impact. The study also found that sensory experiences had a significant positive impact on the intention to play MOBA games. Lastly, a positive correlation was also found between the intention to use and usage behavior in MOBA games.

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the playful-consumption experiences of pleasure-oriented information systems (I.S.) that is MOBA games that derive behavioral intention to play MOBA games, which in turn determines the usage behavior of MOBA players. The study also incorporates the uses and gratification theory to uncover the needs and experiences that trigger MOBA games' behavioral intention and its further impact on gamers' usage behavior. The study also presents useful insights for game developers and other relevant stakeholders in game development.

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically and empirically explore tourist experiences with the niche-like, yet global phenomenon of escape room attractions.

An exploratory empirical study of visitors’ experiences with selected top-rated escape rooms in the USA and Europe was carried out by means of netnographic research and automated content analysis.

The results show that this attraction provides new, peak, unique and fun experiences through the challenging activities and social component of the game play. The findings provide an insight into both the authenticity of experiences with novel attractions and the group aspects of fun and flow concepts.

The findings are restricted to online reviews on the TripAdvisor website and are possibly biased because of the use of a non-random sample.

Theoretical implications are discussed and explicated as future research questions. They are relevant for the conceptual development, research and management of playful experiences within urban and special interest tourism. Societal implications are also addressed.

This paper is a preliminary in-depth examination of the escape room phenomenon from the customer experience standpoint. It is of relevance for the conceptualisation and improvement of tourist experiences with new and fun attractions.

Despite the advances in theory and practice about player behaviour in esports gaming literature, there is a lack of understanding as to whether esports are compatible with the values of Olympism and if they should be considered for future Games editions. The current study advances this line of research by examining esports player experiences, their effects on perceiving Olympic values, and the support towards the Olympics in order to verify if differences occur according to the cross-cultural environment.

Using a sample of 671 esports amateur gamers from three countries (Portugal, Brazil and Japan), structural equation models and a multigroup analysis were performed to analyse the differences in the hypothesized paths existing between the groups.

Results reveal that player in-game emotional experiences positively influence Olympic values perception across countries. The excellence and friendship values showed a positive effect on support intentions to the Games towards Portuguese and Brazilian players, while the respect value was the strongest predictor towards behavioural intentions in Japan. Cultural backgrounds and game genre in each country can explain player attitude towards the Olympic values shared on the online environment.

This study is able to provide a better understanding of how the Olympic values serve as a gratification in different cross-cultural environments according to the theory of uses and gratifications (U&G) and the theory of cultural dimensions. Complementarily, these findings can be used as valuable information for esports publishers and developers attempting to spread the Olympic values in the esports industry.

This paper aims to understand, from a theoretical standpoint and from an empirical perspective, why food products can be designed and perceived as “playful” and “funny”. Drawing on the experiential framework developed in marketing research and recent advances in theories of play, it seeks to clarify the conceptual articulation of “play” with “fun” and it seeks to highlight the need to reconsider the contribution of the product in framing situations that children experience as “playful” and “fun”.

The paper focuses on qualitative data gathered through a combination of observations and in‐depth interviews of 14 dyads “child‐mother” confronted by four product innovations at a prototype stage, and a series of eight focus groups involving children from three to eight years old as well as their mothers.

Children were very able to categorize food products by appreciating their different degrees of fun. The study led to the identification and coding of 13 key dimensions associated with “playfulness” and “fun” in a food product.

The paper offers a heuristic operational tool to guide marketing managers and R&D teams in their exploration and testing of the possibilities/impossibilities in the association of “playfulness” and “fun” with food products aimed at children.

The research demonstrates that some dimensions which characterize play cannot be directly applied to food products, and differentiates “playful” from “fun” by considering the intensity of the social interaction being developed through the food product or food consumption situation.

This study aims at identifying and examining the mediating role of customer engagement behavior and social interactivity onbrand loyalty.

A correlational study design was adopted in this study to collect data (online survey) from 400 online participants active on Facebook pages.

Empirical results reveal that there is a significant and positive impact of social interactivity on consumer engagement behavior and brand loyalty.

The findings would help decision makers to make useful decisions in their everyday work practices, which would ultimately increase the market competition of brands.

Decision makers should focus on the entertainment and interactivity levels in advertisement designs that would allow customers to perceive the novelty of advertising.

The results are critical in developing consumers' attitude and perception toward a brand by providing them insights regarding the characteristics of brands.

The participation and social interactivity of consumers on the Facebook page drive consumer engagement behavior and brand loyalty.

This study aims to propose a model for predicting consumers’ esports videogame engagement on their ensuing consumption behaviors, which remains nebulous to date.

After approaching esports consumers in different gaming zones in Pakistan, this paper collected data from 364 videogame-based esports consumers. This paper deployed SmartPLS 3.2.8 software to perform the partial least squares-structural equation modeling-based analyzes.

The structural model results show that consumers’ affective and behavioral esports videogame engagement positively affects their consumption behavior, including heightened community engagement, purchase intent, coproduction, word-of-mouth and new player recruitment. However, while consumers’ cognitive esports engagement was found to positively impact community engagement, new player recruitment and coproduction, it failed to predict consumers’ esports-related purchase intent or word-of-mouth behaviors.

The findings reveal that a strategic focus on consumers’ esports game engagement will enable practitioners to nurture desirable consumer behaviors, including enhanced purchase intent, coproduction, word-of-mouth and new player recruitment behaviors, thus warranting consumer engagement’s strategic value as a key esports gaming metric.

Empirical research into the role of consumers’ esports videogame engagement on their ensuing consumption behaviors remains scant to date. Based on this gap, this study offers a timely contribution by exploring and validating a model that gauges the effect of consumers’ cognitive, emotional and behavioral esports videogame engagement on their community engagement, purchase intention, coproduction, word-of-mouth and new player recruitment. It, thus, offers important insight into the rapidly advancing field of digital esports games.

The present study aims to specify, estimate, and validate the composite formative model of consumer eSports engagement (CeSE) through utilizing the composite confirmatory analysis (CCA) methodological approach.

To validate the composite model of CeSE, we collected the data using the Mturk online tool from eSports gamers located in European countries. The partial least squares based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed using SmartPLS to conduct CCA analyses.

Using CCA, the authors first evaluated the reflective constructs (three first-order dimensions comprising cognitive, affective, and activation) and found reliable and valid reflective constructs. The authors then proceeded to assess the composite formative model of CeSE at higher-order level and resulted that CeSE is a valid composite model. Besides, the nomological network of CeSE with technology acceptance variables (e.g. behavioral intention and usage behavioral were estimated and found significant results).

This study contributes to consumer engagement literature in many directions. First, this study applies consumer engagement scale in the eSports context (i.e. eSports game brands). Second, this study notably specifies, estimates, and validates CeSE as composite model comprising cognitive, affective, and activation factors as first-order reflective constructs and CeSE as second/higher-order formative construct. Third, this study applies CCA guidelines to establish the CeSE as a composite formative measurement model and make significant methodology contribution. Fourth, this study extends the TAM model via studying CeSE as an important determinant of behavioral intention to play eSports games, which in turn impacts on eSports gaming/usage behavior.

Drawing on virtual liminoid theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine factors that induce a multisensory flow experience in an e-shopping context through the use of augmented-reality interactive technology (ARIT).

To validate the research framework, a task-based laboratory study was performed. Participants were recruited through a snowball e-mail method and requested to freely and independently use ARIT for clothes fitting in the laboratory, after which they completed a questionnaire; 336 valid responses were received.

Empirical results revealed that three decorating psychological states (sense of body ownership, sense of ownership control, and self-explorative engagement) directly induced a multisensory flow experience. Furthermore, two multisensory factors (sense of self-location and haptic imagery) mediated the multisensory flow experience through these three decorating psychological states.

Consumers not only rely on generating self-display for optimal fitting in virtual avatar decoration in an e-shopping context but also concentrate more on expression and control of self-body. As consumers’ decorating psychological states require an ideal form of self-expression, a high degree of autonomy in exploring self-decoration options will create more value for consumers. Considering that expressing and controlling the self-body in addition to self-explorative engagement in virtual avatar decoration will trigger the flow experience in an e-shopping context, increasing the use of multisensory ARIT to trigger decorating psychological states in e-shopping contexts is highly recommended.

In this study, a relationship was constructed among virtual liminoid theory, flow theory, and multisensory technology, and an integrated conceptual framework was developed for the relationship between decorating psychological states and multisensory flow experience.