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Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research pp 331–354Cite as

Consumer Well-Being (CWB): Various Conceptualizations and Measures

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Abstract

The effect of marketing on consumers’ quality of life has interested many scholars (Sirgy, Handbook of quality-of-life research: An ethical marketing perspective. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2001; Sirgy and Lee, J Bus Ethics 77:377–403, 2006; Sirgy et al. J Macromarketing 27:341–3490, 2008b). Marketing influences consumers’ quality of life in large part because it directly affects satisfaction in the consumer life domain and indirectly in other life domains such as work life, family life, leisure life, financial life, among others (Day, Marketing and the quality of life. American Marketing Association, Chicago, 1978, Marketing and the quality-of-life interface. Quorum Books, Westport, 1987; Day and Walters 1991; Leelakulthanit et al. J Macromarketing 11:3–23, 1991; Lee and Sirgy, Developments in quality of life studies in marketing. Academy of Marketing Science, Blacksburg, 1995; Sirgy, Handbook of quality-of-life research: An ethical marketing perspective. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2001; Samli et al. Marketing and quality of life interface. Quorum Books, Westport, 1987). While there have been various efforts to measure consumer well-being (CWB), limited attention has been given to describing and understanding the theoretical underpinnings of the available CWB measures. Speaking of CWB measures, some of the existing measures come from the public sector, others from the academic sector. For example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has its popular Consumer Price Index, essentially a CWB measure. The United Nations Development Programme has its Total Consumption Expenditures Index. The US Better Business Bureau has a CWB measure based on number of consumer complaints (against individual businesses) filed in various local offices around the US Consumer Union, which has its own measure of CWB based on experts’ judgment of product quality. Brand quality ratings are reported in their monthly publication of Consumer Reports (Sirgy and Lee, J Bus Ethics77:377–403, 2008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

    Dong-Jin Lee

  2. Department of Marketing, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24060-0236, USA

    M. Joseph Sirgy

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  1. Dong-Jin Lee
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Correspondence to Dong-Jin Lee .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University, Hudson Hall 130, Durham, 27708, North Carolina, USA

    Kenneth C. Land

  2. , Faculty of Arts, Brandon University, 18th Street 270, Brandon, R7A 6A9, Manitoba, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

  3. Pamlin College of Business, Dept. Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Pamplin Hall 2025, Blacksburg, 24061-0236, Virgin Islands, USA

    M. Joseph Sirgy

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Lee, DJ., Sirgy, M.J. (2012). Consumer Well-Being (CWB): Various Conceptualizations and Measures. In: Land, K., Michalos, A., Sirgy, M. (eds) Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2421-1_15

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