Mapping consumer well-being: Contextualization, conceptualization, and classification using topic modeling

Abstract

A thorough understanding of consumer well-being is crucial for achieving both business success and societal progress. However, the huge body of literature in this domain is causing significant conceptual fragmentation, hindering a clear and unified comprehension. A domain-based systematic review is therefore essential yet challenging, requiring advanced techniques to enhance human analytical capabilities. This study applies topic modeling techniques complemented by metatheoretical content analyses to systematically map 659 academic articles, published in 90 business and management journals in the past six decades. Graphical insights are provided to clearly illustrate how the consumer well-being literature can be organized into 16 topics, along with discussions on the differences and relationships between various approaches and definitions within these topics. An integrative framework is further developed to classify consumer well-being across three levels of analysis (i.e., micro, meso, and macro) and four categories of well-being (i.e., well-thinking, well feeling, well-flourishing, and well-doing).