| Summary: | Food market has become more competitive in Taiwanese industry. The culture of “little happiness”, which has been advocated in Taiwan, strongly relates to compensatory consumption. The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of Taiwanese young adults’ compensatory consumption in food. This research focused on motivations, emotions and self-esteem behind this behaviour. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 Taiwanese young adults, who had experienced compensatory food consumption. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
This research discovered three main findings. Firstly, four motivations (self-pity, escaping from reality, cheering up and self-rewarding) were discovered to drive Taiwanese young adults to engage in compensatory food consumption. Secondly, a changing pattern of emotions and self-esteem in the consuming process was identified. It was discovered that negative emotions and low self-esteem emerged before consumption, followed by positive emotions and increased self-esteem during consumption. After consuming, the majority of people had positive emotions without guilty feelings. Finally, seven possible considerations for the choice of compensatory food were found in this research.
This research offers an empirical understanding of Taiwanese young adults’ compensatory behaviour, which provides valuable information to marketers developing new marketing strategy in the food industry.
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