The Subjective Well-Being of Nations: A Role for Marketing?

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2007

Publication Source

Journal of Macromarketing

Abstract

In this study, the authors test a conceptual model that explains the subjective well-being (SWB) of nations. The authors include traditional predictors (e.g., human rights) and marketing variables (e.g., advertising expenditure, retailing indexes) in their model. They are especially interested to see to what extent marketing activities are associated with citizens' welfare or happiness. Using data from fifty-five countries, the authors find that one marketing variable (advertising expenditure per capita) strongly correlates with SWB, while another (number of retail outlet per capita) does not show a strong relationship with SWB. However, the strong relation fades away when other e fects are partialed out. The authors' model accounts for a large amount of variance in SWB. However, the e fect of marketing variables in a multivariate setting is not particularly strong.

Inclusive pages

360-369

Publisher

Sage Publications

Volume

27

Issue

4

Keywords

Subjective well-being; Rights; National wealth; Individualism; Marketing activities

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