How feelings of groundedness bridge consumer pastness and subjective well-being: the moderating role of need for uniqueness

Purpose Vintage items have gained popularity and appeared as a boon to “uprooted” people in today’s world. Nevertheless, vintage merchandise has remained understudied in terms of its approach to this sentimental effect. Drawing on the theoretical lens of self-continuity, this study aims to unravel the mechanism of vintage consumption by developing and examining the conceptual model in which consumer pastness – i.e. pastness material cues, pastness consumer expectations, and pastness meaningful narratives – facilitates their feelings of groundedness and subsequently results in their subjective well-being under the boundary condition of consumers’ need for uniqueness. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 277 vintage Vietnamese consumers with face-to-face surveys. The partial least squares technique was employed to test the hypotheses in which the relationships of pastness and subjective well-being are explained by grounded feelings under the condition of uniqueness. Findings Results show that consumer perceptions of pastness significantly influence feelings of groundedness, which then drive their subjective well-being. Results also potentially indicate that the higher (lower) the need for uniqueness of a vintage spender, the higher (lower) the mental benefits they can receive from rooted feelings. Originality/value This study is among the first to explore the underlying mechanisms of consumer pastness and subjective well-being through feelings of groundedness, with the positive contingency role of need for uniqueness, all explained by the self-continuity theory. Based on this foundation, theoretical and empirical implications were offered.