07/31/2026
By Ruqqia Hassan

The Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation proposal defense by Ruqqia Hassan on “Conceptualizing and Measuring Essencetism: An Alternative Consumption Motivation to Materialism.”

  • Date: Aug. 6, 2026
  • Time: 2 – 3:30 p.m.
  • Location: Zoom

Committee Members

  • Chair: Ann Kronrod, Ph.D., Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Michael Obal, Ph.D., Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Joseph K. Goodman, Ph.D., Department of Marketing & Logistics, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University

Abstract

Consumers are shifting away from materialism. Both mainstream journalism and academic research describe a growing movement away from accumulation and status display. Materialism is defined as a personal value centered on the importance of possessions and the status they signal (Richins & Dawson, 1992). A large body of work associates materialistic values with diminished personal well-being (Kasser & Ryan, 1993; Burroughs & Rindfleisch, 2002; Shrum et al., 2022). Yet if consumers are moving away from materialistic motivation because it no longer contributes to their happiness, consumer research has not defined what alternative motivation they are moving toward.

To address this gap, this dissertation introduces, defines and develops a measure for Essencetism — a consumption motivation guided by the essence of what a product or service means to the consumer, the personal value it holds, the psychological connection the consumer feels with it and the enjoyment they seek from it. Mirroring the three-dimensional structure of materialism (Richins, 2004), I define Essencetism along three dimensions: connectedness, enjoyment and purposefulness, and develop a nine-item scale to assess them. Following established scale-development procedures (Churchill, 1979; Netemeyer, Bearden, & Sharma, 2003), Studies 1 and 2 (completed) generated and purified the item pool through exploratory factor analysis, and Studies 3 through 6 (proposed) will confirm the factor structure and establish the scale's convergent, discriminant, known-groups and predictive validity.

This research contributes to the literature by identifying, defining and measuring a real-world shift in consumption motivation that consumer behavior theory has not yet articulated. It also offers a practical contribution: By establishing Essencetism as a motivation distinct from materialism, it can help marketers better understand what consumers seek when they make purchase decisions and what drives contemporary consumer journeys.