“Celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the University of Macau”
I Feel, Therefore I Am: Workplace Objectification and Sensory Consumption
Prof. Xiucheng FAN
Professor, School of Management
Fudan University
Date: 28 April 2026 (Tuesday)
Time: 10:00-11:30
Venue: E22-1030
Host: Prof. Yuansi HOU, Associate Professor in Integrated Resort and Tourism Management
Abstract
In contemporary consumer societies, labor has become increasingly instrumental to the facilitation of consumption, displacing its traditional role as a means of self-realization. We conceptualize this sociohistorical condition as workplace objectification, in which embodied engagement in work is estranged from the inner self. Drawing on phenomenological theories of bodily experience, we propose that such objectification engenders a profound sense of inner emptiness, driving consumers to seek high-intensity sensory experiences as a strategy to reaffirm their self-existence. We substantiate these propositions through field, online, and laboratory studies that span diverse product categories, heterogeneous populations, and multiple experimental manipulations. Our findings (1) demonstrate how broader life experiences shape consumption preferences; (2) identify high-intensity sensory consumption as a distinct sociohistorical pattern; and (3) underscore the existential significance of bodily sensations in consumer identity formation. These insights have important implications for trend forecasting, market segmentation, and the promotion of consumer well-being.
Speaker
Prof. Xiucheng Fan is a professor of marketing at the School of Management, Fudan University, where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Service Marketing and Service Management. He holds the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contemporary Marketing Science and sits on the editorial boards of several journals, including Nankai Business Review, Journal of Service Research, Customer Needs and Solutions, and Journal of Service Theory and Practice. Internationally, Prof. Fan is recognized as an International Fellow at the Center for Relationship Marketing and Service Management (CERS) at Hanken School of Economics in Finland, as well as a Global Fellow at the Center for Service Leadership at Arizona State University, USA. He has successfully led two major research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, alongside numerous other projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, the National Social Science Fund, and the Ministry of Education. Prof. Fan has published over 100 papers in international and Chinese journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, Tourism Management, Psychology and Marketing, Management World, Chinese Journal of Management Sciences, Nankai Business Review, and Acta Psychologica Sinica. Additionally, he has made significant contributions to the discipline through authoring and translating several influential works on Service Management, Service Marketing, Market Research, and Marketing.
All are welcome!
