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Animals In Our Lives: An Interactive Well-Being Perspective, Nancy V. Wünderlich, Jill Mosteller, Michael B. Beverland, Hilary Downey, Karen Kraus, Meng-Hsien (Jenny) Lin, Henna Syrjälä

College of Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Humans have long interacted with animals. Recently, market-based responses to societal challenges, including loneliness and mental well-being include the use of animals. Considerable research concerning consumer–animal relationships has also examined the benefits (micro, meso, and macro) of human-animal interaction and companionship. However, much of this research is fragmented and lacks a broader organizing framework. It also suffers from an anthropomorphic bias, whereby the interests of animals are excluded. To address this, we provide a macromarketing perspective on consumer–animal relations and explore the interdependencies of consumer–animal relationships on consumer, animal, and community well-being. We introduce and apply the Interactive Well-Being framework …