Essays on the experience of pain in the marketplace

This dissertation contributes to the goal of broadening marketing research on bodily pain. Paper 1 is a conceptual paper that unpacks the construct of pain and shows that it is a powerful driver of consumption that is intertwined with many marketplace offerings. Based on extant literature, an overarching framework is proposed from which to understand and study pain as it relates to consumption. Five pain themes comprise the framework, which demonstrates that consumers do not universally associate pain with affliction or suffering but also with redemption, transformation, accomplishment and pleasure in certain contexts. Paper 2 and 3 are empirical papers that take a qualitative and a quantitative approach respectively to study the role of pain as experienced during the consumption of healthcare services. The results of Paper 2 highlight the distinct functions of pain in practices of assessment and treatment provided by Physical Therapists. Specifically, pain as experienced through direct physical touch during assessment was found to facilitate a trust-building process that is integral to generating buy-in for long-term treatment solutions. Paper 3 builds on the important role that pain plays in evaluating qualities of healthcare services. Across three experimental studies exploring consumer perceptions of treatment provided by Registered Massage Therapists, an inverted U-shaped relationship was observed between the intensity of musculoskeletal pain experienced and consumer responses to pain (in the form of treatment repatronage intentions). Perceptions of treatment efficacy and practitioner competency were found to mediate this relationship while the degree to which consumers ascribe to the "no pain, no gain" belief moderates it. It was also determined that pain arising from other tissues of the body (e.g., skin and mouth) elicit a different pattern of consumer response. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that consumer perceptions of pain are more complex than is typically conceptualized in the literature, in terms of its non-linear effects on downstream service outcomes, and the potential for consumer perceptions of pain to vary according to the originating location of pain, the discrete part of the service encounter, and the overall consumption context.