Whose Experience Is It, Anyway? Psychological Ownership and Enjoyment of Shared Experiences

Abstract

Every day people engage in numerous shared experiences – from having lunch with colleagues to going on a vacation with family. Despite the ubiquity of such experiences, little is known about how consumers organize and manage such experiences. In this chapter, we review past literature as well as our own research to answer two main questions: (1) why do consumers choose to share ownership over an experience by co-creating it with others, and (2) how could shared experiences be managed by the group in order to maximize the satisfaction obtained for all participants?