Access and Ownership in the Phygital: Toward a Phygital–Accesship Typology with Implications for Consumer Well-being

Abstract

The rapid rise of hybrid consumption raises important macromarketing questions about consumer well-being. Our research, which is conceptual in nature, offers a framework that explains how hybrid sequenced solutions influence consumer well-being. Our conceptualization introduces the concept of accesship (access-dominant to ownership-dominant, including hybrid) as a complement to the concept of phygital (physical-dominant to digital-dominant, including hybrid) and develops a 2 × 2 typology defined by these two dimensions. This typology, which we term the phygital–accesship typology (PAT), comprises four quadrants represented by Streams, Tokens, Lends, and Keeps. We then examine the implications of each category for consumer well-being via the lens of three key psychological mechanisms (i.e., materialism, need for touch, and psychological ownership). We conclude by discussing the implications of our framework for firms, consumers, and policymakers and propose an agenda for future research on the interplay between accesship, phygital, and consumer well-being.