When Life Hurts, Running Heals: Understanding Compensatory Consumption in Indonesia’s Growing Running Culture

Abstract

The rapid growth of running culture in emerging markets has transformed the sport from a health-oriented activity into a lifestyle consumption phenomenon, yet little is known about how marketplace participation serves as a mechanism for emotional coping and identity reconstruction outside major metropolitan centers. While compensatory consumption has been widely examined in consumer behavior research, its manifestation within lifestyle sport consumption remains conceptually underexplored within non-metropolitan and developing regions. This study aims to explore how compensatory consumption is experienced and interpreted within the expanding running culture of a developing economy through the lens of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT). Adopting an interpretive qualitative design, the study employs Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 anonymized active regional runners, complemented by participant observations and digital documentary evidence. The findings reveal that running-related consumption extends far beyond functional and performance-oriented motivations, functioning instead as a culturally embedded process of emotional coping, identity reconstruction, and psychological restoration against localized professional pressures, business uncertainties, and routine burnout. Marketplace resources including high performance footwear, smart wearables tracking the quantified self, regional race participation, and community engagement serve as symbolic and experiential assets through which consumers restore self-worth, cultivate collective social belonging, and construct meaningful life narratives. The study advances Consumer Culture Theory by conceptualizing regional running cultures as market-mediated emotional coping ecosystems, thereby extending compensatory consumption beyond individual material acquisition toward experiential, collective, and identity-oriented marketplace participation in emerging secondary cities. These findings also provide strategic insights for sport marketers to develop more responsible, consumer-centered, and well-being-oriented marketing practices in regional marketplaces. 

Keywords: Consumer Culture Theory; Compensatory Consumption; Running Culture; Non-

Metropolitan Regions; Sport Marketing; Consumer Well-Being