The global use of smartphone has had tremendous social, environmental, and economic impacts in the last decade, and continues to grow impressively. In order to comprehend customers’ purchase behavior, it is crucial to understand the driving force behind their choice of one specific brand among various competitors. A few prior researches have demonstrated that not only the optimal experience of flow, but also identity features (i.e., self-identity, social identity, brand identity) facilitate a customer’s purchase intention. Previous studies also indicate that brand-related constructs (e.g., typically brand image but sometimes also brand personality and communication) predict purchase intention. As the first study combining flow, which focuses on investigating the consumer purchase behavior through identity and brand-related constructs, we propose a conceptual model that combines flow theory, brand image, brand communication, brand identity, and brand personality to investigate purchase intention. We have empirically tested the conceptual model based on the data collected from 1377 Chinese smartphone users. Results via the structural equation modeling with AMOS software indicated that flow experience, brand image, brand communication, brand personality, and brand identity all directly or indirectly explain purchase intention. Flow experience serves a critical role in mediating the path from brand communication, brand personality, and brand identity to purchase intention. The research focuses on the strategic implication of the various brand features management and aims to harmonize economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

A growing number of studies suggest that flow experience is associated with life satisfaction, eudaimonic well-being, and the perceived strength of one’s social and place identity. However, little research has placed emphasis on flow and its relations with negative experiences such as anxiety. The current study investigated the relations between flow and anxiety by considering the roles of self-esteem and academic self-efficacy. The study sample included 590 Chinese university students, who were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire on flow, anxiety, self-esteem, and academic self-efficacy. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS software, in which both factorial analysis and path analysis were performed. Results revealed that the experience of flow negatively predicted anxiety, and both self-esteem and academic self-efficacy fully mediated the path between flow and anxiety. Specifically, self-esteem played a crucial and complete mediating role in this relationship, while academic self-efficacy mediated the path between self-esteem and anxiety. Our findings enrich the literature on flow experience and help with identifying practical considerations for buffering anxiety and more broadly with fostering strategies for promoting psychological sustainability and resilience.

The present study investigated a conceptual model by testing flow experience and subjective well-being of university students during Coronavirus Diseas-19 (COVID-19)viaconsidering their underlying mechanisms of academic self-efficacy and self-esteem. A total of 1,109 Chinese university students completed a questionnaire containing scales of subjective well-being, flow, academic self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Results yielded from the structural equation modeling analysis indicated a significant and positive association between flow experience and subjective well-being, and such an association was sequentially mediated by academic self-efficacy and self-esteem. Findings also provided empirical evidence for the proposed model highlighting the significant role of flow experience at the higher educational context in predicting subjective well-being of Chinese university students, and how such a relation can be supported by suggested mediating roles academic self-efficacy and self-esteem played.

The present work investigated fundamental mediating mechanisms (i.e., flow experience, organizational identification, and trust), underlining the impact of authentic leadership on employee resilience during the turbulent COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 901 frontline employees working in a construction engineering company in China participated in this study. They were asked to respond to a battery of questionnaires comprising Trust Scale (affective-based, cognitive-based, and competence-based), Flow Proneness Questionnaire (FPQ), Organizational Identification Scale, Authentic Leadership Questionnaire, and Employee Resilience Scale. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) Authentic leadership positively predicted employee resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic, directly and indirectly. (2) As for the indirect relationship, two parallel mediation effects and one chain mediation were detected: employees’ flow at work and organizational identification respectively and dependently mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and employee resilience; trust and organizational identification played as a chain mediation role within authentic leadership-employee resilience association. The study provides empirical evidence for organizations’ resilience-building and leadership training programs. Findings also contribute to the literature by facilitating flow intervention, promoting organizational identification and trust to enhance the effect of authentic leadership in promoting positive psychological functioning of employee resilience. Limitations with respect to future research directions were also outlined.

The current study, based on the PERMA model, proposed and examined a hypothetical model exploring the effects of academic self-efficacy, positive relationships, and psychological resilience on university students’ life satisfaction. We collected data from a large sample of 1,089 university students in southwest China. The participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaire items measuring academic self-efficacy, positive relationships, psychological resilience, and life satisfaction. The results of the structural equation modeling analysis demonstrated a good fit for our data, suggesting that academic self-efficacy positively predicted university students’ life satisfaction through two independent mediators: positive relationships and psychological resilience. Findings yielded from the empirically validated hypothetical model add value to and enrich the PERMA model within a group of Chinese university students. The implications and practical suggestions for improving university students’ life satisfaction are discussed in light of these findings.