Although commonly used as an advertising appeal and a marketing strategy, the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) has received little attention in marketing-relevant literature. One reason for this lack of attention might be rooted in issues with a clear conceptual understanding of the FOMO experience. In this dissertation I aimed to address these problems with prior conceptualizations by providing a detailed exploration of the FOMO concept using mixed methods. I introduced the concept of FOMO and its relevance in marketing research and practice in Chapter 1. I discussed issues with its prior conceptualization and operationalization in scholarly research and provided an overview of this dissertation project. In Chapter 2, I reviewed prior literature on the contexts in which FOMO has been studied in the past, and the definitions used to conceptualize FOMO as a trait or state. In Chapter 3, I utilized the findings of 27 semi-structured, in-depth interviews in a phenomenological study to propose the FOMO process. This FOMO process is a context-independent conceptual framework explaining how FOMO is experienced cognitively and affectively. This process is dynamic and comprised of four mechanisms, which are described by the interplay between social comparison, missed prior opportunities, counterfactual thinking, negative affect, and two distinct ways of coping, which are either paralyzing or motivating action. In Chapter 4, I developed a conceptually and methodologically sound measurement scale for consumers' proneness to engage in this FOMO process using qualitative and quantitative methods, such as interviews, expert feedback, and surveys. I used interview data from Chapter 3 to construct a large pool of items, which were then inspected by experts in the field to ensure face validity. I used four quantitative samples to reduce the number of scale items and explore dimensionality, to show robustness of the scale, and to demonstrate its temporal stability as well as convergent and discriminant validity. Results indicated a robust and temporally stable, four-dimensional proneness to engage in the FOMO process construct consisting of 16 items. These items described the dimensions: (1) tendency to socially compare, (2) dispositional counterfactual thinking, (3) negative trait affect, and (4) sensitivity to missed opportunities. In Chapter 5, I showed that the FOMO process is positively related to financial, ethical, and recreational risk perceptions; consumers who are more likely to engage in the FOMO process are also more likely to engage in these risky behaviors. However, the FOMO process is also shown to be unrelated to social risks. The overall findings of the qualitative and quantitative research studies reported in this dissertation project are discussed in Chapter 6 specifically, with respect to its relevance for marketing and advertising literature and practice. Therefore, in this dissertation, I provided three major contributions to marketing and advertising theory and practice: First, I explored the FOMO experience itself and extend prior theorizing of this concept by proposing the FOMO process. Thus, I showed that the result for this FOMO process is a negative affective experience, which led me to caution marketers and advertisers to use FOMO appeals in their strategy, because these negative affective and highly cognitive processes might have adverse effects on advertising effectiveness. Second, I offered a tool for market researchers to assess the proneness to engage in the FOMO process, which can be used for market segmentation and strategic planning for advertising and communication design and targeting. And third, this dissertation project is the first to tie the FOMO experience to risk-seeking behavior. This has implications for consumer behavior research as perceived consumer risk is at the heart of consumer decision-making processes.
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