Busyness refers to a kind of subjective psychological perception which is generated from people’s evaluation of their recent busy work status according to their current social norms and expectations. In recent years, the development of technology and the accumulation of material capital have not liberated the Chinese people from busy labor. They are more busy than before, from “social livestock” to “996” and then to “working for others”. These hot words on the screen show that busyness is the main state and label of Chinese people at present. At the same time, theorists have carried out a lot of research on the antecedent and outcome variables of busyness, and it is time to systematically sort out and summarize them.
This paper systematically combs the relevant academic achievements of the existing busyness research, and is committed to integrating and summarizing them to form a systematic busyness research framework, so as to provide a more comprehensive and complete busyness summary system and guiding reference for future readers and scholars in the field of busyness. Firstly, this paper illustrates the concept of busyness, clarifies the difference between busyness and related concepts, and puts forward the concept of busyness valence. Secondly, this paper sorts out the antecedent and outcome variables of busyness in detail, and systematically integrates the existing research context of busyness from the two aspects of influencing factors and results. Thirdly, this paper sorts out a series of action mechanisms of busyness. Finally, future research on busyness can focus on the following aspects: One is exploring the relationship between busyness valence and individual behavior, such as the relationship between busyness valence and decision-making behavior. The other is exploring the relationship between consumers’ perception of busyness and their consumption behaviors, such as the relationship between positive busyness and “face consumption” behavior, and the relationship between negative busyness and “slow consumption” behavior.
On the basis of reviewing the relevant literature on busyness, this paper constructs an integrated analysis framework of busyness research, and theoretically discusses the connotation, antecedents, consequences and internal interpretation mechanism of busyness. On the one hand, this paper highlights the importance of busyness in the fields of organizational behavior, individual decision-making and consumer behavior, which helps to provide a clear research framework for follow-up researchers. At the same time, it puts forward the concept of busyness valence, which provides a new research direction for the follow-up research on busyness. On the other hand, the integration analysis framework of busyness provides important managerial suggestions. For example, enterprises can dig out the ways of employee motivation from the influence mechanism of busyness on organizational behavior.