Journal of Consumer Behaviour最新文献

The fashion industry has received harsh criticism about its increasing environmental footprint. As a result, formal clothing swapping has evolved into collaborative sharing practices, sometimes leading to circular social and economic developments. In either case, it transforms how individuals behave around possessing and sharing clothes for what it can bring to them and their collective well-being. This study explores what factors (e.g., economic, hedonic, environmental, and activism) motivate individuals to swap their clothes and why culture may be an important moderating factor to consider. An online Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) survey comprised of the NextGen (individuals between 18 and 35), 51.6% of workers, and 28% of students (n = 279) from various countries analyzed through ANOVA regressions led to clear evidence of the moderating effects of culture on motivating factors in swapping behavior for clothes: (1) economic motives are stronger in masculine cultures; (2) hedonic motives are stronger in collectivist cultures; (3) environmental motives are stronger in collectivist, low power distance, and indulgent cultures; (4) activist motives are relatively strong in collectivist, feminine, low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, and indulgent cultures; (5) the collectivist culture had a moderated influence due to hedonic, environmental, and activist motives as in this culture, greater mental emotions may be aroused. This study highlights economic and hedonist motives as influential variables that correspond to more actual consumer needs. Results also indicate specificities on NextGen culture identity and motivations to push forward a shift in up-swapping systems, engaging decision-makers for more transparent, sustainable efforts.

Online customer reviews play a vital role in evaluating product or service performance and serve as an important reference for other customers' purchase decisions. This study explores the influence of online customer reviews on sustainable clothing purchase intention through text mining and survey-based methodologies. The results showed that online customer reviews focused on four dimensions: material ecology, clothing fashion, clothing functionality, and price reasonableness. Online customer reviews have a positive impact on consumers' sustainable purchase intentions, and perceived diagnosticity mediates the relationship between online customer reviews and purchase intentions. In addition, customers' prior sustainability knowledge moderates the relationship between material ecology, price reasonableness, and perceived diagnosticity. This study further enriches theoretical research on sustainable consumption within the context of online apparel retailing and helps sustainable apparel brands more accurately grasp the influencing variables of customers' sustainable consumption behaviours and formulate precise electronic word-of-mouth marketing strategies.

Given persistent challenges faced by subscription box retailers in acquiring and retaining customers, there is an urgent need to understand decision-making and sources of value at each stage of the subscription box customer journey. As extant research has frequently focused on the customers' decision to subscribe, relatively little work has explored why they choose to continue or cancel their subscriptions. We contend that a way forward in understanding subscription box customer journeys is to adopt a utilitarian–hedonic perspective when looking at each stage of such journeys. We conduct phenomenological in-depth interviews with 26 subscription box customers and use the thematic insights to introduce a processual framework of subscription boxes as consumption steams. We posit that the subscription box customer journey comprises three key decision stages (initiation, immersion, and egression) with each stage characterized by distinct themes that add to or subtract from the utilitarian and hedonic value at that stage. Collectively, these themes provide a more nuanced understanding of the factors that shape customer decisions to start, renew, or cancel a subscription box. We conclude by noting how our findings contribute to marketing theory and practice and suggest some avenues for future research.

The volatile cryptocurrency market offers investors the chance for substantial capital gains. In this research, we examine the role of dispositional greed and need for cognition (NFC) on judgments about crypto and stocks. Drawing on the dualistic model of passion, we examine two potential mediators of the effects: harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(4), 756–767. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000031, we examine two potential mediators of the effects: harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP). Following a preregistered survey (N = 258), we found that the effect of greed on crypto judgments was mediated by HP rather than OP. This result was replicated for stocks. The effect of NFC on attitudes was mediated by HP. The findings show that (1) dispositional greed and NFC offer insights into consumer judgments of crypto and stocks, (2) HP rather than OP mediates the effects of greed and NFC on crypto and share judgments, and (3) that the effects of dispositional greed and NFC on judgments is similar for crypto and stocks.

Donations are a well-studied area in consumer research, but our understanding of political donations is limited. Because the motivations for donating to charity and political candidates are different, we use branding perspectives to investigate this important phenomenon. In four studies, we demonstrate that candidates with a “servant” brand positioning are likely to generate fewer donations compared with those with a “partner” positioning. This is because a servant brand positioning leads individuals to perceive that the candidates require fewer resources. We also show that the relationship between brand positioning and political donation is influenced by factors such as political ideology, election polls, and the percentage of the donation relative to election expenses. Specifically, the effect is stronger among conservatives, when the candidates are leading in the polls, and when a small donation represents a significant portion of the election expenses. These findings provide valuable insights into how brand positioning affects individuals' intentions to donate to political campaigns.

The issue of distributive justice in charitable donations has become increasingly prominent. It not only weakens people's confidence in philanthropy but also their enthusiasm for participation. With the widespread use of artificial intelligence technology in donations, a key question arises: Can artificial intelligence inspire people to be more willing to donate by improving their perception of justice in donation distribution? This question is vital for charities but has yet to be answered. To address this gap, this research conducted five comprehensive studies to investigate the impact of AI decision-makers on consumers' willingness to donate. The findings of Studies 1 and 2 consistently revealed that consumers perceive higher distributive justice in AI decision-makers compared with humans, motivating increased participation in charitable donations. Study 3 examined two different experimental scenarios and found that this effect only occurs among consumers with lower trust in nonprofit organizations. Study 4 further explored the effect that is only present among prevention-oriented consumers. These findings reveal how perceptions of distributive justice toward AI decision-makers can facilitate public charitable giving and highlight the significance of this effect across different groups of consumers, providing invaluable insights for charitable organizations. This research not only fills the theoretical gap in the philanthropic field about the impact of artificial intelligence decision-makers on donation distribution justice but also provides charitable organizations with artificial intelligence-based donation promotion strategies.

Online grocery shopping has become increasingly important in daily life. Consumers use the helpfulness of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) to reduce uncertainty and risk in online grocery shopping. Emotions such as positive arousal (e.g., energised) and calmness (e.g., relaxed) are often found in the eWOM of food products. However, little is known about the influence of emotions on eWOM helpfulness and how the effects of emotions on the helpfulness of online reviews differ in cultures. This study conducted an experiment to examine the impact of positive arousal and calmness on the helpfulness of eWOM regarding healthy and unhealthy foods in Japan and the USA. We found that cultural factors influenced the effect of arousal on eWOM helpfulness. For Japanese participants, positive eWOM with low arousal was more helpful than that with high arousal. In contrast, for US participants, positive eWOM with high arousal was more helpful than that with low arousal. In both countries, credibility mediated the relationship between arousal and review helpfulness. This study extends the literature on eWOM helpfulness and affect valuation theory. Our findings provide insights for companies on using eWOM in advertising campaigns and for consumers on writing helpful eWOM.

Because of growing digitalization, consumers are confronted with more and more new technologies. Digital ecosystems and digital platforms are of great importance in this context. One possibility for monetizing the services offered on digital platforms is the freemium pricing model. In light of increasing competition, it is important for platform operators to know as much as possible about the usage behaviour of their consumers. In particular, they need to know what factors influence the termination behaviour of paying users. The empirical study is based on data from 20,319 paying users of a freemium platform that offers information on equestrian sports. Using a logistic regression, several possible influencing factors on the probability of termination are examined. Among other things, the study shows that the termination probability is greater if the paying user has chosen a shorter subscription. Users who have already terminated their subscription before their current one are also at greater risk of churn. Premium users with high levels of involvement and members who receive notifications about new content on the platform are less likely to quit. The number of video views is also negatively related to the termination probability. Freemium providers can use this information to predict terminations and take appropriate action, such as special offers for users at risk of termination.

Influencers' personal stories on social media can shape consumer behavior. Yet little is known about how intimacy, valence, and topic of self-disclosure affect perceptions of credibility. In two studies, results reveal that intimate (vs. non-intimate) self-disclosure reduces perceived message appropriateness and influencer credibility, while positive (vs. negative) self-disclosure enhances it. Furthermore, the effect of positive intimate self-disclosure on appropriateness is stronger for topics related to mental health (vs. relationships). This research broadens the theoretical understanding of how consumers perceive influencer credibility by analyzing various dimensions of self-disclosure, providing practical insights for integrating self-disclosure into social media recommendations.

The article synthesizes online impulse buying research conducted through a systematic literature review (SLR) approach. The present review covers the diverse range of literature, from 2001 to 2024, conducted using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol. Drawing upon the theory-context-characteristics-method (TCCM) framework, a literature synthesis provides an overview of article's descriptives, underpinning theories, contextual overview and methodological aspects. The review also highlights the variables related to the antecedents, mediators, moderators and consequences of online impulse buying and proposes the integrated conceptual framework of the concept. Lastly, the review highlights the gap in the literature and offers insightful directions to advance research in online impulse buying domain. Overall, this review is an attempt to make significant theoretical and practical contributions to the field of online impulse buying research.