Journal of Consumer Behaviour最新文献

Feelings of belongingness threat are common nowadays. The lack of social support received from friends and family leads to social disconnection. Our objective is to investigate the effect of unmet need to belong on preference for crowdedness. Expecting the prospects to interact and reconnect with others, socially disconnected consumers may be more receptive to crowdedness. By contrast, social disconnection may sensitize consumers to potential social threat and thus drive them away from the crowds. To find out how socially disconnected consumers react to crowdedness, three quasi-experiments with more than 1500 participants (M_age = 35.9, 64% female) from an online panel were conducted. Our findings support the latter hypothesis. We manipulate the crowdedness of the service setting, while the natural variation of social disconnectedness was captured by measuring participants' unmet need to belong. Socially disconnected consumers are averse to social crowding (Studies 1 and 2). Specifically, regression analyses reveal that crowdedness has a negative impact on attitude and word-of-mouth recommendation. Importantly, the effect of crowdedness is found exaggerated by unmet need to belong. Disconnected consumers avoid social crowding since they may consider getting too close an invasion of personal space. The findings on preference for space are extended to time in Study 3. In particular, busyness interacts with unmet need to belong such that disconnected consumers avoid busy schedules in package tours. Findings from the three studies together suggest a general preference for more psychological space when need to belong is not met.

The purpose of this study is twofold: to examine the mediating effect of a number of barrier-breakers on the relationship between barriers and the intention to fully adopt digital payment methods; and to identify adopters-resisters' commenting behaviour when facing a full-adoption scenario. Mixed methods were applied. The PROCESS macro method was used to analyse 388 survey responses and test the mediating effects. The main study reveals that the privacy, security, and access barriers can be reduced by increasing the credibility and usefulness barrier-breakers, respectively. However, the impersonalisation barrier is found to be unaffected by the social influence barrier-breaker. Based on 91 collected and analysed comments, the netnographic-based follow-up study identifies social media commenting behaviours caused by a major bank's decision to stop handling cash. Among the more frequent such behaviours are boycotting and aggressive comments.

The field of using neural data to forecast aggregate consumer choice has garnered attention in the past decade, holding substantial promise for both researchers and practitioners. However, a comprehensive understanding of this emerging field is lacking. This paper aims to bridge that gap by summarizing existing research, encompassing relevant theories, metrics, progress, and future directions. We begin by introducing the concept of neuroforecasting within the field of neuromarketing. We then delve into theories that leverage neural data for forecasting aggregate choice, including affect-integration-motivation framework, frontal asymmetry, and inter-subject correlation. Subsequently, we review various metrics, including self-reported, behavioral, and neural metrics employed to forecast market-level behavior, presenting key findings from relevant studies. Furthermore, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of this field. Advantages of this approach include its ability to offer effective predictions of consumer behavior and provide enhanced insights into consumer preferences and choices, while its weaknesses encompass relatively high cost, sample size constraints, issues of ecological validity, and challenges related to reverse inference. In conclusion, future research should prioritize integrating diverse data types with machine learning techniques to forecast the outcomes of marketing campaigns in advance. Additionally, a deeper exploration of the psychological and cognitive processes underlying successful predictions can augment predictive accuracy and effectiveness. This review provides a systematic overview for researchers and practitioners in this field, offering valuable insights and guidance for future research endeavors and industry applications.

This research is an empirical investigation of the interaction effect between self-deficit and benefit-appeal message framing upon subsequent environmental sustainability decision-making. Based on the self-discrepancy theory, the current research demonstrates that behavioral intentions that encourage environmental sustainability could serve as a means of compensating for the self-deficit appraisal. Two online experiments empirically test that self-deficit moderated the effect of benefit-appeal (self vs. other) on ad evaluation and purchasing intention toward an environmentally sustainable brand. In particular, Study 1 demonstrated that when in a self-deficit state, self-benefit appeals are more effective than altruistic other-benefit appeals in enhancing positive advertising evaluation and purchase intention toward a brand that advocates environmental sustainability. On the other hand, the opposite pattern was captured when self-deficit was minimized. Study 2 replicated these findings using a different brand, confirming the interaction effect between self-deficit and benefit appeal, and further investigated whether consumers' positive ad evaluation mediates the interaction effect of benefit appeals and self-deficit on purchase intention. The findings also offer managerial implications recommending that advertisers and marketers tailor their ad messaging to match consumers' desires and wants.

As products are constantly updated, brands launch increasingly different versions thereof, and consumers frequently face upgrade choices. However, when and why consumers choose to upgrade has received limited attention. This article thus sheds new light on consumer upgrade intention by distinguishing a novel antecedent, product type (material vs. experiential). Three online studies with 642 participants from the US were conducted; we used t-tests and bootstrapped mediation analysis via PROCESS Model 4 to analyze the data. The results of these studies reveal that consumers are more likely to upgrade experiential products than material products. Moreover, this effect is mediated by a heightened sense of anticipated regret rather than upgrade degree or perceived product closeness. Specifically, consumers feel greater anticipated regret if they do not upgrade experiential products (vs. material products), which leads to their higher upgrade intentions toward experiential products. This research therefore significantly extends regret regulation theory, provides important insights into the relationship between product type and upgrade intention, and offers valuable knowledge for brands seeking to optimize their marketing strategies.

The aim of this study is to analyze whether disvalues—that is, undesirable traits and emotions that have a negative impact on the individual and are reflected in the Seven Deadly Sins (anger, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, and sloth) and the Dark Triad traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy)—have a predictive power for pathological and uncontrollable shopping behavior (compulsive shopping). Two studies were conducted on as many consumer samples to examine the relationship between disvalues and compulsive shopping behavior and the influence of personality traits on this relationship. The results of Study 1 confirmed that anger, envy, gluttony, and pride, as well as psychopathy directly influence compulsive shopping behavior. In addition, two types of consumers were identified: those who are guided by values (Sober and Light consumers) and those who are guided by disvalues (Vicious and Dark consumers). Only the latter exhibit a high levels of compulsive shopping behavior. Study 2 found that personality traits (in terms of the Big Five factors) moderate the relationship between disvalues and compulsive shopping behavior. More specifically, this relationship is negatively moderated by conscientiousness and agreeableness, and positively moderated by neuroticism.

This study aims to explore how different sources of inspiration (namely, users, artificial intelligence (AI), and professional designers) as external stimuli influence customers' willingness to participate in user design. Results from four experiments show that inspiration from users, AI, and professional designers all positively influence customers' willingness to participate in user design. Self-competence is found to mediate such effects. Moreover, we further identify that the effects of inspiration stimuli on customers' willingness to participate in user design is moderated by customer knowledge and product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian). Customers with low level of knowledge are more likely to be inspired by user designs and AI-generated designs than professional designer counterparts. For utilitarian products, customers are more likely to be inspired by user designs and AI-generated designs. In contrast, for hedonic products, customers are more likely to draw inspiration from professional designers. Our finding suggests that open innovation communities should offer a variety of designs from users and AI to inspire their users, thus encouraging their participation in user design.

This article examines the influence of framing a brand's concept as functional versus symbolic in the advertising of a new vertical line extension. In this research, we carried out two online experiments and collected data from 415 participants recruited from MTurk to investigate the moderating role of believability on the effect of brand concept framing on consumers' purchase intentions of vertical line extensions. The results indicate that (i) consumers evaluate a vertical extension advertising message more positively when it is framed in a consistent manner with the targeted price/quality segment and not with its parent brand or existing product line and that (ii) this effect is moderated by consumer believability such that an advertising framing effect is found for high, but not low, in believability. Perceptions of category fit mediate the relationship between framing brand concept and the evaluation of the extension. This study contributes to the advertising and marketing literature by exploring how consumers can interpret brand concept framing in advertising messages of vertical line extensions differently depending on their level of believability and, in turn, influence their purchase intentions.

This study investigates the consumers' processing route of WTPM for green products from consumers' self-concepts. Employing the norm activation model and Lazarus appraisal theory, this study proposes the direct and indirect routes of self-concepts (i.e., green and product self-concepts) that influence consumers' WTPM. The causal chain of green product virtue and green perceived value is explored. Online survey data for 313 Indian green consumers inform the findings. The findings reveal that consumers' product self-concept and green self-concept influence their WTPM through green product virtue and green perceived value. Such findings support the sequential mediation effect. This study provides an alternative and novel psychological mechanism for how consumers' self-concepts can influence WTPM through green product virtue and green perceived value. The findings inform green marketers to use green product virtue and green perceived value to induce green consumers' WTPM while designing effective segmentation and communication strategies.

Data intelligence (DI) is constantly influencing consumers. According to the theory of environmental psychology model, when consumers are stimulated by enterprise DI in mobile shopping, they can easily transform emotional reactions into corresponding behaviors. Based on this theory, this research adopts a hybrid method combining qualitative interview and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the multifactor synergistic effects of DI factors on consumer emotions and mobile shopping intentions. Study 1 extracts five DI factors through qualitative study using NVivo software. All but one of the five DI factors had strong effects on consumer emotions. Study 2 uses the fsQCA method to analyze large-sample survey data, revealing four configurations of DI factors that trigger positive consumer emotions and three that trigger mobile shopping intentions. The presence of intelligent search, intelligent recommendations, and intelligent logistics are the core conditions that trigger positive consumer emotions and mobile shopping intentions, while the presence or absence of intelligent customer service and intelligent pricing trigger positive consumer emotions and mobile shopping intentions. The research results supplement the existing theories and provide practical guidance for enterprises in DI stimulus design and government in DI environment construction.