Booth Attractiveness: Scale Development and Model Testing from a Mental Budgeting Perspective

Given the importance of booth attractiveness at trade expositions, this study sets out to develop a scale measuring booth attractiveness (Study 1) and to examine its effectiveness in motivating attendees’ purchasing behavior (Study 2). Study 1 includes three steps: (1) item generation through a thorough review of the literature, focus group, and comments from experts, (2) item purification with exploratory factor analysis using 122 samples, and (3) reevaluating items with confirmatory factor analysis using 129 samples. A six-dimensional scale of booth attractiveness was developed in Study 1. Based on the theory of mental budgeting, Study 2 was conducted to examine the effects of booth attractiveness on the mechanism of attendees’ purchasing behavior using 323 samples. Results of Study 2 suggest that booth attractiveness could directly motivate impulse buying or indirectly through mental budgeting. Impulse buying, then, results in post-purchase guilt and anticipated satisfaction. Meanwhile, postpurchase guilt reduces anticipated satisfaction.