Post-pandemic Impulse Buying Behavior: Exploring the Antecedents of Impulsive Buying Across Product Categories During Post COVID-19 Era in the China

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, online purchases have become the new normal. Based on the S-O-R framework, this study proposed a model to understand consumers’ impulsive shopping behavior during post COVID-19 era in China. This study investigated the antecedents of impulsive purchase behavior, while exploring the product categories most likely to be consumed because of the pandemic. An online survey was employed using a convenience national sample frame in China. A total sample of 322 was used to test the proposed model, hypotheses and answer the research questions. Theoretically, the study provides an alternative model that explains the role of website appearance and ease of use on impulsive buying behavior. In addition, the findings indicated the latter variables relate to consumers’ product involvement, which affect the hedonic value and, in turn, predicts impulsive shopping behavior. Overall, Chinese participants indicated the most purchased products during post COVID-19 era in 2020 are clothing

Luxury Hotel Booking and Scarcity Messages : Does Online Purchase Behavior Matter?

Hotel booking websites commonly use scarcity messages to sell hotels’ vacant room inventory. However, the effects of these messages on consumers’ booking intention still remain unclear. Focusing specifically on luxury hotels, this paper seeks to address three research questions: (1) How do limited-quantity scarcity messages (e.g., “20% discount – Only 1 room left”) differ from limited-time scarcity messages (e.g., “20% discount – Only 1 day left”) in affecting consumers’ luxury hotel booking intention? (2) How do frequent online purchasers differ from occasional online purchasers in their luxury hotel booking intention in response to scarcity messages? (3) Is there an interaction effect between scarcity message format (limited-quantity vs. limited-time) and online purchase frequency (frequent vs. occasional) on consumers’ luxury hotel booking intention? Data came from 96 participants who took part in an online experiment. Results indicate that limited-time scarcity messages induced higher booking intention compared with limited-quantity scarcity messages. Moreover, frequent online purchasers exhibited higher booking intention compared with occasional purchasers. However, the interaction was non-significant. The findings have implications for luxury hotel managers, hotel booking websites, and online consumers. While frequent purchasers getting influenced by scarcity messages is a good sign for marketers, the paper serves to remind the consumers not to become shopaholic in terms of their online buying behavior

Exploring and Explaining Consumer Competition: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding the Phenomenon

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the phenomenon of “consumer competition.” The overarching objective is to help researchers and marketing practitioners understand how the phenomenon is created, how consumers experience competition, and to begin to inspect its effects. Consumer competition is defined as the active processes of striving against others for the acquisition of a consumption object. To date, this phenomenon has been under-researched, despite its prevalence in many marketing and consumer-related domains. An extensive literature synthesis provides the foundation for understanding competition and competitiveness in general from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Based on the synthesis of literature and respective theory, this research contends that a scarcity effect contributes to consumer competition. It also contends that competitive situations may be purposely created by retailers, who may or may not understand its benefits and/or consequences to the people involved. This dissertation examines the phenomenon in two manners. First, an exploratory study seeks to enrich our understanding of how consumers experience competition in a retail setting. Employing the grounded theory method, researching participants engaged in a competitive shopping context offers insight into the meaning of competition, the motivation for competing, the experiential components of competing, and the outcome of participating in a competitive shopping situation. Second, an experiment tests the influence of scarcity messages on consumers’ perceptions of a competitive purchase situation and the related purchase interest. The results of the research are multi-faceted. It provides managerial insight into an effect of scarcity not yet examined: perceptions regarding the competitive nature of a purchase situation. This is an important distinction given the influence of perceptions on behavior. It also provides insight to enrich our understanding of how consumers engage in competitive shopping behavior and how they reflect on competitive situations in the retail domain

Being Informed or Getting the Product?

Scarcity cues, which are increasingly implemented on e-commerce platforms, are known to impair cognitive processes and influence consumers’ decision-making by increasing perceived product value and purchase intention. Another feature present on e-commerce platforms are online consumer reviews (OCRs) which have become one of the most important information sources on e-commerce platforms in the last two decades. Nevertheless, little is known about how the presence of scarcity cues affects consumers’ processing of textual review information. Consequently, it is unclear whether OCRs can counteract the effects of scarcity or whether OCRs are neglected due to scarcity cues. To address this gap, this study examines the effects of limited-quantity scarcity cues on online purchase decisions when participants have the possibility to evaluate textual review information. The results of the experimental study indicate that scarcity lowers participants’ processing of textual review information. This in turn increases perceived product value and has considerable negative consequences for the final purchase decision if the scarcity cue is displayed next to a low-quality product. The study’s findings provide relevant insights and implications for e-commerce platforms and policymakers alike. In particular, it highlights that e-commerce platforms can easily (ab)use scarcity cues to reduce consumers’ processing of textual review information in order to increase the demand for low-quality products. Consequently, policymakers should be aware of this mechanism and consider potential countermeasures to protect consumers

When Envy Breeds Desire: Consequences of Uncontrolled Comparisons with Better-Off Others

Envy is an unpleasant emotion that results from a negative social comparison, such as when people become aware of someone possessing a superior good. A central component of envy seems to be the desire for this superior fortune. Despite its important implications, empirical evidence on the psychological underpinnings of envious desire is lacking. Assuming that people are motivated to control their spontaneous envious reactions, I predict that envy and envious desire are strongest when resources to exert self-control are taxed. To evoke envy, participants were invited to a taste test. Some of them completed this taste test in the presence of other persons who were asked to taste a more attractive food. In Experiment 1, participants, who were in the presence of a more fortunate person assigned to taste chocolate, were more dissatisfied, angrier, and more envious the more intoxicated they were. This did not happen when they were asked to taste their less attractive chewy candy alone. In Experiment 2, participants envied their experimental partner, who was assigned to taste an attractive ice cream instead of the inferior biscuit assigned to them, most intensely under high cognitive load. Furthermore, they reported a higher willingness to pay for the ice cream than participants in any other condition. In Experiment 3, participants in an envy evoking experimental condition were most likely to spontaneously purchase the better product under high cognitive load. In Experiment 4, automatic approach behavior towards the more attractive food of the neighboring participant was increased under high cognitive load. The findings shed light on the determinants and the consequences of envy on economic judgments and decisions

The use of product scarcity in marketing

Purpose: as a frequently observed business phenomenon, the use of product scarcity to improve a product’s market performance has received increasing attention from both academics and practitioners. The resulting literature has covered a wide variety of issues based on various theories, using different research methods, in a diverse range of settings. However, this diversity also makes it difficult to grasp the core themes and findings, and to see the outstanding knowledge gaps. This paper reviews previous studies on the use of product scarcity in marketing, and identifies new directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach: a systematic review was conducted to identify and analyse 66 research papers published in business and management journals between 1970 and 2017. Findings: we examined the underlying theories of scarcity-based marketing, and developed a conceptual framework that describes the key factors of product scarcity and how they influence both consumers and the market. We also highlighted some key achievements in modelling the processes involved in using product scarcity in marketing. Originality/value: our analysis of the identified papers suggests that there are substantial gaps in our knowledge of this field, which opens up new paths for future research. For future research, we identified three directions aimed at: addressing the practical needs of firms in understanding product scarcity; guiding the implementation of scarcity-based strategies; and measuring, monitoring, and predicting the level of product scarcity and its impacts during implementation

The end of stigma? Understanding the dynamics of legitimisation in the context of TV series consumption

This research contributes to prior work on stigmatisation by looking at stigmatisation and legitimisation as social processes in the context of TV series consumption. Using in-depth interviews, we show that the dynamics of legitimisation are complex and accompanied by the reproduction of existing stigmas and creation of new stigmas

Does FOMO Mediate the Effects of Time-Limited Scarcity Promotions for Material and Experiential Purchases?

Scarcity tactics have been used extensively in marketing, largely because such appeals signal the current or potential unavailability of a product which enhances its perceived value and desirability. Such perceptions then in turn increase consumers’ interest in the item and purchase intentions. Due to their extensive use across time and contexts, multiple theories have been put forward to understand why scarcity appeals have such strong, positive effects on consumer behaviour. However, the existing theories have neglected the consideration of consumers’ emotional responses. This thesis aims to enhance the literature by exploring how consumers’ emotional responses to scarcity appeals influences their interest in the item and their purchase intentions. Specifically, we propose the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) as a common emotional response and relevant motivator of consumer behaviour within the scarcity context. We also extend our findings into a new context by exploring whether the strength of scarcity appeals varies between material and experiential items, as prior studies have demonstrated that scarcity effects differ across product level characteristics. We begin by reviewing the current state of the scarcity literature before conducting two experiments to test our propositions. We then employ independent samples t-tests, mediation analyses and a two-way Analysis of Variance to test our predictions and validate the relationships. Our results reveal that time-based scarcity appeals elicit feelings of FOMO, which enhances purchase interest. We also found that such appeals increase consumers’ FOMO and purchase interest for material goods, however there is no significant change for experiences. Our findings contribute to the literature by introducing an alternative way of understanding why scarcity influences consumer behaviour, and by examining scarcity effects within a previously unexplored context. They also have significant practical implications in that we can recommend that material good retailers utilise time-based scarcity promotions to drive purchase interest, particularly those which incorporate FOMO appeals, whereas experiential retailers would benefit from alternate strategies