The impact of context on variety-seeking in product purchases

Abstract

One reason consumers seek variety in product choices is to satisfy a need for stimulation. It is suggested that consumers may try to achieve an optimal level of stimulation by balancing the stimulation sought from product choice with the stimulation available from the external choice context. Several laboratory experiments are conducted that show that causing changes in the external choice context (thus increasing stimulation) decreases the amount of variety-seeking subjects exhibit in product choices. Specifically, the results of these experiments suggest that consumers\u27 needs for stimulation may be met by providing variety in a different product category or in other aspects of the choice context. We also show that subjects who desire more stimulation in general (i.e., have higher OSL) need a larger increase in contextual stimulation in order to reduce their variety-seeking behavior, as compared to subjects with lower OSL. In addition, we investigate the process mechanism that may lead to differential choice of variety or novelty in products when contextual stimulation is high or low. We find that when contextual stimulation is lower, subjects tend to search for more novel features and/or items of the product category and tend to choose a more novel item from the choice set, as compared to subjects in the higher contextual stimulation condition. Finally, some of the limiting conditions to the central proposition are also examined. If either preferences change due to the changing external situations, or if positive affect is induced, then the reduction in variety-seeking behavior is mitigated