Search results

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of perceived control on product preferences of consumers under self-threat.

By conducting four experiments, this paper manipulated the participants’ self-threat and three sources of perceived control – namely, the controllability of the threat itself, the internal and external locus of control of the individual and priming the existing positive or negative experience of the individuals. After the manipulations, the participants’ product preferences for self-growth goods or hedonic goods were measured.

The findings of this research indicated that when consumers have a higher perceived control of the threats they are facing, they are more likely to adopt problem-focused coping strategies and show a preference for self-growth goods, which can help them resolve their threats. However, when consumers have a lower perceived control on the threats they are facing, they are more likely to adopt emotion-focused coping strategies and show a preference for hedonic goods, which can help them adjust their emotions.

This paper systematically confirms the interactive effect of perceived control and self-threat on consumers’ product preferences, as well as the meditation role of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. It also provides insights for marketers to know what factors may affect consumers’ preferences for products in self-threat situations, thus contributing to marketing practices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing growth and prosperity worldwide because of its convenience and other benefits. However, AI faces challenges related to consumer resistance. Thus, drawing on the user resistance theory, this study explores factors that influence consumers’ resistance to AI and suggests ways to mitigate this negative influence.

This study tested four hypotheses across four studies by conducting lab experiments. Study 1 used a questionnaire to verify the hypothesis that AI’s “substitute” image leads to consumer resistance to AI; Study 2 focused on the role of perceived threat as an underlying driver of resistance to AI. Studies 3–4 provided process evidence by the way of a measured moderator, testing whether AI with servant communication style and literal language style is resisted less.

This study showed that AI’s “substitute” image increased users' resistance to AI. This occurs because the substitute image increases consumers’ perceived threat. The study also found that using servant communication and literal language styles in the interaction between AI and consumers can mitigate the negative effects of AI-substituted images.

This study reveals the mechanism of action between AI image and consumers’ resistance and sheds light on how to choose appropriate image and expression styles for AI products, which is important for lowering consumer resistance to AI.

The authors proposed a conceptual model by examining the influence of threats to their freedom on tourists’ psychological distance including social distance, spatial distance, and temporal distance, which effect psychological reactance and the consequent online Airbnb booking intentions. Furthermore, media intrusiveness as a moderator determines the boundary conditions between perceived threats to their freedom and social distance, spatial distance, and temporal distance.

Data was gathered from 491 Chinese travelers to provide empirical evidence. The authors performed data analysis in Amos 26.0 using structural equation modeling (SEM) and Hayes (2013) PROCESS macro.

The findings positively reinforced all the structural relationships of the study. Notably, media intrusiveness significantly moderates the association between perceived threats to their freedom and psychological distance (i.e. social distance, spatial distance, and temporal distance).

The findings contribute significantly to the field of social psychology, advertising, and consumer behavior derive prolific implications for policymakers and sharing economy platforms. Lastly, by identifying limitations, this research opens doors for future scholars.

Governments' acute precautionary measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak have confined individual freedom across the globe. This study illuminates how tourists conceive these preventative measures as perceived threats to their freedom, and subsequently engage psychological reactance.

The purpose of the current research is to present an explanatory framework for how people selectively attend to privacy-related news information about LBA depending on the extent to which they know about LBA already as well as their appraisals of privacy threats and efficacy.

The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling based on a total of 522 useable responses obtained from an online survey.

The results revealed two different approaches to information exposure: (1) people choose to seek out privacy-related news articles when their persuasion knowledge and perceived threat level are high, whereas (2) they tend to avoid such information when perceived threats accompany fear as well as psychological discomfort, or when they believe that they are knowledgeable about LBA practices and highly capable of protecting their privacy.

With the development of real-time location-tracking technologies, the practice of LBA is becoming increasingly popular. As such, however, concerns about data collection and privacy are also on the rise, garnering a great deal of media attention. Despite the importance and constant stream of news reports on the subject, a comprehensive understanding of consumers' privacy assessments and information consumption remains underexamined. By incorporating the persuasion knowledge model and extended parallel process model, the current research presents an explanatory framework for consumers' privacy perceptions and information choice.

This study aims to investigate how employee and other-consumer safety compliance amid the COVID-19 outbreak influences a focal consumer’s intention to approach a service establishment. The study also examines the three-way interaction effect of employee compliance, other-consumer compliance and perceived threat associated with COVID-19 on approach intentions.

This study uses an experimental approach with a 2 (employee safety compliance: low vs high) × 2 (other-consumer safety compliance: low vs high) × 2 (consumer perceived threat from COVID-19: low vs high) between-subjects design. Students were trained to recruit a convenience sample of 827 consumers in Qatar and data were analyzed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression.

Employee safety compliance has a positive impact on the consumer’s approach intentions. Employee safety compliance has a bigger impact on approach intentions if other consumers in the service environment are also compliant with safety measures and even a greater effect when the perceived threat from COVID-19 is high. The effect of the interaction between employee and other-consumer safety compliance is significantly different under two levels of perceived threat.

To enhance approach intentions, managers should start by establishing and maintaining safety compliance among employees and then achieving compliance among consumers. Achieving compliance among employees and consumers has a positive impact on approach intentions despite the focal consumer’s perceived risk associated with COVID-19.

This is the first study to investigate how the safety compliance of employees and other consumers jointly affects consumers’ approach intentions during a global pandemic, and it is among very few attempts to manipulate dimensions of the social servicescape.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of perceived threat, brand congruence, and social support on consumer coping strategies for a preventative health service.

An online survey of 570 women aged over 50 in one Australian state was conducted (users and non-users of the service). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

A competing models approach reveals that threat on its own is associated with avoidance coping; however, when brand congruence is high, there is an association with active coping. Social support appears to have a buffering effect on threat and is associated positively with active coping and negatively with avoidance coping.

The study findings suggest that threat appeals should be used with caution in increasing participation in transformative preventative health services due to its double-edged sword effect (increasing both avoidance and active coping). When consumers have social support, this results in active coping and buffers avoidance coping. This research offers useful insights for social marketing and transformative service research.

Reactance theory is applied to investigate consumer responses to “buy local” campaigns initiated by government to counteract the effects of an economic crisis, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an illustrative context.

A conceptual model is developed, aimed at revealing the extent to which “buy local” campaigns – explicitly justified by the need to fight an economic crisis – are likely to lead to (a) compliance (i.e. support for local products/retailers) or (b) freedom restoration (i.e. support for foreign products/retailers). The model is subsequently tested on samples of German (N = 265) and Italian (N = 268) consumers.

“Buy local” campaigns are likely to generate reactance amongst consumers and such reactance can lead to both non-compliance and, albeit less so, freedom restoration outcomes. At the same time, consumer ethnocentrism acts as a countervailing influence by attenuating the effects of generated reactance and its undesirable outcomes.

Psychological reactance theory offers a novel perspective for conceptually approaching the likely responses of consumers towards “buy local” campaigns and the empirical findings support the use of the theory in this context.

Policymakers seeking to encourage consumers to support the local economy during times of an economic crisis need to be aware that “buy local” campaigns may, against their intended communication goals, result in non-compliance as well as consumer responses in the opposite direction. Thus, the reactance-generating potential of such campaigns needs to be explicitly considered at the planning/implementation stage.

The findings confirm the relevance of reactance theory as a conceptual lens for studying the effects of “buy local” campaigns and have important implications for domestic/foreign firms as well as for policy makers seeking to encourage consumers to support the local economy during times of an economic crisis.

This study aims to investigate the psychological process of intertemporal choices between larger-later and smaller-sooner monetary options. Prior research showed consumer impatience – a tendency to prefer a smaller-sooner option over a larger-later option. This research identifies an individual difference that predicts patience and mediators that explain the underlying mechanism.

Two studies are conducted. Study 1 examines whether the implicit theory of intelligence consumers endorse (i.e. entity theory vs incremental theory) constitutes an antecedent of patience and whether their thoughts regarding anticipated purchase with the chosen monetary option (i.e. hedonic versus utilitarian purchase) mediate the relationship. Study 2 analyzes whether psychological reactance toward larger-later options is a mediator in this relationship using a perceived threat to freedom and affect as reactance indicators.

Entity-oriented consumers exhibited less patience than incremental-oriented consumers, especially when anticipating a hedonic purchase. Moreover, entity-oriented consumers perceived a threat to freedom from larger-later options more strongly – this enhanced perception influenced patience through two routes. One route is that the perceived threat to freedom leads to more consideration of a hedonic purchase rather than a utilitarian purchase, thereby decreasing patience. The other route is that the perceived threat to freedom elicits a stronger negative affect, resulting in lower patience.

Findings of this research shed light on the understanding of patience. They demonstrate that consumers’ implicit theory orientation is a crucial individual difference that can explain patience. Also, demonstrating the mediating roles of anticipated purchase using the hedonic/utilitarian classification and psychological reactance expanded literature by showing how they internally interact.

This study examines whether consumers’ receptivity to ethnocentrism‐pitched advertisements differs by country and product category and, if so, why. The two countries surveyed are Australia and India. Australia was chosen as a country where consumers should perceive a high level of foreign threat because it is quite open to foreign products and has a small economy and population. India was chosen as a country where consumers should perceive a low level of foreign threat because it is still tightly closed to foreign products. Findings show that the effectiveness of ethnocentrism‐pitched advertisements differs significantly not only by consumers’ perceptions of foreign threat, but also by consumers’ quality evaluations about domestic products, compared to corresponding foreign ones. Implications for international marketers and domestic manufacturers are discussed.

This paper aims to identify the factors that motivate parents to adopt internet monitoring software (aka parental control software [PCS]) to curb problematic internet usage and safeguard their children online. By doing so, the authors are able to curb problematic internet usage and keep children safe online.

An online survey was conducted using a representative sample of 330 parents in the USA with children ages 10 to 15. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This research combines two theories, namely, technology acceptance model (TAM) and protection motivation theory (PMT) to factors that motivate parents to adopt internet monitoring software to help their children. Perceived severity, perceived vulnerability from PMT and personal innovativeness (PI) from TAM, which is related to self-efficacy and the belief that future technologies will require less effort to adopt, are key factors that influence parents’ perceived usefulness of PCS. Perceived usefulness and PI both positively predict parents’ purchase intention for internet monitoring software.

The study establishes that there are personal, technology and situational factors that motivate the adoption of PCS. These determinants have implications for how marketers identify potential users and how they might improve the promotion of internet monitoring technologies.

The paper extends the application of the technology acceptance model and PMT to predict technology adoption aimed at helping others. Findings show that personal and perceptual factors motivate parents’ adoption of internet monitoring software to curb problematic internet usage and keep children safe online. This paper is the first to combine the technology acceptance model and PMT to explain the adoption of software solutions to protect others online. By doing so, a more thorough account of parents’ technology adoption to protect their children is offered.