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The purpose of this paper is to examine differences among fashion trendsetting groups in money attitudes and consumer tendency to regret (CTR).

Students completed questionnaires containing demographic items and scales measuring money attitudes (power/prestige, quality, anxiety and distrust), CTR (CTR^purchase, CTR^{not purchase}) and trendsetting. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s α, M/ANOVA and SNK post hoc test.

Participants lowest in trendsetting scored lower in power/prestige than earlier adopters. Trendsetters scored higher in quality and anxiety than later adopters. Trendsetters scored higher in CTR^{not purchase} but not in CTR^purchase. Participants higher (vs lower) in CTR^purchase scored higher in power/prestige, distrust and anxiety but not in quality. Participants higher (vs lower) in CTR^{not purchase} scored higher in power/prestige, quality and anxiety but not in distrust.

Generalization of results is limited because the college student sample was not representative of the general population of consumers.

Many retailer sales tactics are designed to pressure consumers to buy and buy now – thus raising consumers’ level of anxiety. Retailers might benefit from strategies to reduce consumers’ negative emotions (e.g. anxiety, distrust) and to encourage attention to positive social or personal benefits of products.

Results extend cognitive dissonance theory and the post-purchase evaluation model by finding differences among fashion trendsetter groups in post-purchase evaluation and money attitudes. No prior research has explored CTR and money attitudes among fashion trendsetter groups.

The purpose of this paper is to study the drivers of service provider switching intention other than satisfaction and, additionally, analyse the moderating role of the type of service (utilitarian vs hedonic). Specifically, the authors study the effects of alternative attractiveness, post-purchase regret, anticipated regret and past switching behaviour.

A representative survey with 800 consumers of mobile phone services (utilitarian) and holiday destinations (hedonic) was carried out.

Satisfaction is not a significant antecedent of switching intention in the hedonic service and its effect is marginal in the utilitarian service. In the utilitarian service, the main predictor of switching intention is post-purchase regret, whereas in the hedonic service, the main determinants of switching intention are past switching behaviour and anticipated regret.

The main contribution of this study is the analysis of the determinants of provider switching behaviour that may explain abandonment by satisfied customers, to see if their influence is greater or smaller than that of satisfaction itself, which has been the most analysed variable. Furthermore, there are expected to be differences between utilitarian and hedonic services, an aspect which is also studied in this work.

Due to product value uncertainty, consumers do not know the product matching rate before they get the product, which is the probability of product fitness. Taking the consumers’ anticipated regret into account, this paper aims to develop a theoretical model to explore how the anticipated regret affects pricing and advertising decisions and profits of retailers in the online to offline (O2O) supply chain.

This paper considers an O2O supply chain consisting of an e-retailer and a brick-and-mortar retailer; both retailers cooperate to provide buying online and pick up in-store (BOPS) for consumers.

It shows three major findings. Retailers should decide whether to introduce BOPS channel according to the matching rate of the product when the BOPS channel is not very convenient for consumers. When the BOPS channel does not exist in the market, the profits of two retailers increase with the online regret of consumers, while the BOPS channel exists in the market and the matching rate of the product is low, the higher offline regret can enable both retailers to increase the profits; furthermore, when the matching rate is high, the higher degree of online regret can bring more profit to the O2O supply chain. Therefore, both retailers can take measures together to induce consumers’ regrets according to the different matching rates, which makes both retailers obtain more profits. Counterintuitively, consumer surplus will not always increase due to consideration of anticipated regret.

The model has some limitations that are worth further discussing. First, in practice, the O2O supply chain includes many forms except the BOPS channel, for example, order online and pick-up in-store (ROPS) channel; future research can discuss and consider the impact of consumers’ anticipated regret on ROPS. Second, the authors consider that O2O is a supply chain composed of two retailers. In reality, there is also a situation where an oligopoly retailer opens two channels to realize O2O supply chain, in the case the inventory decision-making of the product is worth studying. Finally, to highlight the impact of the anticipated regret on consumers’ decision-making, the return of the product is not considered. Future research can take the return of the product into account to assess the robustness of the results.

The contributions are in two main aspects. First, this paper considers an O2O supply chain with consumer value uncertainty, where there are duopoly retailers in the market and most of the existing literature focus on oligopoly retailer operates both online and offline channels; meanwhile, consumers’ value perceptions of the product is deterministic. Second, this paper explores how the consumer anticipated channel regret affects the pricing and advertising decisions of O2O supply chain, and the authors take behavioral theory into account when studying omnichannel operations, while most studies on anticipated regret consider traditional two-stage price reduction management, product innovation, etc.

The purpose of this paper is to assess how regret affects consumer satisfaction levels, extent of rumination, and brand‐switching intention. The paper also seeks to examine any mediating effects between regret and rumination that can be found due to consumers' negative emotions.

A purchase‐decision scenario was presented to 125 undergraduate students. A between‐subjects experimental design was conducted and structural equation modelling was utilized to evaluate the model fit.

The results indicate that regret decreases consumer satisfaction level and increases brand‐switching intention. Negative emotion was found to demonstrate an indirect effect between regret and extent of rumination. The findings also suggest that negative emotion acts as a partially mediating variable between the effect of satisfaction levels on extent of rumination and the effect of regret on satisfaction levels.

This study emphasizes the importance of post‐purchase consumer satisfaction. Marketers must pay particular attention to both regret and negative emotion toward purchase decisions. By understanding how specific recourse can be taken to mitigate regret, negative emotions, and ruminative thinking, firms can potentially enhance a brand's image and instil brand loyalty.

This research further validates existing research regarding regret and consumption, while introducing the concept of rumination into the marketing literature. Marketers will have a better understanding of how regret, negative emotions, and rumination can play a role in post‐purchase consumption behaviours.

This study aims to distinguish two regret conditions, other-blame regret (O-regret) and self-blame regret (S-regret), and investigate the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between regret and negative word of mouth (NWOM).

Four experiments and one survey study test hypotheses regarding how O-regret and S-regret influence NWOM through mediating mechanism of anger and sadness and how the impact of regret on NWOM is moderated by boundary conditions.

The results show that consumers who experience O-regret transmit more NWOM than those who experience S-regret. Anger is a dominant emotion when consumers experience O-regret and mediates the impact of regret on NWOM, and sadness is a dominant emotion when consumers experience S-regret and mediates the impact of regret on NWOM. In addition, purchased price (full vs discount price), regret context (private vs public context) and return policy (strict vs lenient policy) are found to moderate the effect of regret on NWOM.

This study was conducted in China, which has a unique business environment that may differ from other countries. Therefore, this research opens a new avenue to further examine such a phenomenon in countries where a more lenient return policy is a standard business practice. Cross-nation studies comparing how different return policies and other business environment conditions are warranted in future research.

The study provides several insights for marketers considering the management of NWOM by understanding consumer O-regret and S-regret in either online or offline retailing situations.

This paper contributes to the extant literature by distinguishing different outcome regrets. The theoretical conceptualization and empirical findings shed further lights on the relationship between regret and other negative emotions and how O-regret and S-regret lead to different impacts on NWOM through different paths of mediation mechanism.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate post-purchase regret and its relationships with complaint and risk aversion in a four-dimensional framework.

Using 548 effective samples, this study employed structural equation modeling to test proposed hypotheses.

Based on levels of perceived self-responsibility, post-purchase regret due to forgone alternatives, under consideration and over consideration was positively associated with customer complaining, whereas post-purchase regret due to significance change exhibited no such correlation. Moreover, a higher level of risk aversion increased the effect of utilitarian motivation on post-purchase regret due to over consideration but decreased this effect on post-purchase regret due to under consideration.

First, regret can positively influence consumer complaints. Next, consumers are unlikely to complain to third parties unless they experience strong action regret. Finally, risk aversion can alleviate or reinforce the effect of utilitarian motivation on regret. Future research could examine the customer group who feel less or no regret of their purchases to contribute to regret theory.

To reduce regret among such consumers, marketers are advised to apply precision marketing techniques to reach their target consumers. Second, to forestall customer regret due to forgone alternatives, sellers should proactively provide target buyers with information regarding their products and those of competing brands. Third, another method of minimizing regret is to ensure that consumers’ risk-aversion activities are effective.

This study empirically demonstrated a multidimensional scale of regret to illuminate the multicausal role of regret in relation to consumers’ complaining and risk-aversion behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight regarding the impact of consumer regret on shopping in mall kiosks and its relationship with consumer variety‐seeking tendencies.

Two experimental studies are carried out with students and consumers.

Findings of the two studies show that variety and regret play an important role in mall kiosk shopping. Both studies show that individual variety‐seeking tendencies naturally stimulate consumers' search for retailers that allow them additional options (i.e. kiosk retailers that provide higher perceived variety) in comparison with those who only offer minimal assortment sizes.

Mall kiosks are becoming an increasingly common avenue for the release of innovative products and quick entry into the retail market. These outlets have not been studied through academic research and experimentation, and this paper introduces the importance of consumer decision making in such environments.

Considering the findings of this research, it is in the best interest of retailers to minimize the perception of risk involved in purchases at mall kiosk retailers. For example, kiosk retailers should work toward creating service environments where consumers feel a sense of control, as this should help mitigate some of the perceived risks in those retailers.

This paper relates two constructs (regret and variety), which have proven to be very important in e‐tail and retail shopping, to show how they can minimize consumer's perceived risk during a shopping experience.

All previous research seldom considered the proliferation process from the perspective of consumers or from a negative perspective to examine the desire for revenge and negative word of mouth (WOM) caused by deficiencies in innovative products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ subsequent behaviors after they have outward and inward negative emotions such as anger and regret. The objective of this study is to explore the different effects of customers’ anger and regret on desire for revenge and negative WOM.

This research uses structural equation modeling to analyze 226 samples.

The results showed that regret has significant and positive effects on desire for revenge and negative WOM but anger has only a significant and positive effect on desire for revenge. Moreover, desire for revenge has a significant and positive effect on negative WOM. In addition, the desire for revenge plays a crucial mediator between anger and negative WOM as well as regret and negative WOM.

Corporations can use tangled emotions among consumers to predict the development of the desire for revenge and immediately implement remedies for deficiencies to prevent consumers from developing the desire for revenge and spreading negative WOM regarding the corporation or product, or engaging in other revenge behaviors. Corporations can easily detect and prevent the path between anger and revenge behaviors simply based on the desire for revenge. In contrast to the outward negative behavior that is anger, regret is implicit and internal.

This study explored two negative emotions of affect (anger and regret) based on affection and conation/action of the tricomponent attitude model and their different effects on consumers’ revenge behaviors such as desire for revenge and negative WOM. The contributions of this research are to clarify the different relationships between outward negative emotion (anger) and desire for revenge/negative WOM as well as inward negative emotion (regret) and desire for revenge/negative WOM.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a consumer’s intention to purchase a premium or luxury product influences the anticipated regret and guilt.

A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design (label: premium versus luxury × prior event: success versus failure × product type: hedonic versus utilitarian) on guilt and regret was implemented.

Following a successful event, the anticipated regret and guilt are lower for a hedonic product compared to a primarily utilitarian one. The effect was valid when the consumers were looking to buy both luxury and premium. In a situation following a failure, the anticipated levels of regret and guilt were lower for a product that was primarily utilitarian in nature; however, this effect only appeared when the participants were looking to buy both luxury and not premium.

People may feel more licensed to indulge in a hedonic premium or luxury product after a success and more licensed to indulge in a utilitarian luxury product after a failure.

The results can be used to understand how to optimize a marketing message of indulgence whether or not one deserves it.

The study provides novel insight into how anticipated guilt and regret may be evoked by the goal of buying a premium versus luxury product in combination with the product type and a consumer’s experience of a prior event.

Weight loss services feature high consumer involvement that is sometimes marked by repetitive failures. These features can affect regret and its associated factors differently from the way that discrete failure can. The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer regret over repetitive failures in weight loss services as well as its antecedents (overeating and insufficient exercise), consequences (rumination and reflection) and moderators (failure experiences and required effort). This study also investigates how rumination and reflection affect persistence intention.

A total of 318 samples were collected through three surveys, one of which contained a scenario, provided to consumers who experienced repetitive failures in weight loss. The proposed relationships were tested using structural equation modeling, dominance analysis and PROCESS modeling.

The results of this study reveal that overeating contributes to regret more saliently than does insufficient exercise. The effect of regret on rumination (thoughts about continuing to blame oneself and giving up the pursuit of goals) is stronger than on reflection (thoughts about learning from prior failures and willingness to try again), and greater reflection results in higher persistence intention. Moreover, the effect of insufficient exercise on regret and the effect of regret on rumination are augmented with cumulative failure experiences, whereas required effort enhances the impact of regret on reflection.

This study is the first to focus on regret over repetitive failures in weight loss. It advances the literature by clarifying the antecedents and consequences of regret, showing how failure experiences influence the relationships between regret and its associated factors as well as identifying interventions that benefit from regret.