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1 – 10 of 202
Article
Publication date: 12 August 2019

Atul Kulkarni, Xin Cindy Wang and Hong Yuan

This paper aims to examine the unintended negative effect of incentivizing shoppers to make unplanned purchases through incentive reminders during shopping trips.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the unintended negative effect of incentivizing shoppers to make unplanned purchases through incentive reminders during shopping trips.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experimental studies with between-subject designs were conducted to examine the effect of incentive reminders and related factors on abandonment intention.

Findings

When the search for unplanned purchases needed to reach promotional threshold fails, shoppers’ propensity to abandon a transaction increases if they are reminded of an incentive during their shopping trip. When the size of the planned purchases is relatively larger than the incentivized unplanned purchases, abandonment propensity is higher in response to reward type incentives, whereas when the size of the planned purchases is relatively smaller than the incentivized unplanned purchases, abandonment propensity is higher in response to avoidance type incentives.

Research limitations/implications

This research intersects and integrates several research domains, specifically transaction abandonment, promotional reactance, unplanned purchases and promotion framing.

Practical implications

Findings from this research help managers understand the possible negative consequences of incentive reminders and offer suggestions for decreasing shopper propensities to abandon transactions in response to incentive reminders aimed at increasing transaction sizes.

Originality/value

This is the first study to highlight (i) the possible effect of incentive reminders on transaction abandonment; (ii) the influence of the size of unplanned purchases and incentive types on abandonment; and (iii) the underlying roles of perceived value of planned purchases and fairness perceptions in abandonment.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 36 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 June 2022

Astha Sanjeev Gupta and Jaydeep Mukherjee

COVID-19 pandemic-related Government restrictions on the movement of people resulted in consumers moving away from retail outlets. However, sporadic instances of an unexpected…

Abstract

Purpose

COVID-19 pandemic-related Government restrictions on the movement of people resulted in consumers moving away from retail outlets. However, sporadic instances of an unexpected surge in retail buying happened across the world immediately after the lifting of such restrictions. This uncommon phenomenon, termed revenge buying, offered an opportunity to revive retail businesses. This paper applies Reactance Theory (RCT) and Self-determination Theory (SDT) to model consumers' revenge buying intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected from 384 respondents in India using validated scales. The study used structural equation modelling for model testing.

Findings

COVID-19 restrictions resulted in autonomy need frustration in consumers, which induced psychological reactance and perceived stress. Psychological reactance positively impacted, while perceived stress negatively impacted revenge buying intentions. Thus, revenge buying was observed only when the psychological reactance was more than perceived stress.

Research limitations/implications

This study, conducted in only one country with a limited convenience sample, limits the generalizability of findings.

Originality/value

This research model the psychological consequences of need frustration to explain the sporadic incidences of revenge buying in retail outlets. Further, it proposes sales recovery strategies for retailers in the immediate post-pandemic market scenarios. Retailers' strategies should focus on alleviating stress and anxiety because of health concerns, highlighting the retail buying experience to stimulate the need to visit the outlet and positioning retail buying as a potential reactance response by consumers.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 50 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 April 2022

Basak Denizci Guillet, Anna S. Mattila, Zixi (Lavi) Peng and Yixing (Lisa) Gao

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of timing and framing of hotel’s upselling message on consumer attitudes toward the message. The mediating role…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of timing and framing of hotel’s upselling message on consumer attitudes toward the message. The mediating role of reactance between the timing of upselling message and consumer attitudes is also explored.

Design/methodology/approach

A 2 (timing: immediately after the booking vs one week prior to arrival) by 2 (framing: concrete vs abstract) experimental design was used. A total of 250 Chinese consumers were recruited and were randomly exposed to a hotel online upselling scenario. The consumer attitudes and reactance were measured.

Findings

When the framing of upselling message involves specific room attributes, consumers show more favorable attitudes when receiving the promotion one week prior to arrival (vs immediately after the booking). However, when the framing of upselling message involves price, consumer attitudes do not differ across the time of receiving the promotion. Reactance mediates the effect of message timing on consumer attitudes when the message framing involves specific room attributes.

Practical implications

This research suggests that hotel managers should offer concrete message framing that includes specific room attributes at the time proximal to consumers’ arrival to increase acceptance of online room upselling. In addition, it is important for hotel managers to take consumers’ reactance into consideration when developing an online upselling strategy.

Originality/value

Research on online hotel room upselling is scant. This study adds to the upselling literature by examining the joint influence of timing and framing of upselling promotions on consumer attitudes toward such messages. Furthermore, this study extends our understanding of the role of reactance in the online upselling process.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 34 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 June 2023

Miyuri Shirai

This study aims to investigate the psychological process of intertemporal choices between larger-later and smaller-sooner monetary options. Prior research showed consumer…

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 40 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2021

Nancy H. Brinson and Brian C. Britt

One of the most effective tools used by interactive marketers is personalized advertising, which allows consumers to directly respond to customized offers to purchase a brand’s…

Abstract

Purpose

One of the most effective tools used by interactive marketers is personalized advertising, which allows consumers to directly respond to customized offers to purchase a brand’s products and services. Yet, recent studies show many consumers are installing ad blockers to avoid personalized ads. This study aims to examine how ad skepticism, ad relevance and ad irritation predict ad avoidance directly, as well as indirectly through consumers’ attitudes toward personalized advertising. Also, considered were how these antecedents’ study in tandem to trigger consumers’ desire to avoid ads by installing ad-blocking software.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was administered to a pool of 1,313 paid panelists who were familiar with ad blocking and reported that they either currently used an ad blocker, previously used an ad blocker, were considering using an ad blocker or did neither use nor were they considering using an ad blocker. All hypotheses were addressed via path modeling using PROC CALIS in SAS 9.4.

Findings

Results indicate that attitudes toward personalized advertising are more complex than attitudes toward advertising in general and mediate the effect of ad relevance on ad avoidance. Likewise, trust in interactive marketers moderates attitude toward personalized advertising and the negative outcomes of ad avoidance and ad blocker usage among skeptical consumers. Also, the reported differences in ad avoidance based on participants’ current vs previous ad blocker usage suggest that former users are using a more sophisticated evaluation of the costs and benefits of using ad blockers.

Practical implications

Consumers’ trust in an interactive marketer to properly collect and use their information plays an important role in moderating negative outcomes associated with personalized advertising. Also, the key is the use of high-quality data (best obtained through a permission-based relationship with the consumer) to deliver relevant ads without stimulating reactance or (privacy-related) boundary turbulence. Findings suggest that bolstering trust by engaging in a transparent, permission-based relationship with consumers may mitigate the tendency to adopt ad blockers and enhance the effectiveness of interactive marketing efforts.

Originality/value

Ad blocking presents a significant threat to the effectiveness of interactive marketing efforts like personalized advertising. Previous research on the antecedents of ad blocking is limited, considers a broad range of factors and offers mixed findings. The present study examines an informed set of cognitive and affective factors suggested by previous ad blocking studies to predict consumers’ desire to avoid personalized ads by installing ad-blocking software. Given the continued threat to the interactive marketing industry posed by ad blocking, a greater understanding of consumers’ motivations to adopt and use ad blockers is critical.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 October 2023

Michela Matarazzo, Adamantios Diamantopoulos and Andreas Raff

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…

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

“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.

Research limitations/implications

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.

Practical implications

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 40 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 August 2019

Fanny Fong Yee Chan

The purpose of this study contributes to literature on marketing communications by empirically contrasting the effectiveness of a new form of covert promotions (product placement…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study contributes to literature on marketing communications by empirically contrasting the effectiveness of a new form of covert promotions (product placement in recipes) and an overt promotion (traditional advertisement). The mediating role of perceived believability of promotional materials and the moderating roles of advertising skepticism and brand awareness were examined based on a conceptual model.

Design/methodology/approach

A Web-based experiment with 2 (form of promotion: overt versus covert) × 2 (brand awareness: low versus high) between-subjects full factorial design was used. A public sample of 537 participants had participated in the study. The conceptual model was further tested on 106 participants using stimuli of a fictitious brand.

Findings

A two-stage moderated mediation analysis shows that the perceived believability of promotional materials was a significant mediator of the form of promotion and brand evaluations. Consumers showed a higher level of believability toward covert promotion, which, in turn, led to more positive evaluations of the promoted brand. Advertising skepticism and brand awareness were found to significantly moderate the relationship between form of promotion and attitudes toward the promoted brands. A similar pattern of results was obtained when stimuli of a fictitious brand were used.

Originality/value

This research addresses an important issue in marketing communication and extends the understanding of the perception of overt and covert promotions by examining the underlying mediating and moderating variables, which have rarely been explored before. The results guide marketers in developing effective marketing communication strategies for well-known, less well-known and even new brands. It also directs policymakers to consider whether integrated branded content in recipes should be disclosed to protect consumers from surreptitious promotions, which may help to lower consumers’ skepticism toward advertising in the long run.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 August 2007

Mark Wendlandt and Ulf Schrader

Although relationship marketing has developed into the prevailing marketing paradigm, it frequently encounters resistance from the demand side. Both management practitioners and…

10075

Abstract

Purpose

Although relationship marketing has developed into the prevailing marketing paradigm, it frequently encounters resistance from the demand side. Both management practitioners and academics indicate that at least some consumers show reactance against loyalty programs, i.e. against tactical instruments of relationship marketing. Nevertheless, relationship marketing has widely neglected reactance theory. This paper attempts to close this gap.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the fundamental principles of loyalty programs and reactance theory the paper presents a set of hypotheses on the determinants and effects of situational consumer reactance against loyalty programs. It tests these hypotheses on the basis of 388 face‐to‐face interviews with bookstore customers. These interviews include a between‐subject manipulation on the reactance effect of economic, social‐psychological, and contractual bonding potentials. To test the proposed hypotheses, the paper applies structural equation modeling with PLS.

Findings

As expected, contractual bonds provoked reactance effects, while social‐psychological bonds neither increased reactance, nor the perceived utility of the program. Economic bonds raised perceived utility up to a certain threshold level, from which the reactance effect dominated thereafter.

Practical implications

As a consequence, a cautious and limited application of customer loyalty programs is advisable. The developed consumer reactance scale can help managers to evaluate the effects of planned or implemented customer retention measures.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt to investigate situational reactance in a loyalty program setting.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 24 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 May 2021

Xiaohan Hu and Kevin Wise

The playable ad is a new type of digital advertising that combines interactivity with gamification. Guided by psychological reactance theory, this study aims to explore the…

1559

Abstract

Purpose

The playable ad is a new type of digital advertising that combines interactivity with gamification. Guided by psychological reactance theory, this study aims to explore the psychological processes and effects of playable ads on consumers’ perceived control and product attitudes.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducted two experiments to examine the relationship between playable ads, perceived control and product attitude. This paper also applied psychological reactance theory and investigated whether perceived control triggered by the interactive features of playable ads influenced psychological reactance toward them.

Findings

Findings from two experiments show that playable ads, compared to video ads, increased consumers’ perceived control, which, in turn, led to more positive attitudes toward the advertised products (Studies 1 and 2). This study also supports psychological reactance theory by revealing that increased perceived control diminished perceived freedom threat and subsequently alleviated consumers’ psychological reactance toward advertising messages (Study 2).

Originality/value

This study sheds light on the effectiveness of a new type of ad-game integration – playable ads. Different from prior research in gamification of advertising, this paper examined the effectiveness of playable ads in an information processing context in which the ads were not the primary task to focus on. This study also extends psychological reactance theory in the context of interactive marketing by exploring the effect of perceived control afforded by digital message features in mitigating reactance.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 November 2022

Miyuri Shirai

This study aims to examine consumers’ responses to two types of loyalty programs: coalition and single-firm programs. This study explains the mechanism underlying the link between…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine consumers’ responses to two types of loyalty programs: coalition and single-firm programs. This study explains the mechanism underlying the link between this program structure and consumers’ program evaluation by incorporating the type of firm offering the program (i.e. a more hedonic or a more utilitarian disposition), the type of rewards (i.e. presence/absence of experiential rewards) and consumers’ reactance.

Design/methodology/approach

Two online experiments were employed to test the proposed framework.

Findings

Consumers commonly preferred a coalition program to a single-firm program. This preference for the coalition program was strengthened when a utilitarian-dominant firm offered the program. Additionally, consumers evaluated the program lower when a utilitarian-dominant firm provided experiential rewards. Furthermore, situational reactance toward the program mediated the effect of the program structure on the program evaluation.

Practical implications

This study’s findings suggest that firms should consider whether the value consumers predominantly perceive from the firms is utilitarian or hedonic when launching coalition programs. Consumers may not be pleased by the coalition programs offered by hedonic-dominant firms as much as those provided by utilitarian-dominant firms. Moreover, this study’s results help design reward options. Consumers may not well evaluate the inclusion of experiential rewards when offered by utilitarian-dominant firms. For utilitarian-dominant firms, rewards requiring less time and effort may be more suitable.

Originality/value

This research significantly contributes to the literature on loyalty programs. This study showed that consumers viewed single-firm and coalition programs differently and elucidated the mechanism behind the response.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 37 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

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