Search results

This paper aims to identify two boundary conditions (consumption motive and claim set-size) affecting the effectiveness of an advertisement’s creativity.

Across two experiments, the authors find support for hypotheses using both hedonic vs utilitarian products (Study 1) and hedonic vs utilitarian decision goals within the same product category (Study 2).

Creativity is more effective for an advertisement when the consumption motive is utilitarian (vs hedonic). Further, using a larger claim set-size within an advertisement increases (decreases) the effectiveness of advertisement creativity for those with hedonic (utilitarian) consumption motives.

This research contributes to the creativity literature by showing when creativity matters depending on the consumption motive and claim set-size. In addition, this research expands the utilitarian vs hedonic consumption literature by highlighting another way in which these two motives differ. Finally, this study expands the claim set-size literature by demonstrating that the effects of claim set-size depend on both consumption motive and features of the ad (i.e. its level of creativity).

These findings help marketers manage their advertising budget more effectively and efficiently knowing when advertisement creativity matters and thus when to invest in creativity.

The present research is the first to explicitly study boundary conditions for when ad creativity matters and shows that creativity matters more (i.e. enhances persuasiveness of the ad and attitudes toward the ad) when the consumption motive is utilitarian, especially when ads have small claim set-size. Additionally, creativity matters for hedonic consumption contexts if the advertisement has a large claim size.

Consumers can spend their disposable income on hedonic consumption or save for the future. Their preferences were altered by the prolonged life and livelihood-threatening experiences of the pandemic. This paper aims to study the spillover effect of the pandemic experience on consumer savings attitudes and hedonic purchase preferences in the new normal.

The authors conducted 35 in-depth interviews with consumers in India. The data were analysed thematically.

The results showed that when fear of life and negative emotions of the pandemic persisted, consumers became short-term focused, moved towards materialism and increased hedonic spending. Alternatively, individuals who faced substantial financial hardships resorted to an increased preference for savings. The relationship between changes in savings orientation and hedonic consumption was found to be moderated by consumer's individual differences in financial vulnerability and life history strategies.

As the trend towards increased hedonic consumption and preference for luxury products continues, the study findings can be used to devise effective marketing strategies to tap the emerging segment of mass luxury consumption.

Despite ample work being conducted in the hedonic consumption domain, it has not been studied in conjunction with savings orientation, a significant determinant. This research links personal savings orientation with hedonic spending and substantiates that purchase decisions are cognitively weighted as a choice of discretionary spending against the opportunity to save.

This paper aims to evaluate the relationships among consumer expertise, hedonic orientation, price consciousness, and consumption using wine as the focal product. While these variables' impact on decision making within this industry have been examined in isolation, this is believed to be the first study marrying these hedonic and non‐hedonic characteristics.

Data were collected from a convenience sample of wine purchasers consisting of faculty, staff and upper level students at a major southwestern university using a 95 item questionnaire. In total, 241 usable surveys were included in the analysis.

The findings indicate support for all five hypothesized relationships. The importance of hedonic orientation as a psychographic characteristic emerges. The relationship between expertise and consumption is moderated by hedonic orientation as is the relationship between expertise and price consciousness. Price consciousness mediates the relationship between expertise and consumption, but only for those consumers who have a high hedonic orientation.

The results may not be generalizable across all consumers given the convenience nature of the sample. Additionally only one product category, wine, is included.

This study examines wine consumers' hedonic orientation and its impact on ultimate consumption. Further, this study is also valuable to the field of consumer behavior through development of a scale to capture the dimensions underlying the construct of hedonic orientation. Previous researchers have established profiles of persons who engage in hedonic consumption, but have not assessed an individual's hedonic orientation.

This paper aims to explore the distinctions and similarities about Eudaimonia (a deeper pleasure beyond the hedonic enjoyment) and hedonic enjoyment, especially the influencing factors of Eudaimonia.

Survey and experiment are conducted to obtain the data. Structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis and analysis of variance are used to analyze the data.

Three empirical studies support the idea that Eudaimonia, as a deeper-level pleasure, is a distinct construct from hedonic enjoyment. Like hedonic enjoyment, Eudaimonia can lead to satisfaction. Unlike hedonic enjoyment, Eudaimonia is driven by effort. Moreover, the effort impact on Eudaimonia is enhanced by the uniqueness of the craft task.

This paper shifts hedonic consumption studies from a product-based paradigm (e.g. utilitarian vs hedonic) to an experience-based paradigm (hedonic enjoyment vs Eudaimonia). The extension of pleasure to Eudaimonia domain successfully explains why prior hedonic consumption studies find that pleasure is more than the absence of effort and can be more inspiring than purely sensory.

Hedonic behavior is a well-known phenomenon for tourism activities by the nature of tourism itself. However, there is a possible conflict between the structure of halal tourism and hedonic behavior. This paper aims to investigate the hedonic perception levels of halal-sensitive tourists (HSTs) while questioning their travel motivations.

According to the aim of this study, quantitative approach has been adopted via data gathering within World Halal Summit. A total of 1,123 surveys were gathered face to face from participants. Factor analysis applied to confirm validity of the data set while also running Cronbach alpha test through all dimensions. Also, frequency and mean analyses were applied in addition to t-test for comparing tests.

Results briefly show that HSTs have an average level of perception of hedonism. They also travel once or twice a year for religious, social or environmental reasons which supports the finding about their hedonism perception.

The research is also important in the applied field, especially in terms of decision-makers and supply determinants in destination management. Because if it is determined that the HSTs exhibit a utilitarian consumption, it has a guiding feature for the decision-makers to prefer halal tourism in terms of environmental management in the destination. In terms of the economic sustainability of the research destination or businesses, it also serves as a guide for the supply determinants in their investment activities.

This research is considerably important in terms of putting the HST typology on a conceptual basis in the theoretical field. In the research, it is tested whether the HSTs are hedonic consumers; in other words, whether they comply with the Islamic religious prohibitions. The tendency of HSTs to comply with the prohibitions reveals that they are utilitarian consumers, while halal tourism is a responsible tourism that cares about sustainability.

People express subjectivity and objectivity in everyday communication, yet little is known about how such linguistic content affects persuasion in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Drawing on the congruity theory and the selectivity model, the present study proposes that the effectiveness of subjectivity/objectivity expressions in an online review is contingent on whether the consumption experience is primarily hedonic or utilitarian, and whether the decision maker is a male or female. Furthermore, this study aims to examine the psychological mechanism that underlies the proposed effects.

This research used an experimental design to test the hypotheses. Four versions of online review stimuli were created. Participants were asked to read the online reviews and to complete a survey.

The findings indicate that expressing subjectivity (vs objectivity) in online reviews effectively boosts men’s purchase intention in the hedonic context and women’s purchase intention in the utilitarian context. Furthermore, the mediation analysis reveals that perceived relevance of the review is the psychological mechanism explaining the joint effects of linguistic style, consumption type and gender on purchase intention.

This research is the first to examine expressing subjectivity (vs objectivity) as a persuasion strategy in online reviews. Findings of this research add to the growing literature on linguistic effects in eWOM. Furthermore, this research deepens the understanding of conversational norms for hedonic vs utilitarian consumption in consumer-generated content and gender differences in processing online reviews.

This paper aims to examine two important factors in developing convergence products: the congruence of basic product and the addition in terms of utilitarian or hedonic consumption goals, and the overall coherence of consumption goals. In recent years, the proliferation of convergence products, i.e. any product that combines two or more basic product functionalities in consumer electronics, is increasingly prevalent. For manufacturers, the lingering question in developing convergence products is what kind of basic product functionalities can be combined and can elicit favorable response from consumers.

The study is a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design, with basic product functionality’s consumption goals (utilitarian, hedonic) as the between-subject factor, and the additional product functionality’s consumption goals (utilitarian, hedonic) and the coherence of consumption goals (coherent addition, incoherent addition) as the two within-subject factors.

It confirms and validates prior work on goal congruence effects. More importantly, this study finds that overall consumption goal coherence elicits higher value addition irrespective of goal congruence or incongruence on utilitarian or hedonic consumption goals.

In some literatures, the combination of two or more product functionalities from different product categories is considered as product bundling. While product bundling concept can be used in many different product categories, convergence product concept is utilized more specifically in consumer electronics.

As convergence era offers wide opportunities for manufacturers to develop new convergence products, this study provides guidance as to what kind of new functionalities need to be added.

Not only does the present research investigates the likely success of convergence products involving the congruence of basic product and the addition, but also in more comprehensive way by looking at the overall coherence of consumption goals.

When communicating with consumers, firms frequently highlight their underdog status to evoke a favorable attitude. Previous research has confirmed consumer preference for underdogs over top dogs in various domains. However, very little research has been conducted on the business types and decision contexts in which underdog effects produce the most impact. This paper aims to investigate some of the unexplored boundary conditions of underdog effects and addresses two issues: consumption domain and retail crowding.

Two experiments with a 2 (biography: underdog or top dog) × 2 (consumption domain: hedonic or utilitarian) × 2 (retail crowding: adequately crowded or uncrowded) factorial between-subjects design were conducted to test hypotheses. The two experiments differ in the consumption domains and the approaches used to depict crowding conditions. Furthermore, the first experiment targeted college students and the second experiment targeted online consumer panels across various age groups.

Underdog effects were more easily evoked when the consumption domain was more hedonic than utilitarian. In addition, retail crowding was an informational cue for judging acceptance of underdog businesses and enhanced the evaluation when the retail environment was adequately crowded rather than uncrowded. This role of crowding was also evident for top-dog businesses when consumers perceived high risk in the businesses.

This is the first study to distinguish between hedonic and utilitarian consumption domains with underdog effects and to demonstrate a positive effect of crowding as an informational cue, indicating acceptance by other consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to further examine the mediation mechanism to account for the influence of brand experience on brand loyalty by integrating the experiential view of consumption and the appraisal theory of emotion.

An onsite interview survey was conducted in 21 stores of four service brands: Burger King, Cold Stone Creamery, McDonald’s and Starbucks Coffee. Confirmatory factor analysis is used for assessing validity and reliability. Structural equation modeling is used for examining construct relationships.

Brand awareness/associations, perceived quality and hedonic emotions mediate the relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty. Hedonic emotions play a powerful mediation role. Moreover, it is the experiential view of consumption rather than the appraisal theory of emotion that plays a dominant role in accounting for the influence of brand experience on brand loyalty.

This research extends previous studies on the relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty by adding hedonic emotions as a powerful affective mediator. Our research also contributes to practitioners by providing strategies for experiential marketing.

Past research on cause-related marketing (CRM) suggests that these socially beneficial initiatives are more effective when linked with hedonic than utilitarian products. Little is known, however, about the process underpinning this effect. This paper aims to investigate why and under what circumstances CRM enhances the appeal of hedonic products by testing the mediation of guilt and introducing the moderating role of cause-product fit.

The authors test a model of moderated mediation in two studies. Study 1 shows that the effectiveness of combining CRM with hedonic consumption is explained by the mediating role of feelings of guilt. Study 2 demonstrates that this mediation depends on the level of fit or congruency between the cause and the product.

Results suggest that CRM campaigns offer the opportunity to improve the consumption experiences of hedonic products by reducing the feelings of guilt intrinsically connected with these options. Moreover, fit moderates the emotional processes activated by CRM initiatives. When fit is high, CRM reduces guilt and improves consumers’ experiences when purchasing hedonic alternatives.

The study extends current understanding of how CRM can promote hedonic consumption and contributes further to research on guilt as an emotion able to promote responsible consumption decisions. Moreover, the study introduces and tests the impact of cause-product fit in predicting consumers’ ethical purchase intention. For managers of hedonic brands, the study offers important implications on how to deploy CRM campaigns to foster better customer experiences.