In the mood to buy? Understanding the interplay of mood regulation and congruence in an international context

Literature reports different effects of mood on measures of consumer behavior. Either mood congruence or mood regulation theories serve to explain these effects, though the latter theory is perhaps more sophisticated. This research goes a step further: in a sequence of four studies, the authors consider different products (with and without mood-lifting capabilities) and consumers?? beliefs in the transience of their mood to illuminate the interplay between the two theoretical approaches. Culture (individualism vs. collectivism) emerges as an important driver of mood transience. Mood transience drives the likelihood of mood regulation through the consumption of products with mood-lifting capabilities. Willingness to pay serves as the dependent variable, in contrast with mood research that has focused almost entirely on nonmonetary forms of consumer behavior. Greater willingness to pay variance in bad moods, compared with good moods, offers evidence of the opposing effects of mood congruence and regulation.     

Effects of Mood and Elaboration on Processing and Evaluation of Goal‐Framed Appeals

Two experiments examined the influence of mood and elaboration on consumer processing and evaluation of goal‐framed appeals. Subjects displayed more favorable attitudes and purchase intent (PI) when exposed to negative goal frames than equivalent positive ones. These effects were attenuated under high‐elaboration conditions. Compared to subjects in positive moods, those in negative moods exhibited more favorable thoughts, attitudes, and PI toward negative goal frames. Finally, mood and frame valence did not affect depth of processing but had a consistent impact on style of processing, that is, positive frames and moods induced relational processing whereas negative frames and moods engendered item‐specific processing.     

Illustrating a dynamic model of the mood‐updating process in consumer behavior

Previous research has examined mood as an antecedent of various consumption‐related outcomes and has explored how consumers react to their moods via attempts at self‐regulated consumption‐based mood management. However, little attention has addressed mood as an affective outcome that reflects the dynamic unfolding of consumer experiences over time. The present study explores the latter issue and proposes a model of the mood‐updating process wherein future mood depends on past mood as altered by evaluative judgments that are, in turn, influenced by consumption experiences, by predispositions, and by the previous mood itself. An empirical example illustrates this mood‐updating model in the case of listening to music. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The effect of activity identity fusion on negative consumer behavior

Negative consumer behavior is an important research topic as it explores consumer behaviors that threaten a brand's image and financial stability. However, prior research offers conflicting findings on whether a strong consumer‐brand relationship hurts or protects a brand after a market disruption or a brand transgression. To provide clarity on this issue, this work argues that disrupting the consumer‐activity relationship motivates consumers to reaffirm and protect their identity, thereby leading to negative consumer behavior. The data reveal that, after a brand‐initiated market disruption, consumers with high activity identity fusion are more likely to spread negative word‐of‐mouth, boycott the brand, and avoid repurchasing the brand in the future. Moreover, the data suggest that high brand identity fusion protects the brand during market disruptions; therefore, prior conflicting results may be due to the fact that the consumer‐activity relationship was not accounted for. Theoretically, this work establishes that consumers' relationship with their consumption activities has significant impacts on consumer behavior. Brand managers and marketers are urged to develop strategies that focus on strengthening the consumer‐brand relationship and not the consumer‐activity relationship.     

Let the music play or not: The influence of background music on consumer behavior

This study concerns the effect that music has on consumer behavior in two different retail contexts during regular opening hours. Two studies were conducted in a field setting with consumers (N=550). Consumers were recruited to answer questions regarding behavioral measures, attitudes, and mood during days when background music was played. The conclusions from the two studies are that music affects consumer behavior, but also that the type of retail store and gender influences both the strength and direction of the effect.     

Retail therapy: A strategic effort to improve mood

“Retail therapy” is often applied to the notion of trying to cheer oneself up through the purchase of self‐treats. The negative moods that lead to retail therapy, however, have also been associated with greater impulsivity and a lack of behavioral control. Does this lead to mindless shopping when consumers are “down” and regret later? The current work documents that a bad mood does lead to greater purchase and consumption of unplanned treats for the self. However, it also provides evidence that the consumption of self‐treats can be strategically motivated. Those individuals who do indulge can also exercise restraint if the goal of restraint also leads to improved mood. Finally, retail therapy has lasting positive impacts on mood. Feelings of regret and guilt are not associated with the unplanned purchases made to repair a bad mood. The implications of the research are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Best I Can Be: How Self‐Accountability Impacts Product Choice in Technology‐Mediated Environments

Technology‐mediated environments are important not only as the location for an increasing proportion of purchases, but also as an even more pervasive part of the purchase journey. While most research into online consumer behavior focuses on attitudes as an antecedent of product choice, this article focuses on an important but hardly explored variable that may be impacted by technology‐mediated environments: self‐accountability. Laboratory experiments suggest that self‐accountability may influence online purchases, but this has not been confirmed in field studies. Furthermore, although this prior work suggests that self‐accountability may impact product choice through the elicitation of guilt, the role of positive emotions has not been explored. Using two surveys with online retailers, this paper (a) shows that in a technology‐mediated environment, self‐accountability influences product choice; (b) proposes and confirms a complementary route for this effect through pride that is stronger than that through guilt; and (c) evidences the relationship between self‐accountability and perceived consumer effectiveness. These results show a clear opportunity for digital marketers to encourage self‐accountability, to thereby elicit pride and not just guilt, and hence to impact consumer decision making in technology‐mediated environments, particularly when choices have sustainability implications.     

A Mood-Alleviative Perspective On Self-Gift Behaviours: Stimulating Consumer Behaviour Theory Development

This paper represents an attempt to highlight a novel perspective on consumer behaviour generally and self-gift behaviours specifically. Self-gift behaviours have not been viewed from an explicit mood-alleviative perspective in prior research. This is a strange shortcoming, since mood-alleviative self-gift behaviours have multiple linkages to other consumption phenomena and to consumer behaviour theory development. This paper specifies the contents of these linkages. It aims at demonstrating the relevance of studying mood-alleviative self-gift behaviours and at stimulating theoretical and empirical investigations addressing them by showing a need for developing and enriching the conceptual basis of consumer behaviour related mood research and by providing a general starting point for this. The specification is concluded by outlining directions for future research and delineating managerial implications.     

Mood and persuasion: Evidence for the differential influence of positive and negative states

This article investigated how moods influence reactions to a persuasive communication. Subjects read a magazine article designed to induce a positive, neutral, or negative state, then read and evaluated a communication for which argument quality varied. As in previous research (Worth & Mackie, 1987), argument quality failed to differentially influence attitudes for positive subjects. In contrast, attitudes were more favorable following stronger arguments for neutral and negative subjects. These findings suggest that systematic processing is reduced by positive, but not by negative moods. Discussion focuses on the processes underlying observed relationships, and on selective processing of communications as a means of mood management.     

Five decades of the Journal of Consumer Affairs: A bibliometric analysis

This study presents a retrospective of the Journal of Consumer Affairs (JCA) using bibliographic analysis between 1967 and 2019. The results indicate that both the number of JCA's publications and citations grew markedly over time. The dominant contributors to the journal are authors affiliated with U.S. institutions. Trends show increasing organizational diversity and collaboration among authors. The journal's central themes are consumer perception, consumer behavior, financial behavior, consumer spending patterns, financial literacy, consumer decision‐making processes, and marketing practices. Statistically significant relationships exist between the following article attributes and citations based on our negative binomial regression analysis. Age has a negative association with citations, but the direction of association turns positive when considering non‐linearity. A positive association exists between the number of authors, references, and U.S. affiliation. A negative relationship exists with article order, non‐academic author, top institution affiliation (FT100), funding, lead article, title length, and conceptual article.     

Consumers' mood states: Antecedents and consequences of experiential versus informational strategies for brand choice

The relationship between mood (an affective state variable) and choice strategies that are primarily affective (experiential strategy) or cognitive (informational strategy) is examined with a literature review and an empirical study. Findings suggest consumers in positive moods may be more likely to use an experiential strategy than those in negative moods, and consumers in negative moods may be more likely to use an informational strategy than those in positive moods. Results also suggest consumers in positive moods who use an experiential strategy may have more positive post-processing moods than those who use an informational strategy, and consumers in negative moods who use an informational strategy may have more positive and post-processing moods than those who use an experiential strategy. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are provided.     

eWOM and the importance of capturing consumer attention within social media

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is widely regarded as one of the most influential factors impacting consumer behavior, yet traditional models were constructed oblivious to the potential of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and social media. In particular, very little is known about the dynamics affecting consumer attention within two-way many-to-many mediated environments even though attention constitutes a critical step. Thus, we construct a conceptual framework that grounds consumer attention within a larger progression of behavioral responses to eWOM. We then conduct an experiment (n = 28) that isolates contextual antecedents of attention to positive, negative, and neutral WOM for both luxury and non-luxury brands within a social media platform. Using behavioral eye-tracking, we find that WOM message valence interacts with brand type to affect attention differently. Implications of these findings for facilitating eWOM are discussed with future research directions suggested.     

On being happy and possessive: The interactive effects of mood and personality on consumer judgments

Evaluations of consumer items may often be based on affective reactions, and many marketing strategies rely on affective manipulations to influence a desire of ownership. Surprisingly, there has been relatively little empirical work investigating the influence of short‐term mood states on how people evaluate their material possessions. In particular, the role of individual differences in mediating these effects received little attention. In these two experiments, participants who scored high or low on the Openness to Feelings scale were induced to feel good or bad and were then asked to estimate the subjective and objective value of a variety of consumer items they already owned or wanted to own. Results showed a mood‐congruent pattern. People who were feeling good valued both actual and potential possessions more highly than did people in a negative mood. However, individual differences significantly influenced these effects. People who scored high on the Openness to Feelings scale were most influenced by their moods. In contrast, people who scored low on this measure showed the reverse pattern. The findings are discussed in terms of the psychological mechanisms responsible for producing affect infusion into thinking and judgments, and the critical role of personality variables in mediating these effects is considered. The implications of the findings for contemporary affect‐cognition theories, and for understanding of the variables influencing consumer judgments are discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Impact of Giving on Self and Impact of Self on Giving

Recent research suggests that consumers are spending billions of dollars in interpersonal and self‐gifting and yet, there is limited research regarding the giver's role of self and how this influences the choice of gift. Because self is so intertwined in both types of giving, the research reported here explores if different dimensions of the malleable self will be activated in various gift‐giving contexts, depending upon the receiver and the occasion of the gift. Testing a conceptual model that for the first time combines both types of giving, this research uses three studies to explore how the gift‐giving context can act as a situational cue and make accessible a particular view of the self, namely the giver's gender identity and self‐construal to motivate choice of gift. Results suggest a new paradigm for considering consumer gift behavior and have theoretical and practical implications for advertising, selling, and other marketing contexts.     

The effects of emotion and need for cognition on consumer choice involving risk

Building upon previous research, this article proposes that the effect of mood on risk-taking is moderated by the individual’s need for cognition. The hypothesized effect of mood and the need for cognition are tested with different types of consumer choices in three studies. Consistent with the hypotheses, the results indicate that the subjects in happy mood tend to be risk-aversive while the subjects in sad mood incline to take risks. Furthermore, the mood affects risk-taking behavior more for the low-NFC subjects than for the high-NFC ones. Finally, implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The impact of consumer decision‐making styles on consumer confusion in Mauritius: An empirical analysis

This article investigates the effects of consumer decision‐making styles on consumer confusion and harm. While consumer confusion has been well documented in the literature, this investigation attempts to bridge our understanding on its relationship with consumer decision‐making styles. Empirical data was collected from a field survey where 400 consumers selected at 20 supermarkets in Mauritius were asked to respond to a questionnaire measuring three variables under study: consumer confusion, consumer decision‐making styles, and situational factors. Findings from the MANOVA parametric test showed that there is a significant difference between consumer decision‐making styles and consumer confusion. Even when covariate situational factors were controlled through the parametric test MANCOVA, results still showed a significant difference between consumer decision‐making styles and consumer confusion. More specifically, ANCOVA tests showed that the findings were specifically significant for three types of confusion: product confusion, packaging confusion, and product complexity. The study tends to confirm that a consumer's style of decision making does impact on consumer confusion.     

Affective and Cognitive Components of Attitudes in High‐Stakes Decisions: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Hormone Replacement Therapy Use

Consumers are increasingly encouraged to take charge of high‐stakes decisions such as those regarding medical treatments. However, the important inputs into overall evaluations of risky and important behaviors, such as undergoing medical therapy, are not well understood. The purpose of this research is to study the interplay of cognitive and affective factors in determining consumer attitudes and intentions toward high‐stakes decision behaviors. This is done in the context of consumer choices regarding medical treatments, and specifically, the decision to use (or not to use) hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Overall, both affective and cognitive responses are found to be independent significant predictors of attitude toward HRT use. Moreover, the results support an extended version of the theory of planned behavior model that is useful in predicting consumer's intentions to engage in high‐stakes decision behaviors, such as using HRT. These findings have implications for the design of decision support systems and behavioral change interventions.     

Social identity as a useful perspective for self‐concept–based consumer research

Psychology's study of the self‐concept has generated numerous paradigms with different underlying assumptions. In this article it is argued that these assumptions must be considered before a self‐concept paradigm can be meaningfully applied to consumer research. The major premise in this article is that the recent work on social identity is a particularly meaningful paradigm to adopt for consumer research that implicates the self. This argument is developed with a conceptual discussion of major self‐concept issues, an overview of basic self‐concept paradigms in psychology, and a synthesis of possible factors that may be considered in future theories of social‐identity–based consumption decision making. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Facet metatheoretical approach to advance consumer behavior knowledge

This paper provides an overview of Facet Theory, a systematic approach to facilitate theory construction, research design, and data analysis for complex studies. Facet Theory is appropriate to marketing theories and particularly consumer behavior. In Facet Theory, the definition of the behavioral domain facilitates the rationale for hypothesizing structural relationships among variables employed in a research study. Examples are shown from various areas to illustrate the methods and results of structural analysis using Facet Theory data analysis techniques such as Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), Discrimination Coefficient (DISCO), and Partial Order Scalogram Analysis (POSA). The use of Facet Theory and conceptual tools like the “mapping sentence” and “universe of content,” is shown to provide new insights into existing consumer data. It allows for the diagnosis and discrimination of consumers' behavioral traits and makes the generalization and replication of findings easier. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Factors affecting non‐green consumer behaviour: an exploratory study among Chinese consumers

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that affect a typical non‐green consumption behaviour among Chinese consumers. A conceptual framework was developed and an empirical study was conducted using a geographically diverse sample of Chinese consumers. Based on the consumer choice theory, the conceptual framework in the current study included both economic and non‐economic factors. Ten research hypotheses were developed under the framework. A survey was conducted among 600 consumers in four cities in China in 2013. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used for hypothesis testing. The empirical results showed that consumer preference, reference groups, and face perception have a significantly positive effect on the consumers’ non‐green consumption behaviour; whereas budget constraints and social responsibility consciousness have a significantly negative effect on the consumers’ non‐green consumption behaviour. Furthermore, the current research demonstrated that the relationships between consumer non‐green behaviour and its four antecedents – budget constraint, reference groups, social responsibility consciousness and face perception – are significantly moderated by extravagant atmosphere; whereas the relationship between consumer non‐green behaviour and consumer preference is not moderated by extravagant atmosphere.