Controllability and consumers' preference for sad and happy esthetic stimuli when feeling sad

Drawing on the coping and emotion regulation literature, we argue that when consumers feel sad after a failure, their relative preference for sad (vs. happy) esthetic stimuli is a function of controllability or the extent to which the responsible party have control over the cause of the failure. Specially, when feeling sad, consumers' preference for sad (vs. happy) esthetic stimuli will increase (decrease) with controllability because sad esthetic stimuli facilitate approach-oriented coping by maintaining consumers' attention toward the failure that elicits their sadness while happy esthetic stimuli facilitate avoidance-oriented coping by diverting their attention away from the failure. The findings of four experiments provide evidence supporting the hypothesized effect of controllability on consumers' preference for sad (vs. happy) esthetic stimuli, and the predicted mediating role of attention deployment (toward the failure vs. away from the failure) in explaining the effect.     

Online personalized recommended product quality and e-impulse buying: A conditional mediation analysis

Consumer lifestyle and purchasing behavior have been significantly transformed over the past few years. At present, internet technologies make it possible for consumers to order goods and services on a go or in real-time without physically visiting traditional store outlets. This phenomenon calls for a change in marketing strategy to be able to reach consumers wherever they are. Accordingly, online marketing techniques such as personalized product/service recommendation, which makes products available to consumers, optimizing their interests and buying experience, are primal to market development.Therefore, this study examines whether or not online consumers' (1) E-impulse buying (EIB) behavior is influenced by personalized recommended product quality (RPQ), (2) affective image (IMAGE) of, and satisfaction (SAT) with recommended products mediate the RPQ-EIB link, and (3) online review stimulus (ORS) moderated the direct RPQ-EIB and indirect PRQ-EIB through affective image and satisfaction. Data was collected from consumers on five (5) online shops in China (N = 947). The Results showed that (i) RPQ had significant positive influence on EIB, (ii) the RPQ-EIB relation was partly explained by consumers' affective image of, and satisfaction with recommended products, and (iii) the direct and indirect relations between RPQ and EIB were sensitive to consumers’ ORS. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations and direction for future studies were also discussed in this study.