Consumer emotions and collaborative consumption: The effect of COVID-19 on the adoption of use-oriented product-service systems

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to widely change how consumers evaluate market offerings. In this research, we identified consumers’ emotions on the adoption of use-oriented Product-Service-Systems (PSS) and the effect of COVID-19 on such emotions using pre- and amid-COVID-19 samples. The results indicate that positive emotions are generally more associated with the process of adopting use-oriented PSS. However, the negative effect of COVID-19 on emotions influencing the decision to use the PSS is significant. We found that during the pandemic, consumers moved from the positive side of emotions to the more negative one. The emotions with the highest frequencies in pre-COVID-19 data collection (sympathy, joy, and peacefulness) suffered a significant descent effect due to the pandemic. Also, negative emotions such as fear, shame, and guilt, which were already present in the pre-COVID-19 phase, showed an increase in manifestations in the amid-COVID-19 sample. COVID-19 has increased self-interest in people, and emotions that predict altruism and concern for society were affected. We also found that previous use experience as well as gender and education do not significantly moderate the effect of COVID-19 on consumption emotions, although these demographic variables have been confirmed in other studies as important moderators in pro-environmental consumption. Finally, the results demonstrated that younger people (between 18 and 24 years old) tend to be more impacted by pandemic. Theoretically, our study contributes (1) by using an emotions scale specifically developed for consumption situations, allowing to assess a greater amount of emotions, (2) by analysing basic emotions, in addition to the self-conscious ones, that interfere in the adoption of use-oriented PSS, and (3) by confirming that an external traumatic event alters consumption-related emotions.