Rethinking the elderly consumers’ motivational shifts: the roles of time perception and goal orientation

Abstract

The market for elderly consumers is expanding fast as the elderly population is increasing rapidly. Subsequently, the understanding of how elderly consumers perceive and make judgments of new information is becoming important for both academia and practitioners. This research investigates how goal orientation moderates the effect of time perception on elderly consumers’ attitudes toward a new product. Two experimental studies show that elderly consumers with prevention goal orientation exhibit a higher brand attitude when they receive information through a rational (vs. emotional) message regardless of their time perception. However, those with promotion goal orientation and those whose goal orientation is not triggered show a higher attitude toward an emotional message when they have limited time perception but a reversed pattern when they have open-ended time perception. The level of concrete mindset is shown to be the underlying mechanism driving the effect. The findings of this research provide meaningful insights into how elderly consumers understand and evaluate new information and new products, which can be incorporated into strategic decisions.