Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has become an important global contagion that requires workers to implement necessary behaviours to cope. Based on the conservation of resources theory, the present studies explore the effects of unneeded consumption behaviour on consumers’ recovery level and work engagement and the moderated mediating process of such relationships. Using a purchasing experiment, study 1 examined the positive effect of unneeded consumption behaviour on recovery among 100 MBA students. Using the experience sampling method, the data in study 2 were collected from 115 consumers (employees) using ten iterations of 2-day continual questionnaires (Sunday and the following Monday) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from multilevel structural equation modelling indicate that unneeded consumption behaviour positively impacts work engagement in a moderated mediating mode. Consumer indulgence positively moderates the mediating effect of recovery level on the relationship between indulgent consumption behaviour and work engagement, while perceived consumer effectiveness negatively moderates the mediating effect of recovery level. This paper also identifies the value of transformation from consumption to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
During the COVID-19 pandemic and community lockdown, most workers had to work from home, and their consumption choices were limited
For high-perceived effectiveness consumers, unneeded consumption behaviour tends to violate their ingrained tendency, demonstrating the uncontrolled nature of their behaviour. This decreased sense of control can weaken some recovery effects that may be experienced from the enjoyment of unneeded consumption behaviour. Combining such a relationship with the mediating effect of unneeded consumption behaviour on work engagement through recovery, the present study suggests that perceived consumer effectiveness may attenuate such indirect beneficial effects because recovery tends to lead to gains for resources and enjoying positive emotions in work engagement
We do not know at what point the beneficial effect of unneeded consumption behaviour on recovery level can be generalised to other situations; perhaps such an effect is more likely to emerge in high indulgence situations, like at amusement parks, where consumers may believe that redundant consumption is dispensable
Summary
During the COVID-19 pandemic and community lockdown, most workers had to work from home, and their consumption choices were limited. At times, they would be permitted a brief amount of time to purchase necessary products and would often buy unnecessary items. They would be permitted a brief amount of time to purchase necessary products and would often buy unnecessary items Why have these phenomena spread in the nationwide lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic?. A consumer wants to enjoy the purchasing process to relieve stress despite their budget and the necessary quantities required as high income and consumption inertia is in effect
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