Purchase Context Research Articles

Seeking consistency between planning orientation and situational purchase mindset

AbstractThe research applies consistency theory to investigate how planning orientation, planner, or reactor combines with situational purchase mindsets. The results of three studies reveal that (i) consistency between planning orientation and situational mindset fosters more action responses in terms of number of stores one intends to visit or actually visited; (ii) when inconsistency is experienced, action responses are fewer because the consumer seeks to resolve inconsistencies by consulting others to help build consensus toward one emerging purchase decision alternative; (iii) the findings depend upon whether the purchase context is hedonic or utilitarian for the planner but not for the reactor; and (iv) the impulsive scenario reverses the predictions of consistency theory. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The legibility of food package information in France: an equal challenge for young and elderly consumers?

The present study investigated whether food package information is legible in a real purchase context; more specifically, it examined the level of legibility of non-mandatory, mandatory and nutritional information as well as the influence of age on legibility. This is an important issue, especially for older consumers who are usually advised to pay attention to their diet. An in-store study was conducted in a French hypermarket. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the overall level of legibility and then ANOVA tests were carried out to examine the influence of age on the legibility of information. Complementary results included the influence of level of education. Participants were asked to read information on four food packages when they were food shopping. The sample included 196 consumers aged 18-82 years. An asymmetry was observed between the extremely high level of legibility of non-mandatory information and the low level of legibility of mandatory and nutritional information provided on food packages. Elderly respondents performed significantly worse than their younger counterparts. An interaction effect was found between age and level of education on the legibility of mandatory information. Legibility of mandatory information is clearly unsatisfactory. There appears to be a hierarchy between significant, but non-mandatory, company information and important mandatory and nutritional information. The first type of information is promoted on food packages whereas the last two are all but concealed to older and less educated consumers.

Effect of Value Orientation, Belief and Norm on Private Sacrificing Behaviour

The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of value orientation, new ecological paradigm and proenvironmental personal norm on private sacrificing behavior. Structural equation modelling using partial least squares approach is used to analyse conceptual model on private sacrificing behaviour. Findings from this study show that biospheric value and altruistic value have direct influence on general belief in terms of New Ecological Paradigm. In addition, New Ecological Paradigm is found to have direct linkage with pro-environmental personal norm. General belief of the state of the environment is considered sufficient to activate personal norm of individual. Subsequently, pro-environmental personal norm is affirmed to influence private sacrificing behaviour directly in the context of agrochemical purchase. Managerial implications are discussed on the potential application of the results of this research.

The influence of purchase type, purchase context, and self-construal on consumer happiness

The influence of purchase type, purchase context, and self-construal on consumer happiness

Information Quality, Distrust and Perceived Risk as Antecedents of Purchase Intention in the Online Purchase Context

Information Quality, Distrust and Perceived Risk as Antecedents of Purchase Intention in the Online Purchase Context

Influence of Context on Motives Underlying Food Choice

AbstractContext can be regarded as the situational and temporal conditions in which food choice occurs. Although context has a large effect on consumer perception and choice of food products, it has been mostly overlooked in research exploring the determinants of consumers' food choice. The aims of the present work were to study the influence of purchase and consumption context on motives underlying food choice and to evaluate if gender and age modulate this effect. One hundred and ninety‐five consumers from Montevideo (Uruguay) participated in an online survey. They were asked to complete a free‐listing task about all the things they take into account when selecting foods in four contexts: purchase, lunch, snacking and dinner. Consumer responses were qualitatively analyzed and grouped into categories and their cognitive salience was determined. Categories were grouped into 10 dimensions: price, health/nutrition, perceived quality, freshness, sensory characteristics, hedonics, convenience, context, variety and satiety. Context had a strong influence on the motives underlying consumer food choices. The dimensions with the highest cognitive salience in the purchase context were price, perceived quality and freshness, while convenience and variety were the most relevant dimensions for the consumption contexts. The effect of context on the salience of the elicited categories was not markedly affected by gender and age.Practical ApplicationsSeveral of the most salient motives responsible for food choices elicited by consumers in the free listing task of the present study are not included in the Food Choice Questionnaire. This suggests the need to revisit this instrument to include factors that have been overlooked, such as brand, satiety and variety. Besides, the fact that context had a large influence on the salience of the elicited categories indicates that asking consumers about the motives that determine their choices in a general context can lead to misleading results. Thus, specific contexts should be considered when studying consumers' motives underlying food choices.

Collaborating online: the roles of interactivity and personalization

Collaborating with customers is considered a new source of competitive advantage so customer participation and involvement are emerging as key strategic factors. This research studies how interactivity and personalization influence both customers' participation during the online purchase of information services and their intentions to continue participating. It also analyzes whether personalization and interactivity improve customer involvement with the service purchased in online environments. Results verify the importance of interactivity and personalization to foster customer participation, involvement and intentions to continue participating. Moreover, it is found that interactivity moderates the effect of personalization, increasing its influence on service involvement and intentions to participate. This paper demonstrates the convenience of analyzing involvement and participation together in order to understand customer collaboration, as well as the importance of the purchase context from a participation and socialization perspective in the services arena.

Health information impact on the relative importance of beef attributes including its enrichment with polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid)

This paper uses Choice Experiments (CE) to investigate Spanish consumers' preferences towards beef meat enriched with polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid). Data were gathered from self-completed questionnaires in a controlled environment with two different samples (320 and 322 consumers) differentiated by the information received. The surveys were carried out in three main Spanish cities (Barcelona, Zaragoza and Pamplona), representing the average consumer. A variation of the “Dual Response Choice Experiments” (DRCE) design was used due to its ability to emphasize the purchase context. Results showed that consumers who received information attach higher preference for enriched meat with polyunsaturated fatty acids. The utility associated with the higher content of fat increase for informed consumers, showing a substitute effect. Informed consumers are willing to accept meat with a higher amount of visible fat if it is enriched with beneficial fatty acids.

Consumer culture at individual level: Proposing a two-stepped model, comparing Iran and Germany

The importance of culture in different aspects of consumer behavior is undeniable. Studies provide solutions dealing with cultural differences in consumers' interpretations and trying to structure their mind-sets. The common weakness of most such studies is they trust old scales developed to investigate organizational behaviors as a basis for analyzing individual consumers, ignoring nonconformity in both context and level. The replication of such rankings in marketing could easily fail; new applications are needed which consider level, purpose, context, and the spirit of the time. The present study aims to validate a new scale and explain the roles that cultural values play in consumer purchase behavior by using this item battery. The developed scale originates from the core elements of Hofstede's proposed dimensions (in the latest version from 2008); a multi-dimensional instrument is suggested containing two newly introduced concepts (restraint and long-term orientation) validated by eastern and western minds. Samples with incomparable profiles and cultural backgrounds, from Germany and Iran, are selected to validate the scale. The results confirm an undeniable role of nationality, as well as of demographics, in consumer culture; the scale was a success and may be further applied.The paper begins with a focus on consumer culture, presenting a review of the individual-level approach toward culture; based on this view – following a context-specific approach – the focus changes from the individual in general to the individual as a consumer. Within the purchase context, the roles played by culture in consumer decisions and behaviors are elaborated. Further, the study provides a summary of theoretical and empirical details on the dimensions of consumer culture, including measurement methods. The scale development and research implementation are summarized and the latter parts of the paper are dedicated to the results of statistical analyses and conclusions; finally, managerial implications and future directions are discussed.

Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms

The effects of e-commerce institutional mechanisms on trust and online purchase have traditionally been understood in the initial online purchase context. This study extends this literature by exploring the role of e-commerce institutional mechanisms in

Marketing Impact of Halal Labeling toward Indonesian Muslim Consumer’s Behavioral Intention Based on Ajzen’s Planned Behavior Theory: Policy Capturing Studies on Five Different Product Categories

The purpose of this paper is to test the applicability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in explaining the intention to switch from products without certified Halal labels within a wide array of purchase context, especially in the purchase of food and medicine products. A policy capturing  questionnaire was used to elicit responses from consumers using a convenience sampling technique. A  total of 7500 responses were obtained from 150 participating respondent in 50 different scenario cases.  Data is analyzed using Multi-Group Structural Equation Modeling. The study finds that the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is not completely valid to explain both the behavioral intention of Muslim consumers in Indonesia to seek information about the Halal certification of a product and to cancel  their purchase if the product did not have Halal certification. Differences in magnitude and significance of causal relationships exist between different product categories. Keywords: Purchase Behavior, Halal Label, Muslim Consumer

The role of external influences in high involvement purchase behaviour

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover the consumer decision-making style clusters within the context of automobile purchases in Australia. It also examines the differences between consumer decision-making styles in terms of the importance given to external influences, such as importance of dealers, importance of friends/family members, number of cars test driven, time spent researching final decision and importance of information sources (e.g. internet, magazines, TV ads, word of mouth, etc.), prior to making their final purchase decision. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 209 respondents using self-administered questionnaires. Cluster analysis and ANOVA were employed to identify and analyse the differences between consumer decision-making style clusters. Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI; Sproles and Kendall, 1986) was used to measure respondents’ consumer decision-making styles in relation to automobile purchases. Findings – Three clusters were identified from the analysis, namely “innovative informed”, “rational confused”, and “traditional habitual”. Significant differences were found between the clusters in terms of the average time they spent with each car dealer, the time they spent on researching final decision and the importance of consulting with family members prior to making their final purchase decision. Practical implications – The paper found that some consumers rely heavily on friends/families and dealers as the most important sources of information. Other sources of information consumers use include television advertisements, newspapers, billboards and magazines. Based on the findings, marketers should focus on providing similar types of information/messages by using these above-mentioned sources when communicating with this type of consumers. Dealers could be trained to spend time explaining product features and benefits in full with these consumers and their friends and family members whom they are likely to bring along before making the final purchase decision. Originality/value – The findings of this study have extended the knowledge by determining the impact of external influences on consumer decision-making styles using the CSI in context of specific product which is yet to be known in relation to Australian automobile consumers.

The Impact of Congruity and Country Image on Global Brand Alliance Evaluation

The article explores the meaning of congruency in relation to global brand alliances and finds that congruence between partner brands decomposes into two major subdimensions (relevance congruence and expectancy congruence). In addition, the article examines the effect of congruence on consumers’ responses toward the brand alliance in terms of two conceptually distinct constructs: attitude and product evaluation. The results indicate that both relevance and expectancy congruence affect global brand alliance assessments. The results also reveal a significant spillover effect and that country-of-origin image is a significant covariate in determining global brand alliance assessments. As such, in selecting potential brand partners, managers should ensure that the host and partner brands are relevant in the purchase context according to past consumer experiences.

The framing effect of coupon value for new products: an empirical study in China

Two experiments tested the coupon framing effect with both existing products and new products, whereby the percentage-off format (vs. cents-off format) held an overall advantage in consumers' value perception, thus leading to higher purchase intention. We also found that different product price levels (high vs. low) and product types (physical goods vs. services) moderated this framing effect. Moreover, the context of new products' purchase significantly made this effect more salient than that in existing products. These results could contribute to the guidance of price and promotion strategy for business practitioners, especially in new product launch management.

Price assessments by consumers: influence of purchase context and price structure

AbstractAmong the numerous factors that influence decisions on prices, consumer behaviour has special significance. This paper reviews and analyses relevant studies conducted during the last few decades. On the basis of our analysis, four categories of factors that determine consumer behaviour have been identified. Additionally, we have developed an experimental research design to analyse the influence that the following factors have on price perception: price structure (i.e. price level, order of presentation and price differences), purchase context (i.e. reason for purchase or product use) and demographic characteristics (i.e. gender). Results reveal a significant influence of these variables on consumer behaviour.

Perceived Purchase Risk in the Technological Goods Purchase Context: An Instrument Development and Validation

Each purchase decision is most likely to be a risky decision. Woodside and DeLozier (1976) proposed that consumer purchase-related behaviors correspond to the perceived level of risk in the purchase. Therefore, understanding consumer’s perceived purchase risk is paramount for marketers –especially marketers of high risk products. This study intends to develop a valid and reliable instrument in measuring consumer’s perceived purchase risk using the concept of perceived risk by Peter and Ryan (1976). This study does not intend to infer conclusions regarding the population of respondents used in the research, but only conclusions regarding the sample of items used in the instrument. The instrument was validated using two purchase context, smartphone and netbook purchase. An item is considered valid only if it tested valid in both contexts. The nomological validity of the instrument was tested using Confirmatory factor analysis as the primary method of analysis. Correlations between instruments were also tested to analyze convergent and concurrent validity of the instrument. This study employs LISREL for WINDOWS 8.51 Full Version (Jőreskog and Sőrbom, 2001) as software used for the analysis. The result of this study is that all instrument used in the study have good nomological validity. However, some item were found to be not valid in at least one purchase context, thus was excluded from the measurement model. The newly developed instrument has better convergent validity, even though with slightly weaker concurrent validity than existing instrument.

Online Customer Experience: A Review of the Business-to-Consumer Online Purchase Context

Customer interactions with an organization's website create opportunities for positive experiences that can lead to long-term relationship building. The range of potential interactions is now quite diverse, including product information search, purchase transaction and/or service delivery. The domain of customer experience (CE) is well developed in the face-to-face context, but little attention has been paid to exploring the concept in the online context. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the online consumer literature in order to inform understanding of the antecedents and consequences of online customer experience (OCE) in the purchase context. The paper offers four important contributions for both academics and practitioners. First, it adds to understanding of OCE in the purchase context and, second, specifically recognizes and discusses the antecedents of OCE by drawing on existing literature relating to online consumer purchase. Third, it proposes the potential consequences of OCE and provides a framework for future testing. Finally, the paper addresses a problem of relevance to both academics and practitioners, and proposes future research and managerial implications.

Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability

We model a dynamic purchase context in which a consumer is uncertain about the product's valuation. The consumer has two purchase opportunities for the product: forward purchase in Period 1 or spot purchase in Period 2. Two forms of regret are considered: buyer's regret over the money paid in excess of his valuation of the product when buying forward and hesitater's regret for the lost opportunity of an increased surplus when not buying forward. We illustrate how regrets affect the purchase decision: a consumer is more likely to buy forward when more averse to hesitater's regret but more likely to delay the decision when more averse to buyer's regret. We also consider alternative consumer types to characterize how regret affects their spot purchase decisions as well as what triggers the regret. We show that type inconsistency—that is, a consumer's incorrect anticipation of his future type—induces an inferior Period 1 purchase decision and thereby reduces the consumer's expected surplus.

Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability

We model a dynamic purchase context in which a consumer is uncertain about the product's valuation. The consumer has two purchase opportunities for the product: forward purchase in period 1 or spot purchase in period 2. Two forms of regret are considered: buyer's regret over the money paid in excess of his valuation of the product when buying forward; and hesitater's regret for the lost opportunity of an increased surplus when not buying forward. We illustrate how regrets a ect the purchase decision: a consumer is more likely to buy forward when more averse to hesitater's regret but more likely to delay the decision when more averse to buyer's regret. We also consider alternative consumer types to characterize how regret a ects their spot purchase decisions as well as what triggers the regret. We show that type inconsistency (that is, a consumer's incorrect anticipation of his future type) induces an inferior period 1 purchase decision and thereby reduces the consumer's expected surplus.

When Do Large Product Assortments Benefit Consumers? An Information-Processing Perspective

Retailers frequently attempt to attract shoppers by offering large product assortments. The prevailing literature on assortments has recognized that although large assortments benefit consumers by providing many choices, wide choices also challenge consumers to use extensive cognitive processes in making purchase decisions. Therefore when retailers offer extensive product assortments, they may also be adding cognitive costs to consumers—costs that may diminish the assortment's attractiveness. This research draws on the literature related to the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM) of information processing and the literature related to optimal stimulation level (OSL) in testing for the presence of two possible processing benefits provided by large assortments: their capacity to aid consumers in achieving decision-making certainty and their ability to provide consumers with desired stimulation. In two experiments, we find support for both models of assortment evaluations and demonstrate that purchase context and individual traits can lead consumers to prefer large assortments from a processing perspective.