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Getting in touch with your thinking style: How touchscreens influence purchase
Abstract
Touchscreen technology has rapidly penetrated the consumer market and embedded itself into our daily lives. Given the pervasiveness of this new phenomenon, we know surprisingly little about its effect on consumers. This research updates academic theory by investigating how newly evolved touchscreen technology affects consumer behavior. Across three lab experiments with university students, we found purchase intentions differ across device and product nature. In particular, this research demonstrates that purchase intention differs between touchscreens and desktop computers. Further, situation-specific thinking style is revealed as an underlying mechanism that contributes to such differences, such that touchscreens evoke a stronger experiential thinking style, while desktops evoke a stronger rational thinking style. Moreover, the findings suggest that greater experiential thinking enhances a consumer's preference towards hedonic products, while greater rational thinking endorses utilitarian products. Together, this pattern leads touchscreen users to prefer hedonic products over utilitarian products. Given the growing usage of touchscreen devices, this research has important implications for consumers, marketers, and policy makers.
... Holmes et al., 2013;Kaatz, 2020;Kim et al., 2020;Kim et al., 2021;Li et al., 2021;Luo et al., 2022;Mariani et al., 2019;Wagner et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2015;Zhu et al., 2020). Additionally, despite some analyses on hedonic versus utilitarian product categories (Pagani et al., 2019;Singh & Swait, 2017;Stewart et al., 2019;Zhu & Meyer, 2017), differences in device-mediated behaviour between other product classifications (e.g. search versus experience goods) should be explored (Lurie et al., 2014;Orimoloye et al., 2022). ...
... To capitalize on the higher media richness and information vividness of devices with large screens, by contrast, managers should enable product and price comparisons on such devices (Raphaeli et al., 2017;Singh & Swait, 2017). Moreover, devices with larger screens are better suited to the presentation and introduction of novel or utilitarian products (Kaatz et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2015), while touchscreens seem to induce greater purchase intentions for hedonic products (Shen et al., 2016;Zhu & Meyer, 2017). Building on this, device-based pricing, assortment planning and communication might result in favourable customer behaviours, but require further research. ...
... 24 articles) is the operating mode (e.g.Brasel & Gips, 2014;Shen et al., 2016;Zhu & Meyer, 2017). Smartphones and tablets are typically handheld technologies and are controlled by human touch directly on the screen (i.e. ...
The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices in addition to traditional computers has transformed the Internet into a device‐mediated environment. While these devices provide immediate access to similar Internet sources, they differ significantly in their characteristics, such as screen size, operation mode, and context of use. As a consequence, behaviors on the Internet along the customer journey vary substantially depending on the device used. To summarize the fast‐growing body of research on device‐mediated customer behavior, a systematic, framework‐based literature review of 59 articles from the last decade was conducted. Through an examination of the antecedents, decisions, and outcomes investigated in the publications, the review presents a conceptual framework that highlights the relation between device characteristics, decision processes, and behavioral outcomes. The review further summarizes the theories, contexts, and methods employed in the studies and sets an extensive future research agenda. We found that the extant literature lacks comprehensive theories and clear definitions of digital devices in the omnichannel environment. Furthermore, existing findings should be generalized for other contexts (e.g., industries and countries) and validated via the introduction of other research designs and methods. The understanding of device‐mediated behavior and the consequently arising marketing measures remains scarce. Thus, this review advances the comprehension of customer behavior on the Internet and provides researchers and practitioners with information on the implications for customer experience and omnichannel management.
... desktops) induced experimental (vs. rational) thinking style (Zhu and Meyer, 2017). Touchscreen (vs. ...
... Overall, touchscreen (vs. non-touchscreen) interfaces were more likely to induce positive responses among consumers, such as higher purchase intentions (Zhu and Meyer, 2017), higher liking of the depicted object (Wang et al., 2020), and higher confidence (Hattula et al., 2022). Despite the large body of research on touchscreen interfaces, most of the extant studies have focused on nonfood products. ...
... Tactile simulation (i.e., touch) increased user engagement than nontouch. Zhu and Meyer (2017) Nonfood products (e.g., restaurant certificate) ...
Touchscreen interfaces (e.g., smartphones and tablets) provide marketers with an excellent opportunity to reach more consumers. This research investigated how and why the interface mode (touchscreen vs. non-touchscreen) impacts psychological ownership and its downstream consequences in the food domain. In a series of three experiments, participants were asked to complete food-related tasks through either a touchscreen (e.g., smartphone) or a non-touchscreen (e.g., personal computer) interface. The results show that touchscreen (vs. non-touchscreen) interfaces induce higher psychological ownership. Two experiments demonstrated the mediating role of mental imagery using the measurement-of-mediation (experiment 1) and experimental-causal-chain design (experiment 2), respectively. The results also show that touchscreens (vs. non-touchscreens) result in positive product evaluations (i.e., willingness to pay and purchase intentions), and these effects are mediated through mental imagery and psychological ownership (experiment 3). Additionally, the results show that the effect of interface mode on mental imagery and the corresponding mediation effects are more likely to occur among unrestrained (vs. restrained) eaters (experiments 1&3). The results of an exploratory study found that consumers think these effects are undesirable and that they would benefit from avoiding these effects.
... On the other hand, irrespective of the product type (hedonic or utilitarian), the experiential thinking style (versus rational) is the only thinking style impacting purchase intention. Hedonic products positively predict this purchase intention, while utilitarian products negatively predict it (Zhu and Meyer 2017). ...
... To tackle this issue, we have novelty designed decision-making manipulations with a basis on dual general dimensions being these emotional defined by being evoked automatically, intuitive, with a higher charge of hedonic emotions, and on the other hand, reasoned decisions defined by being more deliberate and rational with a high charge of cognitive elements. These elements are consistent with conceptualizations of the construct in general dimensions (see Kahneman 2011;Katona 1951), even in the consumer behaviors field (Shiv and Fedorikhin 1999), and also in specific consumer dimensions of purchase intentions (Zhu and Meyer 2017). In our emotional manipulation, we primed hedonically through taking, smelling, imagining the taste and the sensations that would provoke the product. ...
... At the same time, we evoked deliberated elements like listing and keeping in mind the pros and cons of decisions in the reasoned decision style. This manipulation has shown convergence with the previous finding regarding decision style and purchase intentions tackled from self-report instruments showing similar patterns (see Zhu and Meyer 2017). Even with this evidence, it is proposed to assess the present manipulation with different measures to strengthen the evidence of functionality and know its use boundaries. ...
This article examines how product attractiveness in interaction with decision-making style influences purchase intentions. Participants in four different conditions rated their likelihood of buying an experiential product, showing that when using an emotional decision-making style condition, they have higher purchase intentions for the high attractive product than the low attractive product. A reverse effect was found when using a reasoned decision-making style. Moreover, these differences disappeared when included a cultural element, suggesting that collective mental group programming shapes learned ways to act in consumer fields at a higher level, including the decisional way to respond and approach perceived product characteristics. The inclusion of cultural factors with an adequate way to conceive the construct is discussed.
... Besides functioning as a point-of-sale terminal (e.g., automatic teller machines [ATMs]), in-store touch screens offer a tactile communication channel. For example, Zhu and Meyer (2017) investigated the impact of their deployment on consumers' decision making. They posited that the use of in-store touch screens activates consumers' haptic systems, evokes a more experiential thinking style, and consequently reshapes their evaluations of the shopping experience. ...
... Although practitioners have initiated investments in technology-based in-store advertising, its impact on retailers (Dukes and Liu 2010) and consumers (Bues et al. 2017;Zhu and Meyer 2017) remains unclear and underresearched. One such area pertains to the tradeoff between convenience and personalization. ...
... As consumers walk into a retail store, the ambient shopping environment, as a collective of several instore touch points, not only offers a retail space for consumers to shop but also actively targets and engages consumers in nonintrusive and compelling brand communication (Varadarajan et al. 2010;Zhu and Meyer 2017). This nonintrusive yet targeted nature of this environment is important because most consumers are either neutral about being exposed to advertising or find it to be intrusive (Burke 2002). ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) has penetrated the marketing landscape and is having a profound impact on businesses’ communication strategies. With AI coming under the spotlight, we know surprisingly little about its impact on consumers’ patronage likelihood. This research attempts to address this void by investigating the “just-walk-out” retail technology in cohort with in-store communication. Across three studies, conducted online and in the field, the authors demonstrate that, compared to self-service checkouts, AI-enabled checkouts lead to significantly higher consumers’ patronage likelihood. Furthermore, sensory stimulation stemming from in-store communication (environmental cues including assortment, advertising, and technology) underlies this impact. Importantly, the extent to which consumers perceive AI technology to be threatening is revealed as a boundary condition to these effects. These findings advance our understanding of how AI-enabled checkouts and in-store communication influence consumers’ patronage likelihood and the boundary condition that moderates their impact.
... Our review of prior research indicates a positive effect of direct touch (vs. indirect touch) on consumers' perceptions and responses (Brasel and Gips 2015;Chung et al. 2018;Shen et al. 2016;Zhu and Meyer 2017). The present research extends the literature by showing the polarizing (i.e., positive vs. negative) effects of touch (vs. ...
... Furthermore, direct touch can enhance consumers' mental simulation and choice for a hedonic product vs. a cognitively superior utilitarian product, when compared with indirect touch (Shen et al. 2016). Importantly, consumers' purchase intentions differ between direct-touch and indirecttouch interfaces; whereby touchscreens evoke a stronger experiential thinking style, while desktops evoke a stronger rational thinking style (Zhu and Meyer 2017). It has also been shown that the direct-touch interface serially increases consumers' engagement and positive affect, leading to higher purchase intention when shopping online (Chung et al. 2018). ...
... indirecttouch) interface. This extends prior research showing only the positive effects of interfaces on consumer reactions Gips 2014, 2015;Chung et al. 2018;Shen et al. 2016;Zhu and Meyer 2017). Second, we test the moderated mediating effect of consumers' vividness perception for the polarizing effect of direct-touch (vs. ...
Increasingly powerful computer technologies have enabled the development and widespread growth of touchscreen devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones in consumers’ daily lives, including online shopping. Nonetheless, it is not clear to what extent and how direct-touch (i.e., finger) vs. indirect-touch (e.g., mouse click or stylus) interfaces have differential effects on consumers’ evaluations toward the object on the screen. Results from a lab experiment and a field study indicate that a direct-touch (vs. indirect-touch) interface has a polarizing effect on consumer evaluations. For an object about which consumers have a prior positive attitude, a direct-touch interface enhances consumer evaluations; for an object about which consumers have a prior negative attitude, a direct-touch interface lowers consumer evaluations. We find that consumers’ visual information processing style can moderate the polarizing effect. In addition, the polarizing effect can be explained by consumers’ vividness perception. These findings make useful contributions to the literature on haptic effects and human-computer interactions, as well as have significant managerial implications.
... Parsons & Conroy, 2006), as well as how these cues influence online shoppers. Although marketing researchers (Krishna, 2013;Peck, 2010) have addressed the importance of studying the impact of touch interfaces on online shoppers, only a few (Brasel & Gips, 2014;Coulter, 2016;Shen, Zhang, & Krishna, 2016;Zhu & Meyer, 2017) have done so by comparing mouse devices with touch interfaces. ...
... If purchase intentions are greater when using a touch interface than a mouse device, shoppers are likely to choose products that are stronger in hedonic attributes than utilitarian attributes. According to recent studies, consumers who use a touch interface are more likely to result in choosing hedonic over utilitarian options (Shen et al., 2016;Zhu & Meyer, 2017). This finding implies that consumers who shop using a touch interface as compared to a mouse device may rely more on affective cues and interpret the atmosphere of their online shopping experience as more fun and engaging, highlighting affective, emotional, or hedonic aspects of the shopping experiences. ...
... The more significant role of affect (vs. cognition) in touch interface conditions is also in line with the recent marketing literature on touch interfaces (Shen et al., 2016;Zhu & Meyer, 2017). ...
Over the past decade, one of the most fundamental changes in computer‐mediated environments has been the evolution in the type of input devices from mouse devices to touch interfaces. In this paper, the authors conduct three experiments to examine the underlying connections between input device types and online shoppers’ decision‐making processes in relation to affect‐driven information processing. The results show that shoppers who use a touch interface (vs. mouse) to view products demonstrate a significantly higher engagement with their shopping experience in a low‐involvement setting. Touch interface users are likely to have greater purchase intentions, as compared to mouse users, and this effect is mediated by positive affect induced by higher engagement. Using a touch interface (vs. mouse) also increases the likelihood that consumers will choose a hedonic over a utilitarian option and make an immediate purchase decision. These findings indicate that using a touch interface increases consumers’ reliance on affect‐driven information processing and has a positive impact on purchase decision processes.
... Pode-se observar nas análises que no processo de consumo online, quando os consumidores sentem uma necessidade intensa de tocar fisicamente nos produtos durante o processo de compra em uma loja física informações, preços e outras características funcionais mais dinâmicas neste ambiente, sendo feitas através do toque digital (Zhu & Meyer, 2017). ...
... Sendo assim, com relação a hipótese H2a que foi confirmada, onde a experiência háptica digital influencia negativamente na intangibilidade mental no consumo online, percebe-se que uma experiência, onde o toque ou manuseio digital no dispositivo móvel (seja celular, tablet ou notebook) é interativa (Overmars & Poels, 2015), com movimentos tais como, zoom na tela, vibração, cliques, chacoalhar o aparelhoe deslizar dos dedos na tela, permitindo que o usuário sinta várias percepções do produto através das mãos na tecnologia, fazem com que esse toque dinâmico diminua a sensação de desconforto mental (Laroche et al., 2005) ou a falta do produto fisicamente no cenário de compra digital.Os dispositivos e aplicativos tecnológicos podem trazer diversas experiências voltadas ao uso das telas de touchscreen (Overmars & Poels, 2015;Zhu & Meyer, 2017), no processo de uso, consumo e manuseio da tecnologia, a qual intermediam a decisão e interesses comportamentais concordando com as pesquisas de Brasel e Gips (2014). Confirmando, portanto, a hipótese H2b que afirma que a experiência com o toque digital favorecendo a adoção do consumo digital. ...
Este artigo discute como as características hápticas do consumo presencial (need for touch) influenciam negativamente na adoção do consumo online, identificando paralelamente quais características reduzem essa influência negativa. Propõe-se que o efeito da necessidade do toque, influenciando na adoção de consumo digital, deve ser mediado pelo contexto de intangibilidade mental, no qual esta intangibilidade aumenta para altos valores de necessidade do toque e, assim, reduz a intenção em adotar o consumo digital. Nesse contexto, avalia-se que existe uma nova experiência háptica diversificada no ambiente de consumo digital, digital haptic experience (manuseio/toque nos dispositivos digitais), a qual deverá reduzir a intangibilidade mental relacionada ao objeto de consumo e aumentar diretamente o efeito da adoção de consumo digital. O efeito negativo da intangibilidade na adoção deverá, ainda neste contexto digital, ser moderado negativamente pelo processamento da imagem mental que o consumidor tem na experiência de compra. Neste estudo desenvolve-se uma modelagem de equações estruturais com análise através do software Smart PLS 3. As implicações deste estudo trazem contribuições sobre medidas a serem tomadas para viabilizar uma melhor experiência no processo de compra online no varejo, pelos aspectos sensoriais de toque e manuseio nos dispositivos móveis.
... The effect of cutaneous stimulation of the touchscreen has been documented by only a handful of studies, and the results of these show, for instance, an increase in ownership feeling and endowment effect, higher attention paid to the hedonic aspect of the virtual scene, a preference for hedonic products, greater interactivity perception, and better mental imagery [13][14][15]86]. Research has also confirmed that touchscreen devices differ from desktop computers with regard to consumers' purchase intentions [101]. Moreover, in smartphone settings, previous research has shown how shopping via mobile apps, driven by the sense of touch such as haptic interaction with the smartphone (versus voice interaction), leads to greater trust in the retailer due to enjoyment and personal engagement [71]. ...
... Grewal et al. [29] suggest, with their typology for technology integration, that the more the technology provides convenience and social presence, as an intimate partner in the case of the smartphone [62], the more it can trigger vividness, leading to higher consumer involvement, mental imagery, and elaboration, which in turns increase retailer sales. Moreover, Zhu and Meyer [101] showed that touchscreen interfaces increased consumers' intentions to purchase hedonic products, while the computer desktop had this effect for utilitarian products, showing that product type influences the effect of the interface haptic stimulation. Thus, the experiential aspects of mobile shopping can be leveraged to provide a seamless experience via sensory experiences with the retailer, where the mobile device holds a central place in this hybrid retail environment [71,83]. ...
... In this research, we only focus on experiential thinking for the following reason. While thinking styles are treated as a personality trait in this study, they can be situationally induced (Novak & Hoffman, 2009;Zhu & Meyer, 2017). We conducted two preliminary studies and the findings suggest that most participants (about 80 %) made a normatively correct response, indicating that individuals' rational thinking tends to be temporally induced in the context of online hotel booking. ...
... Besides, although the thinking style is usually regarded as a dispositional trait, it can be a situationally-induced temporary state (Novak & Hoffman, 2009). For example, Zhu and Meyer (2017) indicate that touchscreen devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) tend to evoke a strong experiential thinking style. Nowadays, many tourism and hospitality brands have developed their own mobile apps for reservations (Fong et al., 2017). ...
Although time-based sales messages (e.g., booked X times in the last Y hours) are frequently employed in the travel industry, their effectiveness has not been systematically examined in previous research. To fill this gap, we compare two types of sales messages: large total sales in a long term vs. large hourly sales in a short term (e.g., 72 times/24 h vs. 48 times/6 h). Our results indicate that most people tend to be more persuaded by hourly sales and that such a tendency is negatively related to individuals' experiential thinking style. We also find that displaying temporal information before sales volume increases the power of hourly sales among people low in experiential thinking style.
... Touchscreen technology has been available for decades in self-checkout machines at grocery stores, point-of-sale terminals for vending machines, ATMs at banks, airport check-in kiosks, and GPS devices (Zhu & Meyer, 2017). But affordable touchscreens embedded in shopping have reshaped how consumers interact with products, brands, and companies, in that consumers actively use their fingers to interact, by zooming in and out on product photos or tapping, dragging, sliding, swiping, pinching, and rotating product information displayed on digital pages. ...
... Building on Peck and Shu's (2009) research findings that physical touch increases consumers' psychological ownership, Brasel and Gips (2014) show that touch-based devices generate stronger endowment effects than traditional computers because the digital touch can also elicit psychological ownership. Zhu and Meyer (2017) reveal that touchscreen users prefer hedonic over utilitarian products; computer users instead prefer utilitarian products, seemingly because a touchscreen device tends to evoke an experiential thinking style, whereas a desktop encourages a more rational thinking style. Chung et al. (2018) indicate that touchscreens also tend to lead to more positive affect, engage consumers more, and increase purchase intentions. ...
Consumers use their sense of touch to interact with products and salespeople in direct marketing; they use touchscreen devices to interact with products and others on e-commerce and mobile commerce platforms. Understanding the role of touch in consumers’ experiences in both physical and digital realms is essential for businesses to implement effective haptic strategies and for scholars to advance knowledge in touch literature. This chapter offers an initial review of the role of touch, touchscreens, and haptic technology through an interactive marketing lens. Specifically, it proposes a conceptual framework for continued research by situating current haptic and tactile research within an interactive marketing frame. It summarizes new knowledge of three important topics in interactive marketing: technology adoption, customer behavior, and multichannel marketing. It also draws readers’ attention to the multifaceted research of touch from psychology and neuroscience perspectives. The first half of the chapter summarizes the most up-to-date research findings and theories (e.g., psychological ownership) on haptic and tactile effects that substantially affect interactions between consumers and products and between consumers and service providers. Then a summary of recent research outlines how touchscreen devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) and haptic technology (e.g., smart wearables) influence consumers’ experiences in the digital world.
... Following the inception of digital technologies such as smartphones and tablets, research has focused on the impact of tactile stimulation using an interface disconnected from what appears on the screen (e.g., smartphone vibrations) (Hadi and Valenzuela, 2020). The simple act of stimulating touch when a consumer touches an interface will influence the consumer's judgement: scholars recognize that interface touch affects consumer evaluation, choice or ownership feeling of products presented on these interfaces (Brasel and Gips, 2014;Chung et al., 2018;Shi and Kalyanam, 2018;Zhu and Meyer, 2017). However, these technologies do not relate touch stimulation to the product tactile cues presented on the screen. ...
... The relational structure between the product and another stimulusi.e., category, context, endorser, brand, etc. (Meyers-Levy and Tybout, 1989) -provides a common ground that allows us to interpret the relation between the product tactile cues and the interface tactile cues when evaluating a product online. While consumers do not mentally associate the interface tactile properties with the online product tactile cues, they tend to integrate the tactile features into the information processing that influences product evaluation, purchase intention or brand trust (Brasel and Gips, 2015;de Vries et al., 2018;Pagani et al., 2019;Zhu and Meyer, 2017). Thus, consumers unconsciously process haptic information, indicating that congruence is not the only psychological process that leads to attitudinal and behavioural responses (Ludden et al., 2008). ...
Technology forecasting is a preliminary step in understanding social change. The response to COVID-19 will affect retailers and customers for years to come, forcing changes to interactions between individuals and technology. Innovative technologies that interrelate social and technological factors merit a re-examination, to explain the impact on consumer behavior where ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ are brought together. This paper explores the use of haptic rendering stimulation for pre-purchase decision-making. The objective is to identify how touching an interface can influence product evaluation and purchase intention. Drawing from an exploratory experimental design, the findings show the importance of interface touch for inferring product information or pleasure to interact with the product, confirming the relationship between knowledge and mental representation, body sensory-motor actions and online shopping contexts.
... De même, comparé au pavé tactile (touchpad) ou à la souris, l'écran tactile augmente l'intention d'acheter des produits avec lesquels les consommateurs ont souvent un besoin sensoriel d'entrer en contact, c'est-à-dire de toucher avant d'acheter -need for touch, pour des habits par exemple (Brasel & Gips, 2014 ;Klatsky et al., 2012). En outre, lorsque le prix est identique, les consommateurs sont davantage attirés par un produit hédonique (un repas au restaurant par exemple, vs moins hédonique comme acheter des produits dans une épicerie) quand ils utilisent une interface tactile (vs non tactile) (Zhu & Meyer, 2017). ...
... Les résultats apparaissent en accord avec les quelques rares travaux sur les effets des dispositifs interactifs persuasifs montrant des effets comportementaux notamment dans le contexte des serious games/advergames (Courbet et al., 2016). Jusqu'à présent les résultats dans la littérature mettaient en avant les effets de l'écran tactile sur des jugements ou des intentions d'achat pour des produits (Brasel & Gips, 2014 ;Zhu & Meyer, 2017). Ces deux expérimentations dépassent ces types d'effets non comportementaux et étendent les résultats obtenus jusqu'à présent dans la littérature : l'écran tactile incite à effectivement acheter. ...
... Touchscreen (vs. non-touchscreen) interfaces have a positive effect on consumer perceptions, such as a greater liking of the depicted item (Wang et al., 2020) and a higher purchase intention (Zhu & Meyer, 2017). Touchscreen (vs. ...
Digital marketing tools (e.g., social media and touchscreens) allow consumers to freely interact with food cues and offer multiple ways for marketers to reach consumers. Across a series of six studies, we investigate how, why, and when digital exposure to unhealthy food (vs. nonfood) on social media or touchscreens affects the subse- quent consumption of unhealthy food. The results show that digital exposure to unhealthy food (vs. nonfood) induces a dieting goal (Study 1) and results in lower consumption volumes (Study 2). The reduced consumption is driven by the activation of a dieting goal (Studies 3a & 3b). We also find that the reduced effect does not extend to digital exposure to healthy food (Study 4). Marketers can highlight the different benefits (tasty vs. functional) of unhealthy food. We further demonstrate that the effect of food benefits (tasty vs. functional) on reduced consumption is more likely to occur among smartphone (vs. personal computer) users (Study 5). This research adds to the existing literature on digital marketing and food exposure and offers implications for consumers and marketers to reduce unhealthy consumption.
... Based on the division of product types in existing studies, products are divided into functional products and sensorysocial products (Bettiga et al., 2020). Functional products are instrumental and practical, and consumers need to think, analyze, and process the attributes of the products, including products with functional purposes (such as electronic products and water cups) (Zhu and Meyer, 2017), and their potential purchase motivation is the material functional attributes maximization (Daugherty et al., 2008). This kind of product is the most suitable for collecting geometric information such as shape attributes and haptic information such as weight (McCabe and Nowlis, 2003;Jang and Ha, 2021). ...
Introduction
There is a common phenomenon of tactile missing in online retail. How to realize consumer tactile compensation is a consensus problem in the field of e-commerce. More and more marketeers and scholars convey their ideas via visual display, but few researches have focused on the tactile compensatory effect of visual language.
Methods
Study 1 collected data from nearly 13,000 online purchases to analyze the impact of haptic cues on sales in real online shopping platforms; Study 2 used a experimental research method to design three experimental groups: hand haptic cue group vs. Object haptic cue group vs. control group ( N = 165) to investigate whether the main effect of haptic cues and the dual mediating effect of mental simulation held. Study 3 also adopted a simulated experimental research approach to design a two-factor group: 2 (haptic cue: hand vs. object) × 2 (product type: tactile functional product vs. tactile experiential product) ( N = 198). To further explore whether the moderating effect of product type holds based on Study 2.
Results
Therefore, based on the visualization theory and mental simulation theory, and through a second-hand data experiment and two simulated experiments, this study confirmed that visual language did have a compensation effect on tactile missing specifically. Haptic cues in metaphorical visual language can actively compensate for consumers’ tactile loss, thus affecting the purchase intention. Mental simulation plays a mediating role in the tactile compensation effect. Product type has a moderating effect, and the use of hand (object) haptic cues in metaphorical visual language in tactile functional products (tactile experiential products) can lead to a more active purchase intention.
Discussion
This study not only enriches the theoretical research on the tactile compensation effect of visual language, but also provides valuable management enlightenment for e-commerce enterprises to improve the effectiveness of online product display and online sensory marketing strategies.
... McDonald's recognized that by allowing customers to visualize and touch the desired food, customers tended to select more items than at the usual counter. In parallel, the number of necessary personnel could be reduced (Zhu and Meyer, 2017;Gavett, 2015;Horovitz, 2018). ...
Firms all over the world have started initiatives and made investments in projects to help discover the benefits of digital technologies. This transformation has had an impact on the marketing and sales relationship and the role of IT. Researchers have confirmed the need for interdepartmental alignment, but the integration of all three disciplines together has been overlooked, and a concrete method of collaboration has not yet been identified. The aim of this study is to review the marketing, sales, and IT (M-S-I) research and to integrate the findings into a framework that can direct future research and organizational structures for interdepartmental alignment and collaboration with the goal of improving the performance of companies.
... Direct-touch interfaces differ from traditional interfaces as they enable consumers to directly touch images of products displayed on the computer screen (Shen et al. 2016). Researchers have only recently begun to investigate how such touch-based experiences affect consumers' decision processes (e.g., Chung et al. 2018;Wang et al. 2020;Zhu and Meyer 2017). We extend this literature by exploring metacognitive consequences of using touch-based computing devices. ...
As traditional computer interfaces (mouse, keyboard) are increasingly replaced by touchscreens, an interesting question that arises is how, and for whom, might this shift in interface technology affect choice processes and outcomes. Our main proposition is that consumers who gain confidence in their choices from touching products in physical contexts—that is, who are high in instrumental need-for-touch—experience an analogous boost in confidence when they make product choices using touchscreen-based devices. Four studies support our proposition and demonstrate that consumers with high instrumental need-for-touch are more confident in their choices, less likely to see risks associated with their choices, and they are more likely to make (vs. defer) purchase decisions when using touchscreens. Our studies explore the mechanism behind these effects, indicate that consumers find these effects undesirable, and show that informing consumers about our findings helps them to become less susceptible to these effects.
... A few recent studies explore the impact of technological advances in shopping on using the sense of touch. The advent of online shopping and the use of i-pads and touchpads are supposed to impact the purchase intention of the online shopper positively compared to shopping by using the mouse through other devices (Rathee & Rajain, 2019;Zhu & Meyer, 2017). ...
The increased interest and extensive research in Sensory Marketing over the last few
decades has created a need to synthesize extant literature. This study offers potential for
enriching the area of sensory marketing by performing a scientific literature review. The paper presents a systematic and critical analysis of three decades of sensory marketing research using bibliometric analysis. This study reviews 172 relevant articles published between 1979-2020 to detail the domain. We use VOS viewer to present highly influential articles, authors, institutions, journals, and countries. Further, we present the co-citation analysis of journals, keyword cooccurrence analysis, and network analysis of countries. Network analysis divides the studies into five bibliographic clusters - cross-modality and consumer behavior, multi-sensory marketing and consumer behavior, touch and visual cues, olfactory sense and consumer behavior, and sensory marketing and emotions. Also, the integration of clusters proposes a conceptual framework. A comprehensive discussion on the cluster-wise future research direction is presented.
... How consumers view and interact with products using different devices generates differences in consumers' online shopping behaviors. Zhu and Meyer (2017) compared the effects of a touch device (iPod touch) with a non-touch device (desktop with a mouse) device on consumers' thinking style and purchase intention. The use of a touch device evoked a stronger experiential thinking style, and the heightened experiential thinking style increased purchase intention for hedonic products. ...
... Moreover, Ryu and Jang (2007) demonstrate the effect of sound as well as lighting on customer pleasure. Zhu and Meyer (2017) show the tactile effect on purchase intention. Despite the popularity of research on sensory marketing, very few studies involved actual business performance such as the number of purchases or revenues. ...
We conducted a randomized controlled field study to explore the effectiveness of sensory marketing on beverage consumption patterns in a real bar setting. Specifically, we examined (a) the effect of visual elements (i.e., consumption-inducing text messages on coasters), (b) the effect of social density, and (c) the joint effect of visual elements and social density. We manipulated coaster type (visual consumption-inducing messages either present or absent), measured social density, and collected sales data. The results show that visual elements have a significant effect on beverage consumption, but social density does not. The joint effect between the two factors is significant such that the effect of visual elements is higher when social density is low. This study contributes to the sensory marketing literature by revealing the interaction between visual and spatial cues in a field setting.
... McDonald's recognized that by allowing customers to visualize and touch the desired food, customers tended to select more items than at the usual counter. In parallel, the number of necessary personnel could be reduced (Zhu and Meyer, 2017;Gavett, 2015;Horovitz, 2018). ...
Purpose
The enabling technologies that emerged from information technology (IT) have had a considerable influence upon the development of marketing tools, and marketing has become digitalized by adopting these technologies over time. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the impacts of these enabling technologies on marketing tools in the past and present and to demonstrate their potential future. Furthermore, it provides guidance about the digital transformation occurring in marketing and the need to align of marketing and IT.
Design/methodology/approach
This study demonstrates the impact of enabling technologies on the subsequent marketing tools developed through a content analysis of information systems and marketing conference proceedings. It offers a fresh look at marketing's digital transformation over the last 40 years. Moreover, it initially applies the findings to a general digital transformation model from another field to verify its presence in marketing.
Findings
This paper identifies four eras within the digital marketing evolution and reveals insights into a potential fifth era. This chronological structure verifies the impact of IT on marketing tools and accordingly the digital transformation within marketing. IT has made digital marketing tools possible in all four digital transformation levers: automation, customer interaction, connectivity and data.
Practical implications
The sequencing of enabling technologies and subsequent marketing tools demonstrates the need to align marketing and IT to design new marketing tools that can be applied to customer interactions and be used to foster marketing control.
Originality/value
This study is the first to apply the digital transformation levers, namely, automation, customer interaction, connectivity and data, to the marketing discipline and contribute new insights by demonstrating the chronological development of digital transformation in marketing.
... Specifically, we investigate how consumers' judgment on haptic attributes is influenced by the interaction mode they are applying. Although some studies have investigated how different interfaces affect mental imagery [32], thinking style [39], engagement and product choice [31], empirical research investigating their impacts on consumers' product judgment still lags. Prior research has revealed that people may mistakenly consider sensory experiences that are not directly related to the focal object they are evaluating. ...
... and eight items measuring utilitarian shopping value (α = .930). We created a shopping attitudes index (Zhu & Meyer, 2017) for each participant by subtracting the utilitarian shopping value index (averaging the eight items for utilitarian shopping value) from hedonic shopping value index 1 A Homogeneity of variance test showed that the imbalance of the products (13 functional vs. six hedonic) did not influence the assumption that the variance of the two groups were equal (p > .1). ...
Characters with a variety of typefaces are ubiquitous in our daily lives. How do typeface characteristics influence consumers’ preferences toward different kinds of products? The current research identifies the effect of an important design characteristic of typefaces—curvature on consumers’ preferences toward hedonic products. Our four experiments reveal that when consumers are exposed to hedonic products whose advertisements or packaging use round typefaces (high curvature), they show greater preferences toward them. This phenomenon is induced by the implicit associations between round typefaces and hedonic products which automatically initiate consumers’ mental simulation of experiences related with the products. This simulation process triggers pleasant feelings which eventually enhance preferences. We conclude with the implications of these findings for marketers, such as for their typeface choices in marketing actions. Theoretically, we contribute to a growing body of research examining the congruity between typeface characteristics and product type.
... First, it examines the underlying mechanism by which purchase environment influences product evaluation. This specifically addresses the recent call for research on the underlying mechanism by which haptic perceptions may influence consumer product evaluation (Streicher and Estes, 2016;Zhu and Meyer, 2017). Second, we assess the role of NFT in the effect of purchase environment on consumer perception and evaluation, by focusing on understanding the differential roles of autotelic and instrumental dimensions of NFT. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effects of purchase environment, product type and need for touch (NFT) on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation in the USA and India.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments were conducted in two different consumer markets. In Study 1, participants evaluated haptic and non-haptic products and gave responses on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation measures in the US market. In Study 2, the authors replicate Study 1 in a culturally different market of India and extend Study 1 by examining the moderating role of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on the effect of purchase environment on cognitive and affective responses.
Findings
Research findings suggest that cognitive and affective responses are the underlying mechanism between the purchase environment and overall response only for haptic product among Indian consumers. In contrast, affective response is the underlying mechanism explaining this relationship among US consumers. Furthermore, the instrumental dimension of NFT moderates the impact of purchase environment on cognitive but the autotelic NFT moderates the effect of purchase environment on affective response only for the haptic product but not for the non-haptic product.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses a relatively homogenous sample in the Indian market in contrast to the US market.
Practical implications
Results advance the understanding of the importance of haptic information processing in consumer decision-making across different purchase environments, product types and NFT using psychological distance (proximity) as a theoretical underpinning. With non-haptic shopping environments (i.e. online and mobile) growing rapidly, the results have critical implications for development of marketing strategies in Asian and US markets.
Originality/value
Empirical research examining the underlying mechanism by which purchase environment influences overall evaluation for haptic product is scarce. Additionally, understanding of the differential roles of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on cognitive and affective responses is very limited. This research fills this void and provides an understanding of the specific environment in evaluating haptic and non-haptic products in two distinct markets.
... McDonald's have been also adding self-serve kiosks to their stores in many countries around the world to increase customers' dwell time and enable them to purchase more items (Peterson, 2017). A 2017 study showed that customers are more likely to make "hedonic" purchasing decisions when using a touchscreen (Zhua & Meyerb, 2017), another proof that empowering customers does not just improve the service quality but also increase sales and profitability. ...
Studies have shown that it is cheaper to retain existing customers than to getting new ones. It is also proven than the profitability of retaining only 5% of customers through a good customer service can lead to an increase in profits between 25% to 95% (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000). However, only 20% of companies track customer retention and listen to their customers to understand their pain points and learn more about their experience (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000).
In a very competitive environment, service quality has become an essential ingredient to help brands remain profitable. That lead many companies to regard their core business from a relationship marketing (RM) perspective. Those companies have learned that building healthy, meaningful, and growing relationships with their customers is their only way to grow and be profitable.
Some confuse service with products and good manners. But services are not physical objects that can be owned. They are experiences that people feel and remember (Shostack, 1984). Examples are hotel stays, flying with airline companies, telecommunications, etc. Services represent about 80 percent of the US GDP and a growing percentage of the GDPs of every country in the world (Bitner, et al., 2008).
... Prior research has provided preliminary evidence supporting this prediction, that is, smartphones can result in affective and experiential thinking, 6,23 which positively predict hedonic consumption. 24 Accordingly, we propose the following: H2: When purchasing using a smartphone, consumers place more weight on hedonic attributes than utilitarian attributes and, thus, evaluate products that are more hedonicoriented higher. ...
Although smartphones are widely used, knowledge regarding whether smartphones shape consumers' minds and influence their behaviors is limited. This research attempts to fill this gap and shows that smartphone use can activate a for-fun mindset, thus driving consumers to favor hedonic-oriented products. An Implicit Association Test (Study 1) was used to show the smartphone-fun association. Moreover, by framing the product orientation (hedonic or utilitarian in Study 2) and device role (work or fun in Study 3) to interfere with the smartphone-fun association, this research examines the importance of this association in determining consumers' preferences toward hedonic-oriented products.
... Utilitarian expectancy instead refers to consumers' expectation that purchasing and using a product will enhance their task performance or improve their work efficiency (e.g., using the smartphone to schedule tasks). For decades, consumer behavior researchers have acknowledged that consumers expect to obtain hedonic or utilitarian outcomes from the products they purchase (e.g., Ozkara et al. 2017;Liu & Forsythe, 2011;Guo & Barnes, 2011;Pascual-Miguel et al. 2015;Zhu & Meyer 2017). We introduce these two complementary constructs to capture a consumer's motivations for purchasing a brand extension product. ...
This study investigates why some customers of a brand tend to purchase IT products launched by the same brand in a different category, but others do not. Combining insights from marketing and information systems research, the researchers developed an integrative model of cross-category purchases of IT products in a brand extension context. This research extends the IS continuance model by integrating brand extension factors such as perceived fit into the new model. The proposed model is empirically tested using data collected from 342 Xiaomi customers. The results show that in addition to post-acceptance usefulness perceptions and brand satisfaction, the perceived service quality and perceived fit of the initial purchase also have strong effects on consumers’ continuance purchase intentions toward a brand extension product. Hedonic and utilitarian expectancy mediate the relationship between consumers’ post-consumption views of the initial purchase and their intention of the subsequent purchase of a different product under the same brand.
Targeted digital advertising (TDA) is immensely popular among marketing practitioners; investigating its effects is increasingly becoming a subject of academic research. Brands can push advertisements of the same product from different sources to consumers in a targeted manner; however, the differences in the impact on consumers of TDA with different content sources are surprisingly understudied. Therefore, this study analyzes the consumers' purchase intentions in the context of TDA with different content sources (stars vs. bloggers vs. top e‐commerce streamers), and the perceived differences between consumers with different thinking styles. Through two experimental studies, this study finds that TDA with top e‐commerce streamers' recommendation source can better improve consumers' purchase intentions more than TDA with a star endorsement and TDA with a blogger evaluation. For consumers who prefer the rational thinking style, TDA with a star endorsement and TDA with top e‐commerce streamers recommendation can be better; For consumers who prefer the empirical thinking style, TDA recommended by bloggers and TDA with top e‐commerce streamers recommendation can be better. Furthermore, this study finds that consumers' mental simulation and perceived usefulness can mediate the relationships described above, and that the two play a chain mediation role. The findings contribute to the precision marketing literature by enriching the understanding of the psychological mechanism underlying consumers' perceptions of and decision factors toward the TDA.
With the progress of high technologies in payment systems, the usage rate of mobile payment is rapidly growing worldwide. However, whether mobile payment influences consumers’ choices between hedonic and utilitarian products, an important question in the field of consumer well-being research, has not been fully investigated. To address this research gap, the authors examine the influence of mobile payment and traditional payment methods (e.g., cash payment, card payment) on consumers’ preferences for hedonic products. They find that mobile payment triggers consumers’ hedonic mindset, which increases consumers’ preferences for hedonic products. The effect is moderated by mobile device type such that the effect is weaker for smart wearable (vs. mobile phone) payment because smart wearable devices are less associated with a hedonic mindset. This study offers novel insight into the effect of high technologies in payment systems, specifically mobile payment, on consumer well-being and calls for more investigation of the effects of mobile payment.
This paper examines how input devices of human-computer interaction (HCI) affect consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. Across four studies (one study with two secondary data and three experiments), we demonstrate that consumers using direct HCI (touch with fingers) will generate more favorable attitudes and greater purchase intentions than those using indirect HCI (click with a mouse). This effect is mediated by the sense of immersion and moderated by the product haptic importance. Specifically, the sense of immersion significantly mediates the effect of input devices on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions for high haptic products. In contrast, the mediating effect of the sense of immersion becomes weaker for low haptic products. These findings make important theoretical contributions to the HCI and touch literature. We also provide some practical implications for firms to improve product evaluations and purchase behavior through human-computer interaction.
Contextualizing in the digitalization of personal finance (e.g., mobile banking), the present research explores how financial decisions made on smartphones (vs. laptops or tablets) are more likely to be shortsighted, manifesting in being unwilling to save for retirement, referring to recent information while making financial decisions, and opting for instant but smaller rewards. We trace the effect to smartphones’ affordance of ubiquity, an attribute that allows users to satisfy various needs with considerable flexibility of time and space and prompts users to seek instant gratifications. We also rule out potential alternative factors that might account for this effect, including haptic gratification, direct-touch effect, task difficulty, thinking style, concentration, and the hedonic usage of the devices by users. Furthermore, we demonstrate that prompting users to deliberate on their decisions successfully attenuates the effect. Implications for the development of interventions are discussed.
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This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors-in-Chief.
After a thorough investigation, the Editors have concluded that the acceptance of this article was based upon the positive advice of two illegitimate reviewer reports. The reports were submitted from email accounts which were provided to the journal as suggested reviewers during the submission of the article. Although purportedly real reviewer accounts, the Editors have concluded that these were not of appropriate, independent reviewers.
This manipulation of the peer-review process represents a clear violation of the fundamentals of peer review, our publishing policies, and publishing ethics standards. Apologies are offered to the reviewers whose identity was assumed and to the readers of the journal that this deception was not detected during the submission process.
Objective:
To assess differences between traditional paper bag ordering and online ordering from primary school canteens in terms of menu, usage and lunch order characteristics.
Design:
A cross-sectional study.
Setting:
New South Wales (NSW) primary schools that offered both paper bag and online canteen ordering.
Participants:
Students (aged 5-12 years) with a lunch order on the day of the observation.
Results:
Across the six school canteens, 59-90 % of all available items were listed on both the online and paper menus, with no significant differences in the nutritional quality ('Everyday'/'Occasional') or nutritional content (kJ/saturated fat/sugar/sodium) of menu items. In total, 387 student lunch orders were placed, containing 776 menu items. Most orders (68 %) were placed online. There were no significant differences between order modality in the quantity of items ordered or the cost of orders, or the nutritional quality of orders based on the classification system of the NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy ('Everyday'/'Occasional'). However, nutritional analysis revealed that paper bag orders contained 222 fewer kJ than online orders (P = 0·001), 0·65 g less saturated fat (P = 0·04) and 4·7 g less sugar (P < 0·001).
Conclusions:
Online canteens are commonly used to order canteen lunches for primary school children. This is the first study to investigate differences between traditional paper bag ordering and online ordering in this setting. Given the rapid increase in the use of online ordering systems in schools and other food settings and their potential to deliver public health nutrition interventions, additional research is warranted to further investigate differences in ordering modalities.
Established brands endeavor to extend their products into new categories to grab market share and benefit from the positive spillover effect. The “fit” between extension products and their parent brands is a critical challenge companies face when launching a new product in a new product category, which is very different from the category served by the parent brand. A potential clue influencing consumers' perceived fit and attitudes towards extension products is the nondiagnostic haptic cues in touch environments. Thus, this study predicts that soft perception elicits more favorable attitudes towards extension product through attitude certainty and perceived fit than hard haptic perception. It develops a conceptual framework to anticipate that not all extension product judgements are equally affected by nondiagnostic haptic cues. Consumers' attitudes are less affected by nondiagnostic haptic cues when the extension product is from a close brand extension. The study examined the conceptual framework of four studies. Results of this work have many implications for package and offline stores design while contributing to the research in brand extension, cognition, and embodiment.
Today, the luxury goods and service market is growing faster than ever. However, despite its growth, we do not know much about the ways in which consumers choose to shop online or in store when buying luxury goods. We also lack insight into the factors that can affect such luxury consumption decisions. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether consumers prefer to buy luxury goods online at a discounted price or would rather buy luxury goods in store with additional luxury services at a cover price. This study also examines the extent to which such decisions can be driven by their situation-specific thinking styles as well as other socio-demographic variables. The results show that participants adopted a rational thinking style when deciding to buy luxury goods online with price discounts. On the other hand, an experiential thinking style was evoked when participants chose to visit a store offering luxury brands and luxury services. In addition to momentary thinking orientations, gender as well as income were found to be relevant to a consumer's choice in a shopping platform when seeking luxury brands. More details about the study's findings and their implications are discussed below.
This chapter aims to reflect on the role of intermediaries that are interfaces and how their tactile attributes are “integrated” into the processing of information by consumers when browsing and searching for products through the device. We first define and explain the different type of tactile interfaces currently available on the market. Second, we discuss the tactile rendering techniques and benefits from a consumer’s perspective for online shopping.
This chapter aims to provide a set of research with specifics examples that support the development of the previous chapters. It particularly focuses on recent and relevant research on haptic interfaces (development and consumer approach) as well as it will develop a first-hand research study with materials that lies down the foundation to consider for future haptic interface in consumption.
Mobile devices are gaining popularity among online shoppers whose behavior has been reshaped by the changes in screen size, interface, functionality, and context of use. This study, based on a log file from a cross-border E-commerce platform, conducted a clickstream data analysis to compare desktop and mobile users’ visiting behavior. The original 2,827,449 clickstream records generated over a 4-day period were cleaned and analyzed according to an established analysis framework at the footprint level. Differences are found between desktop and mobile users in the distribution of footprints, core footprints, and footprint depth. As the results show, online shoppers preferred to explore various products on mobile devices and read product details on desktops. The E-commerce mobile application (app) presented higher interactivity than the desktop and mobile websites, thus increasing both user involvement and product visibility. It enabled users to engage in the intended activities more effectively on the corresponding pages. Mobile users were further divided into iOS and Android users whose visiting behaviors were basically similar to each other, though the latter might experience slower response speed.
This paper was chosen for an Emerald Literati award. For the next six months, it may be downloaded FREE at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IntR-03-2018-0089/full/html .
In this paper, the focus is on the evolution of online survey research from 2005 to the present, as well as a look at what is ahead for survey research. Online surveys not only continue to grow in popularity and to mature as a research technique, but new technologies have also changed survey methodologies—and possibilities. While earlier research and interest as to online surveys were driven by the potential benefits of doing research online, the growth of online surveys has further brought to the forefront some limitations and pitfalls of doing surveys online.
As consumers are shopping in physical stores, they can perceive and evaluate products with tactile sense. However, the rapid development of online shopping has blocked the direct haptic sensory experience between consumers and products. In recent years, researchers have been devoted to the tactile purchasing research in the virtual situation. Based on the previous study in psychology and consumer behavior, this review summarized the decision-making process and influencing factors of consumers’ tactile purchasing. Further, this review shed light on the “touch hunger” and tactile hindrance. What is more, some studies of perception transfer, touch compensation, and virtual touch have been discussed. Finally, the current progress of tactile marketing research has been outlined and discussed, and we also introduced several potential opportunities for future studies.
This article illustrates that haptic touch, the sensation of gaining and sending information through the hand, can improve mobile retailing advertisements’ effectiveness. To date, (haptic) touch has been predominantly thought of as a sensation only possible for physical retail settings, with limited theoretical or empirical evidence of its existence in mobile retailing advertising in the current literature. This study presents a model which includes interactivity, value, involvement, brand attitude and purchase intentions in a singular model for the first time. The model is comparatively examined across haptic touch (n = 303) versus non-haptic touch (n = 359) conditions using structural equation modelling (SEM) multi-group test of invariance. The findings demonstrate haptic touch improves the experience of advertisements and this strengthens purchase intentions, whereas for the non-haptic touch condition, results demonstrate the actual brand being advertised should be leveraged to increase purchase intentions. These findings present a new theoretical perspective that haptic touch is now a sensation which can be engaged in mobile and digital retail settings and provides an important foundation for future research.
The role of direct versus indirect experience in the attitude-behavior consistency issue is reviewed. Using a new communications model, the authors extend the direct/indirect experience paradigm to a common marketing scenario: product trial versus product advertising. The specific contributions of attitude strength and type of behavior are examined, and results show that when attitudes are based on trial they predict purchase very well. When attitudes are based on advertising, however, attitude-behavior consistency is significantly reduced. Implications for when attitude models should be applied in marketing research and practice are discussed.
The authors report a study of the effects of price, brand, and store information on buyers' perceptions of product quality and value, as well as their willingness to buy. Hypotheses are derived from a conceptual model positing the effects of extrinsic cues (price, brand name, and store name) on buyers' perceptions and purchase intentions. Moreover, the design of the experiment allows additional analyses on the relative differential effects of price, brand name, and store name on the three dependent variables. Results indicate that price had a positive effect on perceived quality, but a negative effect on perceived value and willingness to buy. Favorable brand and store information positively influenced perceptions of quality and value, and subjects' willingness to buy. The major findings are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.
This article reports the development and validation of a parsimonious, generalizable scale that measures the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions of consumer attitudes toward product categories and different brands within categories. The hedonic/utilitarian (HED/UT) scale includes ten semantic differential response items, five of which refer to the hedonic dimension and five of which refer to the utilitarian dimension of consumer attitudes. The authors conducted six studies to establish the unidimensionality, reliability, and validity of the two HED/UT subscales. In reaching the final scale, the authors also develop and implement a unique process of paring down a psychometrically sound but otherwise too large set of items. Nomological validity is established by replacing a typical, one-dimensional attitude toward the brand measure with the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions in a central route processing model. Results suggest that the hedonic and utilitarian constructs are two distinct dimensions of brand attitude and are reliably and validly measured by the HED/UT scale.
Haptic information, or information attained through touch by the hands, is important for the evaluation of products that vary in terms of material properties related to texture, hardness, temperature, and weight. The authors develop and propose a conceptual framework to illustrate that salience of haptic information differs significantly across products, consumers, and situations. The authors use two experiments to assess how these factors interact to impair or enhance the acquisition and use of haptic information. Barriers to touch, such as a retail display case, can inhibit the use of haptic information and consequently decrease confidence in product evaluations and increase the frustration level of consumers who are more motivated to touch products. In addition, written descriptions and visual depictions of products can partially enhance acquisition of certain types of touch information. The authors synthesize the results of these studies and discuss implications for the effect of haptic information for Internet and other nonstore retailing as well as for traditional retailers.
In this article, the authors examine how consumer choice between hedonic and utilitarian goods is influenced by the nature of the decision task. Building on research on elaboration, the authors propose that the relative salience of hedonic dimensions is greater when consumers decide which of several items to give up (forfeiture choices) than when they decide which item to acquire (acquisition choices). The resulting hypothesis that a hedonic item is relatively preferred over the same utilitarian item in forfeiture choices than in acquisition choices was supported in two choice experiments. In a subsequent experiment, these findings were extended to hypothetical choices in which the acquisition and forfeiture conditions were created by manipulating initial attribute-level reference states instead of ownership. Finally, consistent with the experimental findings, a field survey showed that, relative to market prices, owners of relatively hedonic cars value their vehicles more than do owners of relatively utilitarian cars. The authors discuss theoretical implications of these reference-dependent preference asymmetries and explore consequences for marketing managers and other decision makers.
The authors expand and integrate prior price-perceived value models within the context of price comparison advertising. More specifically, the conceptual model explicates the effects of advertised selling and reference prices on buyers' internal reference prices, perceptions of quality, acquisition value, transaction value, and purchase and search intentions. Two experimental studies test the conceptual model. The results across these two studies, both individually and combined, support the hypothesis that buyers' internal reference prices are influenced by both advertised selling and reference prices as well as the buyers' perception of the product's quality, The authors also find that the effect of advertised selling price on buyers' acquisition value was mediated by their perceptions of transaction value, In addition, the effects of perceived transaction value on buyers' behavioral intentions were mediated by their acquisition value perceptions. The authors suggest directions for further research and implications for managers.
Previous research has shown that a touch or haptic element attached to a persuasive appeal can increase persuasion, particularly for individuals who have a clear preference for touch to enjoy its sensory feedback (high autotelics). This research extends previous work by including involvement in the context of an appeal by a nonprofit. We find, in an experiment where we manipulate involvement, that when a haptic element is present, high autotelics are more persuaded regardless of their involvement with the message. However, for low autotelics, a haptic element increases persuasion under conditions of low versus high involvement with the message. A second experiment measures involvement and finds that again, under low involvement conditions, both high and low autotelics are persuaded by a touch element. Finally, a field study with a local symphony orchestra is conducted in which involvement with the message is low but involvement with the company is high. In this case, a touch element is only persuasive for high autotelics. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This study investigates the effect of corporate brand dominance—that is, the visibility of a company's corporate brand in product communications—on the relationship between corporate associations and product evaluations. The results show that corporate brand dominance determines the degree to which associations with the com-pany's corporate ability and corporate social responsibility influence product attitudes, as well as the nature of the moderating effects of fit and involvement. Guido Berens is an assistant professor, Department of Business-Society Management (e-mail: gberens@fbk.eur.nl); Cees B.M. van Riel is Profes-sor of Corporate Communication, Department of Business-Society Man-agement (e-mail: criel@fbk.eur.nl); and Gerrit H. van Bruggen is Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing Management (e-mail: gbruggen@fbk.eur.nl), Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus Uni-versity. The authors thank the anonymous JM reviewers for their many helpful comments and suggestions.
Baron and Kenny's procedure for determining if an independent variable affects a dependent variable through some mediator is so well known that it is used by authors and requested by reviewers almost reflexively. Many research projects have been terminated early in a research program or later in the review process because the data did not conform to Baron and Kenny's criteria, impeding theoretical development. While the technical literature has disputed some of Baron and Kenny's tests, this literature has not diffused to practicing researchers. We present a nontechnical summary of the flaws in the Baron and Kenny logic, some of which have not been previously noted. We provide a decision tree and a step-by-step procedure for testing mediation, classifying its type, and interpreting the implications of findings for theory building and future research. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
In a yes/no identification task using touch alone, subjects indicated whether an object belonged to a named category. Previously,
we found that subjects explored in two stages—first grasping and lifting the object, then executing further exploratory procedures
(Lederman & Klatzky, 1990b). We proposed that Stage 1 (grasp/lift) was sufficient to extract coarse information about multiple
object properties, whereas Stage 2 was directed toward precise information about particularly diagnostic properties. the current
study, subjects were initially constrained to grasping and lifting, after which they could explore further. Accuracy was above
chance after Stage 1, confirming our assumption that the grasp/lift combination was broadly useful. Stage 2 increased accuracy
and confidence. It primarily elicited exploratory procedures associated with object geometry, but exploration was also influenced
by diagnostic object properties.
Decades of research provide strong evidence that consumers process information in two distinct and qualitatively different ways, rational and experiential. However, little research has addressed situational influences on thinking style, and there have been no attempts to simultaneously measure and validate two-dimensional situation-specific thinking. We develop and validate a new instrument for measuring situation-specific thinking style using performance tasks, consumer Web activities, and differing motivations. We establish differences in thinking style across types of tasks and motivations, and congruence effects related to the fit of situation-specific thinking style and the nature of the task on performance and attitudinal outcomes. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
It has been suggested theoretically that consumer attitudes have distinct hedonic and utilitarian components, and that product categories differ in the extent to which their overall attitudes are derived from these two components. This paper reports three studies that validate measurement scales for these constructs and, using them, show that these two attitude dimensions do seem to exist; are based on different types of product attributes; and are differentially salient across different consumer products and behaviors, in theoretically-consistent ways. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47067/1/11002_2004_Article_BF00436035.pdf
Using college students as research subjects in consumer research may or may not be appropriate. This paper discusses external validity of research findings using student subjects as surrogates for consumers in experimental, particularly scenario based, studies. A study that investigated differences between a student sample and a customer sample in response to service experience is described. Results were mixed. No significant mean differences were found in complaint intention, preference to complain to an employee or a manager, overall satisfaction, and revisit intention toward service providers. However, significant discrepancies were observed in testing the role of initial overall satisfaction in evaluating recovery satisfaction and in the relative importance of dimensions of justice. For both student and non-student groups, regardless their recovery satisfaction were positive or negative, initial overall satisfaction was a stronger predictor for post-recovery overall satisfaction than recovery satisfaction.
We develop a conceptual framework regarding the perceptual transfer of haptic or touch-related characteristics from product containers to judgments of the products themselves. Thus, the firmness of a cup in which water is served may affect consumers' judgments of the water itself. This framework predicts that not all consumers are equally affected by such nondiagnostic haptic cues. Results from four studies show that consumers high in the autotelic need for touch (general liking for haptic input) are less affected by such nondiagnostic haptic cues compared to consumers low in the autotelic need for touch. The research has many implications for product and package design. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
In a yes/no identification task using touch alone, subjects indicated whether an object belonged to a named category. Previously, we found that subjects explored in two stages--first grasping and lifting the object, then executing further exploratory procedures (Lederman & Klatzky, 1990b). We proposed that Stage 1 (grasp/lift) was sufficient to extract coarse information about multiple object properties, whereas Stage 2 was directed toward precise information about particularly diagnostic properties. In the current study, subjects were initially constrained to grasping and lifting, after which they could explore further. Accuracy was above chance after Stage 1, confirming our assumption that the grasp/lift combination was broadly useful. Stage 2 increased accuracy and confidence. It primarily elicited exploratory procedures associated with object geometry, but exploration was also influenced by diagnostic object properties.
Two studies provide evidence for the reliability and validity of a new self-report measure of individual differences in intuitive-experiential and analytical-rational thinking based on cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST). The Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI) was constructed to measure the 2 independent processing modes with a modified Need for Cognition Scale (NFC, J.T. Cacioppo & R.E. Petty, 1982) and a new scale, Faith in Intuition (FI). In Study 1, a factor analysis yielded 2 orthogonal factors corresponding to NFC and FI. Although heuristic processing was determined primarily by FI, NFC also contributed to heuristic responding, in line with CEST. The relation of FI and NFC to coping ability also was examined. In Study 2, the factor structure of the REI was replicated (N = 973). NFC and FI were differentially related to measures of personality, adjustment, achievement, and interpersonal relations.
Procedures for examining whether treatment effects on an outcome are mediated and/or moderated have been well developed and are routinely applied. The mediation question focuses on the intervening mechanism that produces the treatment effect. The moderation question focuses on factors that affect the magnitude of the treatment effect. It is important to note that these two processes may be combined in informative ways, such that moderation is mediated or mediation is moderated. Although some prior literature has discussed these possibilities, their exact definitions and analytic procedures have not been completely articulated. The purpose of this article is to define precisely both mediated moderation and moderated mediation and provide analytic strategies for assessing each.
The authors report a study of the effects of price, brand, and store information on buyers’ perceptions of product quality and value, as well as their willingness to buy. Hypotheses are derived from a conceptual model positing the effects of extrinsic cues (price, brand name, and store name) on buyers’ perceptions and purchase intentions. Moreover, the design of the experiment allows additional analyses on the relative differential effects of price, brand name, and store name on the three dependent variables. Results indicate that price had a positive effect on perceived quality, but a negative effect on perceived value and willingness to buy. Favorable brand and store information positively influenced perceptions of quality and value, and subjects’ willingness to buy. The major findings are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.
The role of direct versus indirect experience in the attitude-behavior consistency issue is reviewed. Using a new communications model, the authors extend the direct/indirect experience paradigm to a common marketing scenario: product trial versus product advertising. The specific contributions of attitude strength and type of behavior are examined, and results show that when attitudes are based on trial they predict purchase very well. When attitudes are based on advertising, however, attitude-behavior consistency is significantly reduced. Implications for when attitude models should be applied in marketing research and practice are discussed.
The authors expand and integrate prior price-perceived value models within the context of price comparison advertising. More specifically, the conceptual model explicates the effects of advertised selling and reference prices on buyers’ internal reference prices, perceptions of quality, acquisition value, transaction value, and purchase and search intentions. Two experimental studies test the conceptual model. The results across these two studies, both individually and combined, support the hypothesis that buyers’ internal reference prices are influenced by both advertised selling and reference prices as well as the buyers’ perception of the product's quality. The authors also find that the effect of advertised selling price on buyers’ acquisition value was mediated by their perceptions of transaction value. In addition, the effects of perceived transaction value on buyers’ behavioral intentions were mediated by their acquisition value perceptions. The authors suggest directions for further research and implications for managers.
Bitter personal experience and meta-analysis converge on the conclusion that people do not always do the things that they intend to do. This paper synthesizes research on intention–behavior relations to address questions such as: How big is the intention–behavior gap? When are intentions more or less likely to get translated into action? What kinds of problems prevent people from realizing their intentions? And what strategies show promise in closing the intention–behavior gap and helping people do the things that they intend to do?
Little academic research has been directed to developing new brand names. While guidelines for creating effective new brand names have been proposed (e.g. the name should be distinctive, easy to pronounce, meaningful, etc), results of following such prescriptions are largely unknown. The purpose of this study is to examine customer response to products introduced with “meaningful” new brand names. Specifically, this research proposes and empirically tests two methods for creating meaningful new brand names. Results of the study indicate that products with brand names using sound symbolism to convey product-related information are liked better by consumers and positioned more strongly in their minds. Supplementing sound symbolism imbeds with semantic imbeds in a brand name further enhances both product liking and positioning.
I describe a test of linear moderated mediation in path analysis based on an interval estimate of the parameter of a function linking the indirect effect to values of a moderator—a parameter that I call the index of moderated mediation. This test can be used for models that integrate moderation and mediation in which the relationship between the indirect effect and the moderator is estimated as linear, including many of the models described by Edwards and Lambert (200710.
Edwards, J.R., & Lambert, L.S. (2007). Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. Psychological Methods, 12, 1–22.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®]View all references) and Preacher, Rucker, and Hayes (200743.
Preacher, K.J., Rucker, D.D., & Hayes, A.F. (2007). Assessing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185–227.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]View all references) as well as extensions of these models to processes involving multiple mediators operating in parallel or in serial. Generalization of the method to latent variable models is straightforward. Three empirical examples describe the computation of the index and the test, and its implementation is illustrated using Mplus and the PROCESS macro for SPSS and SAS.
As mouse-driven desktop computers give way to touchpad laptops and touchscreen tablets, the role of touch in online consumer behavior has become increasingly important. This work presents initial explorations into the effects of varying touch-based interfaces on consumers, and argues that research into the interfaces used to access content can be as important as research into the content itself. Two laboratory studies using a variety of touch technologies explore how touchscreen interfaces can increase perceived psychological ownership, and this in turn magnifies the endowment effect. Touch interfaces also interact with importance of product haptics and actual interface ownership in their effects on perceived product ownership, with stronger effects for products high in haptic importance and interfaces that are owned. Results highlight that perceptions of online products and marketing activities are filtered through the lens of the interfaces used to explore them, and touch-based devices like tablets can lead to higher product valuations when compared to traditional computers.
This article examines the emotional and behavioral consequences of making functional versus hedonic trade-offs. Building on the proposed correspondence between functionality and a prevention focus and between hedonics and a promotion focus, the authors predict that contexts involving functional versus hedonic trade-offs evoke a variety of both negative and positive emotions, including guilt/anxiety, sadness/disappointment, cheerfulness/excitement, and confidence/security. These predictions are confirmed. Furthermore, an analysis of the intensities of these specific emotions reveals the following additional insights: (1) Under conditions in which the options in a choice set meet or exceed both functional and hedonic cutoffs, consumers attach greater importance to the hedonic attribute, and (2) whereas the functionally superior option is preferred in choice tasks, the hedonically superior one is preferred in willingness-to-pay tasks.
The controversy over using college students as subjects in applied research has been a topic of philosophical discourse and empirical investigation. Thirty-two studies are reviewed in which students and nonstudents participated as subjects under identical conditions. In studies reporting statistical tests of between-group differences, the preponderance of findings indicated that the experimental results differed in the two samples. By contrast, no major differences associated with the type of subject were reported in the majority of studies which did not employ statistical procedures to compare the findings in the two samples. Explanations for differences in the sample are offered, and serve as a basis for recommendations for future research.
This paper defines hedonic consumption as those facets of consumer behavior that relate to the multisensory, fantasy and emotive aspects of product usage experience. After delineating these concepts, their theoretical antecedents are traced, followed by a discussion of differences between the traditional and hedonic views, methodological implications of the latter approach, and behavioral propositions in four substantive areas relevant to hedonic consumption-mental constructs, product classes, product usage and individual differences. Conclusions concern the usefulness of the hedonic perspective in supplementing and extending marketing research on consumer behavior.
This chapter addresses two questions; how big is the “gap” between intentions and behavior, and what psychological variables might be able to “bridge” the intention–behavior gap? A meta-analysis of meta-analyses is used to quantify the gap and a conceptual analysis of intention–behavior discrepancies is presented. Research is described on the extent to which four groups of variables—behavior type, intention type, properties of intention, and cognitive and personality variables—moderate intention–behavior relations. Finally, the scope of the intention construct is discussed in the light of recent evidence concerning the role of habits and automaticity in human behavior.
We draw upon literature examining cross-modal sensory interactions and congruence to explore the impact of smell on touch. In line with our predictions, two experiments show that smell can impact touch in meaningful ways. Specifically, we show that multisensory semantic congruence between smell and touch properties of a stimulus enhances haptic perception and product evaluation. We explore this relationship in the context of two properties of touch, namely texture and temperature, and demonstrate that both smell and touch can have semantic associations, which can affect haptic perception and product evaluation depending on whether they match or not. In study 1, we focus on the semantic association of smell and touch (texture) with gender and in study 2 with temperature. Our results extend prior work on smell and touch within consumer behavior, and further contribute to emerging literature on multisensory interactions. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society for Consumer Psychology.
The issue of using students as subjects in consumer research is discussed. Data are collected at both behavioral and attitudinal
levels from both student and general population samples, and the results are compared. Results are discussed in light of the
practical advantages inherent in student samples.
This article provides researchers with a guide to properly construe and conduct analyses of conditional indirect effects, commonly known as moderated mediation effects. We disentangle conflicting definitions of moderated mediation and describe approaches for estimating and testing a variety of hypotheses involving conditional indirect effects. We introduce standard errors for hypothesis testing and construction of confidence intervals in large samples but advocate that researchers use bootstrapping whenever possible. We also describe methods for probing significant conditional indirect effects by employing direct extensions of the simple slopes method and Johnson-Neyman technique for probing significant interactions. Finally, we provide an SPSS macro to facilitate the implementation of the recommended asymptotic and bootstrapping methods. We illustrate the application of these methods with an example drawn from the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions, showing that the indirect effect of intrinsic student interest on mathematics performance through teacher perceptions of talent is moderated by student math self-concept.
The theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) has been used extensively to predict social and health behaviours. However, a critical test of the TPB is whether interventions that increased scores on the theory's predictors would engender behaviour change. The present research deployed a novel technique in order to provide this test. Statistical simulations were conducted on data for 30 behaviours (N=211) that estimated the impact of interventions that generated maximum positive changes in attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) on subsequent intentions and behaviour. Findings indicated that interventions that maximized TPB variables had a substantial impact on behavioural intentions. Although TPB maximization increased the proportion of the sample that performed respective behaviours by 28% compared with baseline, the behaviour of a substantial minority of the sample (26%) did not change. The research also identified several interactions among TPB variables in predicting simulated intention and behaviour scores and investigated the mediating role of intentions in predicting behaviour.
Cognitive-experiential self-theory: an integrative theory of personality The Relational Self: Theoretical Convergences in Psychoanalysis and Social Psychology
- S Epstein
Epstein, S., 1991. Cognitive-experiential self-theory: an integrative theory of personality.
In: Curtis, R.C. (Ed.), The Relational Self: Theoretical Convergences in Psychoanalysis
and Social Psychology. The Guilford Press, New York, pp. 111–137.
The Science of Shopping. 4. The New Yorkerpp
- M Gladwell
Gladwell, M., 1996. The Science of Shopping. 4. The New Yorkerpp. 66-75.
- Y Zhu
- J Meyer
Y. Zhu, J. Meyer
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 38 (2017) 51–58
Goldman: There will be as Much Mobile Commerce in 2018 as Ecommerce in 2013
- A C Madrigal
Madrigal, A.C., 2014. Goldman: There will be as Much Mobile Commerce in 2018 as Ecommerce in 2013. Retrieved from 〈http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/
archive/2014/03/goldman-there-will-be-as-much-mobile-commerce-in-2018-as-bre-commerce-in-2013/284270/〉.
Cognitive-experiential self-theory: an integrative theory of personality
- J F Engel
- R D Blackwell
- P W Miniard
- S Epstein
Engel, J.F., Blackwell, R.D., Miniard, P.W., 1993. Consumer Behavior. Dryden, Chicago.
Epstein, S., 1991. Cognitive-experiential self-theory: an integrative theory of personality.
In: Curtis, R.C. (Ed.), The Relational Self: Theoretical Convergences in Psychoanalysis
and Social Psychology. The Guilford Press, New York, pp. 111-137.
- Y Zhu
Y. Zhu, J. Meyer
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 38 (2017) 51-58