Prior research suggests that close friends and family members exert similar effects on consumer behavior because both represent strong social ties and are subject to communal norms. However, drawing on regulatory focus theory, we postulate that accessibility of friend and family can have divergent impacts on consumers' subsequent purchase decisions. Across four experiments, as well as a pilot study, we demonstrate that accessibility of friend (vs. family) is more likely to activate a promotion focus, which results in more favorable consumer responses toward products with promotion‐focused appeals, whereas accessibility of family (vs. friend) is more likely to activate a prevention focus, which leads to more positive consumer responses toward products with prevention‐focused appeals.

Multifunctional products are ubiquitous in consumers' daily lives. However, scant research has examined whether and how the presence of multifunctional products systematically alters consumer behavior beyond product evaluations and adoption. Across four experiments and three supplementary studies, the authors identify a multifunction-impatience effect. They show that after exposure to multifunctional (vs. singlefunction) products, consumers are more likely to choose a smaller but sooner (vs. a larger but later) reward (Study 1), report more impatience when waiting for the web search results to load and perceive the loading time as longer (Study 2), and are willing to pay more for expedited shipping (Study 3). The authors further show that the effects occur because multifunctional products activate an efficiency goal among consumers, which renders them less patient (studies 2 and 3). In addition to the regular, "sequential" multifunctional products for which each of the functions has a specific usage situation, the proposed effect also applies to "simultaneous" multifunctional products whose functions operate simultaneously during consumption (Study 4). Taken together, this research broadens the scholarly understanding of the effects of multifunctional products from consumers' responses to these products to the unintended impact of such products on consumer impatience.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of wedding-related consumption of urban families in China during the past 50 years. Design/methodology/approach This study used qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect and analyse data from 157 families in China. Data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys. Findings The findings are as follows: average wedding expenses per family have increased, mainly as a result of the substantial growth of indirect wedding costs; the percentage of total wedding expenses represented by direct costs pertaining to the ritual is trending downwards; the percentage of total wedding expenses borne by the groom’s family is much higher than that borne by the bride’s family, and the gap is enlarging; the proportion of newlyweds living with parents was more than 50 per cent in the 1970s and 1980s, decreased to 10 per cent in the 1990s and began slightly increasing again after 2000. Research limitations/implications The authors used signal investment theory to explain the fact that the groom’s family bears more of the wedding expenses than the bride’s family does, but more evidences are needed to verify the theory. Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding of evolution of wedding consumption of urban families in China, as well as how social and economic factors influence wedding consumptions in different ages, an area with limited previous research. The authors also propose signal investment theory as an alternative explanation to current wedding consumption theories to justify the phenomenon.

PurposeThe current research aims to develop a measurement scale of consumption rituals. On the basis of literature review and second-hand data, this paper conceptualizes consumption rituals and compiles the initial items. Furthermore, through the scale development process, this paper constructs and verifies the four dimensions of consumption rituals, namely, uniqueness, commitment, ceremoniality and nonfunctionality.Design/methodology/approachFirst, qualitative data gathered in an open interview and secondary data from the Internet were examined, and then they were converted into initial statements. Then researchers refined and evaluated the statements to form the initial items. After two rounds of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), the items were tested and improved to make them clear representatives of the conceptual structure and the final items of the Consumption Ritual Scale were formed. Finally, through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the items were retested and revised, and the reliability and validity of the scale were assessed, so as to obtain the final scale.FindingsEmpirical studies show that the scale has good reliability and validity, and has good discriminative validity with related variables (such as the sense of sacredness, sense of participation, feeling of awe, sense of control and sense of identity).Originality/valueThis paper selects rituals in the consumption context as the research object, explores and verifies the conceptual dimension, constructs a four-factor dimensional model and develops a measurement scale of consumption rituals.