The effect of material and experiential consumption on goal pursuit

More than 50 million consumers participate in online group buying, hence its importance to retailers cannot be ignored. Four studies are conducted to determine (a) whether customers' preferences to participate in group buying relative to buying alone are more in the case of experiential (vs. material) purchases; (b) underlying psychological mechanisms affecting an individual's willingness to invite additional buyers; and (c) the moderating role of analytic versus holistic thinking orientation within the mediational framework. Consistent with expectations, preferences to invite additional buyers to receive a further discount (vs. buying alone and taking the deal-of-the-day) were greater for experiential purchases than material purchases. Three psychological motivators, namely social relatedness, conversational value, and anticipatory enjoyment, act as parallel mediators. Finally, moderated-mediation analysis shows holistic thinking accentuates the mediational pathway of anticipatory enjoyment but not for social relatedness, whereas analytical thinking accentuates the mediational pathway of conversational value. Of practical relevance to those designing group buying websites is that offering an additional discount to buyers if they are willing to expend the effort to form a larger group not only reduced the number of individuals indicating that they would not make a purchase at all, but about a quarter of respondents indicated that they would endeavor to find additional buyers. In addition, there is a clear preference for experiential goods; and for material goods, the findings suggest drawing attention to the experiences that material goods offer.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Online group buying behavior: A study of experiential versus material purchases

Agarwal

Das

Spence

2022

“…Although our findings demonstrate that material purchases can elicit similar levels of happiness as experiential ones, it is important to note that the two purchase types do differ along some parameters that are not happiness related. For example, Han et al (2023) identify feelings of power as an antecedent for the preference for experiential but not material purchases, Ho and Wyer (2021) point to the different pathways through which these purchase types influence goal pursuit, while Agarwal et al (2022) examine the differential impact of experiential and material purchases on the decision to make group purchases online.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hedonic objects and utilitarian experiences: The overriding influence of hedonism in driving consumer happiness

Kousi

Halkias

Kokkinaki

2023

The experience recommendation prescribes a disadvantage to material purchases, suggesting that spending on experiential rather than material purchases makes people happier. This study challenges this idea by examining the hedonic/utilitarian nature of purchases. The results of a qualitative study and four experiments (one preregistered) show that the happiness advantage of experiential (vs. material) purchases is contingent on pronounced hedonic properties. Our results indicate that hedonism asymmetries override the distinction between purchase type, such that there is no happiness advantage in buying experiences over material objects when purchases are equally (non)hedonic. Importantly, we find that hedonism is more instrumental for material purchases and that hedonic materials are equally effective as experiential purchases, altogether, and even outperform utilitarian experiences in eliciting happiness. Our findings encourage consumers to focus on the properties, rather than the type, of purchases to increase purchase‐related happiness. Our results further suggest that marketers of material goods, in particular, can considerably increase customer value by using design components, product features, and brand imagery that leverage hedonic qualities.

Section: Experiential Purchases and The Experiential Advantagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiential purchases include events that one can live through (e.g., concert tickets, massages), whereas material purchases include objects that can be kept in one's possession (e.g., furniture, jewelry). An extensive body of work compares experiential and material purchases and their impact on consumer well‐being, including satisfaction (Carter & Gilovich, 2010), regret (Rosenzweig & Gilovich, 2012), intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation (Ho & Wyer, 2021), and happiness (Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003; Weingarten & Goodman, 2021). The general consensus from this research stream is that consumers tend to derive greater satisfaction and happiness from experiential consumption than from material possessions (Caprariello & Reis, 2013; Carter & Gilovich, 2010, 2012; Howell & Hill, 2009; Kumar et al, 2014; Nicolao et al, 2009; Razmus et al, 2022; Weingarten & Goodman, 2021).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

How power increases preference for experiential purchases but not for material purchases

Han

Smale

Lee

2023

While recent research indicates that experiential purchases lead to greater happiness than material purchases (i.e., experiential advantage), we have a limited understanding of when and why consumers prefer experiential purchases. In this paper, we address this topic and find that consumers' feelings of power play a significant role in their preference for experiential purchases. Across four experimental studies, using multiple manipulations and stimuli, we demonstrate that feelings of high (vs. low) power lead to increased consumer preference for experiential, but not material, purchases. Mediation (Study 3) and moderation (Study 4) analyses revealed that this phenomenon is driven by greater expected happiness from experiential purchases for consumers feeling high (vs. low) power. We contribute to the experiential purchase literature by identifying consumer power as an important antecedent of consumers' preference for experiences and also add to the consumer power literature by documenting how perceived power affects consumer evaluations and decision‐making. Furthermore, our paper suggests that managers should target people in powerful positions or seek to facilitate feelings of greater power in potential customers when marketing experiential products.