Suchergebnisse

Abstract
How does cultural self-construal influence consumers' tendency to use price to judge quality? Seven experiments designed to address this question revealed that people with a more interdependent (vs. independent) cultural self-construal—operationalized by ethnicity, nationality, measured self-construal, or manipulated salient self-construal—have a greater tendency to use price information to judge quality. This difference arises because interdependents tend to be holistic (vs. analytic) thinkers who are more likely to perceive interrelations between the elements of a product. These effects were observed regardless of whether the price-quality relation was assessed with a standard self-report scale or via actual product judgments, and whether thinking style was measured or manipulated. However, cultural differences only emerged in situations that afforded interdependents (vs. independents) a relational processing advantage. These findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying the effects and identify novel boundary conditions for the influence of self-construal and thinking style on consumer judgments.

Abstract
Consumers routinely encounter situations in which they perceive that resources are scarce. However, little is known about how this perception influences consumers' use of price in their purchase decisions. The present research seeks to fill this gap by examining the link between scarcity and the tendency to use price to judge product quality, and the mechanisms underlying that link. Six studies (and five more reported in the web appendix) using multiple product categories and a variety of operationalizations of both scarcity and price-quality judgments show that scarcity decreases consumers' tendency to use price to judge product quality. This occurs because scarcity induces a desire to compensate for the shortage and seek abundance, and thereby reduces an individual's general categorization tendency (because categorizing brings about a feeling of reduction); this, in turn, hinders consumers from viewing products as belonging to different price-tier groups, and thus lowers their tendency to use price as a basis for judging product quality. Boundary conditions for the proposed effect are also identified. The current research makes fundamental contributions to the literatures on scarcity, price-quality judgments, and categorization.

Abstract
Although coupons are very effective in increasing sales, a major challenge marketers face with coupons is the low redemption rates. Consequently, marketers are continuously trying to identify consumers who are more or less likely to respond to couponing efforts, in order to better direct coupons to segments high in coupon proneness and hence increase redemption rates. The current research identifies consumers' cultural backgrounds and values as important determinants of their likelihood of redeeming coupons. Across five studies, we find that Asians (vs. Caucasians), Indians (vs. Americans), and, more generally, consumers with an interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal are more likely to use coupons because they are more motivated to engage in self-regulation, which is proposed to enhance coupon proneness. We conclude with the implications of these findings for marketers, such as for their segmentation and targeting endeavors. We also provide specific tools that marketers could use, both inside and outside the store, to influence consumers' use of coupons.