Guess Who Buys Cheap? The Effect of Consumers' Goal Orientation on Product Preference. Issue 3 (1st December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Choi, Woo Jin; Sun, Haoying; Liu, Yan (Lucy); Chen, Haipeng (Allan)
• Is Part Of: Journal of consumer psychology. Volume 30:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 506
• Page End: 514
• Publication Date: 2019-12-01
• Subjects: goal orientation -- price -- quality variability -- quality estimation -- promotion focus -- prevention focus; Consumer behavior -- Periodicals; Consumption (Economics) -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; 658.8342
• DOI: 10.1002/jcpy.1148
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1057-7408

Abstract

Abstract : The current research examines how goal orientation affects consumer preference among products with different prices. We argue that a less expensive product may have not only lower perceived quality but also greater perceived quality variability. This greater perceived variability provides the opportunity for optimistic, promotion‐oriented consumers to overestimate the quality of the less expensive product. This effect is weaker, however, for a more expensive product that consumers perceive to have less quality variability and which thus provides less room for quality overestimation. As a result, we hypothesize that promotion‐oriented consumers, as compared to prevention‐oriented consumers, will demonstrate a stronger preference for a less expensive product. In a field study and two laboratory experiments, we obtain empirical support both for the hypothesized effect of consumers' goal orientation on their product preference and for its underlying process. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our results.