The International Journal of Consumer Research Vol 1 No. 1

I J CR

International Journal of Consumer Research Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief Cheng Lu Wang, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Department of Management, Marketing & Quantitative Analysis College of Business University of New Haven, USA

Editorial Advisory Board (alphabetically order) Bradley R. Barnes University of Sheffield, UK Russell Belk York University, Canada Nak Hwan Choi Chonbuk National University, South Korea Giana Eckhardt Suffolk University, USA Kim-Shyan Fam Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Xiucheng Fan Fudan University, China Guoqun Fu Beijing University, China Ying Jiang Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada Brian Young University of Exeter, UK Maria Kniazeva University of San Diego, USA Dongjin Li Nankai University, China

Drew Martin University of Hawaii at Hilo, USA John Mowen Oklahoma State University, USA Gerard Prendergast Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Nancy Wong University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Hao Zhang Northeastern University, China Yuhuang Zheng Tsinghua University, China

International Journal of Consumer Research Volume 1, no 1, 2012, ISSN: 1179-8785

Table of Contents Editorial: The Launch of International Journal of Consumer Research Cheng Lu Wang

Feature Articles The Western Yogi: Consuming Eastern Wisdom Maria Kniazeva Russell W. Belk

1

Calling Back Consumers Who Missed a Purchase: Making Use of Regret Dongjin Li Yunfei Ma Yan Li

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Does Perceived Control Increase Game Usage and Purchase Behavior?

Robert Davis Bodo Lang

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The Influences of Value Perception on Purchase Intention of Luxury Products Hao Zhang Xinbo Sun

70

Awareness of outdoor advertising in Hong Kong Kara Chan Benjamin Cheng

81

Book Review Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China: Theories and Practices Xiaohua Lin

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Editorial: The Launch of the International Journal of Consumer Research Welcome to our premier issue of IJCR. I am greatly thankful to our contributors, reviewers and editorial adversary board members who make this journal possible.

IJCR aims to publish high quality research on all aspects of consumer behaviors and consumptions. As an international academic journal, IJCR provides a global and multidisciplinary forum to understand consumers from psychology, sociology, anthropology, marketing and consumption economics perspectives. All submissions will go through a strict double-blind peer-reviewed procedure based on strong theoretical conceptualization and rigorous research methods. Short research notes and commentary, with innovative approach and insightful idea are also welcome.

Before the paper is sending out for peer review, the editor-in-chief will first check whether the manuscript meets the standard and requirement for publication at the IJCR. First, it should fit the journal content (i.e., consumer behavior related). Second, while a paper with strong managerial applications is welcomed, however, theoretical or conceptual contribution should be emphasized. Quite often a submission is desk rejected simply because it lacks of contribution to existing knowledge of consumer behavior or does not show adding sufficient new knowledge to extant literature in the research area.

Turning finally to our feature articles now. Based on overwhelming number of inquiries and submissions, this issue selected 5 articles and one book review.

I am very pleased to introducing the leading article, written by Maries Kniazeva and her coauthor, Russell Belk, the marketing guru and world renowned consumer behavior researcher. They explore a very interesting topic: decommodification, or how a purchasable commodity regains its original spiritual character. Kniazeva and Belk examine how the physical, mental and spiritual components of yoga are experienced by their practitioners in the West, the forces that drive the marriage of Eastern wisdom and Western popular culture, and the degree to which ancient Eastern practice fits a contemporary Western lifestyle. They find that Western yogis experience unexpected discoveries on a yoga mat. This is a fun piece to read, our reviewers enjoy this paper and I believe our readers will like it too.

The next paper, written by Dongjin Li, Yunfei Ma and Yan Li, gives a fascinating insight into how consumers feel and respond when they miss out on a purchase. The authors address such questions often happened in our daily life: after consumers miss a purchase, whether consumers would regret for not participating in these events? Whether regret would influence their intention to participate in similar future sales event? What may moderate such an intention? The paper, which is based on three experiments, reveals that regret due to missing a sale will increase the tendency to buy at next opportunity, especially when the information on a better-forgone outcome is offered. However, the influence of regret on purchase intention is moderated by perceived accessibility of next purchasing opportunity. The managerial implication of the study is obvious as it reveals ways for marketers to motivate consumers to purchase in future when they miss a sale. i

Games played on PC or MAC and/or games on a console have become an important consumption activity of consumers, especially among young consumers today. Robert Davis and Bodo Lang, attempt to model the relationship between the consumers’ game purchase, usage behavior and perceived control across four types of game. It is generally assumed that consumers will use and purchase games that are easy to use and control, because perceived control is the perceived ease of performing the behavior and reflects the consumer’s ability to control the game experience and shape their interaction. However, little empirical evidence supports such an assumption. Davis and Lang’s study shows that consumers’ perceived control does not impact usage and/or purchase behavior. The only exception related to control and game usage for Role Playing Game. They argue that for the consumer to value the consumption experience of this game type, they must have a sense of control so that they are able to manipulate their characters that gain experience and power through encounters. When consumers play these games they must also need to have control over their own-self and game-self, that is, their multiple-self’s. This brings into play the complex relationship between self-concept and control.

The global market for luxury goods and services has been booming in recent years, particularly in Asian countries where consumption power and behavior change have been the driving force for the increasing demand for luxury product. Hao Zhang and Xinbo Sun’s study, with a Korean consumer sample, examines the multi-dimensional concept of consumer value perception of luxury product and the impact of such perception on consumer attitude and behavior. Their results identify four components of luxury value perception, including financial, individual, social and brand dimensions. They also find that luxury value perception is significantly associated with consumer’s purchase intention, but the influence is moderated by the image of country-of-manufacture. Thus, outsourcing is an important issue for luxury companies, because Korean young consumer may believe made in another country, especially a developing country, may ruin the core spirit of the luxury brand and make the brand lost its “pure blood”.

Out-of-home (OOH) media are regarded as excellent vehicles to reach mobile consumers who spend more time travelling than staying at home and are commonly used in locations where citizens and tourists cluster, like cosmopolitan cities such as Hong Kong. Kara Chan and Benjamin Cheng report an empirical study of outdoor advertising awareness among pedestrians in Hong Kong. Their intercept survey results suggest that higher motivation, opportunity, and ability are associated with higher advertising awareness. Respondents generally held positive perceptions of outdoor advertising and they would pay attention to outdoor ads that were creative, vivid in color, or larger-than-life. Such knowledge of consumer responses to OOH have important managerial implications for advertising as OOH media use are increasingly popular. Advertisers can adopt the message response involvement theory to include appropriate message cues in their ads so to enhance advertising awareness.

Finally, Xiaohua Lin gives an insightful description of the recently published book, Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China: Theories and Practices. This book covers varieties of issues relating Chinese consumers and marketing strategies targeting to Chinese consumers. As the largest emerging market, China has becoming the largest consumer market.

Understanding Chinese consumer behaviors is crucial for multination companies to enter the increasingly competitive Chinese market. I hope our readers enjoy this comprehensive book review as well as the book. ii

Editor’s Acknowledgement: Once again, I am thankful to following reviewers (some of them reviewed more than one manuscript) who contribute time and effort to make this journal possible.

Susan Baxter, Glen Brodowsky, Angelo A. Camillo, Kara Chan, Angela Chang, Nak Hwan Choi, Giana Eckhardt, Aditi Grover, Xiucheng Fan, Tony Gao, Ilias Kaparelotis, James Kelley, Maria Kniazeva, Unathi Kolanisi, Yam B. Limbu, Xiaohua Lin, Jason Turner, Vincent Xie, Nancy Wong , Yuhuang Zheng,

Cheng Lu Wang, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief

iii

Volume 1, no. 1, 2012, ISSN: 1179-8785 5 THE WESTERN YOGI: CONSUMING EASTERN WISDOM Maria Kniazeva, University of San Diego, USA Russell W. Belk, York University, Canada

Abstract While commodification of spiritual and religious products and practices has been examined in consumer research, we focus on the reverse movement of decommodification. We focus on yoga, as a “product” whose heavy commodification by both the profit-seeking marketers and the body-toning consumer are wrapped with a veneer of spiritual awareness. Specifically, our study explores how ancient Eastern wisdom and popular Western culture intersect and give birth to the Western yogi. Through a qualitative study we examine how the physical, mental and spiritual components of yoga are experienced by their practitioners in the West, the forces that drive the marriage of Eastern wisdom and Western popular culture, and the degree to which ancient Eastern practice fits a contemporary Western lifestyle. Applying procedures for developing grounded theory, we find that Western yogis experience unexpected discoveries on a yoga mat. Our theoretical contribution lies in shedding light on how a purchasable commodity regains its original spiritual character.

Keywords: Easternization, commodification, decommodification, yoga, grounded theory, spirituality.

“We are something in a body.”

(Watts 1994, p.75) There are twenty million of them in the US alone, and their numbers are growing steadily (Schwartz 2011). Madonna does it, and so, very likely, does your next-door neighbor. In 2010 these consumers spent 6 billion dollars on classes, Om amulets, books, clothes, mats and other yoga related products—an 87 percent increase in such spending since 2004 (Evans 2010). Who is the person who heads to the nearby yoga studio? What does this person find on a yoga mat? Starting with these questions, we entered a field of inquiry that promises to bring together ancient Eastern wisdom and a contemporary Western lifestyle.

The East-West discourse takes a central role in the ongoing debates and academic studies of cultural globalization. Although some have questioned whether we are witnessing “global compression” involving the development of a single global culture (e.g., King, 1990), most scholars instead suggest hybridity, creolization, and glocalization (e.g., Hannerz 1987, 1992; Kjelgaard 2006; Miller 1997; Ritzer 2004; Robertson 1992). Nevertheless, the concepts of Westernization, Americanization and McDonaldization linger in the background behind less imperialistic labels and suggest a largely one-directional flow from West to East. Only a few social scientists lament a “comparative absence of much discussion of what might be happening to the West itself” (Campbell 2007, p.18). Our study aims to contribute to filling -1-

in this gap by examining signs of an Eastern presence in the West and applying procedures for developing grounded theory (Strauss 1998).

Japanese sushi, Indian curry, Chinese feng shui, and Asian martial arts are now nearly as much a part of life in the West as they are in the East. The word ‘fusion’ is everywhere in conceptualizing the cultural changes occurring in Western marketplaces of music, fashion, food, arts, and sports. The availability of Eastern goods is no news for Western consumers, who have historically developed an enthusiasm for the Chinese silk, Indian spices, and Arabian coffee. What is relatively new is that Eastern ideas and values that have started penetrating the lives of Westerners, have sparked a much stronger fascination with the supposed wisdom of the East than with the tangible products of its civilizations. One such embodiment of Eastern wisdom and spirituality is yoga.

Yoga may have originated in Indus civilization as much as five thousand years before it first entered the Western world in the 19th century (Fuerstein 1975). Since then it started undergoing an “enormous” evolution of being feminized, democratized, and brought into a closer relationship with contemporary medicine, body, and beauty regimes as well as Western psychology (Cope 2000; Lau 2000). Although some observers have seen yoga in the West as evidence of the spread of Hinduism (e.g., Altglas 2007; Thomas 1930), this evolution has also involved a simplification and secularization of the practice, just as the global spread of Christmas celebrations has involved a secularized version of the holiday in the East without the Christian meanings that are more common in the West (e.g., Belk 2005; deChant 2002; Miller 1993; Schmidt 1995). Yoga in the West has lost much of its religious trappings and has been largely separated from its religious roots.

While commodification and secularization of spiritual and religious products and practices have been well addressed in consumer research (e.g., Einstein 2008; Twitchell 2007) and religious studies (e.g., Miller 2004; Roof 1999), the reverse movement of decommodification has yet to be empirically explored. Our inquiry will make its theoretical contribution in understanding decommodification, which we define as the process of returning original spiritual meaning to the products that had lost this meaning. We conceptualize spirituality in light of the two significant differences between the religions of the East and the West, as delineated by Campbell (2007). The religions of the West, in general, are religions of the book, while the religions of the East “tend to center on spiritual techniques and ritual practices” (p.28). In addition, a fundamental division between the religious and the secular spheres of life characterizes the West, while in the East “all of life ‘s activities are approached as if they possessed a spiritual dimension” (p.35). Consequently, the spiritual approach to life in the East implies being aware of the essential unity of all existence and ideally leads to self-discovery and personal growth. With regard to yoga, its original spiritual purpose implies practicing yoga with “the aim of attaining a mystical union of the self with the Supreme being” (Campbell 2007, p.34). When yoga is reduced to being seen as a means of promoting health and fitness, it appears in its commodified form.

The cross-cultural intersection and transformation of yoga in the West may signal a new phenomenon, in the sense that the movement is East for West rather than the reverse: “Perhaps there is a process that we could call the yogaization or the guruization of the West to be set alongside the claimed Coca-colonization or McDonaldization said to be occurring in the East. It is a possibility that deserves to be examined” (Campbell 2007, p. 20). In pursuing -2-

this proposition, we also aim to add to the body of knowledge on the Easternization of the West by exploring how ancient Eastern practice fits in Western lifestyles. Specifically, we expect to gain insights into how consumers reconcile two strong and conflicting components—popular culture of the West and the inherent spirituality of yoga practice in the East. This inquiry is particularly meaningful given that yoga is also undergoing transformation within its Indian homeland where it is becoming more and more commercialized. Bollywood celebrities now mention yoga practice along drinking beetroot juice and green tea as their secrets of having beautiful bodies. In a business-like manner, India has even produced its own yoga mogul Swami Ramdev, who started with televised mass yoga sessions a decade ago, recently acquired a private island in Scotland to create a yoga oasis for the global well-off, and has become seriously involved in politics (Prashant 2011). While Westerners see yoga as an ancient and unchanging practice, such developments suggest that like other cultural practices it continues to evolve. We see these developments as a rich context for studying the commodification and decommodification processes. With our focus on the latter process in the West, we will first offer a brief introduction of yoga and its history in the US to provide a contextual background for the following sections discussing our study and its findings.

YOGA AS A PRODUCT Yoga was born in India and is believed to be as old as Indus civilization, as evidenced in the earliest Indian carvings that depict yogic postures (Feuerstein 2008). It is claimed to be a universal science with prehistoric origins (Iyengar 2002). The word yoga literally means to be yoked—or to be in union. Integration of body, mind and spirit is the essence of yoga which brings together physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental or intellectual forces. Yoga is regarded as a science of life and represents one of the six philosophies of India that share a common aim of spiritual emancipation and self-realization. To reach this goal, yoga offers control and techniques that perfect body, mind, and spirit and include meditation, worship, study, and physical action. Developed as an integrated science of living, yoga combines what is in the West studied in the disciplines of physiology, theology, psychology, metaphysics, cosmology and spirituality.

The international growth in the popularity of yoga was initially driven by B. K. S. Iyengar who began teaching hatha yoga (with its strong focus on physical action) to students in India in the late 1930s (Lau 2000). By the mid-1970s Iyengar’s yoga system was widely adopted in the West and enjoyed even greater popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, as did the competing but unrelated Eastern practice of t’ai chi. Campbell (2007) traces how the growth of yoga in the West was accelerated by the New Age movement which often decoupled the physical practice of yoga from its theological foundation as well as mixed it with elements of other spiritual practices such as the Zen Buddhism as adopted by beat poets of the 1950s. Lau (2007) shows one evolution of Western yoga practices “as a means by which women can control their beauty, their health, and ultimately their sex appeal and happiness” (p. 121, see also Joy1994). Campbell (2007) acknowledges the stereotype of the middle class housewife signing up for a yoga class in order to keep fit and supple.

The transformation of some Western yoga practices from theological to physical is also evident in popular videos like Buns of Steel: Power Yoga (Broman 1995). Perhaps the full extent of Western deviation from traditional yoga practices and their gradual commodification is this description of an annual yoga retreat in Hawaii: “The Yoga and Inner -3-

Vision Week annual healing retreat in Kauai, Hawaii, includes massage (Swedish, shiatsu, cranial sacral, deep tissue, and lomi lomi) as well as ‘acupressure, facials, aromatherapy, tai chi, chi gong, chiropractic adjustment and acupuncture [and] astrology and spiritual counseling.’” (Lau 2007, p. 2001).

Contemporary Indian gurus are concerned that associating yoga with physical exercise only and reducing it to doing asanas, or yogic postures is the “most misunderstood subject of yoga” (Iyengar 2002, p. 27). They point out that asana originally meant “seat,” and the first postures were developed to prepare one’s body for sitting in lengthy meditation. Over 1500 asanas have been recorded in ancient Hindu texts. These postures have strong connections to nature, and many of them are copies of the characteristic movements and poses of the mammals, birds, reptiles and insects after which they are named. It is said that one “will find nothing like the asanas in [the] Western system of body-culture, and they are also distinct in character from other Eastern exercises” (Hewitt 2001, p.20). Yogic postures require no special equipment or clothing and can be performed by men, women, and persons of all age groups, which also underlines yoga’s universal nature.

Campbell (2007) notes however, that the appeal of yoga has now come full circle and that its spiritual aspects of leading one to self-discovery and personal growth in the context of the unity of all existence, have now become an essential part of the appeal to Westerners. He concludes, that while secular yoga for health and exercise was the main way in which yoga was introduced in the West in the 1950s and 1960s, there have since emerged Western practitioners who “also regard it as a spiritual technique aimed at deepening their awareness of the essential unity of all existence” (pp. 34-35). If decommodification of yoga is indeed taking place in the West, what remains to be answered is why and how it occurs and what forces drive such evolution. This is the gap that our research aims to address. In pursuing this goal, we theorize a counter-force to commodification that stands apart from the more objectfocused processes of sacralization (Belk 1989) and singularization (Kopytoff 1986). Nor is the transformation we detect simply a matter of resisting commodification (e.g., Carrier 1995; Ertman 2005; Radin 1996; Zelizer 2005).

HISTORY OF YOGA IN THE U.S. A five-thousand-year-old Eastern science of life counts only a couple of centuries of presence in the North American continent, a presence which started in 1805 with the first-in-the-U.S. publication of the translated Sanskrit scripture. This relatively short timeframe, however, provides a rich and dramatic example of the culture wars in which yoga has been “feared, loathed, mocked, kicked to the fringes of society, associated with sexual promiscuity, criminal fraud, and runaway immigration” (Love 2006). The history of yoga in the U.S. is a history of changing attitudes of Americans and their changing perceptions of this ancient practice. Hostility, suspicion, and rejection gradually grew into toleration, healthy curiosity, and eventual embrace of the practice. Notions of yoga as a cult and a danger gave way to seeing yoga as a harmless and beneficial pastime, which Stefanie Syman traces in much detail in her “story of yoga” in America (2010).

The history of yoga in the US also boasts its own collection of heroes and personalities, which includes both gurus from India such as Vivekananda and Yogananda, and homegrown disciples of yoga such as Pierre Arnold Bernard and Jack Zaiman (Love, 2010). It has helped -4-

that yoga has been visible among political figures and celebrities. There was a story in the Chicago Defender in which the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt responded to a written report that she practiced yoga in the White House, by admitting she did not know that her favorite headstands were called yoga exercises (Love 2006). About fifty years later, another First Lady, Michelle Obama, hosted a yoga session on the White House lawn for the hundreds of American families invited for the annual Easter Egg Roll: “Our goal today is just to have fun.

We want to focus on activity, healthy eating. We’ve got yoga, we’ve got dancing, we’ve got storytelling, we’ve got Easter-egg decorating” (Transcript, 2009). As this transcript demonstrates, yoga has reached the status of a “fun” activity, with its Hindu spiritual origin peacefully downplayed and embraced by the rituals of one of the biggest holy days of the Christian religion. In the twenty-first century, yoga has become an all-American affair.

Yoga in the US is not just a survivor of the culture wars; it is triumphant. But it followed an unexpected evolutionary path—from entering Western culture as an exotic, foreign and nonAmerican practice to being embraced as homegrown and very American. September is now National Yoga Month, when thousands of free classes and events are offered across the country. Not India, but the state of Massachusetts now boasts the world’s largest residential yoga center. Local US hospitals treat over five thousand yoga-related injuries a year; and in June 2010, New York’s Central Park hosted the largest-ever group yoga session of ten thousand people (Evans 2010).

Moreover, in a very American way, yoga has become a booming business affair. Two thousand trademark applications relating to yoga styles and products have been filed within the last ten years (Hanel 2011). Among those looking for legal protection are Metal Yoga (catering to Metallica fans), Couch Yoga, and Hotel Room Yoga. The precedent was set by yogi Bikram Choudhury, who in 2002 trademarked and copyrighted a set of 26 poses practiced in an established sequence in 105° F heat. His annual revenue is believed to be five million dollars, and includes fees for Bikram Yoga instructor training, studio set up, and franchise royalties (Hanel 2011). Reportedly the world’s fastest-growing style of yoga is another American invention called Anusara yoga; it is currently practiced by 200,000 students in 70 countries and produces two million dollars in annual revenue (Swartz 2010).

Its founder John Friend has a degree in finance and accounting earned in Texas and yoga training received in India.

While yoga has become “a mainstream and marketable cult” in the U.S. (Schwartz 2011), the Indian government assembled a team of a hundred historians and scientists who have been documenting nearly 1,500 poses recorded in ancient texts (Evans 2010). All this is being done in an effort to protect its national heritage against unforeseen so-called “yoga theft” by the zealous consumers of the West.

LITERATURE REVIEW If fiction books are any reflection of the popularity of spirituality and spiritually influenced trends, then recent book titles are a strong indication of the growing presence of yoga in the Western life. Such titles include “Yoga School Dropout” (Edge 2005), “The Yoga Teacher” (Gray 2008), “Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses” (Dederer 2010), “Fear and Yoga in New Jersey” (Galant 2009), and a story of the transformation of a fat guy into a yoga devotee titled “Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude” (Pollack 2010). Finally, -5-

”Tales from the Yoga Studio” (Mitchell 2010) is the first of a promised series and reads like a script for a future TV show.

On the theoretical level, consumer research has yet to produce much research on yoga as a consumer practice and way of life, and as a commodified or decommodified product. Other disciplines appear to lead this inquiry, in particular those exploring the medical and psychological benefits of yoga. For instance, yoga has been found to be a major tool for coping with stress, managing life crises, developing a stronger sense of self, improving relationships, and taking control of one’s body and health (Hunt 2010). Graduate students who were exposed to yoga in a systemized and controlled way for fifteen weeks self-reported increased awareness of their bodies and ability to deal with negative emotions, improved clarity of thought, and greater capacity for reflection, empathy and compassion (Schure 2008). “Yoga is by far the most important technique used by the Indians to cope with the problem of stress and burnout,” concludes another study (Hasmukh 2010, p.24). Conducted in the country of yoga’s birth, Hasmuukh, et al.’s study examines effect of non-physical precepts of yoga in a business setting in order to understand how yoga may reduce job burnout. The authors compared two groups of executives, one with an effort orientation, and the other with a yoga-framed outcome orientation. The management style that focused on yoga-framed efforts resulted in reduced stress and strain for the managers.

The spiritual side of yoga has been explored in a Western business context in research that linked workplace spirituality and business ethics (Corner 2009). Corner investigated how five yamas can be applied in the workplace. Yamas are ethical precepts of yoga that include ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing others’ possessions), aparigraha (non-possessiveness of material goods, people in our lives, jobs, titles, and habits), and brahmacharya (continence that applies to all situations of emotional involvement, not just sexual). Corner (2009) contends that attention to yamas can extend our understanding of social sustainability.

TABLE I. COMMODIFIED VS DECOMMODIFIED MEANINGS OF YOGA

COMMODIFIED MEANING OF YOGA

DECOMMODIFIED

MEANING

OF

YOGA A secular fitness activity A therapeutic tool Provides physical benefits Has economic numeric value Is separate from spiritual meaning Treats body as a separate from mind object

A spiritual activity Leads to self-discovery Empowers Has no economic numeric value Is in unity with spiritual component of yoga Treats body as a vehicle for spiritual development

Hewitt (2001) concludes that “Interest in Yoga and other Eastern esoteric psychologies has never been so great in the Western world as now -- not only among the general public -6-

seeking mental energy, peace of mind, and self-realization, but also among psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, and other specialists” (p. 524). This interest has also been associated with the term “New Age”: “Westerners have been constantly reconstructing and situating the East: indeed, much of what passes as New Age constitutes such reconstruction” (Gould 2006, p.71). At the same time, Western and Eastern schools of thought have been found to preserve their distinctive characteristics, and Westerners do not blindly consume Eastern wisdom. Even the notion of wisdom itself is regarded differently. For instance, the West puts emphasis on the cognitive dimension, while the conceptualization of wisdom in the East stresses both the cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi 2000). When Campbell (2007) claims that yoga’s original spiritual character has been restored, he points out that this happens by “not necessarily displacing the Western values, but rather embracing them within [yoga’s] orbit.” (p.35). To extend this inquiry, we now offer our empirical study with a focus on the decommodification of yoga. We turn to yoga as a product, whose heavy commodification from both the profit-seeking market side and the body-toning consumer’s side brings about a contrary outcome – a veneer of spiritual awareness by the consumer. Our theoretical contribution lies in shedding light on how a purchasable commodity regains its original spiritual meaning, if not exactly in its original form. Table I offers two worldviews on yoga by distinguishing the commodified and decommodified meanings of yoga that became evident as a result of this study.

METHODOLOGY Campbell (2007) asked: “Could it be that Eastern spiritual practices are popular among Westerners for entirely secular, if not quite trivial reasons?” (p.32). Campbell’s answer was that while this may have been true earlier, the spiritual side of yoga is now ascendant. But relying on other’s research and opinions as Campbell has done can be misleading. We sought to investigate this contention empirically. By turning to yoga to explore how Westerners experience Eastern wisdom, our research objective shapes the following questions: How do yoga practitioners of the West experience the physical, mental, and spiritual components of yoga? What forces do they understand as driving the marriage of Eastern spirituality and the popular culture of the West? How are Eastern practices adapted to fit a contemporary Western lifestyle? Following the procedures for developing grounded theory, we began our study without a preconceived theory in mind and allowed the theory to emerge from the data (Strauss 1998).

Our qualitative study was informed by a multifaceted data set. Two original sacred texts, in English translation, were used as foundational source books on Hindu philosophy pertaining to Yoga. The Bhagavadgita (2006), often called a “scripture of Yoga,” is the most translated work of world literature after the Bible. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (2009) is the classic work on yoga, believed to be written 2,500 years ago. It consists of 196 aphorisms on yoga and provides a systematization of yoga techniques in the form of 8 limbs (aspects) of yoga.

Several interpretive texts guided our understanding of these original sources. Among them were well-known books by an Indian yogi B. K. Iyengar (2002), who over the past forty years has sought to educate the West about yoga, and one by the Western scholar Georg Feuerstein (2008) who has authored over thirty books on yoga.

Eight yoga practitioners were invited to participate in the study by sharing their thoughts on yoga during in-depth interviews, as this number was deemed to be sufficient to provide an -7-

opportunity “to glimpse the complicated logic of culture” (McCracken 1988, p.17).

Demographically, they reflected the statistical profile of yoga practitioners in the U.S.: threequarters have been doing yoga for five years or less, and the majority (71 percent) are college educated (Evans 2010). There were five women and three men among our interviewees, all either college educated or working on their college degrees, with only one having as much as six years of experience with yoga. The regularity of practice varied—from occasional to weekly and, in some cases, daily practice. We purposely selected our respondents so that there were no extreme yoga devotees who would center their entire daily lives around yoga, as we geared our study toward mainstream yoga consumers. Geographically, the interviews were conducted in two states: California and Illinois. There were five students, a consultant, a sales manager, and a retail assistant among our respondents, all of them single, ages 21 to 29.

They were “perfect strangers” (McCracken 1988, p.37) to the authors.

Psychographically, our yogis were experiencing the first of four asramas, or life stages.

According to Indian tradition, the life of the human being is divided into four periods with each having its distinctive focus. The first stage is the time of general and religious education.

Its aim is dharma, or mastering the science of ethical, social and moral obligations. The second phase, family life, pursues the aim of artha, the acquisition of worldly goods. It is followed by the third asrama that centers on preparation for renunciation of family activities.

Kama, or the pleasures of life, defines the aim of this stage. The last asrama, described as detachment from the affairs of this world and attachment to the service of the One, has its aim of moksa, meaning freedom or felicity. Out of the four asramas, the first is believed to be the most foundational: “Without dharma, or respect for moral and social obligations, spiritual achievement is impossible. This is learned during the first of life’s four stages” (Iyengar 2002, p. 18).

One of the authors is a yoga practitioner, a fact which let this work develop in sync with daily life background. The author’s yoga experience includes having regularly practiced yoga for over 4 years in U.S. yoga studios (4-7 days a week), “sampling” yoga studios in Tanzania, France, and the UK, and individually practicing in hotel rooms during travels. In addition, the author has attended several training workshops in the U.S., three yoga retreats outside the U.S. (in Belize, Indonesia/Bali, and India) and one international festival Yoga, Dance, Music in Indonesia/Bali. This personal immersion in yoga was also conducive to grounded theory (Strauss 1998). Our “grand tour” questions (Spradley, 1979, p. 86) were constructed to allow our respondents to tell us “their own story in their own terms” (McCracken 1988, p.34) and included the following open-ended questions: “”What comes to your mind when I say ‘yoga’?,” “Tell me about one yoga story from your life?,” and “If yoga were a person, what person would it be?” These were the starting points for deeper inquiry.

The face-to-face interviews were conducted, recorded, and transcribed from March until December 2010 by one of the authors and two trained research assistants. The latter performed them as a part of their paid University teaching assistantships. Informants did not receive any compensation. Both authors worked on the data analysis that was driven by the procedures for developing grounded theory (Strauss 1998).

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DATA ANALYSIS YOGA PERSONIFICATION Table 2 combines the descriptors shared by our interviewees in response to the question “If yoga were a person what person it would be?” This question was designed to elicit informants’ basic understanding of yoga and its practitioners. Two groups of personalities can be distinguished here: persons (e.g., Dalai Lama, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, my boss at work, and “some sort of god”) and types of persons (e.g., a hippie, a female, a guy). Their underlying qualities and actions were found to show three life orientations: outer-, me-, and inner- directed. The outer-directed orientation is characterized by the desire to change people’s lives and promote peace and balance in the world. Those with this characterization were seen to exhibit peacefulness and happiness; they are seen as powerful and even superior in that power. Since those cited in the outer-directed category were well-known names, their appearances are not described.

The personas imagined in the me-oriented group are more into themselves and have rather specific qualities: they are patient, meticulous, educated, and like to ask deep questions. Not only do they take time before acting, they are perceived to “have” time and not feel rushed or harried. They are in touch with nature, exhibit feminine characteristics regardless of gender, and are happy. They are visualized as age 20-30, with very bouncy bodies, and are physically fit and toned. Hair gets particular attention: necessarily long, otherwise flowing, white, and curly. Their clothes are also distinctive: these yogis favor tie-dye shirts, do not wear shoes, and walk in shorts “that are too short.” Completing the outfit is “a really cool hat” that one participant associates with “the great wise men who sit on top of a mountain in cartoons.”

Overall, with a hat as a symbol of wisdom, hair as a sign of rebellion and sexuality (McCracken 1996); shorts hinting at freedom, and t-shirts being an artistic counter-cultural expression, this collective image presents a person who feels comfortable with him or herself.

The list of everyday activities of me-oriented personas include a non-rushed life: listening to psychedelic or classic music, smoking pot, dating but not committing, shopping at Whole Foods, Bristol Market, and other organic markets, eating spinach leaves, and drinking wheat grass smoothies.

The third, inner-oriented group of yoga avatars is not as stereotypically revealing. We learn about “a very nurturing, motherly type of strong female” who doesn’t entirely fit either of the two preceding groups. Exemplified by a middle-aged woman, “probably in her 40s, who might have a few children,” this yogini likes the karmic circle of life and radiates maturity. At the same time, she is on a deep spiritual quest, “actively searching for that inner chi or whatever.” Young women aspire to be like her.

The three collective images of the perceived yogis do not exactly reflect the self-described personalities of our informants. The participants have less power and fame than the first projective group of yoga personifications, lack the time and cool hats of the second group, and have only very blurry knowledge of the karmic circle of life, compared to the last group.

While they are empathetic, happy, calm and peaceful, as well as outgoing, funny, charming, logistical, rational, aggressive, determined, readers of newspapers who talk about politics.

Finally, in their own words, our male interviewees are not feminine. How then can the real -9-

yoga person and the embodied yoga person be reconciled? To answer this question, we need to understand how our American yogis come to yoga.

TABLE II. YOGA PERSON AS PERCEIVED BY RESPONDENTS Respondent Brittany, 29 years old, student Bridget, 21 years old, student Carey 23 years old, student Carl, 25 years old, sales manager

Personalities Qualities Dalai Lama Peacefulness, happiness, balance

Appearance

Actions Promoting peace and balance

Some sort of Powerful, superior God

Changing lives

Ghandi, Mother Theresa Female

Promoting peace and balance

Peace, balance

Not impatient, takes time, very meticulous, educated, poses questions, vegetarian, artistic, in relationship, no kids Don, Hippie, male, In touch with 25 years old, 20-30 year nature student old

A really cool Shopping at Whole hat Foods, Bristol Farms, smoking pots, listening to psychedelic or classic music

Long hair, doesn’t wear shoes, physically fit Zack, Hippie, guy Very feminine Very bouncy, 25 years old, wears tie-dye consultant shirts, wears shorts that are too short for him Nicki, My boss at Peaceful, organic, Long, flowing, 21 years old work, female natural white curly hair retail assistant Swati, Female, mid Very nurturing, Toned body 25 years old, 40s motherly, mature, student has few kids, strong, very feminine, appreciates nature, happy, peaceful, spiritual, likes the karmic circle of life - 10 -

people’s

Shopping at organic market

an

Eating spinach leaves, drinking those gross green smoothie drinks Actively searching for inner chi

SELF-DISCOVERY AND YOGA SPIRITUALITY A 21-year old student, Bridget has been a yoga practitioner for over a year. Her purchase of yoga classes is an example of a moderate involvement behavior characteristic of buying utilitarian products. It includes a need recognition stage (“I wasn’t happy with where I was physically and I was looking for some time for exercise that wasn’t too strenuous and was relaxing”), a trigger (“probably the talk about yoga as my friends had gotten into it and they were doing it a few times a week”), information search (“I started off going to a few different studios”), evaluation of alternatives (“I kind of figured out which one fit me as a person”), purchase decision (“and finally I found the studio that fit me and was what I was looking for”) and post-purchase stage (“and I have been there ever since”). Bridget would have probably followed the same steps if, instead of yoga classes, she were buying a pair of comfortable shoes. However, it is the post purchase stage that opens up an unexpected layer of the product: I felt the changes from just practicing a week. I had a free week at a studio, to see if I enjoyed that particular studio, and that is all it took for me. I felt physical changes and I was different, I was more relaxed. Leaving the studio, I brought that relaxation to other things, like doing homework and just the way that I communicated with people. There was a happier part of me and it was a shock that something could have such an effect on myself when I had just been doing it for a few days.

Bridget went for a new body, but also found a new self – in her own words, happier and better, calm and relaxed, eating healthy, and exercising, “like a new person almost.” She talks about “all those little things” that used to bother her but don’t mean anything to her now following practice. She admits to having changed a lot: “I feel completely different and I have changed because of yoga… Just from where I was to now it’s just crazy.”

Unexpectedly, she experiences the spiritual layer of yoga leading to self-discovery in these terms: You practice this thing and it’s like you are putting your faith into that practice. You feel like you have become a different person and you feel as though it has changed you. It has changed me….I know it has not only made a huge difference to me but also to other people that practice it… It is just something superior to everything else out there.

Bridget now dreams about going to Bali, where she has never been, and describes the destination as having “this sort of spiritual aspect about it,” a lot of temples and places to meditate, and a “yoga vibe.” Bridget pictures her time in Bali being secluded from everything for five to seven days while being “put in this yoga lodge” and just practicing yoga. She calls her future trip “a yoga excursion.” This self-made term manifests both an “authentic” Eastern spiritual practice and a postmodern Western entertainment activity, and is a meaningful demonstration of how the two coexist in the Western marketplace, as represented by yogini Bridget.

A 25-year old sales manager, Carl practiced yoga in college about two years ago. His path to yoga was different from that of Bridget, as he didn’t actually follow any of the classic purchase behavior stages except one – the “post-purchase” stage. In fact, yoga was imposed - 11 -

on Carl twice during his student life. First by the coach of his rowing team, and then by a theater studies professor who also happened to be a yoga instructor and incorporated sun salutations in regular classes. The coach wanted yoga to make Carl and his team members more flexible, and the theater studies professor expected yoga to make students’ bodies more expressive in their creative performance. Both expectations were similarly utilitarian, and indeed student performances in both cases greatly benefited from yoga practice, reports Carl.

But his recollection reveals a more lasting effect: There was always a focus to it. You’re always focusing on your body. That’s one thing I do remember – the focus that comes with it…. I would say, [yoga] just reinforces certain things. If you’re already coming from a very focused, very disciplined background, it just reinforces that. I would say you do start to notice other parts of your body because you start to move in a certain way that you couldn’t do previously, so you just start to notice more little things about yourself, which can be fun in certain areas of your life... If you are quiet, if you’re patient, I think it enhances that… because it does require a lot of patience to become that flexible.

Patience is not exactly the quality sought after in a fast-paced Western society that favors quick results. Such a fast pace is not conducive to noticing more little things about yourself either. In that sense, Carl went further in his personal discovery of yoga than was intended by his college instructors. In addition, he became puzzled about the nature of yoga: “Why is it that now yoga is more popular than tai chi? I don’t know. You’re doing many of the similar things, but yoga somehow picked it up. And I think there’s something to the Eastern philosophy that’s really just becoming popular.” While looking for answers, Carl turned to books, as if moving his “information search” into a later stage of his purchase behavior: “I remember reading a little bit about yoga and it’s not just a series of moves and positions to stretch your body. There is a spiritualness to it.” Having discovered the spiritual aspect though, Carl has difficulty reconciling it with the monetary side of yoga: Seems to me that it costs too much money now to do yoga. You know, just because you do yoga, automatically there’s a premium to it. So that’s my thing - cost. Another thing is, hmm, about the mentality. I want to say that some people can seem a little arrogant with the subject. You know, some people can be very laid back and they enjoy it, it’s something they do. But others seem to be a little cocky about it. You know?

I mean, in my experience. It could be that they’re in the cool crowd. Like, “yes, I practice yoga. I am in touch with my inner self. You, you’re not. You have no idea how your chakras are all out of alignment.”

Similar to Bridget, Carl also implies a complex coexistence of the ancient Eastern practice and contemporary Western marketplace. He sees spirituality as a sign of true yoga and lack of it as a signal of superficial adaptation of the authentic practice in the West. For him, fancy clothes and mats dilute the meaning of yoga. He echoes Rindfliech’s (2005) critique of New Age practices in decrying the faddishness of yoga.

It’s very trendy. It’s very popular. Everybody’s saying, “Are you doing yoga?” “Oh, I’m doing yoga…I have these clothes.” Do you really think that in India this is really how they treat yoga? I mean I’m pretty sure someone tweaked it and Americanized it - 12 -

to make yoga popular here. But I’m sure if you went to India it’d be a very different experience. You know… do they have yoga mats in India? I don’t think so.

While exemplifying their individual evolutionary paths in the perception and consumption of the Eastern practice of yoga, our Western participants also reveal a common thread. Initially turning to yoga as a commodified product with expected physical benefits and subsequent economic value, our yoga practitioners also find themselves discovering non-physical elements of the product, which in most cases happens unexpectedly. It is not the spiritual side of yoga per se that comes as a surprise, but its element of personal discovery. Thus, if in their original perception of yoga our informants separate its physical and spiritual elements and associate the latter with exotic, weird, powerful, famous, and religious others, they later notice and experience the presence of the spiritual side of yoga through their own selfdiscovery.

YOGA AND ME No Indian gurus can take direct credit for attracting our participants to yoga. They’ve not read ancient texts, are not versed in Sanskrit asana names (“I think of the tree pose. I think that’s what it’s called? Standing on one foot with your hands in the air?”), and do not always even know the styles of yoga they practice (“I can’t think of the name, I think it’s vinyasa, it’s when you...”). Only one of them has family roots in Indian culture. A yoga practitioner Swati notes: “My dad grew up in a place in India where yoga came from. Well, it’s the most ancient city in India and there’s a lot of yogis there. I’ve been there when I was little and you would see these sages under trees…or these ascetics who …have, like, hair, like ten feet long who…are doing headstands under these really old trees and people just watch them because they’re yogis.”

With the exception of Swati, before our informants held their very first pose, their notions of yoga took one of two forms. The words relaxation, meditation, calming, and becoming one with nature and yourself make up their initial images of yoga—that of a rejuvenating and tranquil experience. Their subsequent image is much messier and hosts the following characteristics: Los Angeles, big city thing, fun, trendy, cool Eastern thing to do, fad, that grass juice thing, weird, whatever, loosey goosey, hokey, cocky, silly, stupid. This image of yoga promises an alternative, fashionable, and exotic experience. Both preconceptions of yoga during the pre-entry stage share the same notion of little to no physical activity, little required effort, and just “sitting around and stretching.” This is how yoga lived in the minds of our respondents before it entered their bodies and lives.

The entry stage appears to have two aspects, both pertaining to a trigger: persons (who prompted the first practice), and causality (why it happened, or what problems our future yogis intended to solve). It became clear that the personal paths of our yogis were shaped by cultural and social elements. Family (parents and relatives), the social circle (friends, girlfriends and boyfriends), and social environment (sports coaches) play the role of the contemporary “guru.” In their own way, these “gurus” open up yogic experiences by buying a yoga book at a garage sale, taking a daughter to a yoga class, talking to a friend about yoga, or making yoga sessions a part of a sports’ team regimen. The involvement of popular culture is also evident, as it has made fitness a part of life in the US; yoga is included in a highly - 13 -

TABLE III. THE YOGA ENTRY STAGE YOGIS YOGA PATH: BEGINNING Brittany My Dad and my Mom both practice yoga. My dad has done it for years and it 6 years of has always been something he believed in and he has felt that it was great for practice exercising and great for weight loss and great for your overall health. He got me into it in high school and he actually got me into Bikram yoga. I absolutely loved it.

Bridget My friends had gotten into it and they were doing it a few times a week. I 1.5 years of was looking for some time for exercise that wasn’t too strenuous and practice relaxing at the same time.

Carey I guess I would say I was trying to live a more healthier lifestyle. It started in 4 years of high school, and the gym I worked out at offered yoga classes and although it practice, 1 wasn’t a yoga studio it opened me up to the benefits of the practice and year of getting more flexible and I felt so much better about my body after it. instructing Carl When I was on the rowing team, the coach wanted us to be far more flexible several so that we could extend ourselves further out of the boat when we were months of going to take a stroke. One of the guys on the team had just become certified nonto teach yoga, so every day after practice we would spend about a half hour consecutive doing yoga positions to stretch our bodies out so that we could be more practice flexible.

Don I’ve always been kind of interested in it. I’m not very flexible, so I’ve heard several that it helps with that, um, but I didn’t really know what to expect from it. months of So, I started it because of the P90X program.... nonconsecutive practice Zack My last semester of college I had a yoga course because I needed, like, one several PE credit to graduate and…so I did yoga three times a week for 30 minutes. months of It was just a beginner yoga course, so it was a lot of the basic poses. Timing nonand location was good. So, it was in the mornings, and it was at the student consecutive activities center which is where the gym was, and I went to the gym on those practice days anyway. So, my thought was that I would do yoga and stretch then before I went and worked out.

Nicki I did yoga in high school every morning with my mom for a couple of several months, like my junior year or something, and we just did it from this book months of that she got, like, at a garage sale or something. It was from the ‘70s, it was nonreally old, and it had pictures in it of this girl in a leotard and tights. It was consecutive really…really bad. But, um, so we did that. practice Swati I’m Indian, and I’m a very spiritual person, and yoga is part of my culture 2 years of and I kind of have been exposed to it since I was a little kid. Um, but I practice kinda—I mean, as an adult I jumped on the bandwagon, partly because of that exposure, and then also because um, I just know about it and its benefits, and I struggle with anxiety.

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popular DVD on fitness and weight loss, P90X, narrated by a charismatic athletic coach.

Table 3 presents our interviewees’ recollections of their entry stage regarding yoga.

What were the newly born yogis looking for while sitting on their first mat? Mostly, increased flexibility (Carl, Zack, Don), some weight loss (Nicki), a healthier lifestyle (Carey, Brittany), stress release (Bridget), and anxiety control (Swati). What they found was that it was something more: “surprising,” “shocking,” “difficult,” “frustrating,” “really hard,” “[that] pushes you,” “[so that] you feel like giving up”—this was the immediate emotional impact of beginning yoga. Nicki said, “I went in kind of open and not knowing what to expect, so I kind of just learned as I went; but, when we started doing the P90X version, it kind of surprised me to discover how difficult it can be.” Don had a similar experience: “It was a lot harder than I thought. I wasn’t expecting it to be as physically demanding as it is.

When I first started, I thought it was kind of hokey, you know, the “open your mind” and “concentrate on nothing.” I mean you get in these positions and you’re like balancing and you’re in the plow position…it’s just a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was like, “oh stretching” but it actually works you out and I think that’s the draw for me.”

We term the third stage of the yogic experience transformative and see it taking place on several levels. The first is the physical level, which occurs when our yogis faced the challenges of mastering asanas. Bridget calls her first class “embarrassing.” Brittany recalls a social yoga outing: “I took my friend’s mom and her to one of our hot Power Fusion classes back at home with my mom and my sister. She talked up this big game and that she took hot yoga all the time, so I was prepared for some great poses. About five minutes into the class it got too hard for her and she had to sit out the rest of the class.” On this level, the focus is on postures—learning and mastering them.

On the next level, the mind engages with two alternatives: to give up or to push through. Our participants’ experiences run the entire gamut between these extremes. Don didn’t finish his yoga DVD session. Bridget feels at times like giving up. “I know I do,’ she admits, but she also adds, “there are some things about yoga that are difficult, and if you are able to overcome those obstacles and difficulties then it is an amazing feeling.” These intense emotions are familiar to Don too. When he mastered the whole hour of the yoga DVD he felt different: I was really excited... It made me be like, ‘oh this is really cool, maybe next time I could get almost the whole way through.’ And it also made me think this is worth it for me to get through... It is different than anything I’ve done before.

The focus on asanas somehow disappears at this transformative level. Instead, attention centers on a yogi who suddenly feels more empowered. Zack’s story is more evidence of the transformative effects of yoga on this participant’s daily life. A combination of physical, mental and emotional interplay can be seen in this tale: I went on a backpacking trip through Colorado. I went with three other guys. We carried fifty to sixty pound packs on our backs for sixty miles, we camped for five nights, and we summited three fourteen-thousand foot peaks, and every morning I would get up and I would do my, whatever vinyasa-sun salutation. It’s where you start in Mountain pose, then you end up in Downward Facing Dog, Upward Facing - 15 -

Dog. I wish I knew the name of it, I don’t exactly remember it. But anyway, I’d get up, I would do that every morning, because we’re at nine-ten-thousand feet of elevation where we’re sleeping each night, so as far as the oxygen in the air, there’s not a lot. You know, it’s harder to breathe, harder to work out, and everything. So, I would get up and I would do that every morning. I would do some meditation, focusing on taking deep breaths so…making sure that I’m using all of my lungs, so when we go out for our hike, I’m prepared.

A scholar of yoga can find a lot of “yoga” in its broadest sense in this narrative. In fact, it is like a yoga exercise in a natural setting. It’s even more meaningful in light of Zack’s initial perception of yoga when he took a yoga course in college to meet his PE requirement where they did a lot of “basic poses” and talked about breathing. He admits thinking those were “silly” things: “Going into the course the first couple days I thought it was stupid.” This time, it is different. “I am prepared,” sounds like a warrior talking; it is a confirmation of Zack’s belief in himself. The belief didn’t come easily: he turned to yoga every morning. “Every morning,” -- repeats Zack three times, which conveys his determination. Facing the unequal power of nature, he uses yoga as a tool to feel empowered. It is yoga that lifts pounds and keeps him up for miles, but it is not yoga’s physical aspect which does this: So, the best thing that I could do for my focus to get up and down that mountain was to just be calm and relaxed, and I felt like yoga was the right thing to do for that. And now any time I go hiking, I start off my morning with doing what I know of yoga…to kind of get my…breathing normalized, and just to get myself focused.

We find a lot of mental work going on here. To withstand a difficult, strenuous physical journey Zack taught himself to stay calm and relaxed, and to keep focused. High up in the Colorado mountains he inadvertently confirmed the lesson started on a yoga mat. As a result, in the implicit, inner rivalry with his weaker self, Zack wins the battle. Because of yoga, he feels grounded, in power, accomplished, and his emotions convey an obvious pride.

DISCUSSION It is revealing to examine the intersection of popular yoga culture in the West, as experienced by our American yogis, and the Eastern wisdom of yoga, as interpreted by Indian master B. K. Iyengar and taught in his widely read work The Tree of Yoga (2002). In this combination we can see how two sets of values were reconciled in giving birth to a popular yogi in the West and how these yogis prompt the reversed process of yoga decommodification.

Character building, ambition, and striving for success are major elements of Western culture.

Competition is a part of life. It is no surprise that our respondents bring these qualities into their yoga practice as Carl does: One time we were doing the sun salutations. And we started to have a competition over who could hold the position the longest. All of a sudden you started hearing people collapse, boom, boom, boom, and we just, me and another guy, we wouldn’t give up. We were holding on…and I think, I think we held that position for five minutes. We were just determined that, you know, to suck it up and just forget any pain. We didn’t want to give up.

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Yoga speaks a different language. Its major aim of self-realization may look similar to Western competitive and egoistic values, but the paths leading to experiencing these different aims are not the same. Yoga philosophy elevates the physical body to unprecedented highs.

“The fountain for all action is the perfection of the body,” writes B. K. Iyengar (2002) and in a very contemporary way he metaphorically describes the body as an “international club” and a “human machine” whose many parts are very difficult to keep in good order: “We have seven hundred muscles, three hundred joints, sixteen thousand kilometers of nerve current flowing in this human system, and about ninety-six thousand kilometers of blood veins, arteries, and capillaries” (pp. 89-90). This complicated system needs to be perfected for a simple reason -- the body is a temple of the soul and a vehicle for spiritual development.

There is no such reasoning in traditional Western thinking. Preoccupied and even obsessed with the physical body, Western culture treats it as an asset in itself, as a commodified symbol of worship which is totally removed from spiritual aspects. Even though Christian thought views the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and preaches to use bodies for God’s glory, historically it didn’t aim at perfection of the physical body and at times even considered it to be enemy to the soul.

Overall, the history of thinking about the body in the West presents the rich gamut of various attitudes towards the body and its treatment. As Synnott (1993) demonstrates in his comprehensive overview of European philosophy from an anthropological perspective, the Western school of thought metaphorically perceived the body as a clock, a machine, a grave of the soul, a prison, a poor ass, a little corpse, and clay. Western philosophers traditionally distinguished between the body as physical and as spiritual, and advocated the supremacy of the soul and mind to the body, as it is, for example, conveyed in the well known quote by Descartes: “I think, therefore I am” (1968 [1637], pp. 53-54). But the modern body in the West, Synnott (1993) notes, has now come full circle back to the ancient Greek ideal of the beautiful body: “Where Christians trained to save their souls, others now train to improve their bodies” (p. 22).

The Western focus on the body has objectified and commercialized the physical body, turned it into a marketing vehicle for selling goods, and prompted “a constant preoccupation with one’s physical appearance” which is particularly manifest among women who fall victims to self-objectification (Impett 2006, p. 39). Defined as the act of observing and evaluating one’s own appearance from an outside perspective, self-objectification causes judgmental viewing of our own body, recurring feelings of dissatisfaction, and lowered self-esteem. In a culture that distinguishes the physical body as given by nature from the social body as a desired ideal shaped by societal values and preferences (Lupton 1996), social comparison is a norm; one’s body is constantly compared to the images of models (Smeesters, 2010) and is being judged by others and ourselves. “I am not flexible,” “I am not good at stretching”—is a refrain that accompanied this study. Moreover, it is common for the body in the West to be sexually objectified which occurs when individuals are treated as bodies for the use and pleasure of others (Fredrickson 1997). As a result, the Western body has become instrument for individual life achievement (Norton 1986), with more socially desirable bodies warranting higher paying jobs, more generous tips and prosperous marriages (Conley 2007; Hakim 2011; Zagorsky 2005).

With such strong focus on the body, characteristic to the Western culture since the late twentieth century, the statement that “the average man in the West is not “in his body” by - 17 -

somatic psychologist Jourad (Bailey, 1997, p. 6) may sound contradictory. A popular U.S. yoga instructor Shiva Rea wrote in her college thesis how impressed she was with the simple explanation that: “To be embodied is to experience one’s body as the center of one’s existence, to feel alive, to perceive bodily states as they change from pleasure to pain, energy to fatigue, from vitality and excitement to calm and tranquility” (Bailey, 1997, p. 6). In this argument the average man in the West is engaged in destructive, anesthesia-producing lifestyles that repress these bodily experiences and result in disembodiment (Bailey, 1997).

In the view of Iyengar (2002), there is a “tremendous disintegration” in a Western individual between body, mind, and soul as Westerners live “too much in the head” and with too much rationalism and too little feeling. The Cartesian dualism that clearly distinguished the body from the mind and favored the latter, is echoed in the West in the form of the “disembodied” selves who treat their own bodies as separate objects, choosing to pamper and nurture or neglect and abuse them (Thompson 1995). We can trace this disembodiment in our respondents when they appear to be buried in the anxiety of everyday tasks of managing college classes and part-time jobs, dealing with landlords and worrying about future, while having a stiff body shaped by lengthy bouts of staring at a computer screen and sitting behind the wheel of their car. It is this painful and disliked body that lands our respondents on a yoga mat.

Our research suggests that a disembodied person turns to yoga as a commodity – by buying into it as a fashionable fitness activity that “everyone” is doing, or as a therapeutic tool that alleviates back or neck pain – which makes yoga be equivalent to “one more thing” on their already full plates. But it is embodiment that is central to yoga practice (Bailey 1997, Smith 2004). Its techniques of breathing, meditation, asanas, and its major premise of “letting go” and “being in the moment” aim at making a practitioner obtain a deep awareness of his or her own body. Our respondent Don recalled how uncomfortable he initially was with “the inbetween movements like “take a deep breath and put your hands on your head,” that seemed “a kind of contrived thing” to him. He echoes Nicki who shared: “At times I didn’t really care that it was so taxing. I also didn’t really understand the meditation part of it. Like, just sitting there with your own thoughts and breathing. I do that all the time.” Nicki was soon surprised at how many different kinds of poses her body was able to hold. “It’s just like free space for you to experiment with your body,” discovered Swati.

When the moments of unexpected body awakening happened to our respondents, they felt a reaction similar to that described in academic studies of yoga: “For many Western practitioners, one of the most overwhelming experiences in beginning yoga is the realization of how little awareness one has of one’s own body…. Our own bodies are mostly absent from our attention at any given moment… Our attention is usually only brought to our body during moments of dysfunction or pain” (Smith 2007, p.37). A well-known U.S. yoga instructor Shiva Rea Bailey noted yet several years ago that “disengaging from the bodily-felt level of experience is a learned behavior that is, in the West, often culturally supported” (1997, p. 27).

When our yoga practitioners rediscover own bodies, their perceived notion of yoga is transformed. Yoga ceases to be a commodified product and reclaims its original nature of being an embodied practice. Thus, it is this personal transformation that prompts decommodification of the Eastern science of life rooted in the bodily actions. This process is spiritual in nature. We conceptualize the spiritual component of yoga in line with previous studies like that of Baranay (2004) who defines it as moments of sublime immersion in - 18 -

practice which come when the practitioner gains “a sense of your own [potential] ultimate control and awareness of what the body is doing and what that’s doing to you” (p.246).

Smith (2007) also talks about moments of “encounter with the embodied self” within asana practice and points out that Western practitioners of yoga “do not appear to be simply mimicking practices drawn from “another culture,” but rather experience them as “a mode of self-inquiry and self-encounter” (p.40). Smith (2007) and Bailey (1997) both find the process of becoming aware of one’s body to be spiritual because of the deepening engagement with one’s selfhood. When bodily practice provides “a way of exploring, cultivating, observing, transforming and knowing all aspects of oneself as expressed through the body,” lets one release “inhibiting patterns manifest in the body mind,” it arms the practitioner with “a tool for self-awareness in everyday life” (Bailey 1997, p.28). Our study supports these claims by revealing how initial discoveries on the mat later become manifest in the respondents’ lives.

Specifically, we propose that the Western yogis unexpectedly experience parallel discoveries on the mat: while going through the discovery of yoga, they may go through self-discovery as well. Not only do they find the physical side of yoga to be surprisingly rigorous, but they also undergo a subtle and unplanned personal transformation that takes place on the individual level. Our Western informants, although initially drawn to yoga as commodity and rationally looking for the physical benefits of a flexible body, also found non-physical benefits of this Eastern science. They invariably talked about the balance that yoga has brought into their lives, the release of anxiety, and peace of mind. Zack now feels “like a rock,” sound and sturdy: “I found that I got more out of yoga, actually… I didn’t think it would be anything that would help me gain peace of mind or anything that I would ever use at any point in my life.” Don claims, “yoga made me think this is worth it for me.” Brittany says, “On those off days and those days you feel unbalanced yoga is the place to go to where you are brought back to where you need to be.” While few of them clearly experience a liminal phase (“I was shocked that we took me just several days to feel the difference” most of our respondents undergo the spiritual revelation in a subtle way. Consequently, they decommodify yoga as a product, release it from the pure economic and numeric value, and move it from the category of commodity to that of a good with a hidden spiritual meaning that may reveal itself to those with open minds.

Western yogis may start looking for flexibility, but end up with something bigger, which is not necessarily religious awareness per se, but may be spiritual awareness in a Western way.

For Carey, it can be learning to meet her own Ego; for Swati, unlearning looking in the mirror. This is different from “consumption of the self”—a process that Rindfleish (2005) associates with the heightened interest in spirituality characteristic to the New Age lifestyle, and that transforms the religious practices of Eastern sciences into social products. While Rindfleish describes this process as the commodification of self-actualization, Gould (2006) argues that we need to distinguish between spirituality and spiritual materialism and notes that “most spiritual practices or at least the most purely spiritual of them do not aim at materialistic development at all” as their aim is to seek spiritual fulfillment or enlightenment (p.71). Spiritual materialism, in turn, implies consuming spirituality (such as in the form of Eastern perspectives, images, and practices) in the same way people consume goods. But we don’t see spiritual materialism in the consumption of yoga either, because its initial draw in the today’s West is not rooted in the spiritual component, and when the spiritual component is discovered unexpectedly, it is more likely to be embraced along the sought after physical benefits.

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For this reason, we propose that observed commodification of yoga in the West may not be the end result of its presence in the Western marketplace, but a starting point for its decommodification which manifests itself in the equipping of Westerners with the needed tools for daily life. As Alter (2004) observes: “The global form of transnational Yoga … contains some of the most fantastic examples of transnational transmutation and the blurring of consumerism, holistic health, and embodied mysticism - as well as good old fashioned Orientalism” (p. 245). Similarly, De Michelis (2008) calls the commoditization of yoga unprecedented and observes that this once anti-market spiritual practice has become a multibillion dollar industry. Perhaps there is no harm in “making money east of Eden” (Lau 2000).

Medical care, education, and other “higher callings” have likewise become commodities. In addition, our study shows that when many yogis and yoginis of the West set up their mats, they inadvertently set themselves up for their own experiential and experimental journey and unexpectedly along the way learn to rule the mind, live in the present and have a long glimpse inside themselves.

On the surface, there is something a bit ironic when an ideology based on non-attachment becomes a purchasable commodity. At a deeper level, the process of decommodification manifests itself clearly when we notice that yoga reclaims its spiritual component by tuning its practitioners into their own minds and then returning them back to the outside world in a different mode – more stable, balanced, in control of themselves, and empowered to deal with external circumstances, as can be seen in Swati’s recollection: There’s a lot of people in my class who are, like… former Marines, or Army veterans who have been to Afghanistan and Iraq and places like that, and come back… and I’ve even talked to some of these people, and then we talk about how yoga helps us escape from some of the thoughts that we have. Whether like bad memories or things like that.

Our findings support Campbell’s claims about its restored spirituality in the evolution of yoga’s presence in the western marketplace. At the same time, we propose that this reborn spiritual layer isn’t identical to the spirituality that was stripped from yoga in the first place.

Thus, the process of commodification occurred on the macro level and made itself visible by turning yoga into a money-making machine for the marketers and an easy promise of health, fitness, and a sexy body for consumers. In response to celebrity obsessed western culture, it even gave birth to celebrity yoga instructors, whose lives and salaries are discussed and gossiped about by the media (e.g.,Swartz 2010).

Decommodification of yoga, in turn, occurs on the micro, and not so visible level. While the marketplace background is still noisy, messy and far from being spiritual, it is an individual yogi who gradually finds himself spiritually in tune and emotionally balanced or an individual yogini who appears to the world as a new and much happier person. Such decommodification is intimate and quiet because it doesn’t include the need to show off one’s lean body. Our informant Bridget is a good example here. As we indicated earlier, she landed in her first yoga class because of her dissatisfaction with her body, but the body references take a secondary role and almost disappear throughout the recounting of her personal yoga journey and the exciting discovery of how to combine the emotional and the physical: “Yoga has made me feel better in my everyday activities. I feel more relaxed and more open and stronger.” Yoga makes its practitioners slow down, even if initially for an hour or two, and - 20 -

see themselves and the world around them in a new interconnected light, while spotting things and small pleasures that were ignored before. When the overall attitude to life changes by seeing unity where it wasn’t visible before, the spiritual path is taken (Bharati 1977/1998).

These are the sorts of bodily and internal epiphanies that Wainwright and Turner (2004) found among injured ballerinas and the sorts of small transformative moments that Denzin (1989) called minor epiphanies.

At the same time, we can’t ignore the presence of “the conflict between two forms of “spirit” (Smith 2004) manifested in the embodied selves of yoga practitioners. While the first relates to the “spiritual” experience of balance that the practice fosters, the second is a “spirit of capitalism,” that was first identified by Max Weber (1958), as the force driving towards individual achievement and success. The life of a Westerner is results-oriented. That is why there is so much talk among our participants about poses they want to master. An Eastern yogi acts without expecting results: “The yogi’s actions are performed without vice and virtue, but with purity and divinity” (Iyengar 2002, p. 10). Yoga is a personal journey, and envy doesn’t belong to it. In the West, envy drives actions. We can find its presence even in the spiritual domain. American-Indian Swati can’t escape this emotional fight in her revealing story: One time I think I envied a girl because she seemed more…on that particular day at least…she seemed more devoted to it. And I was kind of tired. You know, there’s just days where you don’t want to do anything…even if you love yoga, there’s days where you’re like, “I just wanna watch TV tonight, like I don’t’ want to do anything.” So one time I found myself envying this person who…remember how I told you that sometimes after yoga people sit in the studio and they just sit there and reflect and meditate? There’s mirrors in the yoga studio so you can watch yourself and look at yourself. And this girl was sitting there like a warrior. She was, like, glaring at herself in the mirror and didn’t even move. And I was just looking at her, and I envied her warrior-like focus. And I was like, “I should be that way about this today.

I’m not doing yoga justice because I’m not being like this girl.” That’s the only time I ever envied anyone. I felt that she was more invested and that made me feel guilty. So I felt jealous and I felt guilty. It kind of stirred this jealousy in me, and I was like, “I should be that way. Why is she that way and I’m not?

It is puzzling these two distinctive mindsets can peacefully coexist on a tiny yoga mat. No wonder, some ask whether we are witnessing an appropriation of yoga by the West that has stripped it of the spiritual layer, dressed it in fancy pants, and narrowly customized it— offering yoga for cab drivers (Freedman 2011), yoga for foodies (Moskin 2010), yoga for Christians (Shaver 2007), and celebrity yoga (Fonda 1994; McGraw 2003). It even changes the yoga language: a yoga instructor teaching to construction workers does not use the Sanskrit name Tadasana or its English translation “Mountain Pose” for the basic standing pose. Instead, he calls it the “Plumb Bob,” after a weight on a string that builders use as a vertical reference line (Tuna 2010). As our study demonstrates, we see this phenomenon of yoga reconfiguration differently.

The rapidly growing presence of yoga in the Western world is strong evidence of the complex relationship between Eastern spirituality and Western commercialism, and not only because of the infusion of Eastern spirituality in the West, but also due to the infusion of - 21 -

Western commercialism in the East. Examination of what the newly wise Western yogis do with their mastery of an Eastern science of life provides an example of decommodification of a product that was born spiritual in the East, but lost its spirituality upon entering the Western marketplace. We suggest that stripping off the sole focus on the trendy, fitness-oriented aspect of yoga and returning spiritual meaning takes place quietly in consumer minds, and acts as a counter to the influence of commercial forces.

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Zelizer, V. (2005), The Purchase of Intimacy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. About authors Maria Kniazeva (Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, The Paul Merage School of Business) is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of San Diego, School of Business Administration. She serves on the Editorial Boards of three international journals and is an invited Associate of the Research Centre “Wine, Place, and Value” at Reims Management School, France. Kniazeva has published in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Behavior, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Journal of Food Products Marketing, and Consumption, Markets and Culture Journal. Her academic publications also include book chapters, such as in the Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China edited by Cheng Wang.

Two major streams of research mark Kniazeva’s current academic activity: cross-cultural consumption in the global marketplace and storytelling on food packages and beverage bottles. She centers her latest research on the theme of the Easternization of the West. In particular, Kniazeva is interested in the concept of authenticity. She also explores how marketing stories, like those on bottled water affect and reflect consumer behavior. A qualitative researcher, Kniazeva has also been mastering videography as a research method and has produced and presented two documentary films at international consumer research conferences in Brazil, Japan and the UK. Maria Kniazeva can be reached at kniazeva@sandiego.edu.

Russell Belk is Kraft Foods Canada Chain in Marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business. His research involves the meanings of possessions, collecting, giftgiving, sharing, and materialism and is often cultural, visual, qualitative, and interpretive. He has published more than 500 books, articles, chapters, papers, and videos and has received the Paul D. Converse Award, the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Consumer Research Award for Long Term Contribution to Consumer Research, two Fulbright Fellowships, and honorary professorships on four continents. He is the co-founder of the Association for Consumer Research Film Festival, the Consumer Behavior Odyssey, and the Consumer Culture Theory Conference.

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Volume 1, no. 1, 2012, ISSN: 1179-8785 HOW CAN MISSED ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CALL BACK CONSUMERS: THE ROLE OF INACTION REGRET

Dongjin Li, Yunfei Ma and Yan Li Nankai University, China

Abstract People often miss out on purchasing opportunities. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of regret on future purchase intention when consumers have missed a purchase, and whether we can stimulate and utilize customers' regret in bid to enhance the purchase opportunity in the future. We test our predictions by three experiments. The first one reveals that after missing a purchaseďźŒconsumers can be promoted by regret to buy at next opportunity. The second experiment shows if information on the better-forgone outcome is offeredďźŒit will enhance inaction regret which increases consumers' purchase intention when they face next opportunity. And the third experiment finds out that regret doesn't necessarily increase purchase intention, and the influence of regret on purchase intention is moderated by perceived accessibility of next purchasing opportunity.

The aim of this study is to help marketers call back consumers and promote them to buy next time. Previous research on regret mainly focuses on its negative effects and how to regulate it, while this study concentrates on how to make use of regret to guide consumers’ behavior.

Keywords missing a purchase, regret, positive information, regret regulation, purchasing intention, perceived accessibility Introduction Looking back, many people do feel that they have missed out on a lot of things in their lives.

Maybe miss a deeply loved person, a piece of favored clothing, or a long-awaited ball game.

Certainly, some of us may miss big sale events in shopping malls which makes us filled with remorse. Apparently consumers often miss opportunity of purchasing. As we know, companies always exhaust their abilities to hold multiple types of novel sales events, but consumers are continuously missing them voluntarily and involuntarily. After consumers miss purchase, when consumers would regret not participating in these events? Whether regret would influence their intention to participate in similar future sales events? What may moderate such an intention? Many researchers investigate the reasons of missing purchase (e.g.Greenleaf and Donald, 1995; Patrick,Lancellotti and Mello, 2003; White and Hoffrage,2009). However, the research on emotion and behavior after missing purchase still needs to be improved (Tsiros, 2009). Some researchers show that people tend to persist in - 28 -

inaction after missing purchase (e.g. Tykocinski and Pittman, 2001; Arkes, Kung and Hutzel, 2002), while others argue that missing purchase results in increased purchase intention (Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello, 2009).As a common negative emotion, regret has a great influence on future behavior (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2007). This paper focus on how regret generates and what influence it has on future behavior after missing purchase.

Doubtless, consumers are not entirely rational. Emotion always has great influence on behavior and decision. When consumers miss the purchase, it is of great importance for company to understand the consumers’ feelings, thus lead them to purchase in the future by using their feelings. Having missed the purchase, consumers usually forget the occasion and might bear the idea that they can buy those things someday in the future. While in some occasions, they would regret what they missed. The research helps marketers have a better knowledge of how the regret for missed a purchase rises and its influence on consumers' behaviors thereafter. Discussion on these issues can also benefit company to know consumers' emotions and behaviors after they miss the purchase, which bears an overwhelming importance on stimulating consumers to purchase successfully in the near future.

Literature review and research framework When consumers are making purchase decision, even though a product has reached the acceptable level of attractiveness, consumers may still miss the purchase for some reasons.

For example, consumers may want to search more information or alternatives, expect the price to drop, need someone else’s advice, or feel difficult to take a trade-off between more than one alternatives which both achieve the acceptable level (Greenleaf and Lehmann, 1995;White and Hoffrage,2009). Besides these subjective factors, some objective reasons, such as sales information being not able to reach consumers in time, can also lead consumers to miss purchases. In a purchasing situation, inaction refers to that consumers do not purchase at a certain time, which includes subjective and objective reasons which generate no purchase.

Major research in this area focuses on the reasons for missing purchase, but we know little about how people behave after missing a purchase (Tsiros,2009). A lot of studies in consumer psychology investigate the effect of action on subsequent behavior (Butler and Highhouse,2000Beaman et al.,1983), but less attention has been paid on effect of inaction on subsequent behavior.

Some researchers investigate the influence of missing a purchase on future purchase behavior and find that inaction tends to propagate into future (e.g., Butler and Highhouse, 2000). For example, when a consumer misses a big sale, he or she is less likely to purchase during a smaller sale in the future (though it is still has a positive value). This tendency is referred as inaction inertia (e.g. Tykocinski and Pittman, 1998; Tykocinski, Pittman, and Tuttle, 1995).

There are two reasons for inaction inertia. One reason is that consumers want to avoid future regret because they expect if they buy the product during a smaller sale they will regret for missing the earlier one. Regret mediates the influence of missing a purchase on inaction inertia. The other reason for inaction inertia is the devaluation of the product because of multiple discounting. After the initial bigger sale, consumers tend to use the sale price as an anchor to judge the value of the product (Tybout, 1978). As a result, after missing a big sale, consumers are less likely to buy the product during a smaller sale in future. This study aims - 29 -

to examine how consumers behave when they face the same opportunity in future after missing a purchase.

Another reason for further inaction is that consumers will cognitively devalue the missed choice opportunity in order to reduce cognitive dissonance. Brehm(1956) studied postdecisional dissonance and found that housewives favored their selected alternatives after making a decision. When consumers miss a purchase, “the missed opportunity is a good one” will arouse cognitive dissonance and make people feel regret for missing the purchase. In order to protect themselves and reduce regret, people will try to convince themselves that the missed opportunity is not a good one and inaction is the best choice. These ideas will rationalize the inaction, reduce cognitive dissonance and make consumers feel better. So after missing a purchase, consumers tend to devalue the missed opportunity. Both inaction inertia and dissonance reduction will reduce purchase intention in future.

Therefore regret is an important factor in examining the influence of missing a purchase on future behavior. Regret is an aversive emotion which people want to regulate. Inaction inertia and devaluation of missed purchase opportunity represent the attempt to avoid or reduce regret. More importantly, People are motivated to take actions to correct mistakes and attain better outcomes (Roese, Summerville and Fessel, 2007). So after missing a purchase, consumers may try to take action to make up for the lost opportunity instead of inaction or devaluating missed one. For example, Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello (2009) found that after missing a purchase, if the forgone opportunity is appraised to be goal-relevant and difficult to reverse, inaction regret is evaluated to be stressful, consumers tend to engage in active coping that results in increased purchase intention next time. Regret mediates the influence of goal-relevance and reversibility on behavioral intent.

According to the analysis above, we can see that the previous research drew different conclusions on the influence of regret on the following behavior after missing a purchase.

They seldom base the study on regret theory. For example, the study of Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello is based on coping theory which claims that appraisals of the situation’s stress will affect coping strategy. This study reviews the influence of regret according to regret theory and aims to investigate how to make use of regret to promote consumers to increase purchase intention. What’s more, Patrick’s study neglects that even though people feel regret, there are many different strategies to regulate regret. We should study under different situations which strategy is preferred.

In the first study, we’ll prove the influence of regret on future purchase intention. Then we’ll exploit how to stimulate and utilize customers' regret to promote consumers to increase future intention in the second study. The third study will investigate how the perceived accessibility of purchase opportunity moderates the influence of regret on purchase intention. And it should be pointed out that this study mainly focuses on consumers who have demands for the product and aims to promote these consumers to increase purchase intention after missing a purchase.

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Study1: the influence of regret on future purchase intention Regret is the emotion we experience when realizing or imagining that our current situation would have been better, if only we had decided differently in the past. Regret is strongly related to people’s desire to maximize utility and has a great influence on decision-making.

After missing a purchase, if consumers regret for their inaction, regret will motivate corrective behaviors. Because when people feel regret, they will consider the mistake and missed opportunity over and over. They will have the feeling of wanting to kick themselves for the bad choices and hoping for another chance to amend their mistakes (Roseman, Wiest and Swartz, 1994 ; Zeelenberg et al.,1998). So regret will promote people to improve decision-making skills and look for possible chance to take remedial measures (Zeelenberg, 1999). For example, previous research found that if consumers have negative experience, regret can indicate the following switching behavior (Zeelenberg and Pieters,1999). And when people playing electronic games, if the game is over for a mistake, people will immediately realize their mistakes and play the game once again to correct the mistakes instead of just sitting there (Zeelenberg, Inman and Pieters,2001). Regret can promote people to revise their decision or improve the outcome, and learn the experience from previous mistakes to avoid make the same mistake in future (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2007). So if people regret for missing a purchase, regret will motivate people to correct their mistakes and increase purchase intention when they face the next purchase opportunity in future.

What’s more, inaction regret will arouse wistful feelings which make people want to own the forgone product or opportunity. Regrets for action (e.g. make the purchase) is different from regret for inaction (e.g., miss or delay the purchase). Regret for inaction in the consumption domain is a negative feeling that arises when the chosen alternative (non-purchase) appears to be a worse choice than the non-chosen alternative (purchase; Zeelenberg et al., 2000).

Gilovich, Medvec and Kahneman(1998) found that action regret will arouse more hot emotions (e.g., anger), while inaction regret will arouse wistful emotions(contemplative, dreamy, nostalgic, sentimental, and wistful) and despair(empty, helpless, longing, sad, and unfulfilled). Inaction regret will promote people to have more desire for forgone products or opportunities. Bülbül and Meyvis(2006) distinguish hot regret and cold regret. Hot regret involves strong feelings of irritation and frustration as well as self-blame. Cold regret is also negative but instead of involving feelings of self-blame, it involves feelings of sadness, emptiness, painful longing, and missing out on the road not taken. So we can see that if people regret for missing a purchase (inaction), they tend to be filled with longing and have more desire for the forgone product or opportunity. What’s more, inaction regret and action regret will induce different motivation. According to Higgins (1998), action regret make people center on avoidance, while inaction regret make people center on approach. So we can conclude that if people regret for missing a purchase (inaction), the purchase intention will increase when they face next opportunity in future.

And the strength of regret can influence the subsequent decision making. Zeelenberg and Beattie’s (1997) experiment showed the influence of regret strength on the following behavior. In their ultimatum game, every participant was offered a certain amount of money, like 100 Guilders. The participants were asked to divide the money between themselves and a responder. For example they could offer the responder 25 Guilders, and keep 75 Guilders to themselves. If the responders rejected the division, both of them couldn't get the money. Then - 31 -

the participants received feedback on how much less they could have offer. The results of the experiment showed that participants who could have offered 10 Guilders less experienced more regret than participants who could have offered 2 Guilders less. And when participants were asked to play a second round of the ultimatum game, their offers were influenced by the amount of regret experienced. The amount of money offered by participants who experienced more regret was significantly lower. The experiment indicates that the strength of regret would influence the motivation to correct previous mistakes. Also, Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello’s (2009) study shows that when consumers experience greater regret after missing a purchase, they are more likely to take active coping strategy and purchase at the next opportunity than those who experience less regret.

So we can conclude that if people regret for missing a purchase, regret will promote people to increase purchase intention at next opportunity. And the greater regret people experience, the higher the purchase intention will be. We expect: H1: After missing a purchase, if consumers feel greater regret, the purchase intention will be higher at next opportunity.

Experiment 1 The context of this study was a promotion in a supermarket. At the beginning of the experiment all participants were informed that a promotion had taken place in CR Vanguard supermarket near the university last weekend and the organizers wanted to survey the feedback of consumers. What’s more, they were told that the promotion had been notified through broadcast, short messages and leaflet. The missed purchase opportunity was described as the fictitious promotion because the subjects of this study were consumers who demanded the products. Supermarket promotion was demanded by students because for them, many products in supermarket were needed and saving money was one of goals they were pursuing. So this study chose supermarket promotion as the context. In this experiment, the scenarios we use were missed purchase caused by objective reason (missing purchase due to no information). The reason of this design was that if inaction was caused by subjective reasons (e.g. people expected the decrease of price), these subjective reasons might influence purchase intention.

Sixty-six students (45% male, 55% female) at a university in Tianjin participated the main experiment. In the main experiment, at first the participants were informed that the promotion had taken place. They were asked to indicate how much they regret for not attending the promotion. And then participants were informed that there will be a same promotion in the supermarket this weekend. They were asked to report the extent to which they would like to attend the second promotion.

The two promotions mentioned in the experiment were fictitious, but the supermarket mentioned was substantive. The offer of details of the promotion and supermarket was to arouse real feelings of participants. When the experiment ended up, the organizer of the experiment told the participants the real intention briefly.

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Measures and Manipulation Checks At first the participants were asked whether or not they attended the promotion. To manifest the promotion’s factuality, the organizer told the participants that the questionnaire included two parts: students who have not attended the promotion answer the first part, and students who have attended the promotion jump forward to the second part. Results showed that no participant answer the second part.

To measure regret, the participants were asked to indicate how much they regreted for not attending the promotion(1=not at all,7=very much),how much they wished they had gone to the promotion(1=not at all,7=very much)and how they felt about not going to the promotion (1=very unhappy,7=very happy) (Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello,2009).These three items were averaged and converted to a regret index (Cronbach alpha=0.822). A median split was conducted on reports of regret, dividing participants into a low regret group (33 participants) and a high regret group (33 participants).

Then Participants were told that there will be a similar promotion in the same supermarket this weekend. They were asked to report how they would like to attend the similar promotion, and how eager they were to attend the similar promotion (measured on a seven-point scale, 1=not at all and 7=very much) (Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello, 2009). These two items were averaged (=0. 852) and used as purchase intention index.

At last participates were asked to report in their opinion what’s the aim of the survey. Results showed that none of them realized the real aim of the experiment and suspected the realness of the promotion.

Results Hypothesis 1a states that after missing purchase, the future purchase intention would be higher if people felt more regret. An ANOVA of regret on purchase intention revealed a significant main effect of regret (F(1,65)=28.80, p<0.001). When consumers met next purchase opportunity, the purchase intention of consumers who felt more regret (M=4.27, SD=1.26) was significantly higher than consumers who felt less regret (M=2.64, SD=1.22) (as shown in Table 1). These findings supported Hypothesis 1.

Table 1 Results of ANOVA in study 1 regret low regret high regret

Mean

N

df

Mean Square

F-value

2.64(1.22) 4.27(1.26)

33 33

1

44.182

28.8***

So it can be conclude that, after missing a purchase, regret can act as a driver of future purchase behavior. So marketers can stimulate and utilize consumers’ regret to promote them to buy. The following section will discuss how to arouse people’s regret.

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Study 2: the influence of positive information about the forgone purchase outcome on regret and purchase intention The results of study 1 shows that regret for missing the purchase can promote people to purchase at next opportunity. So itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of great importance for marketers to motivate and make use of regret. To deal with this issue, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s necessary to think about the source of regret. Regret is a comparison-based emotion (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2007). People tend to compare their present situation and what could have been if they decided differently in the past. If the forgone outcome is better, people will feel regret (Tsiros and Mittal, 2000). The comparison between what is and what could have been can influence regret. But what is the outcome of forgone alternatives may not be known.

Past research shows that the lack of the information on forgone outcome may not prevent people from making comparisons between the present situation and the forgone outcome. In some instances, people engage in counterfactual thinking (Gleicher et al.1990; Kahneman and Miller, 1986). Counterfactual thinking is the process of imagining the outcome if they decided differently in the past and comparing the chosen and forgone outcomes. The counterfactuals provide a comparison standard to reality. If people think about how much worse the decision could have gone (engaging in downward Counterfactual), they will feel pleased. On the other side, if people think about how much better the decision could have gone (engaging in upward Counterfactual),they will feel regret(Roese,1994 ; Schwarz and Bless,1992 ).The ease of imaging a better alternative outcome determines whether the consumers compare the present situation and forgone outcomes, and determines the extent of regret (Kahneman and Miller,1986 ). But the counterfactuals do not occur in all instances.

When information about a better-forgone outcome is available, people are more easily to imagine the better outcome if they decided differently and will experience more regret, than when information on the forgone outcome is not available (Tsiros and Mittal, 2000).

So after missing a purchase, if the consumers are offered some information which inform them the good outcome of the missed purchase (information about positive purchase outcome), they are more easily to imagine the better outcome if they made the purchase and feel more regret than when these information are not available. We expect: H2: Consumers will experience greater regret for missing a purchase when the information on positive purchase outcome is available than when it is not available.

After missing a purchase, consumers who are offered information on positive purchase outcome are more likely to imagine the better outcome if they had purchased and experience more regret than consumers who are not offered these information. The results of study 1 shows that regret can make people filled with longing for the missed purchase and value it very much, and make people realize that missing the purchase is a mistake and hope for next opportunity to buy. The purchase intention will increase if people feel greater regret. So when information on positive purchase outcome is available, consumers will feel more regret, which increase purchase intention at next opportunity. We expect: H3:The influence of availability of information about positive purchase outcome on purchase intention is mediated by the feelings of regret.

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Experiment 2 In experiment 2 the missed opportunity was also described as a promotion in supermarket.

Sixty-four students (41% male, 59% female) at a university in Tianjin participated the main experiment. To manipulate the availability of positive information, the participants were randomly assigned to one of the 2 conditions. One group were offered the information on positive purchase outcome (n=31). The information was described as “Many people attended the promotion and purchased a lot of products. Most of them said that the quality of products was very good and the price was relatively low. They were very satisfied with the purchase”.

And the other group was not offered the information. A pretest with 25 participants revealed that these information was considered to be relevant to the positive purchase outcome (M=5.81 on a seven-point scale, where 1=do not get any positive information on purchase outcome, and 7=get sufficient positive information on purchase outcome).

In the main experiment, at first the organizer of the experiment told the participants that the promotion had taken place and asked them to indicate how much they regret for not attending the promotion. And then participants were informed that there will be a same promotion in the supermarket this weekend. They were asked to report the extent to which they would like to attend the second promotion.

And similar with experiment 1, the two promotions were fictitious, but the supermarket mentioned was substantive. When the experiment ended up, the organizer of the experiment told the participants the real intention briefly.

Measures and Manipulation Checks At first the organizer asked participants whether or not they attended the promotion, and told them that students who have not attended the promotion answer the first part, and students who have attended the promotion jump forward to the second part. Results showed that all participants answered the first part.

To examine the manipulation of independent variable, the participants were asked to indicate whether they received the information on positive purchase outcome (1=not at all, 7=sufficient positive information). The t-tests showed that independent variable was manipulated successfully. Subjects who had been offered positive information perceived the availability of the information on the positive purchase outcome.

We used the same items as experiment 1 to measure regret. The three items were averaged and converted to a regret index (Cronbach alpha=0.853).Then participants were told that there would be a similar promotion in the same supermarket this weekend and their purchase intention were measured. The items used were the same with experiment 1. The two items were averaged (=0.906) and used as purchase intention index.

At last participates were asked to report in their opinion what’s the aim of the survey. Results showed that none of them realized the real aim of the experiment and suspected the realness of the promotion.

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Results Hypothesis 2 stated that regret for missing the purchase would be higher when the information on positive purchase outcome was available than when it was not available. An ANOVA of availability of information about positive purchase outcome on regret revealed a significant main effect of availability of the positive information (F(1,62)=28.821, p<0.001).

Participants who were offered the positive information experienced more regret (M=4.87,SD=1.38) than participants who were not offered the positive information (M=3.17,SD=1.15). These findings supported Hypothesis 1a.

Table 2 Results of Regressions in study 2 positive information regret R2 (adj. R2 ) F

regret 1.699*** 0.317(0.306) 28.821***

purchase intention 1.743***

purchase intention 0.235

0.257(0.245) 21.476***

0.887*** 0.672(0.661) 62.371***

Mediation analysis revealed that regret fully mediated the relationship between availability of information about positive purchase outcome and purchase intent. Four sets of regressions were conducted. First, availability of positive information had a significant influence on purchase intention (β=1.743, F(1,62)=21.476,p<0.001). Second, availability of positive information had a significant influence on regret (β=1.699, F(1,62)=28.821, p<0.001). Third, regret had a significant influence on purchase intention (β=0.931, F(1,62)=124.971, p<0.001).

Finally, with both availability of positive information and regret as independent variables and purchase intention as the dependent variable, the effect of availability of positive information was not significant (β=0.235, p=0.444>0.01), but regret remained significant (β=0.887, F(2,61)=62.371, p<0.001) (as shown in Table 2). These provide support for the mediating role of regret proposed in Hypothesis 3.

Discussion The results of this study show that after missing a purchase, the offer of information about positive purchase outcome could motivate regret, and regret could further increase purchase intention at the next opportunity. Regret mediated the influence of positive information on purchase intention. This finding is of great practical significance. When consumers missed a purchase, if marketers can send information on positive purchase outcome to consumers and arouse their regret, their purchase intention will increase at next time.

But some other studies showed that when consumers regret for missing a purchase, it’s not definite for them to increase purchase intention. Sometimes they devalue the missed purchase opportunity cognitively (Arkes, Kung and Hutzel, 2002). The reason for regret can influence the following behavior is that people want to reduce regret. But people have many strategies to regulate regret. Some studies in regret domain indicate that even though consumers feel intense regret, they may just regulate regret cognitively instead of taking actions (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2007). So we should make clear the conditions upon which specific strategies are preferred to regulate regret. We posit that even though consumers regret for missing the - 36 -

purchase, the perceived accessibility of future purchase opportunity will influence the choice of regulation strategy. So this paper will discuss the role of perceived accessibility of future purchase opportunity in the following section.

Study 3: influence of perceived accessibility of future purchase opportunity on purchase intention Regret is an aversive emotion which people want to reduce to protect themselves. The second study hypothesizes that when consumers miss a purchase, if regret can be motivated, it can promote people to take actions to correct previous mistake and increase purchase intention when they face next opportunity. The reason for this is people’s desire to reduce regret. But studies on regret show that even though people feel regret, it’s not inevitable to take actions to reduce regret. People may just regulate regret cognitively. There are many regret regulation strategies. Roese, Summerville and Fessel (2007) argue that when people experience regret, they can regulate it in two different ways. One is behavioral: people can take actions to improve current circumstance. The other is cognitive: people can just mentally reconstruct the circumstances so as to put it in a better light (e.g., devalue the forgone alternatives). Within Zeelenberg and Pieter’s (2007) list of regret regulation strategies, behavioral strategies include “undo or reverse decision”. And cognitive strategies include “Deny responsibility for the decision, reappraise alternatives, justify decision, suppress or deny regret”. In Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello’s(2009) study, strategies for inaction regret regulation also include two categories: active coping response (taking actions) and avoidance coping response (support-seeking, inaction inertia). So it can be concluded that people can regulate regret through behavioral response or cognitive response. But under specific circumstance, which regulation strategy is preferred is an important issue.

To some extent, the choice of regulation strategy depends on whether there is opportunity for improvement. Gilbert and Ebert (2002) suggest that when suboptimal outcomes threaten a person’s satisfaction, the first line of defense is to change the outcome, and it is only when such efforts prove futile, the person’s subjective experience is actively modified. When people feel regret, attaining a better outcome is most important, so people’s first desire is to improve outcomes through action (Roese and Summerville, 2007). But if circumstance shows that even though the efforts, the outcomes can’t be changed, people will change their subjective feeling cognitively in order to reduce dissonance.

Opportunity principle states a similar opinion: regrets are more intense when opportunities exist for further action, or further rectification of current problems. Where opportunity is denied, or where problematic circumstances are inevitable, cognitive reconstructure (dissonance reduction) is activated to minimize the regret experience (Roese and Summerville,2005).What’s more, although regret will motivate corrective behaviors, but clearly, individuals are more likely to take corrective action when they believe that it is possible and effective. So we can see, when people feel regret for missing a purchase, if the opportunity for further purchase exists, regret will motivate people to increase purchase intention. But if opportunity for further purchase doesn’t exist, or is hard to achieve, people tend to regulate regret cognitively to feel better.

When people regret for missing a purchase, if a second opportunity is offered, the perceived accessibility will influence the choice of regret regulation strategy. There is no consistent - 37 -

definition and measurement for perceived accessibility till now. Some scholars studied perceived accessibility of cigarette, and defined perceived accessibility as the confidence about obtaining cigarettes and assessed the overall availability of cigarettes from all sources (Doubeni et al., 2008; 2009). And Li, Kuo and Russell (1999) defined channel accessibility as the degree to which time and effort are involved in using a channel. Other factors affecting these two factors, such as the availability of convenient approach tool and the distance, would influence perceived accessibility indirectly. To measure perceived accessibility, they used “convenient accessing”, “effort for using” and so on.

If consumers regret for missing a purchase, the perceived accessibility of next opportunity will influence the choice of regret regulation strategy. If the purchase opportunity is perceived to be easy to reach, people will consider that there is an opportunity to correct previous mistake and improve outcomes. So they are more likely to make purchase at next opportunity. But if the opportunity seems to be hard to reach, people will think that it is difficult for them to make use of the opportunity，or the cost is higher than gains, so the suboptimal outcome is inevitable. They will reduce regret cognitively instead of making purchase at next opportunity. So when the future purchase opportunity is perceived to be difficult to reach, regret can’t promote people to increase purchase intention in future.

Although study1 states that regret will increase purchase intention in future, the perceived accessibility of future purchase opportunity will moderate this effect. We expect: H4: When people feel regret for missing a purchase, the influence of regret on purchase intention will be moderated by perceived accessibility of future opportunity.

Experiment 3 In experiment 3, the missed opportunity was also described as a promotion in supermarket.

One hundred and three students (42% male, 58% female) at a university in Tianjin participated the main experiment. At first, the organizer told all participants “a promotion had taken place in CR Vanguard supermarket near the university last weekend”, “the promotion had been notified through broadcast, short messages and leaflet”, and offered some positive information on the purchase outcome, “Many people attended the promotion and purchased a lot of products. Most of them said that the quality of products was very good and the price was relatively low. They were very satisfied with the purchase”. Then their regret was measured.

To manipulate the perceived accessibility of next purchase opportunity, they were randomly assigned to one of the 2 conditions. One group (n=48) were told that “CR Vanguard supermarket near the university will hold a same promotion this weekend. And a free bus will be offered by the supermarket between the supermarket and our university every hour. It will take 10 minutes to reach there”. And the other group (n=55) were told that “CR Vanguard supermarket in Hedong Dsitrict will hold a same promotion this weekend. It will take 100 minutes to reach the supermarket from our university by bus. We can take bus No. 963 and transfer to bus No.857 at Xincun Dalou. Then after walking for 10 minutes, we can reach the supermarket”. Both of the two supermarkets were substantive. The pretest with 30 participants revealed that the supermarket near university was perceived to be easy to reach and the other was perceived to be difficult to reach (5.7vs2.6, p<0.01).

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At last the purchase intention was measured. And participates were asked to report their opinion on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the aim of the survey. Results showed that none of them realized the real aim of the experiment and suspected the realness of the promotion.

Measures and Manipulation Checks The same with experiment 1 and 2, at first the participants were asked whether or not they attended the promotion. And organizer told them that students who have not attended the promotion answer the first part, and students who have attended the promotion jump forward to the second part. Results showed that none of them answered the second part.

Then regret was measured. The item used were same with experiment 1. These three items were averaged and converted to a regret index (Cronbach alpha=0. 848). Then a median split was conducted on reports of regret, dividing participants into a low regret group (52 participants) and a high regret group (51 participants).

Then participants were told that there will be a similar promotion this weekend. To examine the manipulation of perceived accessibility of promotion, participant were asked to indicate whether they thought itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy for them to approach the promotion (1=do not agree at all and 7=agree very much). The results showed that manipulation was successful (5.42 vs. 2.27, p<0.001). Then the purchase intention was measured, the items used were the same with experiment 1. These two items were averaged (ď Ą=0. 831) and used as purchase intention index.

Results An ANOVA of regret on purchase intention revealed a significant main effect of regret (F(1,103)=24.28, p<0.001) (results as shown in table 1). Participants who felt more regret have higher purchase intention (M=4.84, SD=1.79) than participants who felt less regret (M=3.56, SD=1.27).

Table 3 Results of ANOVA in study 3 mean perceived accessibility hard to achieve easy to achieve regret low regret high regret perceived accessibility regret Hard to achieve, low regret Hard to achieve, high regret Easy to achieve, low regret Easy to achieve, high regret

N

df

Mean Square

F-value

3.1(1.29) 5.43(1.11)

55 48

1

121.73

106.67***

3.56(1.27) 4.84(1.79)

52 51

1

27.7

24.28***

2.9(1.19) 3.37(1.38) 4.52(0.60) 6.15(0.86)

31 24 21 27

1

8.38

7.34**

99

1.14

Error - 39 -

And 2Ă&#x2014;2 ANOVA found a two-way interaction between regret and perceived accessibility of purchase opportunity (F(1,103)=7.34, p=0.008<0.01). Facing the next purchase opportunity, when the opportunity was perceived to be easy to reach, participants who felt more regret have higher purchase intention (M=6.15, SD=0.86) than participants who felt less regret (M=4.52, SD=0.6). But if the opportunity was perceived to be hard to achieve, there was no significant difference between purchase intention of people who felt more regret (M=3.37, SD=1.38) and purchase intention of people who felt less regret (M=2.9, SD=1.19) (p>0.05)(as shown in table 3 and diagram 1). So we could conclude that the influence of regret on purchase intention was moderated by perceived accessibility of future purchase opportunity. These provided support for the mediating role of regret proposed in Hypothesis 4.

Diagram 1: the moderating effect of perceived accessibility

7 6 purchase intention

5 4

hard to achieve easy to achieve

3 2 1 0

low regret

high regret

Discussion Theoretical contributions This research aims to study whether marketers can promote consumers to make purchase next time by motivating their regret after they miss a purchase. Many scholars studied but drew different conclusions on the question whether people will make purchase next time after missing a purchase. Some of them demonstrate that inaction tends to propagate into future (Arkes et al., 2002). But several studies, like Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello (2009), found that if the missed purchase is goal-relevant and difficult to reverse, the situation will be appraised to be stressful. Then consumers tend to take active coping strategy and increase purchase intention next time.

This research studies this issue by investigating the influence of regret. It aims to explore how to make use of regret to increase purchase intention in future. The results show that regret for missing the purchase can motivate stronger desire for the missed purchase and promote people to correct their previous mistakes which would increase consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; purchase - 40 -

intention in future. What’s more, if consumers are offered information on positive purchase outcome, their regret will be strengthened, and the regret will promote them to buy at next opportunity.

The biggest contribution of Patrick et al. (2009) is that they pointed out when miss purchase product is relative to goal, the higher the inaction regret is, the stronger purchase intention will be. Our contribution is that we don’t think it always happen that the higher the inaction regret is, the stronger purchase intention will be. When consumers perceive that next purchase opportunity is hard to achieve, they will make self-regulation psychologically. Then regret cannot increase purchase intention significantly. When purchase opportunity is perceived to be easy to reach, people will consider that there is opportunity to correct previous mistake and improve outcomes. Then regret can increase purchase intention. This helps marketers take correct marketing tactics to promote miss purchase consumers to purchase in future.

Regret can motivate and influence following reactions, because people want to reduce regret.

But even though regret is aroused, people have many strategies to reduce regret. Besides reducing regret by taking actions to improve outcomes, people can regulate regret cognitively.

Under different conditions, which specific strategies are preferred over others is not clear.

Study 3 investigates this issue by studying the influence the perceived accessibility of future purchase opportunity on the choice of regret regulation strategies.

When people feel regret, the first reaction is to change the suboptimal outcomes. If there is opportunity for them to improve outcomes, people tend to reduce regret by actions. But if the opportunity is perceived to be hard to achieve （e.g. it takes great effort or time）, or the outcome is inevitable, people tend to regulate regret cognitively (like devaluing the purchase) to make them feel better. On the contrary, if the next purchase opportunity is perceived to be easy to reach, people prefer to make a purchase rather than do nothing but regulate regret cognitively. Therefore, even though regret is strengthened, it does not always enhance purchase intention which depends on the perceived accessibility of future purchase opportunity.

Practical contributions This study can help marketers promote consumers who have missed a purchase to purchase in future. Consumers often miss a purchase even though the product is needed and achieves the level of acceptance. How to promote these consumers to make purchase is of great importance. Although Patrick, Lancellotti and Demello (2009) found that if the missed product is goal-relevant, people are more likely to make purchase in future. But the goalrelevance of consumers is difficult to control. In this study, the factors to motivate consumers to increase purchase intention can be manipulated by marketers. Marketers can reach and influence consumers by sending the information on positive purchase outcomes to them through short messages, broadcast and internet. The share of positive feedback of purchase can arouse regret of consumers who have missed the purchase, and promote them to buy next time.

What’s more, this study offers an example for marketers to make use of consumers’ emotions.

Previous research on regret focuses on its negative effects, such as decreasing repurchase - 41 -

intention, decreasing satisfaction, indicating switching behaviors, and so on (Zeelenberg and Pieters,2004 ; Tsiros and Mittal,2000). Marketers concern how to reduce and avoid regret usually. But regret is an inevitable negative emotion. Regret was rated as being the most intense and second most frequent among these negative emotions (Saffrey and Roese, 2006).

After choice, regret will appear and make people feel the attractiveness of forgone choice (Carmon and Wertenbroch, 2003). Regret is powerful in motivating and influencing behaviors (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2007). So how to make use of regret is worth studying.

Marketers should pay more attention to how to make regret be a power for purchase and use it to guide consumers’ behavior. Consumers are often irrational. So if external stimulus can arouse internal emotions, emotions will have great influence on following behaviors. This study offers an example of marketers to make use of regret to guide consumers’ behaviors.

And this study emphasizes the importance of perceived accessibility of product. If the future purchase opportunity is perceived to be hard to achieve, even though consumers feel regret, their purchase intention can’t increase significantly. But if the opportunity is perceived to be easy to achieve, purchase intention will increase. So marketers should take measures to increase the perceived accessibility of product, like offering door to door service, free bus, and so on.

Limitations and future research directions In the experiments, the missed purchase opportunity is describe as a promotion in supermarket. Some participants suggested that as the price of products in supermarket is relatively low, the money can be saved in promotion is too little to motivate their regret. As the value of product can influence the strength of feeling, studies in future should distinguish missed opportunity according to the value of product. What’s more, product category can also work on the strength of regret. Some female participants reported that they are more sensitive to products like clothes, makeup and so on. If the missed opportunity is about these kinds of product, they will regret more. Future study can take a look at the influence of product categories.

What’s more, when consumers feel regret, whether they switch to other competitors is an issue should be considered. And there are many factors can influence regret. This paper focused on the role of information on positive forgone outcome. Therefore, future study could investigate the influence of other factors. These studies can help us have a better knowledge of the influence of regret, and how to motivate consumers missing a purchase to purchase in future.

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About the authors Dongjin Li（Ph.D., Kyungpook National University) is Professor and Chair of Marketing Department, Business School, Nankai University. His research interests include consumer behavior and advertising. He has published many books and papers in academic journals, including International Business Review ， Young Consumers ， Journal of Consumer Behavior, Frontiers of Business Research, Management World and Journal of Marketing Science and others. His research has been supported by National Science Foundation of China. He can be reached at djli1280@163.com.

Yunfei Ma is a Doctoral student of Business School, Nankai University. She will receive her Ph.D. in Marketing at Nankai University in 2012. Her current research is focused on consumer behavior. She has published her research in scholarly journals such as Nankai Business Review, Journal of Marketing Science, Modern Management Science and others.

She can be reached at flycat_1982@163.com.

Yan Li is a doctoral candidate of Marketing Department, Business School, Nankai University.

She received her Master degree in Marketing at Nankai University in 2011. Her research interest is consumer behavior. She can be received by liyan_nankai@sina.com.

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Volume 1, no.1, 2012, ISSN: 1179-8785 DOES PERCEIVED CONTROL INCREASE GAME USAGE AND PURCHASE BEHAVIOR? Robert Davis, Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand Bodo Lang, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract Existing theory posits that perceived control is a fundamental driver of the use and purchase by consumers of games on computers including consoles and other mobile devices such as the iPad. However, there is no empirical evidence to support this hypothesis in this context.

Therefore, this research models the relationship between the consumers’ game purchase, usage behavior and perceived control. In 2009, 493 consumers responded face-to-face to a questionnaire. The conceptual model was tested with confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) across 4 game types (models); (1) the original model (all games) and the alternative models, (2) Sports/Simulation/Driving, (3) Role Playing Game/Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game/Strategy and (4) Action/Adventure/ Fighting. We investigated the impact of control on game usage and purchase behavior, both individually and simultaneously across the game types. All of our models had adequate model fit with the exception of the original model. Results show that control has no significant impact on both game usage and purchase behavior, except for RPG/MMORPG/ Strategy wherein control has a significant impact on game usage. Research implications are discussed.

Key Words: Control, usage, purchase, computer games, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling.

Introduction Existing theory proposes that consumers will use and purchase games that are easy to use and control. Games are defined as ‘games played on PC or MAC and/or games on a console such as their mobile phone, iPad, Microsoft Xbox, SONY Playstation or Nintendo Wii’. This proposition is based on the argument that perceived control is the perceived ease of performing the behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and reflects the consumer’s ability to control the game experience and shape their interaction (Gentry and Calantone, 2002; Koufaris, 2002). Some have argued that they will, as a result, experience a higher level of interactivity (Davis and Sajtos, 2008). Despite this, there is no evidence to support this view in existing theory and in this important context.

Therefore, this research models the relationship between consumers’ game purchase and usage behavior and their perceived control of such games (Prugsamatz, Lowe and Alpert, - 47 -

2010; Molesworth, 2006). This research is also important because games are one of the most popular forms of personal and social entertainment (Ong, 2004) and they are available on many platforms. In Europe, computer gaming is a significant industry and market. For example, the UK is the third largest market globally, with total sales in 2004 of entertainment and leisure software of £1.34b (Boyle and Hibberd, 2005). The interactive entertainment industry in the UK is set to grow by 7.5% between 2009 and 2012 (UKIE, 2011).

Accordingly, the Entertainment Software Association in the U.S. argue that: (1) computer and video game software sales generated $USD 10.5 billion in 2009, (2) sixty-seven percent of American households play computer or video games, (3) the average game player is 34 years old and has been playing games for 12 years. Overall, sales of game hardware, software, and accessories have eclipsed those of the US box-office, cementing gaming as a dominant force of technological consumption (Khan, 2002; Guth, 2003).

Apart from its contribution to entertainment, we also examine the importance of computer gaming to academic research. Games have long been neglected by academia as a legitimate field of research (Ong, 2004). Many studies are based on games that lack the graphical richness and realism of today’s generation of digital entertainment (Choi, et al., 2004; Kim et al., 2002; Juul, 2001). The majority of current academic game research originates from psychology or cultural and film studies in the field of interactive media (Newman, 2002a).

The apparent weakness of these studies is that there tends to be no agreed definition regarding ‘what a game is’ and ‘why people engage in the game’ (Kücklich, 2003; Woods, 2003; Aarseth, 2003; Eskelinen, 2001; Frasca, 1999).

In marketing, most of the research to date has focused on the effect of the advertising within a game on the consumer (Prugsamatz, Lowe and Alpert, 2010; Molesworth, 2006). For example, Schneider and Cornwell (2005), Mackay et al., (2009), Cauberghe and De Pelsmacker (2010), and others (Chaney, Lin and Chaney, 2004; Nelson, Keum and Yaros, 2004; Winkler and Buckner, 2006; Yang et al., 2006; Mau, Silberer and Constien, 2008) have examined the advertising communication effect of product or brand placement in computer games on the consumer. Other researchers such as Nicovich (2005) have measured the effect of consumer involvement on the advertising effect. Furthermore, other researchers have extended this stream of research and have explored avatar-based advertising (Jin and Bolebruch, 2009).

One of the significant issues with this existing base of research is that it has ignored the impact of the game and technology itself on the consumer and the in-game marketing stimulus. Furthermore, particularly on studies that have focused on so called Advergames, the research has made the assumption that the interaction between consumer and brand related message is seamless and uninterrupted. We argue in this study that this is not that case.

Simply, it is hypothesized that if a consumer is unable to have a strong perception of control over the game; then they will not buy or use the game. By implication, if advertisements or products are placed with the game environment; a lack of perceived control may negatively mediate the stimulus-response mechanism between consumer, game and marketing stimulus.

As fundamental questions about consumers have not been addressed, such as those concerning the consumers’ perceptions of control and its relationship to game purchase and usage (Kaltcheva, Patino and Chebat, 2010; Chen, 2009; Addis and Holbrook, 2001), we model these two relationships in the context of 4 game types. Our 4 game types are grouped - 48 -

according to the conceptualization of Myers (1990), namely: (1) all games representing our original model and then the alternative competing models, (2) Sports/Simulation/Driving, which places emphasis on hand/eye co-ordination/reflexes in real world environments, (3) Role Playing Game (RPG)/Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)/Strategy, which places emphasis on characters that gain experience and power through encounters and, (4) Action/Adventure/Fighting, which places emphasis on simulations of futuristic and historical warfare and/or violent activity. This approach is consistent with Apperly (2006, p 20) and others (Prugsamatz, Lowe and Alpert, 2010) who argue that â&#x20AC;&#x153;strategy and role-playing genres have their roots in pre-computer forms of play, whereas the simulation genre can be compared to non-entertainment computer simulations.

The action genre is implicitly connected to cinema through its deployment of the terminology of that medium to mark key generic distinctions.â&#x20AC;?

Usage and purchase are employed as dependent variables and relate to the frequency of this behavior. Usage and purchase have often been used in this capacity in marketing research.

For example, Shimp and Kavas (1984) relate the theory of reasoned action to usage. Usage has also been deployed in an experimental context. Folkes, Martin and Gupta (1993) relate product supply to usage. Desai and Hoyer (2000) examine the composition of memory-sets to different usage. Purchase behavior has also played a key role in marketing research as a dependant variable (Sriram, Chintagunta and Agarwal, 2010; Hui, Bradlow and Fader, 2009; Liu, 2007). For example, Bawa and Shoemaker (1987) develop a model of coupon usage across product classes to explain the purchasing behavior between coupon-prone and noncoupon-prone households. Also, Sismeiro and Bucklin (2004) use binary probit models of navigational behavior to predict actual purchase online.

The contribution of this research is significant, since fundamental questions about perceived control and game purchase and usage behavior have been implicitly assumed but not explicitly answered. The traditional view suggests that control has a positive relationship with game purchase and use (Gentry and Calantone, 2002; Koufaris, 2002). In the gaming context there is no empirical evidence of this proposition. Thus, this research makes an important theoretical contribution by verifying the role that control plays in a gaming context. Results of this enquiry have implications for current research on advertising within games, the advertising of games and for game designers. Through a better understanding of what consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; value in terms of control and whether it drives usage and purchase: advertising within games may become more effective in terms of reaching communication goals such as brand recall, awareness and game-self congruity. This paper is also relevant for game designers who may wish to consider how to design a game to optimize its attractiveness to gamers (Cummins, 2002, Addis and Holbrook, 2001). This paper is organized as follows.

First, the conceptual model is developed, and this is followed by the methodology, the results, and the discussion. The paper concludes with managerial and research implications.

Conceptual Model To present our conceptual model we first define the game from a consumption perspective. A game is played in an electronic medium over a screen-based platform (Ong, 2004). The game enables instantaneous feedback in visual, auditory and kinesthetic forms and allows for the co-creation of rich virtual worlds that blur the boundaries between imagination and reality (Jessen, 1999). A wide variety of concepts have been applied in the gaming literature to - 49 -

describe games as narratives and interactive texts (Juul, 2001; Ryan, 2001; Aarseth, 1997), experiences and simulations (Newman, 2002a;, 2004; Manninen, 2003a; Aarseth, 2003), cultural artifacts (Prensky, 2001), and technological drivers (Woods, 2003; Bushnell, 1996; Aarseth, 2003). The game is both a tangible product and a subjective experience, where the value is derived from the interaction between the consumer and the game logic to form a synergistic outcome that is unique to the immediate situation (Ong, 2004).

From a consumption perspective, a game is defined by the consumer (the user or gamer) (Chen, 2008; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Games are not a singular process but, rather, an experience that varies with the users and their level of interaction, both with the game and with other game players. A game has an explicit structure that defines how it should be played, yet it is open to interpretation and experimentation. It is also a representation of the functional and recreational desires of the immediate consumer. Walther (2003) defines a game as an action of framed of actions. The act of gaming represents an internalization of behaviors, which covers elements of temporality and spatiality through the act of ‘organized play’. Gottschalk (1995) refers to the importance of ‘known endings’ as being crucial determinants of the game since they demonstrate the existence of an end state from which the duration of the experience may be estimated. This further distinction reinforces the conceptual definition of the game as having clearly defined constraints, motivations and outcomes, thereby identifying it as an experiential process rather than an uninhibited exploration (Walther, 2003; Jessen, 1999; Juul, 2001b).

This view focuses on the notion of rational thought and control (Ong, 2004). As demonstrated

by Addis and Holbrook (2001), the process utilizes a traditional structure of decision making, based upon known outcomes and set constraints, i.e. rational decision making (Holbrook and Gardner, 1998). Similarly, Kahn and Wansink’s (2004) concept of consumption rules revolves around heuristic decision making that is based on salient product traits. In this respect, elements focus on cognitive assessment rather than emotional arousal during consumption (Kempf, 1999) in order to fulfill task-oriented outcomes which meet a desired end-state (Babin et al., 1994). They are task-related and are often part of the individual’s personal work mentality (Batra and Athola, 1990; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). Mano and Oliver (1993) argues that it focuses on the users ‘need for the object’ and the ‘technical value’ of the product features. In this study we focus on the game’s technical performance, that is, perceived control, which reflects not only the consumer’s ability to interact with the game but also to provide an explicit classification of the perceived barriers to interaction (Ong, 2004).

Given that the game experience is highly dependent on the level of interactivity generated by the consumer (Davis and Sajtos, 2008), they must be able to manipulate the controls of the game with sufficient ease and be able to learn the simulation rules in order to meet their goaloriented outcomes. This is supported by Davis’s (1989) view that ease of use reflects the essence of this dimension, that is, “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Davis, 1989, pg 320).

This conceptualization has been supported by many researchers (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Gentry and Calantone, 2002; Vijayasarathy, 2004; Brown and Licker, 2003) and it argues that if a game is more easy to use then the consumer will have greater control over interactivity and perceive its consumption to be less complex; thus fostering increased purchase and usage.

This is consistent with Frasca’s (1999) perspective; control and thus greater ease of use - 50 -

should allow users to experience greater pleasure during play and it should make it easier for them to follow the formal set of game rules to achieve the desired end-state (i.e. winning).

In sum, perceived control is the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior (Ajzen, 1991). It reflects the consumer’s ability to control the game experience, which is represented by how constrained the consumer is to shape the consumer-game interaction (i.e. the level of freedom and flexibility to behave). In other words, does the consumer control how the experience is created or does the game determine the experience? Control will vary across different contexts (Gentry and Calantone, 2002), which is why this paper investigates perceived control across different types of game genres. In essence, perceived control appears to be dependent on the “level of one’s control over the environment and one’s actions (Koufaris, 2002, pg 208).” It is argued that when consumers perceive that they can control a game, they will also perceive that the game will be easier to use and this will increase purchase and usage. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: Hu1-4: Perceived control has an individual effect on game purchase measured across four game model types; (1) original model, (2) Sports, Simulation and Driving; (3) RPG, MMORPG and Strategy and (4) Action, Adventure and Fighting.

Hp1-4: Perceived control has an individual effect on game usage measured across four game model types; (1) original model, (2) Sports, Simulation and Driving; (3) RPG, MMORPG and Strategy and (4) Action, Adventure and Fighting.

H5-8: Perceived control has a simultaneous effect on game usage and purchase measured across four game model types; (1) original model, (2) Sports, Simulation and Driving; (3) RPG, MMORPG and Strategy and (4) Action, Adventure and Fighting.

As we have noted in our hypotheses; these 3 hypotheses are extended over the 4 game type so the analysis of the path coefficients and SEM model fit will proceed to test 8 hypothesized relationships between perceived control and; (1) game purchase and, (2) game usage.

Therefore, 8 models are also compared.

Method In 2009, 500 consumers in Auckland, New Zealand were randomly recruited to respond faceto-face to a structured questionnaire. Therefore, the sampling frame is the urban population of Auckland consumers (1,333,300 people in 2009)(www.stats.govt.nz) (Martin, 2004, Danaher et al., 2003). All consumers who walked past the interviewers were considered to be potential respondents. The interviewers were rotated around four locations in Auckland; east, west, south, and north. Every potential respondent was asked to participate so they had an equal chance to participate in the survey. Importantly, respondents had to be regular players of games that they had actually purchased (i.e. not pre-loaded games). Therefore, respondents were screened with two questions; (1) In the last week, did you play games on your computer (PC or MAC), or on a games console (perhaps through the Internet), such as an Xbox, Playstation or Wii that you purchased?” and then IF YES, (2) What game did you play most often in the last week?

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Table 1 contains the basic characteristics of the sample. The survey yielded 493 usable responses. 7 were discarded because they were not completed. Eighty-two percent of the respondents were male and 18% were female. The majority of the respondents (77%) were 25 years and under. About 66% of the respondents have not received any degree and 77% are single. Thirty-nine percent are Asians and 48% of the respondents are students. Forty-eight percent of the respondents have annual income of less than $10,000.

Table 1.

Sample Characteristics1 Variable

Categories

Percent of Sample

Gender

Male Female ≤ 10 11-15 16-20 21-25 ≥ 26 NZ Pakeha Maori Pacific Islander Asian European Others Single Widowed Living with partner Married Divorced/Separated Non-degree Degree Student Full Time Self-employed Unemployed Homemaker Part-time Student/Part-time < 10,000 10,000-20,000 20,001-30,000 30,001-40,000 40,001-50,000 50,001-60,000 60,001-80,000 ≥ 80,000

82.2 17.8 0.4 4.3 40.2 37.1 18.1 29.4 7.5 6.5 38.5 9.9 8.1 77.3 0.2 13.8 7.3 1.4 66.1 33.9 47.7 25.4 4.9 4.3 0.4 6.7 10.8 47.5 16.6 7.5 11.4 9.5 3.2 2.4 1.8

Age

Ethnicity

Marital Status

Education Employment

Annual Income

Based on a sample of 493 responses.

1

Throughout the whole questionnaire a seven point scale was used to measure the constructs of interest (1 = “Strongly Disagree”, 7 = “Strongly Agree”). To operationalize perceived control in this study, items were taken from the technology acceptance model (Venkatesh et - 52 -

al., 2003; Gentry & Calantone, 2002; Venkatesh & Davis, 1996; Vijayasarathy, 2004; Gefen, 2003; Teo et al., 1999; Teo, 2001; Brown & Licker, 2003). This approach is consistent with Thompson et al., (2005). Perceived control is primarily derived from Venkatesh et al.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2003) and Gentry and Calantoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2002) studies of consumer interactions with technology.

Purchase behavior is based on an adaption of the scale of Bristol and Tamara (2005). Usage behavior is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis, 2003). Game categories for usage and purchase are derived from Myers (1990) and the retail categories commonly used in consumer purchases (http://store.steampowered.com/).

Analysis The analysis tested the proposed conceptual model with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The approach was employed as we wanted to use an analysis method that not only supported model refinement but could rigorously assess the model fit of our conceptual model across four gaming types. The approached also helped us measure the individual and simultaneous effects in the relationship between perceived control, usage and purchase.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis In accordance with Kline (1998) a two-step modeling procedure was adopted. First, the individual constructs that underlie the full model were analyzed. Initial data screening was done for missing values, outliers and the normality of the dataset was tested. We used a combination of PASW Statistics 18, AMOS 18 (Arbuckle, 2009) and Microsoft Excel 2007 software packages to carry out the analyses. We examined all scale items and reverse-coded when applicable to reflect the hypothesized directions.

Seven respondents were excluded in the analysis because they did complete some of the items. Thus, 493 responses were used in the analysis. Subsequently, the data was subjected to multivariate normality testing. Results show that the Mardia coefficient was greater than 10 which were higher than the cutoff of 3 (Wothke, 1993). Thereby, a bootstrapping approach was used (Bollen & Stine, 1992). Cunningham (2008) stresses that if Bollen-Stine (B-S) p value is less than 0.05, the model should be rejected.

Convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs were tested using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) that combined all constructs concurrently. Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) was used to fit the models. MLE is a procedure that improves parameter estimates in a way that minimizes the differences between the observed and estimated covariance matrices (Pampel, 2000). Construct refinement was enabled by an analysis of covariance residuals and modification indices and exclusion of items until the goodness-of-fit was achieved.

Following Baumgartner and Homburg (1996) the following measures were used to assess the model fit; Goodness-of-Fit Indices, chi-squared (X2), the comparative fit index (CFI) and normalized fit index (NFI). For CFI and NFI values close to 1 are indicative of good model fit (Bentler, 1990). The root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA) was calculated for the overall model and according to Bentler (1990) values below 0.05 indicate close fit and - 53 -

values up to 0.08 are reasonable. Finally, the standardized RMR (SRMR) as described by Hu & Bentler (1995) computes how much the model explains the correlations to within an average error. Bentler (1990) argues that a model is regarded as having an acceptable fit if the SRMR is less than 0.10 (Browne and Cudek, 1993). The final measurement models show a reasonably good fit and most of the fit indices are above or close to the required minimum threshold level.

Table 2 Dependent Variable Game Usage

Game Purchase

Game Usage

Game Purchase

Game Usage

Game Purchase

SEM Model Fit (Step 1): Individual Effect Game Group

X2

X2 / d.f

(d.f)

Ratio

Sports Simulation

2.03

Driving

(8)

Sports Simulation

8.02

Driving

(8)

P

CFI

TLI

GFI

RMSEA

SRMR

B-SP

0.25

0.98

1.00

1.01

1.00

0.00

0.01

1.00

1.00

0.43

1.000

1.000

0.99

0.00

0.02

0.98

2.71

0.01

0.98

0.97

0.99

0.06

0.05

0.08

1.07

0.38

1.00

1.00

0.99

0.01

0.03

0.96

1.45

0.17

1.00

0.99

0.99

0.03

0.02

0.72

1.30

0.24

0.99

0.99

0.99

0.03

0.03

0.88

6.70

0.00

0.80

0.75

0.89

0.11

0.08

0.00

7.58

0.00

0.83

0.79

0.88

0.12

0.07

0.00

RPG MMORPG

21.65 (8)

Strategy RPG MMORPG

8.52 (8)

Strategy Action Adventure

11.56 (8)

Fighting Action Adventure

10.40 (8)

Fighting Game Original Usage

(53)

Game Original Purchase

354.90

401.93 (53)

X2=Chi-square; CFI-Comparative Fit Index; TLI-Tucker Lewis Index; GFI-Goodness-of-fit-Index; RMSEA-Root-MeanSquare Error of Approximation; SRMR-Standardized Root-Mean-Squared Residual; BSP-Bollen-Stine bootstrap p; d.f=degrees of freedom

Composite reliability is an indicator of the shared variance among the set of observed variables used as indicators of a latent construct (Bacon et al 1995; Kandemir et al 2006). The - 54 -

three items included in perceived control are: (1) respondents have control over how the game is played; (2) respondents have knowledge necessary to play the game; and (3) respondents have resources necessary to play this game. The construct reliability for these control items was computed to be 0.87, above the recommended value of 0.70 or higher. In addition, the coefficient alpha value was 0.86, above the threshold value of 0.70 that Nunnally (1978) recommends. Moreover, the average variance extracted (AVE) value was 0.68. It reflects the average communality for each latent factor and is used to establish convergent validity. The AVE value is above the threshold value of 0.50 (Chin, 1998; Hรถck & Ringle, 2006; Fornell & Lacker, 1981).

Structural Equation Modeling The structural equation modeling process had two competing steps. The first step assessed the conceptual model measuring the individual effects of control on purchase and usage. The second step measured the simultaneous effect of control on purchase and usage.

Individual Effects In the first step SEM, the same measures were used to assess the model fit as in the CFA, that is, the Goodness-of-Fit Indices (GFI), the chi-squared (X2)/degrees of freedom (d.f.) ratio, the comparative fit index (CFI), the normalized fit index (NFI), the root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), the standardized RMR (SRMR) and the Bollen-Stine (B-S) p value.

The SEM focused on the analysis of the hypotheses of the four competing forms of this model; (1) The original model includes all the game types while the alternative models focus on each game genre, namely (2) Sports, Simulation and Driving; (3) RPG, MMORPG and Strategy and (4) Action, Adventure and Fighting. The results of the SEM analysis for both models are displayed in Tables 2 and 3. Our path coefficients suggest that perceived control does not impact usage and/or purchase behavior. The only exception related to control and game usage for Role Playing Game (RPG)/Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)/Strategy. All models with the exception of the original model suggest adequate model fit across all our measures (GFI, CFI, RMSEA, SRMR, X2/DF and B-S p). The standardized factor loadings for perceived control (game usage) ranged from 0.75 to 0.93 and were highly significant (p<0.001). Similarly the standard factor loading for perceived control (game purchase) were above 0.70 and highly significant (p<0.001).

Simultaneous Effect The second step investigated the impact of control on game usage and purchase behavior simultaneously across the game types. Common measures of fit were assessed. The results in Table 4 and 5 show that control has no significant impact on both game usage and purchase behavior, except for RPG/MMORPG/Strategy wherein control has a significant impact on game usage.

- 55 -

Table 3

SEM Path Coefficients (Step 1): Individual Effect

Game Group

Indicator

Sports

Game Usage (GU)

Simulation Driving RPG MMORPG Strategy Action Adventure Fighting

Original Model

Direction

Game Purchase (GP) Game Usage (GU) Game Purchase (GP) Game Usage (GU) Game Purchase (GP) Game Usage (GU)

Game Purchase (GP) SE = standard error

Construct

Standardized Loading

Un-standardized Loading

S.E.

tvalue

P

Hypothesis

Conclusion

Control GU

-0.04

-0.03

0.05

-0.63

0.53

Hu1

Not supported

Control GP

-0.06

-0.06

0.06

-1.04

0.30

Hp1

Not supported

Control GU

0.13

0.14

0.07

2.09

0.04

Hu2

Supported

Control GP

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.94

0.35

Hp2

Not Supported

Control GU

0.02

0.02

0.06

0.33

0.74

Hu3

Not Supported

Control GP

-0.09

-0.11

0.06

-1.76

0.08

Hp3

Not supported

Control GU

0.02

0.01

0.04

0.28

0.78

Hu4

Not Supported

Control GP

-0.06

-0.06

0.05

-1.23

0.22

Hp4

Not supported

ď&#x192;&#x;

- 56 -

Table 4

Dependent Variables

Game Usage

Game Usage

SEM Model Fit (Step 2): Simultaneous Effect

Game Group

X2 (d.f)

X2 / d.f

P

CFI

TLI

GFI

RMSEA

SRMR

B-S P

20.99

0.00

0.76

0.65

0.85

0.20

0.08

0.00

2.24

0.00

0.98

0.97

0.98

0.05

0.05

0.05

23.83

0.00

0.76

0.64

0.83

0.22

0.08

0.00

15.68

0.00

0.49

0.42

0.64

0.17

0.12

0.00

Ratio

Sports Simulation Driving

503.83 (24)

RPG MMORPG Strategy

53.72 (24)

Action Game

Adventure

Usage

Fighting

(24)

Original

2915.60

Game Usage

571.88

(186)

X2=Chi-square; CFI-Comparative Fit Index; TLI-Tucker Lewis Index; GFI-Goodness-of-fit-Index; RMSEA-Root-MeanSquare Error of Approximation; SRMR-Standardized Root-Mean-Squared Residual; BSP-Bollen-Stine bootstrap p; d.f=degrees of freedom

Discussion In our confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, all of our models had adequate fit with the exception of the original model where all game genres were combined.

Path coefficients suggested that consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceived control does not impact usage and/or purchase behavior. The only exception related to control and game usage for Role Playing Game (RPG)/Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)/Strategy. These results were similar when we compared the individual and simultaneous effects of control on usage and purchase.

Where perceived control did have a positive relationship with the usage of Role Playing Game (RPG)/Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)/Strategy games; this finding is supported in that previous research has found control will vary across different contexts (Gentry and Calantone, 2002). We argue that for the consumer to value the - 57 -

Table 5

SEM Path Coefficients (Step 2): Simultaneous Effect

Game Group

Indicator

Sports

Game Usage (GU)

Simulation Driving RPG

Direction

Game Purchase (GP) Game Usage (GU)

Control GU

Game Purchase (GP) Game Usage (GU)

Control GP

MMORPG Strategy Action Adventure Fighting

Original Model

Construct

Standardized Loading

Unstandardized Loading

S.E.

tvalue

P

Hypothesis

Conclusion

-0.04

-0.04

0.06

-0.69

0.49

Hu5

Not supported

-0.06

-0.06

0.06

-1.11

0.26

Hp5

Not supported

0.11

0.11

0.05

2.36

0.02

Hu6

Supported

0.05

0.05

0.05

1.13

0.26

Hp6

Not Supported

0.02

0.02

0.06

0.32

0.75

Hu7

Not Supported

-0.09

-0.09

0.05

-1.61

0.11

Hp7

Not supported

0.01

0.01

0.06

0.25

0.81

Hu8

Not Supported

-0.07

-0.07

0.05

-1.31

0.19

Hp8

Not supported

ď&#x192;&#x;

Game Purchase (GP) Game Usage (GU)

Control GP

Game Purchase (GP)

Control GP

SE = standard error

- 58 -

consumption experience of this game type, they must have a sense of control so that they are able to manipulate their characters that gain experience and power through encounters. In these game types, consumers need to be more in control over the environment and thus their actions and characters (Koufaris, 2002). When consumers play these games they must also need to have control over their own-self and game-self, that is, their multiple-self’s. This brings into play the complex relationship between self concept and control. It suggests that control of self concept is driven by rational decision making or consumption by rules (Kahn and Wansinks, 2004).

With specific reference to the conceptual model we expected perceived control to have a significant impact on usage and purchase. Perceived control enhances the consumers’ ability to interact with the game and reduce the perceived and actual barriers to interaction (Dabholkar and Sheng, 2008). These findings are significant in that they challenge existing theory and empirical evidence which argues that if a game is easy to use then the consumer will have greater control over the process and outcome of consumption; thus fostering increased purchase and usage (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Gentry and Calantone, 2002; Vijayasarathy, 2004; Brown and Licker, 2003; Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Davis, 1989).

The lack of a strong relationship between perceived control and game usage and purchase could be attributed to the following factors. Firstly, while control may be a necessary condition, it may not be sufficient to lead to continued games usage. Other factors such as the quality of sound and graphics, the complexity of the game (e.g. how difficult it is to win each level, how many levels one has to win to win the game) and the ability to link with others may be better predictors of games usage and purchase. Secondly, the apparent lack of a relationship between perceived control and usage and purchase may also be due to the fact that games may be considered a mature product category, where software and hardware engineers have been able to determine the ‘ideal’ point for perceived control. Thus, games may simply be reasonably easy to control with the challenge of winning them simply being determined by playing better than an opponent or the computer – rather than struggling to control the game.

With the generic nature of game hardware and software controls, it is suggested that control is no longer important to a consumer’s optimal experience. This suggests that perceived control may be a negative factor in that to a degree it is desired by the consumer to engage in games that are perceived to be challenging and difficult. Control may not reflect the consumers need to control the game experience. Control may constrain them and how they want to shape the interaction. We argue that to optimize the game experience, to a degree, the consumer should have limited control over how the experience is created. Value is optimized in the consumption act when the consumer perceives that the game, other participants and environment determines the experience. This proposition is supported by some authors who argue that the amount of control that the consumer has over the game experience is a strong determinant of gaming pleasure (Newman 2002a). We take this to mean; high control decreases pleasure. We also note Koufaris (2002) who argues that when consumers perceive that they can control a game, they will also perceive that the game will be easier to use. Our proposition is that games that are too easy to use may create a less valuable consumption experience.

- 59 -

Furthermore, the level of active control that the consumer has on the creation of the experience is examined by Newman (2002a; 2002b; 2004) by the continuum of interactivity and engagement. A game that is ‘high’ in offline interactivity is posited to represent a low level of consumer control on the game experience (i.e. an interactive text where the experience has been pre-programmed) as opposed to a game ‘high’ in online interactivity where the consumer is free to create the experience as s/he wishes. Furthermore, Davidson (2003) and Brown & Cairns (2004) state that since a game is an interactive experience, it cannot be played without attaining a level of initial involvement or engagement. This refers to the consumer’s ability to interact with the game through the available consumer interface (i.e. controls). Access conflicts (i.e. complexity) in this respect are recognized as a barrier to developing game immersion and engrossment and prevents the consumer from attaining a state of presence since they will remain consciously aware of their physical environment through the difficulty of achieving subconscious control (Manninen 2003a, 2003b; Walther 2003; Choi et al. 2004; Leung 2004; Looy 2003; Lombard & Ditton 1997).

Our findings are supported by Frasca (1999) and others (Prensky 2001). Consumers play games to experience the pleasure of physical or mental activity which has no defined objective. Online and in the living room, play is often about the unplanned experience of the game with others. While games do have formal rules with a predefined end state of winning or losing, it is argued that gaming is focused on experiencing the progression of the space.

Time is irrelevant. Furthermore, we argue that if control was valued by the consumer then it could disrupt their experience of the interactive story (Woods, 2003) which is co-created and discovered (Eskelinen, 2001). With consumers increasingly playing games collectively, the experience of the co-created is even more important.

Limitations Future research may wish to ascertain the applicability of the results to other geographical areas. Also, it could be argued that grouping the games together in terms of genre types is a limitation of the data analysis. However, we believe that grouping the games is appropriate as they exhibit similar characteristics and thus represent similar acts of consumption and motivations to play. Our study also differentiated game types but did not examine the differences on online vs. offline gaming. Would we expect a difference in the results?

Further studies may uncover differences but we are yet to uncover any convincing evidence.

We note that the sample is biased towards males. We could have controlled for this during data collection, but this would have manipulated the randomly generated sample. It could be argued that having a male biased sample may be more representative of the market population for computer games. US market statistics from the Entertainment Software Association showed that in 2008 sixty percent of all game players are men. We acknowledge that a balance will evolve between the numbers of male and female gamers over time as more games are developed with a specific gender orientation. Future research should also take account of this change.

Future Research An important extension of this research is the replication of the study in different cultural contexts. There is a need to investigate whether users in New Zealand are different to those, for example, in Japan. Exploring cross-country differences and similarities is a significant - 60 -

way the international marketing community can gain in-depth knowledge into the global consumer consumption of computer games. Given that the act of playing a game is a learning experience that is often concerned with the mastery of a skill, Prensky’s (2001) research on consumer learning styles may be integrated to classify gamers using alternative criteria. The focus could be on defining the consumer’s personality and learning style to support the selfconcept as key antecedents of game selection and gaming behavior. Another extension to the research model would be to focus on the three dimensions of the game (game-play, gamestructure, and game-world). Such research would require these dimensions to be expanded further to identify the key elements that constitute each of these dimensions. For example, game-world could be expanded into elements such as the use of 3D graphics, based on reallife/fantasy, exploratory world/restrictive world and game-play could be expanded using elements of interactivity, competition, and teamwork. Given this conceptual model is new within this research context it may be argued that there is a lack of qualitative date to support its development and use. In this study, the lack of exploration has been supported through the use of literature and measures based on empirical evidence. Further exploration may also help us to uncover other relevant measures of consumption that were not deployed in this study.

This would consist of a phenomenological design utilizing grounded theory as the primary research methodology of both new and experienced players.

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About authors: Robert Davis (PhD., University of Auckland) is an Associate Professor at Unitec Institute of Technology. Dr Davis has published in scholarly journals such as Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Service Research, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Consumer and Retail Services and Entertainment Computing. Dr Davis is the only researcher to have two scholarly journal papers published separately on online retail service and product branding. Dr Davis is on the editorial board of Internet Research. His research interests are interactive marketing, branding, services and not for profit marketing. Dr Davis has worked for IBM and can be reached at rdavis@unitec.ac.nz.

Bodo Lang (PhD., Otago) is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand. Dr Lang's research interests are in the areas of word of mouth, consumer behavior, gaming, and services marketing. Dr Lang serves as an Associate Editor and is regular reviewer for a variety of journals. His research has been published in a range of international outlets, such as Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Managing Service Quality, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Entertainment Computing, and Advances in Consumer Research.

He can be reached at: b.lang@auckland.ac.nz

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70 Volume 1, no 1, 2012, ISSN: 1179-8785

THE INFLUENCES OF VALUE PERCEPTION ON PURCHASE INTENTION OF LUXURY PRODUCTS

Hao Zhang* and Xinbo Sun Northeastern University, China

* This Research is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project ID: N110406007)

Abstract Perception for luxury products is a good way to understand consumers’ attitude and predict consumers’ behavior. This paper is going to find out the sub-dimensions of luxury value perception, and how luxury value perception influence consumers’ purchase intention. The result shows that luxury value perception should include four sub-dimensions which are financial dimension, individual dimension, social dimension, and brand dimension. The result also finds that luxury value perception is significantly associated with consumer’s purchase intention, but the influence is moderated by the image of country-of-manufacture. At the end, the paper discusses the implications of the findings for research and practice.

Keywords: Luxury value perception, purchase intention, country of manufacture, Korean young consumers, luxury products.

Introduction In the past ten years, the global market for luxury goods and services has been booming (Berthon et al., 2009). Because of the availability of luxury goods to a wider range of consumer than ever before, the luxury market has transformed from its traditional model based on Western consumers to a new model based on global consumers. Especially Asian consumers with high experiential sensibilities have become the main consumption group.

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71 Thus, in global context, it is critically important for luxury researchers and marketers to understand how Asian consumers’ value perception of luxury products impact on their buying behavior (Wiedmann et al., 2007).

However, facing the rapidly changing global business and different cultures, it is expected that different consumers would have different perceptions of the level of luxury for the same brands. For example, a Louis Vitton handbag may be perceived as luxury handbag, but compared to a millionaire, a white collar would consider it more luxurious. But the overall luxury value perception of should combine different evaluations which are perceived equally across income levels or national borders (Wiedmann et al., 2007). Thus, prior researches suggest (e.g. Vigneron and Johnson, 2004; Wiedmann et al., 2007) that luxury value perception should combine sub-dimensions. Thus, the first goal of this paper is going to find out the sub-dimensions of luxury value perception, and how luxury value perception influence consumers’ purchase intention on luxury products.

Since the global sourcing became popular in luxury brands for lower cost, “made in” has become a problem to luxury brands (Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2008). Kapferer and Bastien (2009) believe that production of luxury products must not be outsourced, because outsourcing means losing control and familiarity with the production process. But the “lower cost” is too attractive to refuse for some luxury companies. Thus, it has become a big dilemma for most of the luxury companies. But there are almost no research mentioned about how the label of “made in” jeopardizes the consumer’s value perception of luxury products.

In this case, a more specific research topic is therefore focusing on the effects of “made in” information on consumers’ perception of luxury products.

The present study focuses on young consumers in South Korea, because on one side, one of the big trends in luxury is that young consumers will become the main power of luxury consumption (Chadha and Husband, 2006). On the other side, since that South Korea opened its markets to the globe, not only lifestyle but also purchase behavior was changed dramatically. One of the most important phenomena is the dramatic increase in purchasing power for imported products, especially in luxury market.

Literature Review Luxury Value Perception and Its Construct A customer’s luxury value perception and motives for luxury brand consumption are not simply tied to a set of social factors that include displaying status, success, distinction, and human desire to impress other people (Wiedmann et al., 2009), neither a set of personal factors that include self-conspicuousness, hedonism, perfectionism, and materialism. Thus, an integrated value perception from different perspectives should be given by luxury brands (Wiedmann et al., 2007; Wiedmann et al., 2009).

Based on prior researches, Vigneron and Johnson (2004) reviewed the latent structure of the luxury concept and developed a framework for luxury value perception. They mentioned that luxury-seeking consumer’s perception on luxury products can be divided into two types including personal perceptions (perceived extended self, perceived hedonism) and more usual non-personal perceptions (perceived conspicuousness, perceived uniqueness, perceived 71

72 quality). However, the boundary between personal perception and non-personal perception is not clear on some dimensions. For example, sometime conspicuousness can also be personal.

Thus, Wiedmann, Hennigs and Siebels (2007) extended Vigneron and Johnson’s (2004) framework in order to enhance the understanding of consumer motives and value perception in relation to luxury consumption, which includes four luxury sub-dimensions, such as financial dimension, functional dimension, individual dimension and social dimension.

Following this method, Wiedmann, Hennigs and Siebels (2009) believe that these four subdimensions are the determinants of luxury value perception, and segmented consumers into four groups which are materialists, rational functionalists, extravagant prestige-seekers, introvert hedonists.

However, brand related value is also an important factor which is ignored by prior studies on luxury value perception. For luxury products, the most important factor is brand (Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2008). It is because the relationship between consumers and brands is the key for understanding luxury market (Dubois and Duquesne, 1993). Because of the development of internet, consumers can get any kind of information about luxury products.

Thus, young consumers are full of knowledge of luxury brands, and will consider whether the brand personality or brand image can satisfy them or not. Therefore, we extended Wiedmann, Hennigs and Siebels’ (2007) framework with five value factors in order to understand the consumers’ perception about luxury brands. These five factors are financial value, functional value, individual value, social value, and brand value.

Hypotheses Development Financial Value The financial factor addresses direct monetary aspects such as price, resale price, discount, investment (Wiedmann et al., 2007). For mass products, financial value is the most important cue that consumers use in their decision making (Chang and Wildt, 1996). Lichtenstein et al.

(1994) mentioned that high price can either stimulate purchase or cause the consumer to postpone or give up purchase according to consumer perception. Referring to luxury goods, financial value of a product may have a positive role in making the purchase decision (Erickson and Johansson, 1995; Lichtenstein et al., 1988). Ko et al. (2008) also proposed that perceived financial value as an indicator of outstanding quality or exclusivity of a luxury product or service is positively related to consumer’s perception.

H1: Financial value positively influences consumer’s luxury value perception.

Functional Value The functional value refers to the core benefit and basic utilities of luxury products, such as quality, uniqueness, and usability (Sheth et al., 1991; Wiedmann et al., 2007). The reason consumers buy luxury brands is because of the superior functional value reflected in the brand name (Gentry et al, 2001). Normally, consumers believe that luxury can offer superior functional value and performance compared with non-luxury brands (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). And the high functional value can enhance consumers’ desire and preference for luxury brands (Wiedmann et al., 2009).

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73 H2: Functional value positively influences consumer’s luxury value perception.

Individual Value Wiedmann et al. (2007) also defined individual dimension which focuses a customer’s personal orientation on luxury consumption and address personal matters such as materialism, hedonistic and self-identity value. Researchers have found that high individual oriented consumers rely heavily on external cues, favoring those possessions that are worn or consumed in public places (Richins and Dawson, 1992; O’Cass and Muller, 1999). And, luxury brands can just satisfy this need. Luxury consumers can be considered hedonic and materialistic consumers when they are looking for personal rewards and fulfillment acquired through the purchase and consumption of products evaluated for their subjective emotional benefits and intrinsically pleasing properties (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004).

H3: Individual value positively influences consumer’s luxury value perception.

Social Value The social value refers to the perceived utility individuals acquire by consuming products or services recognized within their own social group(s) such as conspicuousness and prestige value, which may significantly affect the evaluation and the propensity to purchase or consume luxury brands (Vigneron and Johnson 1999, 2004; Bearden, and Etzel 1982; Brinberg and Plimpton 1986; Kim 1998). A person may use a luxury product to confirm with his/her professional position. People’s desire to possess luxury brands will serve as a symbolic sign of group membership.

H4: Social value positively influences consumer’s luxury value perception.

Brand Value The concept of brand value implies that what makes a brand distinguish itself from others for consumers (King, 1973). It is the consumers’ perception of the overall superiority of a product carrying that brand name when compared to other brands. Some researchers (e.g.

Aaker, 1991, Kamakura and Russell, 1993) consider brand value as same as brand equity.

Normally, high brand equity levels are known to lead to higher consumer preferences (CobbWalgren et al., 1995).

H5: Brand value positively influences consumers consumer’s luxury value perception.

Luxury Brand Perception As we discussed above, all the five dimensions constructed luxury brand perception. There are also a lot of researches have tested the influence of brand perception on purchase intention (e.g. Morris et al., 2002; Knight and Kim, 2006). Therefore, we can predict that luxury brand perception can significantly influence consumers’ purchase intention for luxury brands.

H6: luxury brand perception can significantly influence consumer purchase intention.

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74 The Moderating Effect of the Image of Country-of-Manufacture Most of the luxury brands are in Western countries, such as France and Italy, etc. China, India and East Europe are the main global souring target for them. Luxury companies believe that the developing country images are lower than the image of original country of brand, thus will jeopardize the consumers’ perception. In academic world, “country of manufacture” could have a tremendous influence on the acceptance and success of products. Instead of presenting country of manufacture as the only available product cue, a number of recent studies have attempted to compare the relative salience of country of manufacture and brand effects on product evaluation, such as Nebenzahl and Jaffe’s (1993) research.

H7: The effects of luxury value perception on purchase intention will be stronger when the luxury brand mentions its products are made in a high image country.

Research Methodology Research Model Based on the literature review and hypotheses design, a research model was conducted as the following figure 1 shows:

Financial dimension

Country of Manufacture

Functional dimension Individual dimension

Luxury Brand Perception

Purchase Behavior

Social dimension

Brand dimension

<Figure 1> Research Model

Measurements In order to evaluate the research issues, a descriptive quantitative research design was deemed appropriate. The research instrument was developed using a procedure for developing a questionnaire based on the framework recommended by Churchill (1991). We measured all the constructs on seven-point Likert scales.

Financial dimension is only measured by three items which are price, resale price, discount rate (Wiedmann et al., 2007). We measure functional dimension by using five items which 74

75 are superior quality, durable, rare, exclusive, uniqueness (Wiedmann et al., 2007; Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). Individual dimensions are about self-identity, hedonism and materialism.

Thus, individual dimension includes six items which are pleasing, successful, rewarding attractive, stunning, happy, and wealthy (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004; Babin et al., 1994).

Social dimensions are measured by conspicuous and prestige (Wiedmann et al., 2007). For measuring brand dimensions, easy to remember, easy to recognize, fit personality, proud to own (Lasser et al., 1995). Purchase intention is measured by the willingness to buy and the recommendation of the product (Ko, et al., 2008). The items of country image is selected from Orbaiz and Papahopoulas (2003) research, which focused on the position and economy of the country.

Sampling and Data Collection This research focuses on Korean teenagers who have become consumer trendsetters as their spending power increases and their western cultural reference points broaden dramatically (Louis, 2002). Consumers in their twenties are rapidly replacing middle-aged consumers as the main consumers of global luxury brands in Korea (Park, et al., 2007). A random sample of 92 Korean university students was surveyed. Through the table, we can see that most of the respondents are 20 to 30 years old which takes 90.6 percent. The research was surveyed in Yonsei University, thus, around 60 percent of respondents are female. Their monthly consumption almost distributes through 30,000 to 1 million Korean won which takes near 75 percent. But there are also 18 percent of respondents consume more than 1 million Korean won monthly.

Results Validity and Reliability Test Confirmatory factor analyses was used to test the convergent validity for the whole set of constructs. After we dropped some items that possessed either low factor loadings or crossloadings, the confirmatory model fit the data satisfactory. The model provides a satisfactory fit to the data, which resulted in χ2 = 433.85, which is statistically significant (p < .001). The fit indices are as follows: comparative fit index (CFI) = .91; Goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = .92; and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = .06, indicating the unidimensionality of the measures (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988; Hair et al., 1998).

Furthermore, all factor loadings were highly significant (p < .01). Thus the measures of the data demonstrate adequate convergent validity.

Cronbach’s α was used for testing the reliability of measures. Based on the benchmark built

by Bagozzi and Yi (1988), cronbach’s α over .60 indicates high construct reliability. In the present research, all the values of cronbach’s α are over .70, which demonstrate adequate construct reliability for the testing data.

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76 Hypotheses Test Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling has been widely applied to estimate structural equation models for small samples where the variables do not follow a multivariate-normal distribution. Thus, we used PLS to estimate the structural model without the moderating factor. All path coefficients and the results of hypotheses testing are summarized in Table 1.

Consistent with our prediction, financial dimensions, individual dimensions, social dimensions, and brand dimensions exhibit significant impact on consumers’ perception of luxury products. However, functional dimensions show nothing to do with consumers’ perception. Therefore, H1, H3, H 4, H5 are all supported. In addition, consumers’ perception of luxury products is positively associated with customers’ purchase intention, thus providing support for H6.

A pure moderator effect implies that the moderator variable (image of country of manufacture) modifies the form of the relationship between the predictor variable (luxury brand perception) and the criterion variable (purchase intention). Based on Slater and Narver’s (1994) research, to test for pure moderators, we utilize moderated regression analysis and create one multiplicative interaction terms by multiplying the value of country of manufacture by the value of luxury brand perception. The changes in R2 and the F-statistic are used as an indication of the moderator role of country of manufacture. The result shows that the image of ountry of manufacture can play pure moderator effect because the change of R2 is significant (ΔR2 = .013, p<.05). And the moderator effect is positive (b = .13, p<.05), which means when the image about country of manufacture is increasing, then the influence of luxury brand perception on purchase intention is more increasing.

Table 1 Standard Coefficients and T-value for Each Path Path

Hypotheses

Coefficient

t-value

Result

H1

Financial Dimension → Luxury Value Perception

.085

2.102*

Support

H2

Functional Dimension → Luxury Value Perception

.058

.818

Not Support

H3

Individual Dimension → Luxury Value Perception

.087

2.247*

Support

H4

Social Dimension → Luxury Value Perception

.091

2.645**

Support

H5

Brand Dimension → Luxury Value Perception

.090

2.682**

Support

H6

Luxury Value Perception → Purchase Intention

.280

2.094*

Support

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001

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77 Conclusions Discussions and Implications Wiedmann et al. (2007) and Vigneron and Johnson’s (2004) frameworks have been extended and tested based on our research. Although brand dimensions cannot be ignored, functional dimension seems not important when Korean consumers perceive luxury brands. This research revealed the perception of luxury products is a multi-dimensional concept which includes financial dimension, individual dimension, social dimension, and brand dimension.

Financial dimension is always be concerned by luxury consumers. Sometime prestige pricing can make luxury products or services more desirable (Groth and McDaniel, 1993). The reason individual dimension is significantly associated with luxury value perception is that consumers with hedonic attitude may use luxury products to support or develop their own identity. Besides individual dimension, social dimension is also important when consumer perceive luxury products. For most Korean consumers, luxury goods consumed in public is more likely to be conspicuous goods than privately consumed goods. Their desire to possess luxury brands will serve as a symbolic sign of group membership (Wiedmann et al., 2007).

Korean consumers are familiar with most of the luxury brands. They understand not only the style, but also the history or legend. The result also proved that luxury brand perception can significantly influence consumers’ purchase intention. But this relationship can be moderated by the image of country of manufacture. Thus, outsourcing is an important issue for luxury companies, because Korean young consumer may believe made in another country, especially a developing country, may ruin the core spirit of the luxury brand and make the brand lost its pure blood.

The research establishes a structural analysis of luxury products and proposes a managerial instrument capable of creating and evaluating luxury brands. These findings help explain the key luxury dimensions that managers must establish or monitor for creating a lasting luxury brand. And also help managers realize which is the key dimensions should be invested more.

Communicating with customers in different ways can be helpful to make the customers understand more about the brand. At the end, if global sourcing is a trend that cannot be avoided, then there are two ways to avoid its influences. Companies can produce components abroad in developing country, and then make the components together in the native country with a label “made in” native country.

Limitations This paper also has a lot of limitations. First, the sample respondents are not enough. This is the main reason that causes the low fit indices of the model. Second, the results reflected college students’ attitude about luxury products, thus, limiting its generalization and application. Future study should be conducted across different consumers. Third, this research only focused on Korean young consumers, cross culture research should be the future research.

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About the authors Hao Zhang (Ph.D., Yonsei University) is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in Northeastern University, China. He has published his research in scholarly journals such as Advances in International Marketing, Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science. His current research is focused on luxury brand management and innovation management. He can be reached at hzhang@mail.neu.edu.cn.

Xinbo Sun (Ph.D., Northeastern University) is an Associated Professor of Management Science in Northeastern University, China. He has published his research in scholarly journals such as International Journal of Business and Management, International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security. His current research is focused on leadership and management science. He can be reached at xbsun@mail.neu.edu.cn.

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81 Volume 1, no. 1, 2012, ISSN: 1179-8785 AWARENESS OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISING IN HONG KONG Kara Chan and Benjamin Cheng Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University

Abstract An intercept survey using quota sampling design investigated awareness of eight outdoor advertisements among 332 Hong Kong pedestrians aged 15 and above. Awareness of outdoor posters ranged from 19 percent to 50 percent, with an average of 35 percent. Advertising awareness did not differ by sex, age, or educational level. The message response involvement theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. Results supported the theory as higher motivation, opportunity, and ability were linked to higher advertising awareness. Tourists had lower advertising awareness than Hong Kong residents, probably due to language difficulties and unfamiliarity with local celebrities. Respondents generally held positive perceptions of outdoor advertising. They reported that they would pay attention to outdoor ads that were creative, vivid in color, or larger-than-life. Advertising awareness and perceptions of outdoor ads was positively correlated with frequency of visits to the district. Recommendations for outdoor advertising in urban pedestrian settings are made. This is the first reported study on outdoor advertising awareness among pedestrians in Hong Kong.

Keywords: media planning; surveys; billboards; advertising effectiveness

Introduction Out-of-home (OOH) media are often used to build product or package recognition, and are characterized as effective media to build large local coverage and high exposure frequency in dense and mobile population. OOH media are regarded as excellent vehicles to reach a mobile consumer who spend more time travelling than staying at home (Francese 2003), and are commonly used in locations where citizens and tourists cluster (Wilson 2008). These media remain innovative through technological breakthrough, and new outdoor advertisements in 3D, with extensions, digital messages or even interactive formats have been introduced (Belch 2007). Despite the limitations of having comparatively lower attention and difficulties in communicating long or complex messages (Sissors 1995), OOH media use are increasingly popular. The wide adoption of these media has been reflected by the increasing share of advertisersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; budget allocated to outdoor media in the US (Wilson & Till 2008) and in metropolitan cities such as Hong Kong (admanGo 2010).

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82 OOH media are popular with Hong Kong advertisers, especially in the major shopping areas such as Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay. A survey of advertisers reported that OOH advertising was considered important as a supporting channel in an integrated campaign, but it could at times be a core advertising channel. Advertisers showed an appreciation of the many innovative OOH advertising formats made available by new technology (JCDecaux Pearl & Dean Limited 2006). The OOH media are also considered an effective channel for reaching tourists visiting Hong Kong, as 77 percent of mainland Chinese tourists are estimated to travel on the subway system (JCDecaux Pearl & Dean Limited 2006).

Total advertising expenditure in out-of-home (OOH) media in Hong Kong in 2009 was 876 million US dollars (admanGo 2010). OOH media accounted for 10.1 percent of total advertising expenditure, specifically 2.3 percent was spent on subway advertising, 0.4 percent on bus body display ads, and 7.4 percent on all other OOH media including outdoor video walls, conventional billboards, airport, bus shelter, and tram body, and videos in buses and trains (admanGo 2010).

Since outdoor advertising accounts for such a sizable share of advertising expenditure in Hong Kong, there was a need for an empirical study examining the awareness of advertisements in the medium. This research was modeled on similar studies of cinema advertising (Prendergast 2005a) and handbill advertising (Prendergast 2005b) in Hong Kong.

It examined awareness of outdoor advertisements and perceptions of outdoor advertising. The insights from this study were intended to benefit advertisers as well as media vendors in creating impactful messages for the audience.

Literature review Billboard ad recall Previous studies have attempted to investigate the effectiveness of outdoor advertising in terms of how well it creates brand awareness or advertising message recall (e.g. Bhargava 1994; Donthu 1993; King 1990; Meurs 2009; Osborne 2008). Donthu and colleagues (1993) selected 10 outdoor billboards, eight of which were along a highway while the remaining two were on smaller streets. Drivers who passed them regularly were sampled. In this American setting where driving is on the right, aided and unaided recall was found to be higher for billboards on the right hand side of the highway, with fewer words, and in black and white rather than color. Billboards on the left hand side of the highway, with more words, in full color, and billboards on smaller streets were less well recalled (Donthu 1993).

Osborne and Coleman (2008) compared the effectiveness of traditional billboards, a tri-vision board and a smartboard among highway drivers. It was found that the tri-vision board was recalled the best, with 66 percent of respondents reporting that they remembered it. The effectiveness of the traditional standard billboards was the second best, with 15 percent to 64 percent of the respondents remembering the various ads. Respondents with higher incomes recalled fewer ads than respondents with lower incomes, and males were found to have better aided recall than female respondents (Osborne 2008).

Despite a considerable increase in the spending on outdoor advertising, only a handful of studies on the topic can be found (Meurs 2009). Indeed, outdoor advertising is said to be â&#x20AC;&#x153;one 82

83 of the least researched of any mass mediumâ&#x20AC;? (Katz 2003, p.92). Osborne and Coleman (2008) attributed the lack of research on outdoor to the domination of television. It is also difficult to create an outdoor advertising viewing experience in a lab setting (Donthu 1993). Currently, outdoor media vendors in Hong Kong use estimated pedestrian and vehicles flow in a location as benchmarks to indicate potential media coverage of posters at street levels (POAD 2008). Media vendor for the subway network appointed market research companies to conduct reach and frequency studies among subway passengers on a regular basis (JCDecaux Transport 2011).

The Outdoor Environment in Hong Kong Most of the studies mentioned in the above section measured recall of billboards among highway drivers. Competition for the advertising messages of highway billboards and other distractions are relatively low. In metropolitan settings like Hong Kong, outdoor billboards are clustered and compete fiercely for attention. Distraction comes from traffic lights, promotion booths, window displays, handbill distributors and signage. A pedestrianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention can be primarily to other pedestrians who may be pushing through or blocking the way. This suggests that the effectiveness of billboard advertising in an urban pedestrian setting will be different from that of billboard ads along a highway. The authors are not aware of studies which have measured the effectiveness of outdoor advertisements in an urban setting among pedestrians.

Besides outdoor billboards, the subway is a popular OOH advertising venue because of its high potential reach of 3.4 million unique passengers per week (compared with 7 million Hong Kong population) (JCDecaux Pearl & Dean Limited 2011). Two published studies have tested awareness of subway advertisements in Hong Kong. Chan (1994) surveyed residents of a public housing estate near a subway station asking about 27 advertisements displayed in the subway network. Ad awareness ranged from 8 percent to 73 percent with an average awareness of 41 percent. A year later, Chan (1995) tested recall of 42 advertisements which had been displayed throughout the subway network for one to five weeks using an intercept sample of passengers. Ad awareness ranged from 13 percent to 68 percent with an average of 35 percent awareness. Both studies concluded that an adâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative execution rather than size or the duration of display influenced ad awareness.

Attitude toward outdoor advertising Apart from assessing the effectiveness of outdoor advertising, researchers have also sought to discover a link between audience attitudes towards advertising and advertising awareness (e.g.

Donthu 1993; King 1990; Osborne 2008). Respondents with a positive attitude towards advertising are able to recall more outdoor advertisements (Donthu 1993; Osborne 2008), but studies in this area do not usually measure specific attitudes towards outdoor advertisements (Speck 1997). Research has indicated that consumers have different attitudes towards different advertising media (Speck 1997). For example, in examining ad-avoidance in magazines, in newspapers, on the radio and on television, attitude towards advertising was found to be a predictor of ad-avoidance in all four media. There was a clear difference between print and broadcast media. Respondents expressed more pragmatic attitudes towards print ads and more emotional attitudes with respect to broadcast ads. The researchers argued that such differences reflected differences in the media themselves as well as audience 83

84 expectations (Speck 1997). Since billboard advertising remains under-researched, studies of attitudes and perceptions about this medium are needed.

Demographics and Outdoor Advertising To facilitate advertisers to make informed media choices, it is important to know which segment of audience is more likely to pay attention to a particular medium. Past studies seldom dig into advertising effect among different audience sub-groups. On the contrary, there were studies relating demographic variables with perceptions of a particular advertising and promotion medium. Prendergast and Yuen (2005) found that younger respondents perceived handbills as more informative and entertaining than older respondents. Those received more education were more likely to report that handbills are easy to understand.

Other studies also established the link between demographic variables and perception of advertising (e.g., Dutta-Bergan 2006). This study aims at discovering the relationship between demographic variables and perceptions of outdoor advertising, as well as the relationship between these variables and outdoor advertising awareness.

For this study, we are particularly interested in investigating the response of tourists to outdoor ads. It is because, first, tourists spend more time staying at outdoor environment.

Second, they have high intention to spend and that makes them an important target group.

Third, outdoor advertising was found effective to stimulate immediate sales (Bhargava 1999), and such effect is more apparent on these ready-to-spend tourists. Indeed, travel-and-tourism related businesses are more likely to see outdoor advertising as effective strategy to attract customers and increase sales (Taylor 2003). Tourists are definitely important target of advertisers using outdoor media and this group of audience deserves more research attention.

Theoretical framework We adopt the message response involvement theory as our theoretical framework (MacInnis 1989; MacInnise 1991). This theory suggests that motivation, opportunity and ability (MOA) are three determinants of brand information processing from ads. Motivation refers to the desire or readiness to process brand information in an ad. It can be affected by manipulating message characteristics such as message relevance, complexity or picture size (e.g., Schleuder 1990). Opportunity and ability are two moderators in the relationship between ad exposure and brand information processing from ads. Opportunity refers to the situational factors that either facilitate or hinder a person to process information. These factors include the degree of situational distraction away from an ad and the length of ad exposure time (e.g., Moore 1986). Ability refers to consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skills or proficiencies in interpreting brand information in an ad. Product knowledge, intelligence/education and message difficulty are factors related to ability (see Lang 1990 for a review).

The theory purports that the amount of attention to an ad and cognitive capacity allocated to processing its information depends on the varying amount of MOA, and thus lead to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s likelihood of ad recognition and recall. Though MOA are present prior to ad exposure, they can be enhanced through manipulating ad design strategies. Using ad executional cues is one such strategy (MacInnis 1991). In a situation when MOA are higher, one would pay more attention to an ad and allocate a greater amount of working memory to process the 84

85 information from the ad. With increased attention and deeper engagement in information processing, higher ad recognition and recall are expected.

Wilson and Till (2008) applied the message response involvement theory to study the effectiveness of airport advertising. It was found that ads placed at the gate where flight passengers got distracted with check-in documents were recognized the least. Ads that appeared twice in the concourse were recognized significantly better. The results supported the influence of opportunity to ad information processing. Ads with fewer words were found to have higher recall as it requires lower ability of consumers to process the information.

As previously discussed, the outdoor environment in Hong Kong is crowded with advertising messages. Audience got distracted easily by other street activities as well. Opportunity is low in this non-captive advertising environment. It is of great value to investigate how audience with varying motivation and ability respond to outdoor ads.

Research objectives This study was designed to gather information about the awareness of outdoor advertising to help advertisers make more informed decisions in their media planning. It aimed to measure 1. awareness of outdoor advertisements; 2. audience perceptions of outdoor advertising; and 3. the impact of demographic variables and frequency of visit to the district on ad awareness and ad perceptions.

Methodology Research context Pedestrians at one of the most popular OOH sites were interviewed to investigate their awareness of outdoor advertisements and perceptions of outdoor advertising. POAD, a leading vender of outdoor advertising in Hong Kong, assisted the study by providing reproductions and the display schedules of advertisements. Eight advertisements which had been displayed for at least two weeks before the survey period were selected. None of them had been supported by television advertising during the month before the survey.

Sampling of respondents The Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) district of Hong Kongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kowloon region was selected for sampling.

The TST district is one of the busiest tourism spots in Hong Kong. The district is a node of transportation with museums, tourist attractions and shopping malls. The choice of the location facilitates us to sample a variety of demographic groups. In this study, quota sampling was performed, with equal numbers of males and females, and with equal numbers of respondents from the age groups 15-24, 25-34, 35-44, and 45 or above. A group of students from a university in Hong Kong was recruited as interviewers. They were assigned to intercept pedestrians and interview them at six pre-determined locations in TST. All the interviews were conducted on the same weekday morning in October from 10:15 to 11:15am.

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86 The interviews were conducted in Cantonese, or in English or Mandarin for those who did not speak Cantonese.

Questionnaire The questionnaire consisted of three parts. Part one solicited data about advertising awareness.

4A size black and white versions of each of the eight posters were shown to the respondents one by one and they were asked if they had seen the advertisements in TST. The use of black and white ads was due to budget constraint. The eight ads were presented in the same sequence with no randomization of the presentation order (see Table 2 for the characteristics of the posters).

The second part of the survey involved eight statements relating to the respondent’s general opinion and perception of outdoor advertising, such as “outdoor ads give me a lot of information about what is in fashion” and statements related to situational stimuli such as “I tend to pay more attention to outdoor ads when I am in a spacious environment.” The statements were modeled after those of a previous study of cinema advertising in Hong Kong (Prendergast 2005a). The respondents were asked to rate their perceptions on a six-point scale, by giving the number with 6 indicating “strongly agree” and 1 indicating “strongly disagree”.

Part three of the questionnaire asked for demographic information about the respondents, including sex, age group, educational level, occupation, the number of times they had visited TST in the previous week, whether they were tourists, and if so their country of origin. The questionnaire was first developed in Chinese and then translated into English. As the questions were simple and straightforward, back-translation into Chinese was not conducted, but two bilingual investigators checked to ensure that the translation was accurate.

Findings Respondent profile Altogether 332 respondents completed the questionnaires, and all 332 questionnaires were considered valid. Table 1 shows the demographic data and the frequency of visits to TST in the previous week. Because of the set quota, there were equal numbers of male and female respondents and an almost even sample distribution among the four age groups. Over half of the sample claimed to have completed secondary education, while over one third claimed a tertiary qualification. A high percentage of the intercepts at that time of the week described themselves as students, office workers, or professionals. Nearly half of the sample said they earned less than HK$14,999 (about 2,000 US dollars) a month. A majority of the respondents were Hong Kong residents, but about 20 percent were tourists. Half of the tourists came from the mainland China or Taiwan. More than 40 percent of the respondents reported having visited TST one to two times in the previous week, but nearly 30 percent reported three to five visits.

Advertising awareness Table 2 summarizes the awareness as well as the characteristics of the advertisements. It ranged from 18.7 percent for a JeanRichard watch ad to 49.7 percent for a Bally leather goods 86

87 ad. The average advertising awareness was 35 percent for the eight selected posters. Figure 1 shows the two advertisements with the highest awareness.

Table 1 Demographic profile and frequency of visits to TST (N=332) Number Sex

Male Female Age 16-24 25-34 35-44 45 or above Education level Primary Secondary Tertiary Occupation Office worker Professional Factory worker Student Others Personal monthly income No income Below HK$14,999 HK$15,000-29,999 Above HK$30,000 Residents or tourists HK residents Tourists (from mainland China) (from Taiwan) (from other places) Visit TST in the previous week 1-2 times 3-5 times 6-10 times 11 times or more

166 166 82 84 87 79 16 190 126 61 55 35 63 118 59 152 81 35 260 72 (32) (5) (35) 137 96 53 46

Frequency 50.0 50.0 24.7 25.3 26.2 23.8 4.8 57.2 38.0 18.4 16.6 10.5 19.0 35.5 18.0 46.5 24.8 10.7 78.3 21.7 (9.6) (1.5) (10.6) 41.3 28.9 16.0 13.9

Advertising awareness did not depend on the duration of display. For the four ads which had been displayed for four months, advertising awareness ranged from 18.7 percent to 49.7 percent. The advertisement with the second highest awareness had been displayed for only two weeks. Poster awareness also did not depend on the size of the advertisements. The ad 87

88 with the largest size scored third in awareness. The ad with the highest ad awareness ranked number three in terms of size.

Overall awareness was measured by counting total number of ads respondents reported having seen. It ranged from zero to eight. Twelve percent of the respondents could not recall having seen any of the eight selected ads. One respondent reported having seen all of them.

Table 2 Advertising awareness and characteristics of the posters Ad

Color

awareness

used

Language

Use of

Poster

Size of

Duration

celebrities

orientation

ad

of

(sq.m.)

display

%

(weeks) Bally leather goods

49.7

Svenson hair care center

45.2

Omega watch

40.4

Tommy Hilfiger clothing

38.0

Full

English

No

Portrait

151.9

4

Full

Chinese and

Yes

Portrait

65.8

2.5

English (HongKong)

Johnnie Walker Anzenchitai concert

31.3

Mengniu milk

30.1

Full

English

No Landscape

381.2

4

Full

English

No Landscape

51.3

4

Full

Chinese and

Yes Landscape

199.5

12

47.3

26

English Full

Chinese and

(Asian) No Landscape

English a. testoni leather goods

26.5

JeanRichard watch

18.7

Full

English

No

Portrait

120.0

5

Full

Chinese and

No

Portrait

89.6

4

English

Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the advertising awareness of males and females. Only one of the eight ads recorded a significant gender difference. Male respondents were more likely to report that they had seen the Johnnie Walker poster advertisement. F-tests were conducted to compare the advertising awareness by educational level, and no significant differences were found. Again, F-tests comparing the awareness by age group found no significant differences except that respondents aged 16-24 were more 88

89 likely to report having seen the advertisement for the Svenson hair care centers. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the advertising awareness of Hong Kong residents and tourists. These results are summarized in Table 3. Three of the eight advertisements showed significantly different awareness among Hong Kong residents and tourists. Hong Kong residents were more likely to report that they had seen the Svenson hair care ad, the Mengniu milk ad, and the Johnnie Walker Anzenchitai concert ad. These were the three posters which used the most distinctly Chinese visuals, and two of them depicted Asian celebrities. In general, though, the total number of advertisements recalled did not depend on sex, education, age, or residential status.

Figure 1 The ads with the highest awareness

Perception of outdoor advertisements 89

90 Respondents were asked about their perceptions of outdoor advertisements and situational stimuli that attract their attention. Table 4 summarizes the results. Among the eight statements, the level of agreement on three of them averaged over 4.0. These were “I tend to pay more attention to outdoor ads when the outdoor ads are creative”, “I tend to pay more attention when the outdoor ads have vivid colors”, and “The larger-than-life outdoor ads attract my attention”. The level of agreement on four of the other statements averaged between 3.5 (the mid-point) and 4.0. Only one statement had an average level of agreement below 3.5. It was “I tend to pay more attention when I am in an outdoor environment where pedestrian flow is high”. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the eight statement was 0.80, indicating that they were measuring a similar construct. In light of the high alpha, a mean score was compiled for all eight statements to represent the overall perception of outdoor advertising.

Table 3 Advertising awareness among residents and tourists Advertising awareness (%) Brand

Residents

Tourists

t-value

Bally leather goods

48

56

-1.1

Svenson hair care center

53

17

6.7***

Omega watch

39

46

-1.1

Tommy Hilfiger clothing

37

42

-0.7

Johnnie Walker Anzenchitai concert Mengnu milk

34

22

2.0*

33

21

2.1*

a. testoni leather goods

26

28

-0.3

JeanRichard watch

19

17

0.5

*indicates significance at the p≤0.05 (***p≤0.001) confidence level in a two-tailed test Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the perceptions and situational stimuli favoring audience attention between males and females. None of the eight statements recorded a significant gender difference. F-tests were conducted to compare perceptions of outdoor advertising among respondents of different educational levels. There was no significant difference except for the statement “I tend to pay more attention to outdoor ads when the outdoor ads have vivid colors”. Respondents with a secondary or tertiary education were more likely to agree with this statement than respondents with only a primary education.

The mean scores for respondents with primary, secondary, and tertiary education were 3.7, 4.5, and 4.6 respectively (F=4.2, p≤0.05). F-tests were also conducted to compare the mean scores of by age group, but there was no significant difference in the mean scores among the different age groups. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare poster awareness between Hong Kong residents and tourists, and there was a significant difference in that tourists were more likely to report that they agreed with the statement “Outdoor ads help alleviate boredom when waiting on the street.”

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Table 4 Perception of outdoor advertisements Statement

mean

Std. deviation

4.3

1.3

3.8

1.3

3.8

1.2

3.7

1.3

when the outdoor ads are creative

4.6

1.2

when the outdoor ads have vivid colors

4.5

1.1

when I am in a spacious environment

3.8

1.2

when I am in an outdoor environment where pedestrian flow is high

3.1

1.2

The larger-than-life outdoor ads attract my attention Outdoor ads give me information about things in fashion I like to pay attention to outdoor ads Outdoor ads help alleviate boredom when waiting on the street I tend to pay more attention to outdoor ads in the following situations

Note: 6-point scale with 1=strongly disagree 6=strongly agree

Frequency of visiting TST and advertising effectiveness Frequency of visiting TST might be expected to have an impact on awareness of the advertising displayed there. It was found that frequency of visiting TST in the previous week was positively correlated with the total number of ads seen (r = .29, p = .00). However, frequency of visiting TST showed no correlation with perceptions of outdoor advertising (r = .03, p = .63), though perceptions of outdoor advertising had a positive correlation with the total number of ads reported seen (r = .15, p = .01). Those who had a positive perception of outdoor advertising were more likely to recall having seen more outdoor ads. It is noteworthy, however, that the coefficients of these significant correlations were rather low. Future research should further explore the relationships between the three variables.

Discussion Before discussing the implications of these findings, some limitations need to be mentioned.

First, the sample used in this study was not a probability sample. The findings therefore cannot be generalized to the entire Hong Kong population. Second, this study gives a snapshot of a particular demographic profile. It would be useful for future researchers to study advertising awareness at different times in different locations. Third, respondentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; reported frequency of seeing specific ads arises from a combination of exposure, attention, memory retrieval, and reporting. It is impossible to untangle them in the current research 91

92 design. Also, the visuals used in the survey reproduced the artwork of the outdoor advertisements without the surrounding environment. Advertising awareness measured in such as a way may have errors.

Moreover, to keep the questionnaire concise, no filler ads were used to test false recognition of the respondents in this study. Future study can include ads that are not exposed to people for controlling purpose. Order of the ads stimuli can be randomized to remove the potential order effect.

Limitations aside, this study found that outdoor poster advertising can reach mass consumer groups. Advertising awareness ranged from 19 percent to 50 percent for the eight selected advertisements. The average advertising awareness was 35.0 percent.

The 35 percent average awareness measured in this study matches the average aided recall of 36 percent of billboard advertisements on the highway. It was higher than motoristsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; average aided recall of 23 percent for billboard advertisements on ordinary streets (Donthu 1993). In Donthuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study, the respondents commuted on the highways at least five times a week. In this study, respondents reported that they had visited the district mostly once or twice in the previous week. In other words, the outdoor advertisements in Hong Kong created high awareness even among infrequent visitors.

The 35 percent average awareness is also comparable to the 35 percent and 41 percent figures compiled in two previous studies of subway advertising in Hong Kong (Chan, 1994; 1995).

Since subway billboards are a capture medium, the average awareness of subway ads might be expected to be higher than that of ads on the streets. In the subway system, the ads studied were being displayed in nearly all the stations along the line (Chan, 1994; 1995). As 70 percent of the respondents in this study reported that they had visited TST five times or less in the previous week, the average awareness of 35 percent might be considered very encouraging. People in Hong Kong seem to pay much attention to outdoor advertisements.

The message response involvement theory suggests that motivation, opportunity and ability affect ad recognition and recall with varying amount of attention and cognitive capacity allocated to information processing of ads. The results of this study support the theory in several aspects. Past studies found that creative and novel ideas (Thorson 1988; Till 2005), use of color (Beattie 1985; Fernandez 2000; Lohse 1997), and prominent pictorial and ad size (Finn 1988; Hanssens 1980) can enhance motivation on ad information processing. In this study, the respondents reported that they would pay attention to poster ads that were creative, vivid in color, or larger-than-life in size. In other words, creative ideas in outdoor advertising have positive correlation with attention of advertisements.

Another finding of the study suggests the importance of creativity in outdoor ads. It was found that there is a lack of correlation of advertising awareness with the size or duration of the display, which is consistent with that in previous studies of subway ads in Hong Kong (Chan 1994; 1995). Creative execution is apparently more important in creating awareness.

Because of the limited number of advertisements investigated, it is not able to conclude if advertising awareness is influenced by color or the number of words. The two ads with the best recall differed greatly in both respects (Fig. 1). Further research is needed to elucidate the creative factors that influence outdoor poster awareness.

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The use of figure/celebrity (Atkin 1983; Petty 1983) and relevance of ad/brand information (Fernandez 2000; Mitchell 1981; Petty 1979) were two factors related to motivation to ad attention. The mixed result in this study helps explain the effects of using familiar and unfamiliar celebrity. The Svenson hair care advertisement used a local TV celebrity (Fig.1) and enjoyed high awareness, while the advertisement using Anzenchitai (a Japanese band) generated below average awareness. This suggests that ads using local celebrities, compared to using celebrities from overseas, may be found more familiar and thus audience is more motivated to attend to them. Awareness of Svenson hair care was highest among younger respondents who were more likely to be fans of the celebrity but obviously were not attracted by needing the product (hair transplants). The use of celebrities may generate higher advertising awareness only among their fans who find the figures relevant to their interest and taste. Future research on the effectiveness of celebrities in outdoor advertising is needed.

Ability is another determinant of ad information processing. In our study, result shows that language barrier may hinder oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to ad processing and thus affect ad awareness. It was found that tourists reported significantly lower awareness of the three ads in which Chinese copy is used predominantly. Given that half of the tourists in our study came from non-Chinese societies, the use of an unfamiliar language will decrease their ability in ad processing, and lead to a lower advertising awareness. Advertisers that target a tourist population should refrain from using unintelligible copy.

The respondents in our study reported that they were less likely to pay attention to outdoor ads where pedestrian flow is high. They got distracted easily when in a crowded area and less attention is allocated to ad. This is consistent with the message response involvement theory that when situational distraction is high, advertising attention will be low. Media planners always try to select advertising space that has high pedestrian flow, but our study suggests that they should strive for a balance between pedestrian flow and the attention focus of the pedestrians. Media planners should perhaps avoid billboard locations where pedestrians are preoccupied, such as at traffic lights. According to the message response involvement theory, opportunity can be increased by enhancing redundancy of ad information and ad repetition (Pechman 1989; Wilson 2008). Our study found that frequency of visiting a location is related to awareness of outdoor ads. Advertisers should analyze the demographic profile of the frequent visitors of a selected location. Frequent visitors (for instance, office workers in business district or students in school area) are expected to expose repeatedly to the ads and thus increase the opportunity of ad attention.

In the current study, JeanRichard watch ad and the a.testoni leather goods ad had the lowest awareness. The low awareness of these two advertisements cannot be attributed to the product category, as the Bally leather goods and Omega watch ads recorded over 40 percent awareness. The low awareness of the JeanRichard and a.testoni advertisements may be due to unfamiliar or ungrammatical brand names. There was also a lack of user images in their visuals. The Bally and a.testoni ads both showed the bottom half of a male model carrying the leather bag, but the Bally ad showed a blonde female model in the background, while the a.testoni ad had no other model. The finding may suggest that user images may be important in outdoor advertisements. The result seems to suggest that familiar brands are more likely to benefit from outdoor advertisements than less familiar brands.

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94 Conclusion This study is merited for investigating advertising awareness in a natural and real outdoor setting in which busy streets in metropolitan city are used as platform for advertising. Though there were similar studies on out-of-home media, many of them were either studying awareness among frequent drivers along highways or in indoor environment such as subway or airport. Open outdoor environment on busy streets is uniquely different from highways and captive environments. Complexity of audience profile and exposure to different message stimuli in a highly distracted environment enhance the interest of the research topic.

The results of this study in general confirm the high awareness of outdoor advertising.

Awareness ranged from 19 to 50 percent. Awareness level was comparable to that of outdoor advertisements along highways and in the subway network among frequent travelers.

Advertising awareness in general did not differ by sex, age group or educational level, making outdoor advertising a truly mass-oriented medium.

Outdoor advertising is effective in reaching tourists, and they reported that outdoor advertisements help alleviate boredom. However, tourists had lower advertising awareness than Hong Kong residents, probably due to language barriers and unfamiliarity with local celebrities.

The respondents held positive perception of outdoor poster ads and reported that they would pay attention to poster ads that were creative, vivid in color, or larger-than-life. Advertising awareness and perception of outdoor ads were positively correlated with the frequency of visits to the TST area. These findings confirm that outdoor posters need vivid colors, large size, and above all creativity. Celebrities used in outdoor advertisements need to be popular with the general public. Outdoor advertisements that target tourists should avoid unintelligible text and symbols.

To conclude, advertisers can adopt the message response involvement theory to include appropriate message cues in their ads so to enhance advertising awareness Motivation, ability and opportunity are the key elements advertisers need to look into if they wish to catch the attention of their audience at outdoor locations where the targets are easily carried away by other messages and street activities.

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About authors Kara Chan (Ph.D., City University of Hong Kong) is Professor and Head at the School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University. She worked in the advertising profession and as a statistician for the Hong Kong Government before she joined the academia. Her research areas are about cross cultural advertising, advertising and children, and gender portrayal in advertising. She has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters. She is the co-author of Advertising to Children in China (Chinese University Press, 2004) and author of Youth and Consumption (City University of Hong Kong Press, 2010). She can be reached at karachan@hkbu.edu.hk Benjamin Cheng is a Ph.D student at the School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interets include children consumer socialization and the use of new technology in news. He can be reached at benjicheng@gmail.com

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98 Volume 1, no. 1, 2012, ISSN: 1179-8785 Book Review Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China: Theories and Practices Editor, Cheng Lu Wang, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., New York, 2011 Reviewed by Xiaohua Lin Thirty years ago when China launched its historical transformation towards a market-based economy, marketing was just a novelty in a centrally planned economy. In the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where I received my Master’s degree in economics, there were no marketing courses in the curriculum. My image of marketing, right up until I began studying at Oklahoma State, was influenced by the famous Broadway show “Death of a Salesman.” That is to say, that I thought of it as bad, sad and unnecessary, especially in an economy like China’s, where production, distribution and consumption were all centrally planned.

Since receiving my PhD, more than just my thinking has changed; Chinese society has also evolved and now marketing has begun to blossom. Thirty years ago this was unthinkable, but today, Haier, to my delight as a basketball fan, is now an official HDTV sponsor of the NBA. Moreover, products that are made in China are everywhere in the global market. In fact, there is a Chinese marketing renaissance taking place. Frequent flyers to China will have noticed it at newsstands throughout Beijing’s Capital Airport, where marketing and general business books are now drawing upon the teachings of indigenous philosophers like Confucius and not only Western gurus like Drucker. A quick search on Google Scholar reveals a simultaneous growth in English literature on marketing in China. However, this explosion of knowledge has created a need among scholars and ordinary readers for an up-to-date picture to guide their own research and assist their dealings. The Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China provides this picture.

The evolution of marketing, as a business practice as well as a business orientation, should reflect a society's education and research endeavours. In Chapter 1, Guo and Zheng categorize marketing's development in China into three stages: introduction and enlightenment; extensive spread; and deepening application. They trace these developments largely by examining how marketing was introduced into China's higher education system, and how it was taught and researched by Chinese educators/scholars. It is interesting to see how the country’s marketing, education and research have been shaped by historical events such as China’s economic reforms and integration with the global economy.

As much as this research reflects China's development towards a market-oriented economy, it also exposes flaws inherent in a transition economy, such as excessive marketing. Chapters two and three complement the first chapter with a review of marketing research in China.

Unlike conventional reviews in Western marketing journals, Guo; Zheng; Li, Ren and Li consider research papers published in leading Chinese business journals. This seemingly "unconventional" approach makes sense. It gives authenticity to the coverage and currency of the research topics, providing a service to a non-Chinese audience.

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99 Guanxi is perhaps the most researched concept particular to Chinese marketing and business practice. However, capturing its meaning is no easy task, especially for those of Western backgrounds, who sometimes equate Chinese Guanxi to relationships or connections. In Chapter 4, Yen, Barnes and Wang offer a comprehensive review of Guanxi and identify the major streams of conceptual and empirical work regarding this subject matter. According to this review, Guanxi is centered on relationships at the personal level and its quality is reflected in three Chinese constructs - ganqing, renqing, and xinren. An understanding of these concepts will give businesses dealing with China a competitive advantage.

Another unique feature of the Chinese market is its corporate landscape, which in the past three-decades has evolved from a system of state ownership into a hybrid model (Nee 1992).

In Chapter 5, Wong and Liu describe the evolutionary path of non-marketized, state enterprises; marketized state enterprises; and marketized private enterprises through case studies of three representative firms. Above all, the unique historical trajectory of each firm has made persistent impact on management structure, which in turn influences the firm’s strategic orientation, competency, and performance. Thus in the context of China’s logistics industry, which is faced with accelerated growth and consolidation, this chapter offers practical insights for international firms.

The next two chapters (6 and 7) consider distribution and pricing. In Chapter 6, Farrell and Lin examine the evolution of China’s marketing channels, starting with the pre-reform era.

They then discuss ongoing developments that are the result of macro-economic restructuring, globalization, and technological advancements. The chapter concludes with a final look at China’s model of channel management, with particular importance to cooperation enhancing factors such as trust, Guanxi and power. In examining pricing practice in China, Chung and Huang (Chapter 7) focus on the strategies of multinational corporations’ (MNCs). Taking a contingency approach, the authors find both similarities (e.g., the environmental variation’s positive association with an adaptive pricing strategy) and dissimilarities (e.g., performance outcomes of pricing elements) between the pricing practice of MNCs in China and in Europe, suggesting that a wholesale transfer of Western pricing practice in China and other less developed markets is a faulty proposition.

Since so much has been written about Chinese consumer behavior, it is a daunting task to provide a comprehensive review of the growing literature. The Handbook takes a cultural approach, devoting five chapters to the changes, market segmentation and contemporary issues concerning Chinese consumer markets – acceptance of foreign brands; hedonic consumption; and online shopping. The authors should be applauded for the depth of their analysis as well as for their innovative approach. For example, Kniazeva (Chapter 8) describes a brand personification exercise that helped her to uncover the cultural dynamism leading to Chinese consumers’ adoption of foreign brands. This grounded approach reveals the strong co-existence of domestic and Western brands in contemporary China and that the acceptance of Western brands does not take place at the cost of domestic ones. Interestingly, the author claims, such a phenomenon is somehow consistent with China’s harmony-oriented culture. In Chapter 9, Bao, Su, and Zhou theorize that the deviation in Chinese cultural values as a subculture characteristic and subsequently link sub-cultural groups to various aspects of consumer behavior in terms of complaint lodgment, brand loyalty, and new product purchase.

Transaction cost economics (TCE), rooted in economic theory, has been widely used in analyzing different marketing phenomenon, particularly in channels of distribution. But 99

100 according to Zhang and Zeng, authors of Chapter 12, TCE can also help researchers understand the online shopping experience of Chinese consumers. According to these authors, most inexperienced online consumers are limiting themselves to “window shopping” because of perceived high transaction costs. However, when they perceive less uncertainty and asset specificity, or hold high trust propensity toward online shopping, they would go on and complete their purchase. The ultimate value of consumer behavior research lies in their practical implications for real-world marketers. The work by Chang (Chapter 10) starts with a comprehensive review of existing approaches in consumer market segmentation and concludes with a procedure for planning segmentation strategy and tips for managing such strategies in China. Finally, Zheng and Su’s review of hedonic consumption in China, in Chapter 11, is not merely a historical and cultural explanation of Chinese consumer behavior, but a practical guide for marketing managers endeavouring to develop effective promotion/advertising strategies.

The Handbook brings together significant discussions on various aspects of marketing practice in China. It is current and thus rightly titled as "contemporary". Marketing practitioners and scholars will appreciate this excellent resource and reference aid in their respective endeavours concerning China, the largest emerging market of our time. For students with no prior exposure to marketing in China, this book will help get them up to date about the state of the knowledge in the field.

About the author Howard (Xiaohua) Lin (Ph.D., Oklahoma State University) is Professor of International Business & Entrepreneurship and Director of the International Research Institute at the Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. Dr. Lin is Canada Chapter Chair of the Academy of International Business and Vice President (research) of the Canadian Council for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, and serves in the editorial board for three journals. He has published his research in scholarly journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, Journal of World Business, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal of Business Ethics. He is ranked 70th among the most prolific authors in the six leading international business journals between 1996–2006 according to a survey published in APJM (2008/25, pp.189–207). His current research is focused on immigrant and transnational entrepreneurship as well as emerging market based multinational enterprises and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Dr. Lin is the founder of the Canadian Entrepreneurship & Innovation Platform, a non-profit organization that promotes and facilitates Canada-based transnational entrepreneurship. He can be reached at hlin@ryerson.ca.

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International Journal of Consumer Research ISSN 1179-8785

About the Journal The International Journal of Consumer Research (IJCR) aims to publish high quality research on all aspects of consumer behaviors and consumptions. As an international academic journal, IJCR provides a global and multidisciplinary forum to understand consumers from psychology, sociology, anthropology, marketing and consumption economics perspectives.

All submissions will go through a strict double-blind peer-reviewed procedure based on strong theoretical conceptualization and rigours research methods. Short research notes and commentary, with innovative approach and insightful ideas are also welcome. The IJCR website can be accessed at http://www.magscholar.com/ijcr.htm

Copyright Submission of a manuscript to this journal represents a certification on the part of the author(s) that it is an original work, has not been published elsewhere and should not be under consideration for any other publication at the same time. The only exception is manuscripts in conference proceedings, as long as they represent work in progress toward the manuscript submitted to IJCR. Authors infringing any existing copyright will indemnify the publisher. For ease of dissemination and to ensure proper policing of use, all accepted manuscripts and contributions become the legal copyright of the publisher unless otherwise agreed.

Reviewing Process Upon submission, the editor will review each manuscript and if it is judged suitable for publication in IJCR, it is then sent to referees for double blind peer review. Based on the reviewersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; recommendations, the editor then decides whether the manuscript should be accepted as is, revised or rejected.

Manuscript Requirements As a guide, articles should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words in length. It must be DOUBLE-SPACED using 12-point Times New Roman font. A title of not more than ten words should be provided. Page one should show full name of all authors, affiliation, e-mail address and full international contact details. Authors should not be identified anywhere else in the article. Page two should contain the article title, abstract and the contents. Authors must provide up to six keywords which encapsulate the principal topics of the article.

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102 Headings must be short, clearly defined and not numbered. The use of Footnotes within the text is discouraged. All Figures (charts, diagrams and line drawings) and Plates (photographic images) should be submitted in both electronic form and hard copy originals.

Figures should be of clear quality, black and white and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals.

Tables must be numbered consecutively with roman numerals and a brief title. In the text, the position of the table should be shown by typing on a separate line the words “Insert Table V Here”.

References to other publications must be in Harvard style and authors must carefully check for completeness, accuracy and consistency. All author names and initials and full journal title must be included. You should cite publications in the text: (e.g., Wang 2010) using the first named author’s name. At the end of the article a reference list in alphabetical order should be supplied.

For books: surname, initials, (year), title of book in italics, publisher, place of publication, e.g.

Wang, (2010), Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China: Theories and Practices, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., New York.

For book chapters: surname, initials, (year), “chapter title”, editors’ surname, initials, title of book in italics, publisher, place of publication, pages, e.g. Yan, D., Bradley, B. and Wang, C. (2010), “The Chinese notion of Guanxi”, in Wang, C. (Ed.), Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China: Theories and Practices, New York, 2010, pp. 28-59.

For journals: surname, initials, (year), “title of article”, journal name in italics, volume, number, pages, e.g. Wang, C. (2007), “Guanxi vs. relationship marketing: Exploring underlying differences”, Industrial Marketing Management, 36 (1), 81-86 For electronic sources: if available online the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference including the date it was extracted.

Note: If an author wishes to submit a paper that has been already prepared in another style, he or she may do so. However, if the paper is accepted (with or without reviewer’s alterations), the author is fully responsible for re-typing the manuscript in the correct style as indicated above. Neither the Editor nor the Publisher (ABRC Limited) is responsible for re-preparing the manuscript copy to adhere to the journal's style.

Electronic Submissions Send your paper as MS Word Attachment to The Editor – Professor Cheng Lu Wang at cwang@newhaven.edu. In the subject line, please indicate that this is a submission to the International Journal of Consumer Research (IJCR). The body of the email should contain your cover letter indicating the corresponding author and a request to the Editor that the manuscript be sent out for review. Submissions will be acknowledged via email within two weeks.

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Final Submission of the Article Each article must be accompanied by a completed and signed Copyright Release Form. At this stage the manuscript will be considered to be the definitive version of the article. You are responsible for preparing manuscript copy which is clearly written in acceptable, scholarly English and which contains no errors of spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Neither the editor nor the publisher (ABCR) is responsible for correcting errors of spelling and grammar. Check your paper for the following common errors:    

dangling modifiers misplaced modifiers unclear antecedents incorrect or inconsistent abbreviations

Also, check the accuracy of all arithmetic calculations, statistics, numerical data, text citations, and references. INCONSISTENCIES MUST BE AVOIDED. Be sure you are consistent in your use of abbreviations, terminology, and in citing references, from one part of your paper to another.

Once accepted for publication, the final version of the manuscript must be provided as an attached file to an e-mail.

Reprints All authors will receive one copy of the journal issue as well as five complimentary reprints of their article. These are sent several weeks after the journal issue is published and in circulation. An order form for the purchase of additional reprints will also be sent to all the authors at this time. (Approximately 8 weeks is necessary for the preparation of reprints).

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