소비자의 기질적 욕심이 무행동 관성에 미치는 영향: 예상되는 무행동 후회와 극대화 성향의 조절된 매개효과 (The Influence of Dispositional Greed on Inaction Inertia: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anticipated Inaction Regret and Maximization)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 27권 / 5호 / 305 ~ 321페이지
· 저자명 : 구현진, 손영우, 임혜빈

초록

무행동 관성이란 초기의 매력적인 기회를 놓친 이후에 마주한 후속 기회에서도 행동하지 않으려는 경향성을 의미한다. 본 연구는 소비자의 기질적 욕심과 무행동 관성 간의 관계를 예상되는 무행동 후회가 매개하며, 이와 같은 매개경로가 극대화 성향의 수준에 의해 달라지는 조절된 매개효과를 검증하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 총 251명의 참가자들에게 기질적 욕심 척도(Dispositional Greed Scale), 극대화 성향 척도(Maximization Scale)와 후속 세일 제품에 대한 구매의도를 묻는 무행동 관성 문항을 포함하는 설문을 실시하였다. 연구 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 소비자의 기질적 욕심 수준이 높을수록 후속 기회에서 높은 구매의도를 보였다. 둘째, 후속 기회를 놓침으로써 예상되는 후회가 욕심과 구매의도의 관계를 매개하였다. 마지막으로, 소비자의 극대화 성향이 욕심과 예상되는 무행동 후회의 정적 관계를 강화시켜, 욕심이 예상되는 무행동 후회를 통해 구매의도에 미치는 매개효과가 극대화 수준에 따라 유의하게 변화하였다. 본 연구는 소비자의 기질적 욕심과 무행동 관성 간의 관계에 대해 처음으로 탐구해보았으며, 욕심과 무행동 관성의 관계를 설명하는 매개 및 매개된 조절 변인들을 추가적으로 검증함으로써 무행동 관성 현상에 대한 연구를 한층 더 확장시켰다고 볼 수 있다. 본 연구의 의의, 한계점 및 후속 연구 방향에 대해 제언하였다.

영어초록

Inaction inertia refers to a phenomenon that after having bypassed an initial attractive opportunity, people are less likely to act on subsequent similar opportunities. This phenomenon is considered as one of the negative side effects of sales marketing, and is a nuisance for retailers and marketers. Previous studies on inaction inertia have focused on the preconditions and contexts pertaining to the occurrence of the phenomenon. However, only very little attention has been paid to the effects of individual differences of the customers on inaction inertia, such as personal characteristics or decision-making styles.
To address the issue, we aimed to examine the influence of consumers’ personal characteristics on inaction inertia. Specifically, we explored consumers’ level of dispositional greed on inaction inertia. Dispositional greed refers to an individual tendency to never being satisfied with what one currently has, and always craving for more. That is to say, people with high levels of dispositional greed would always want more than what they possess at present. Therefore, we hypothesized that greedier people would show higher purchase intention even in the face of less attractive and inferior opportunity because they would primarily focus on acquiring more products. It implies that greedier people might be less affected by the inaction inertia.
Furthermore, we assumed that anticipated inaction regret would mediate the relationship between greed and purchase intention. According to previous research, regret is a negative emotion which is closely related to inaction inertia. Anticipated inaction regret is a type of regret that a person experiences when facing the bargains, anticipating how one might feel when foregoing the upcoming opportunity. According to previous studies, anticipating higher inaction regret leads to higher purchase intention under the inaction inertia contexts. As greedier people tend to want more, we presumed that they would report higher anticipated inaction regret. Taken together, we hypothesized that anticipated inaction regret would positively mediate the relationship between greed and purchase intention.
In addition to the mediation model of greed, anticipated inaction regret and purchase intention, we hypothesized that consumers’ level of maximizing tendency would affect the relationship between greed and anticipated inaction regret. Maximization refers to a style of decision-making, which is characterized by pursuing the best option through exhaustively searching and comparing the alternatives. Since maximizers want the best option, they are prone to feeling regrets, both before and after the decision-making process. Hence, we assumed that people with high maximization tendency would anticipate higher inaction regret, thus positively moderating the positive relationship between greed and anticipated inaction regret.
In sum, our study aimed to explore the influence of consumers’ dispositional greed on inaction inertia, by testing a moderated mediation model of anticipated inaction regret and maximization. We hypothesized that anticipated inaction regret would positively mediate the relationship between greed and purchase intention, and individuals’ maximization tendencies would moderate the mediating effect of anticipated inaction regret.
To confirm our hypotheses, we conducted an online survey via Amazon Mechanical Turk (M = 245). Using SPSS PROCESS　macro, the moderated mediation model was tested. The results supported our hypotheses. Participants with stronger dispositional greed anticipated higher levels of inaction regret, and reported higher purchase intention. In addition, the mediating effect of anticipated inaction regret was greater for participants with stronger maximization tendencies. This research shed light on the psychological mechanism of inaction inertia by examining the impacts of consumers’ individual difference variables. Additionally, this research is meaningful in terms of expanding previous studies of the impacts of affect on consumer behaviors by focusing on greed which was gained little attention to. Further implications, limitations and possible future studies were also discussed.

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