Imagination Matters When You Shop Online: The Moderating Role of Mental Simulation Between Materialism and Online Impulsive Buying

Death anxiety and older adults' vulnerability to fraud: the mediating role of materialism

Death anxiety arousal, provoked by anticipating self-nonexistence, may be used as a fraud tactic by scammers on older adults; however, little is known about how it affects older adults' decision making when confronted with a scam and the mechanisms underlying these effects. This study used a questionnaire survey and experimental design to examine them. In Study 1, 307 older adults in China completed questionnaires. The results showed a positive link between death anxiety and vulnerability to fraud, partially mediated by materialism. In Study 2, 82 older adults in China were randomly assigned to the mortality salience group and control group to examine whether death anxiety arousal can increase older adults' vulnerability to fraud and the mediating role of materialism. The results indicated that death anxiety and materialism increase the risk of consumer products and services fraud; therefore, targeting these risk factors might protect older adults from fraud.

The impact of anchor characteristics on consumers' willingness to pay a premium for food-an empirical study

In the food industry space, Netflix foods have exploded onto the Internet on the back of social media and many consumers are paying a premium for them. So what are the motives that may inspire consumers' willingness to pay premium? In this paper, from the perspective of anchor, an external cue, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 275 respondents and analyzed using SPSS software. The results show that anchor characteristics (interactivity, professionalism and popularity) can influence consumers' perceived value and increase their premium purchase intention. Perceived value mediates the relationship between anchor characteristics and willingness to pay a premium. Limited-time limited-quantity positively moderated the relationship between perceived value and premium purchase intention. The results reveal the key role of anchors in consumers' decision-making process of buying Netflix food at a premium, and provide a theoretical basis for enterprises to select and cultivate anchors for product promotion.

Study on the Influencing Factors and Willingness to Pay of Consumers Purchasing Ecological Agricultural Products

With the steady rise of China's agricultural production and management level, the market of ecological agricultural products has developed rapidly, and consumers are increasingly concerned about ecological agricultural products. Consumers' cognition and purchase intention are the keys to determine their future development. This research is aimed at ensuring that consumers have access to high-quality ecological agricultural products, thereby promoting the supply and production of ecological agricultural products, minimizing agricultural carbon emissions, and providing information on sustainable food pricing. Based on the research status at home and abroad, this study combines the questionnaire survey method to study the influencing factors and willingness to pay of consumers purchasing ecological agricultural products. A total of 601 online questionnaires from consumers in Harbin, a city in northeastern China, were collected, and statistical factor analysis, principal component analysis, and regression analysis were used to study the influencing factors of consumers' purchase of ecological agricultural products from both positive and negative aspects, and in-depth analysis of the reasons why consumers refuse to pay, get the most real willingness to pay and related influencing factors, and quantify the influence of various variables on consumers' purchasing behavior was done. On this basis, a logit model of survival analysis is constructed to study the premium payment level of consumers for ecological agricultural products, and the payment premium is 24.95%. The research results show that married, who have purchased ecological agricultural products, the higher the understanding of ecological agricultural products, the consumers who buy ecological agricultural products in farmers' markets, Meituan and community group purchases, and the households with higher monthly consumption of agricultural products have a significant positive correlation with consumers' purchase of ecological agricultural products. The higher the education level, the older the age, and the larger the family size were significantly negatively correlated with consumers' purchase of ecological agricultural products.

Borderline Pathological Celebrity Worship and Impulsive Buying Intent: Mediating and Moderating Roles of Empathy and Gender

The present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine whether borderline pathological celebrity worship may be associated with higher levels of impulsive buying intent. The mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of gender were also examined. A total of 1,319 participants recruited from a college through the campus network. The results indicated that (1) borderline pathological celebrity worship could positively predict individuals' impulsive buying intent; (2) the predictive effect of borderline pathological celebrity worship on impulsive buying intent could be mediated by empathy; and (3) gender moderated the predictive effect of borderline pathological celebrity worship on impulsive buying intent. Specifically, relatively higher levels of borderline pathological celebrity worship were found to be associated with higher impulsive buying intent among men. However, this was relatively less significant among women.

Conclusion

The results contribute to previous findings by demonstrating that borderline pathological celebrity worship could affect impulsive buying intent. Moreover, the mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of gender were also revealed.

The Moderating Role of Anticipated Regret and Product Involvement on Online Impulsive Buying Behavior

Online impulsive buying behavior has drawn an increasing amount of attention from researchers and marketers as well; however, little research has explored how cognitive aspect and emotional aspect effect online impulsive buying together. The study examines the role of product involvement (cognitive aspect) and anticipated regret (emotional aspect) on the online impulsive buying behavior of the consumer. The results indicate that consumers who experienced downward anticipated regret showed more online impulsive buying behavior than those who experienced upward anticipated regret. Moreover, anticipated regret moderates the relationship between product involvement and online impulsive buying behavior, for participants who experienced downward anticipated regret showing more online impulsive buying behavior than those who experienced upward anticipated regret in the low product involvement group, but there is no differential between downward and upward anticipated regret in the high involvement product group. These findings suggest that anticipated regret helps consumers make more deliberative online shopping choices. The implications for both future research and online consumers are discussed.

Longitudinal Changes in Gambling, Buying and Materialism in Adolescents: A Population-Based Study

Gambling disorder, gambling-related cognitive biases, compulsive buying, and materialistic values lead to impaired functioning in important areas of life. The aims of the present longitudinal study are (1) to evaluate the change produced after one year in those mentioned variables and (2) to examine the gender role in these changes and to analyze the mediational mechanisms among the variables of the study. The sample was composed of 182 adolescents (103 females and 79 males) from secondary education Spanish institutions who completed self-administered questionnaires. Structural equation modeling has been used to explore associations between the different variables. Our results show significant decreases in compulsive buying, materialism, and cognitive biases related to gambling after one year. Gambling disorder severity was directly related to cognitive distortions of gambling and being a man. Compulsive buying was associated with older age and the female gender. Materialism was associated with compulsive buying and the male gender. In conclusion, gambling disorder, gambling-related cognitive biases, compulsive buying, and materialistic values change over time in different ways, according to gender. The understanding of gambling disorder and compulsive buying in adolescents could potentially lead to early prevention and treatment programs for the specific needs of gender and age.