The Effect Of Decision Maker's Roles And Product Nature On Consumer Purchase Intention

Making decisions for others is nothing new in our daily lives.In other words,consumers will be in different roles as decision makers.People often make different choices when they are in these two roles.At present,the research on the potential motivation of this phenomenon seldom takes into account the influence of situation-specific thinking style.In this research,three studys were conducted to examine how and why the roles of decision makers affect the purchase intention of products with different nature.Study 1 and 3 were designed with a two-factor between-subjects.Study 2 used a single-factor between-subjects design.SPSS 22.0 was used for data analysis and hypothesis testing.Experimental results show:(1)the role of decision makers were significant interaction effects with product attributes:: when they buy for themselves,they are more likely to buy utilitarian products than those who buy hedonic products.Buying for other is more likely to buy hedonic products than those who purchase utilitarian products.(2)The different roles of decisionmakers directly affect the choice of thinking style.Decision-makers for other will be more inclined to use experiential thinking style,and decision-makers for themselves will be more inclined to use rational thinking style.(3)The influence of decision maker's roles on purchase intention is mediated by situation-specific thinking style,which is regulated by product nature.Decision-making for other(VS.decision-making for self)can evoke a stronger experiential thinking style,which leads to a higher willingness to buy hedonic products,but has no significant impact on the willingness to buy utilitarian products.On the other hand,decision-making for other(VS.decision-making for self)will lead to a weaker rational thinking style,which leads to higher willingness to buy hedonic products and lower willingness to buy utilitarian products.The above results show that different thinking style in specific situations are the potential motivation for decision makers to make different purchasing intentions for products with different nature.This result supports previous scholars' research on the relationship between decision-making and thinking in daily situations,and also helps us to further understand the potential impact mechanism of self-other decision-making differences.On the other hand,from the perspective of market segmentation and social network marketing,it provides inspiration for marketers and consumers to apply the conclusions of this research.