Power And Variety-Seeking Behavior

Despite sometimes consumers exhibit loyalty in their consumption behavior,consumers are also known as "greedy" and "easy to change".Consumers are inclined to seek variety in choices.This raises a question that researchers in field of consumer behavior and marketers both have been interested in for decades: what factors influence consumers' variety-seeking behavior? As one of the most basic attributes of human society,power has been demonstrated to have a profound influence on individual cognition,psychology and behavior.Yet,little research speaks to the potential effect of power on variety seeking behavior,leaving this intriguing question unanswered.From the perspective of compensatory consumption,this paper aims to explore the influence and mechanism of power on variety-seeking behavior.Specifically,this study proposes that:(1)feeling powerless,relative to feeling powerful,will enhance consumers' variety-seeking behavior;(2)autonomy mediates the relationship between power and variety-seeking behavior.In order to test these hypotheses above,we have conducted four studies: one exploratory investigation and three experiments,using questionnaires and laboratory experiments.Through data analysis,we find that two hypotheses proposed in this study are all verified.Specifically,the results show that:(1)a lack of power leads to an enhancement of variety-seeking behavior;(2)the negative relationship between power and variety-seeking behavior is mediated by autonomy.Based on the perspective of compensation mechanism,this study analyzes the relationship between power and variety-seeking behavior,and also verifies the mediating role of autonomy.Theoretically,the findings from the study carry important contributions to both power research and variety-seeking behavior research.Practically,the present finding also have important reference significance to the marketing practice.