How Consumers Respond to the Behavior of Missing a Free Gift Promotion: Inaction Inertia Effect on Products Offered as Free Gifts

ABSTRACT

Inaction inertia describes the phenomenon that an individual is unlikely to act on an attractive opportunity after having bypassed an even more attractive one. The results of two experiments indicate that after missing an initial opportunity to obtain a product as a free gift during a promotional period, the inaction inertia effect reduces the likelihood of consumers buying the product at a discounted price (second, inferior opportunity), particularly if the free gift has a high regular price. Additionally, according to the results of Experiment 2, those consumers are less likely to buy a product that has been offered previously as a free gift when a greater total quantity of the free gift is offered during a promotional period. Moreover, the mediation analysis results indicate that anticipated regret and valuation significantly impact the mediating role of inaction inertia.

Keywords:

• consumer behavior
• decision making
• interpersonal understanding

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tsung-Chi Liu

Tsung-Chi Liu is a Professor in the Department of Business Administration at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. He has a PhD in management from Keio University, Japan, and his research interests are in the areas of distribution management, knowledge creation and services marketing.

Ti Cheng

Ti Cheng has a PhD in marketing from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. His research interests focus on sales promotion and consumer behavior.

Feng-Yu Ni

Feng-Yu Ni is a Professor in the Department of Business Administration at National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan. He has a PhD from Keio University, Japan.