The easier you get it, the less you cherish it? Research on the influence of coupon issuing methods on consumers from the perspective of psychological ownership

ABSTRACT

Based on the perspective of psychological ownership, this research explores how to issue coupons makes consumers value and use the coupons through four studies. Study 1 and study 2 show that participatory promotions lead to higher psychological ownership, expected regret and consumer willingness to use coupons than general promotions. Study 3 shows that, among participatory promotions, non-anonymous (vs. anonymous) participatory promotions are associated with more willingness to use coupons due to the mediation path effect of psychological ownership. Meanwhile, studies 1–3 show that, when coupons are scarce, the method of issuing coupons based on consumers’ willingness to use them has no effect. This may be because the scarcity of the coupons increases their value, and thus the intention to use them is unaffected by the method of issuance. Finally, we conduct study 4 to measure real behaviors to provide ecological validity. The results show that the actual number of coupons used decreases from high to low in the order of non-anonymous participatory promotions, anonymous participatory promotions and general promotions, which is consistent with our conclusions of studies 1-3. Our conclusions provide theoretical and managerial implications in the context of the increasing popularity of mobile internet and intelligent terminals.

摘要

虽然越来越多的企业通过发放优惠券的方式刺激消费者进行消费，然而现实中却普遍存在着优惠券在消费者手中没有被使用的现象。本文基于心理所有权视角，通过四个实验探索了怎样的优惠券发放方式更能让消费者珍惜获得的优惠券并产生购买。实验1和实验2共同表明相对于普通促销参与（直接免费赠送优惠券），需要顾客参与才能获得优惠券的发放方式带来更高的心理所有权、预期后悔和优惠券使用意愿，一方面原因在于顾客参与越多对优惠券的心理所有权越高，继而使用意愿更高。另外一方面原因在于顾客参与付出的越多，不使用该优惠券的预期后悔越高，因此也会产生较高的优惠券使用意愿。同时，实验3则表明在都需要顾客参与才能获得优惠券的促销方式中，非匿名的在线参与方式（vs.匿名的在线参与方式）带来更高的使用意愿，且主要通过心理所有权的中介路径影响消费者优惠券使用意愿。同时，以上三个实验表明当优惠券稀缺时，不同优惠券发放方式对消费者使用意愿的差异影响消失，这可能是因为优惠券的稀缺性使优惠券变得珍贵，导致使用意愿不再受发放方式的影响。最后，为了获得我们在实验1-3研究结果的生态有效性，我们与一家餐厅合作测量顾客收到优惠券后的真实行为。结果表明消费者优惠券使用数量由高到低依次是非匿名的在线参与、匿名的在线参与和普通促销参与，这与前三个实验的研究结论是一致的。本文的研究结论在移动互联和智能终端日益普及的背景下，为企业制定更有效率的优惠券营销活动提供了理论基础和指导意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory promotions
• psychological ownership
• expected regret
• willingness to use coupons
• quantity scarcity

关键词:

• 参与式促销
• 心理所有权
• 预期后悔
• 优惠券使用意愿
• 数量限制

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 71902129]; the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Project: [Grant Number 17YJC630036].