Choice between Hedonic and Utilitarian Consumption: Role of Risk Perception as A Moderator
The study aims to investigate consumers' preferences between hedonic and utilitarian choices under different circumstances. In particular, the preference between hedonic and utilitarian choices under promotion (i.e. discount) and special contexts (i.e. risky situations) was investigated for an individual product and a bundle product comprising hedonic and utilitarian components. The findings were explained using prospect theory. Two experiments were conducted among graduate and post-graduate students in the National Capital Region of India during July – October 2020. It was found that the preference between hedonic and utilitarian choices is reversed in presence and absence of promotion. The risk perception moderates the relationship between promotion and purchase intent in the case that a product and bundle product delivers both choices at the same time. This shows cues to marketers how to use risk perception and promotion to increase persuasion. This study re-establishes the relationship between promotion and purchase likelihood of a bundle product comprising a hedonic and a utilitarian product in a completely different context. At the same time, it is the first study, to best of our knowledge, to investigate the risk perception as a moderator in the above relationship. Additionally, the behaviour is explained through the theoretical lens of prospect theory, thus adding to the literature of hedonic and utilitarian choices, bundle products, and the application of prospect theory in consumer behaviour in risky situations. Perceived risk associated with a product is closely related to hedonic and utilitarian characteristics of the product. The impact of risk can be investigated through various routes. Since risk perception is an individual-difference variable, it can be studied using the consumer involvement construct which is a multi-dimensional construct; and risk associated with a mispurchase is one of the dimensions (Kapferer & Laurent, 1985). Involvement is an individual-level variable associated with many marketing, advertising and branding-related concepts including perceived risk (Michaelidou & Dibb, 2008). A review of the extant literature reveals that involvement has five antecedents: interest, perceived risk (risk importance and risk probability), the rewarding nature of the product (its pleasure value), and perceived association of a brand with one's status, one's personality, or identity (sign value). Here, we will focus on the risk associated with consumers’ evaluations of products under various circumstances as this is relevant to our proposition building. The perceived risk involved with a mispurchase (Srivastava & Sharma, 2011) has an impact on a variety of consumer behaviours, such as word-of-mouth information, new product adoption, brand loyalty, purchase intent and reliance on well-known brands (Erdem, 1998). People under high risk prefer “familiar” to ‘unfamiliar” options because of product congruity with the product category. “Congruity is the similarity between a product and a more general product category schema that may influence product evaluations” (Meyers-Levy & Tybout, 1989). High-risk perception leads consumers to become more conservative by preferring the norm to the novel. Anecdotally, when a product delivers 'norms' than 'novel' for a category, the benefits become closer to utilitarian than hedonic. Evaluations of a product in different risk environments differ (Payne et al., 1993). When the risk is high, a product that looks “normal” is evaluated more positively, i.e. delivers core or utilitarian benefits.