Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2019

Abstract

The pain consumers feel when paying for a product or service tends to vary depending on the mode of payment (Knutson et al. 2007; Roberts and Jones 2001; Thomas, Desai, and Seenivasan 2011; Zellermayer 1997). For instance, it has been demonstrated that the use of cards as a mode of payment, compared to the use of cash, can decrease significantly the pain of paying for products and services. Although there is plenty of research in the literature on the pain of payment, less is known about the role that pleasure plays in consumer consumption.

The focus of this research is to investigate how the anticipation of the pleasure of an experience can reduce the pain of paying for a product or service. The anticipation of pleasure should be more salient when the consumption will occur immediately after purchase, and less salient when the consumption experience will take place sometime after the purchase has taken place. This anticipation of pleasure should reduce the pain of payment for products being consumed shortly after purchase. This pain reduction effect should hold regardless of the mode of payment. Across three experiments, the authors demonstrate how anticipated pleasure mediates the time of consumption to purchase intention relationship; pain of payment varies according to method of payment.

In the first pre-study, a one-way ANOVA was conduct to investigate whether the time of consumption (TOC), immediate vs. delayed, impacts participants’ anticipated pleasure (AP) for a 2-hour zip lining experience. A significant difference in AP among conditions was detected (F (1,120) = 4.20 p

In the second pre-study, the aim was to investigate whether mode of payment (MOP), cash vs. card, impacts participants’ pain of payment for 2-hour zip lining experience. A significant difference in pain of payment among conditions was detected (F (1,115) = 11.53 p

In the main study, the authors were primarily able to determine that anticipated pleasure (AP) mediates the effect of time of consumption (TOC – immediate vs. delayed) on purchase intentions (PI). The results of a PROCESS Matrix-model 4 regression (Hayes 2018) indicated that TOC was a significant predictor of AP (β= .3274, SE= .1455, p.05). Convergent with the hypothesis 2, the overall mediation model is significant (F=32.92, p

Further, the main study sought to confirm that pain of payment (POP) mediates the relationship between method of payment (MOP – cash vs. card) and purchase intentions (PI). The results of a PROCESS Matrix-Model 4 regression (Hayes 2018) indicated that MOP was a significant predictor of POP (β= .2970, SE= .1111, p

Finally, the main study aimed to investigate the moderating effect of anticipated pleasure (AP) on the effect of method of payment (MOP) on purchase intentions (PI) through pain of payment (POP). PROCESS Matrix-Model 7 (Hayes 2018) was conducted and the overall moderated mediation model is significant (F=7.8616, p

Through this research, the authors shed some light on the different roles pleasure and pain pay on consumer consumption and provide a new moderator for the relationship between method of payment (i.e., cash or card) to purchase intention.

About the Authors

Patricia T. Gouveia is a second year doctoral student at Florida International University. Her research interests include consumer financial behavior and decision making, goal pursuit and motivation.

Michelle van Solt is a PhD candidate at Florida International University. Michelle has a recent publication in the Society and Business Review, and has presented her work at ACR and the Association for Marketing Theory and Practice.

Alexandra Rodriguez Aguirre is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing and the Marketing Doctoral Director at Florida International University and she received her doctoral degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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