Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Hedonic and utilitarian shopping values propose that consumers are guided by two different shopping conditions. The hedonic shopping value suggests that consumers shop to seek value according to pleasure, recreational consumption and high-arousal stimuli (Babin et al., 1994). Conversely, the utilitarian shopping value views consumers as more efficient and rational, and they shop with a focus on task completion (Batra and Ahtola, 1991).
A considerable body of evidence on hedonic and utilitarian shopping values has provided multiple findings and applications about the role of these two key dimensions in marketing. For example, retailers can focus on increasing pleasure by designing their stores (e.g. high arousal vs low arousal environment) based on consumers’ recreational and functional consumer motivation (Kaltcheva and Weitz, 2006). Stores can analyse their products’ characteristics and suggest advertising based on hedonic and utilitarian product features (Okada, 2005; Voss et al., 2003). Monetary promotions, when compared to nonmonetary ones, are relatively more effective at driving sales of utilitarian products (Chandon et al., 2000). Additionally, research has shown that task-focused shoppers evaluated monetary promotions as more attractive than non-monetary promotions (Büttner et al., 2014). Despite the impressive body of work, four main gaps remain in the field’s understanding of hedonic and utilitarian shopping values’ influence on consumer response, leaving opportunities for further research.
First, the extant literature on hedonic and utilitarian shopping values is fragmented, as research on the topic has proceeded in parallel in many academic fields, such as marketing, strategy, psychology, retail and consumer behaviour (Alba and Williams, 2013; Babin and Babin, 2001; Babin et al., 1994). Specifically, the association between hedonic and utilitarian dimensions in these fields is not well understood, as there are doubts about their complementarity or orthogonality (Batra and Ahtola, 1991) and about the moderators that could influence this relationship. The lack of integration across these research domains limits the overall generalization about the correlation between these two constructs. We propose that these two dimensions are complementary as consumers can experience both shopping values simultaneously.
Second, the explanatory power behind the indirect impact of hedonic and utilitarian shopping values on word-of-mouth and loyalty is not well documented. For example, the literature presents evidence of the main effects of hedonic and utilitarian shopping values...