| Regret is a negative emotion that every consumer may experience. It hassignificant influence on both psychology and behavior. The research on regretderives from psychological and economical fields, so we will go further to explorethis topic in the field of consumer’s behavior. Regret can be divided into actionregret and inaction regret. In recent years, the studies mainly focus on action regretwhile pay less attention to inaction regret, especially in the field of consumer’sbehavior. Most researches focus on the regret after purchasing. However, regret aftermissing a purchase is a relatively new topic, and only a few researchs focus on it.Research on its formation and influence is needed. Therefore, this study mainlyanalyses the consumer’s inaction regret.The study of inaction regret contributes to both academic and practical field.Even if the products have reached the consumer’s utility threshold, consumers wouldlike to search for more information rather than buy the products, because of thedifficulty of choosing. How to call back these consumers is of great importance forenterprises. Inaction regret is a valuable emotion to solving this problem. Someresearches have shown that the consumer who experienced inaction regret isvaluable, because his purchase intention is similar to satisfied consumer’s, evenhigher than the latter. However, at present, we still have little understanding abouthow inaction regret occurs, and what kinds of mechanisms cause it. And whetherinaction regret can increase purchase intention is still need sufficient research. Inorder to enrich our understanding on this issue, the study will carry out asystematical research on inaction regret, which is mainly based on the EndowmentEffect Theory and Counterfactual Thinking Theory.At the beginning of this study, we review previous literature on regret andinaction, and explore psychology mechanism of inaction regret through in-depthinterview. Then we systematically analyze the mechanism and effect of inactionregret. And through six behavioral experiments and one explorative research, we can draw some main conclusions as follows:1. The mechanism of inaction regretBased on the experimental and theoretical study, it shows that the limitation ofpurchase opportunities is a main cause of inaction regret. The limitation of purchaseopportunities is defined as the difficulties and possibility to regain the same purchaseopportunities. It has a positive effect on the inaction regret. Endowment effect andupward counterfactual thinking are two significant mechanisms. Firstly, limitation ofpurchase opportunities has positive effect on endowment effect and upwardcounterfactual thinking. When consumers missed purchasing, there will be a strongendowment effect if the purchase opportunities are limited. At the same time, therewill be more upward counterfactual thinking, imagining that there would be a goodresult if they have purchased this product. Secondly, endowment effect and upwardcounterfactual thinking have positively effect on inaction regret. As the endowmenteffect gets stronger and the number of upward counterfactual thingking increase,inaction regret will be higher. Meanwhile, types of products (hedonic products orutility product) will moderate the effect of limitation of purchase opportunities onendowment effect and upward counterfactual thinking. This study demonstratesthese hypotheses through three behavioral experiments and one explorative research.2. The influence of inaction regretIf inaction regret occurs after missing a purchase, the purchase intention willincrease in future. However, the explorative research and theoretical research showthat even though consumers feel inaction regret, their purchase intention may notincrease, and inaction regret can be released by psychological self-regulation.Previous researches on regret also show that regret can cause different effects. Weurgently need to find out the different effects under different circumstances. Frommy point of view in this study, when consumers meet next purchase opportunity,perceived accessibility of the purchase opportunities will moderate the influence ofinaction regret on purchasing intention. If consumers can easily access to thispurchase opportunity, inaction regret will increase purchase intention. On the otherhand, however, if purchase opportunities are difficult to access, the purchaseintention will not obviously increase. This research use behavioral experiments to demonstrate the propositions above. At the same time, limitation of purchaseopportunities has positive effect on the future purchase intention, and inaction regretwill mediate this effect. This hypothesis has also been proved.The paper focuses on inaction regret after missing a purchase, as well as itsformation mechanism and effect. It shows that limitation of purchase opportunities isa main reason for inaction regret, and endowment effect and upward counterfactualthinking are important psychology mechanism. Few previous researches havefocused on formation of inaction regret. This study has redeemed this gap.Meanwhile, it also finds out that although inaction regret can increase the purchaseintention, this influence is moderated by perceived accessibility of purchaseopportunities. This can enrich the study on effect of regret. Actually the previousstudy mostly emphasize on regret’s negative effect, while this study stress thatinaction regret can shift to promote purchase intention under certain circumstances.The result of this study can help marketing managers to understand under whatcondition will consumers have inaction regret after missing purchasing, and whencan it increase the purchase intention. It is of significance for enterprises toeffectively arrange the content and time of sale promotions. It also can helpenterprises adopt appropriate marketing strategies to call back consumers missing apurchase. |
