| Previous literature has found evidence of firm's motivation to encourage consumers' stockpiling behavior as well as benefits occurred from stockpiling. Stockpiling in this dissertation refers to the propensity of consumers to increase their inventory level for future consumption of stock-up products which are nonperishable and in a unit size that consumers frequently purchase. A sales promotion (i.e., a price discount) is a fundamental condition for consumers' stockpiling behavior. Four experiments of this dissertation intend to make contributions to literature of sales promotions, stockpiling, and price knowledge by answering (1) What types of price discounts trigger stockpiling behavior? and (2) Would types of discounts operate differently for different products (i.e., benefit changed products) and for different situations (i.e., an introduction of a new product under an established brand name or under new brand name)? as well as additionally investigating the direct effects depth and frequency of a discount on consumers' price knowledge and perceived similarity with overall shopping experiences. Across all of four experiments, significant direct effects of discount depth and frequency on stockpiling; that interaction are found. Such main effects are moderated by benefit changes, new product introduction, and new brand introduction and also directionality among moderators vary. Lastly, evidence for proposed mediators which are price recall error, price comparison error, and consumers' perceived similarity with overall shopping experiences is not found. |
