Research On The Effect Of Air Pollution On Consumer Behavior

Individual consumption behavior is influenced by multiple cues.Among the complex environmental cues,artificial environmental cues(such as lights,sounds,and smells)have been widely explored and applied.The influence of natural environment cues on individual consumption behavior is attracting attention.As one of the negative natural environment cues,air pollution is a global environmental problem that cannot be ignored,and it is closely related to human activities.An indepth understanding of the relationship between air pollution and consumer behavior provides a comprehensive understanding of the market impact and economic consequences of environmental cues.However,the impact of air pollution on consumer bahavior has not been fully studied.Based on the theory of stimulus-organism-response model,emotion-related theory,and stress-related theory,we propose the research model.Specifically,we propose that air pollution can influence individual emotion and then influence individual consumer behavior and decision-making.First,we propose and verify that air pollution can affect individual material consumption behavior.Choosing food consumption as the research background,we explore the impact of air pollution on food preference and explore the mechanism.After conducting second-hand data analysis,field study,and online random experiment,we verify the theoretical model.That is,we explore the effect of air pollution on food search behavior,purchase behavior,and shopping basket healthiness.The results show that air pollution can increase consumers’ preferences for unhealthy food but reduce preferences for healthy food.Emotion mediates the relationship between air pollution and food preference.Second,we continue to explore the interaction effect between air pollution and marketing variables.Based on the effect of air pollution on material consumption,we obtain the panel data of food sales to explore the moderating role of air pollution on the relationship between promotion and sales.The results show that air pollution can enhance the positive relationship between price discounts and sales.Cloudy and rainy days can strengthen the positive effect of air pollution on the promotion effect,and the positive effect of air pollution on the promotion is stronger for hedonic products.Finally,we propose and verify the impact of air pollution on consumers’ experiential consumption.Taking film consumption as the research background,we explore the relationship between air pollution and movie sales.We download the panel data of movie daily sales and propose the three moderators: emotion in the movie script,air pollution sensitivity,and movie popularity.The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between air pollution and movie sales.When air pollution deteriorates from low to medium levels,the positive relationship between movie ticket sales and air pollution is higher for movies with positive emotional content but lower for movies with negative emotional content,and higher for consumers who are more sensitive to air pollution.The more popular of movies with positive sentiment,the stronger the positive relationship between air pollution and movie ticket sales.The more popular of movies with negative sentiment,the weaker the negative relationship between air pollution and movie ticket sales.From the perspective of natural environment cues,we put forward and verify the impact of air pollution on consumer behavior.This paper has both theoretical and practical contributions.In terms of theoretical contributions,this study proposes and demonstrates a new path for the impact of air pollution on consumer behavior,namely the psychological path;expands the research on air pollution on different product types and consumer types;provides deep insight of the interacting effect of air pollution and marketing tool in the marketing context.For the practical contribution,based on the results,the government and social organizations can guide the public to consume reasonably,and then improve consumer well-being.Specifically,consumers should ensure a reasonable diet and avoid excessive consumption of unhealthy food during air pollution conditions.This paper inspires marketers to consider natural environmental factors to marketing activities and make marketing activities more effective.Marketers can design and implement corresponding movie marketing strategies according to the air quality information in different cities at different times,and they can also make reasonable marketing strategy planning for food promotion according to the air quality forecast.