IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ijrema/v39y2022i4p1042-1058.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stress can help or hinder novelty seeking: The role of consumer life history strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Gineikiene, Justina
  • Fennis, Bob M.
  • Barauskaite, Dovile
  • van Koningsbruggen, Guido M.

Abstract

Previous research shows mixed findings on whether stress increases or decreases novelty seeking. In three studies, using both archival and experimental data, and including more than 61,000 consumers from over 55 different countries, we show that it can do both, albeit for consumers differing in “life history strategies” (LHSs), that is, short-term, impulsive, and reward-sensitive (fast) versus long-term, reflective, and controlled (slow) strategies. We find that stress increases (helps) novelty seeking for fast, but decreases (hinders) novelty seeking for slow LHS consumers. Moreover, under baseline (low stress) conditions, fast LHS consumers display a lower tendency for novelty seeking than slow LHS consumers. Interestingly, these effects are present for acute stress but not for chronic (pandemic) stress. We discuss the implications of our findings for public policy and positioning strategies, specifying when and for whom novel (versus familiar) products and services might be most effectively and efficiently marketed.

Suggested Citation

  • Gineikiene, Justina & Fennis, Bob M. & Barauskaite, Dovile & van Koningsbruggen, Guido M., 2022. "Stress can help or hinder novelty seeking: The role of consumer life history strategies," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1042-1058.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:39:y:2022:i:4:p:1042-1058
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2022.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811622000088
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2022.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nguyen, Hang T. & Chaudhuri, Malika, 2019. "Making new products go viral and succeed," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 39-62.
    2. Kristina M. Durante & Vladas Griskevicius & Joseph P. Redden & Andrew Edward White, 2015. "Spending on Daughters versus Sons in Economic Recessions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(3), pages 435-457.
    3. Lars Carlsen & Rainer Bruggemann, 2017. "Fragile State Index: Trends and Developments. A Partial Order Data Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 1-14, August.
    4. Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict E M & Baumgartner, Hans, 1992. "The Role of Optimum Stimulation Level in Exploratory Consumer Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(3), pages 434-448, December.
    5. Adam Duhachek, 2005. "Coping: A Multidimensional, Hierarchical Framework of Responses to Stressful Consumption Episodes," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 41-53, June.
    6. Olesya Venger & Terance D. Miethe, 2018. "Volatile Places, Volatile Times: Predicting Revolutionary Situations with Nations’ Governance and Fragility Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 373-402, July.
    7. Vandecasteele, Bert & Geuens, Maggie, 2010. "Motivated Consumer Innovativeness: Concept, measurement, and validation," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 308-318.
    8. Knoeferle, Klemens M. & Paus, Vilhelm Camillus & Vossen, Alexander, 2017. "An Upbeat Crowd: Fast In-store Music Alleviates Negative Effects of High Social Density on Customers’ Spending," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(4), pages 541-549.
    9. Hirschman, Elizabeth C, 1980. "Innovativeness, Novelty Seeking, and Consumer Creativity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 7(3), pages 283-295, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. C. Goukens & S. Dewitte & I. Anthoons, 2003. "When New Feels Good. Enhancing Variety Seeking by Using Subtle Priming," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(3), pages 469-488.
    2. Heidenreich, Sven & Kraemer, Tobias, 2015. "Passive innovation resistance: The curse of innovation? Investigating consequences for innovative consumer behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 134-151.
    3. Nicole Koschate-Fischer & Wayne D. Hoyer & Nicola E. Stokburger-Sauer & Jan Engling, 2018. "Do life events always lead to change in purchase? The mediating role of change in consumer innovativeness, the variety seeking tendency, and price consciousness," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 516-536, May.
    4. Bartels, Jos & Reinders, Machiel J., 2011. "Consumer innovativeness and its correlates: A propositional inventory for future research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 601-609, June.
    5. Arts, Joep W.C. & Frambach, Ruud T. & Bijmolt, Tammo H.A., 2011. "Generalizations on consumer innovation adoption: A meta-analysis on drivers of intention and behavior," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 134-144.
    6. Sadiq, Muhammad Ahsan & Rajeswari, Balasundaram & Ansari, Lubna & Danish Kirmani, Mohd, 2021. "The role of food eating values and exploratory behaviour traits in predicting intention to consume organic foods: An extended planned behaviour approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Tellis, Gerard J. & Chandrasekaran, Deepa, 2010. "Extent and impact of response biases in cross-national survey research," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 329-341.
    8. Truong, Yann, 2013. "A cross-country study of consumer innovativeness and technological service innovation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 130-137.
    9. Arun Kumar Kaushik & Zillur Rahman, 2016. "Self-service innovativeness scale: introduction, development, and validation of scale," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 10(4), pages 799-822, December.
    10. Vandecasteele, Bert & Geuens, Maggie, 2009. "Revising the myth of gay consumer innovativeness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 134-144, January.
    11. Hwang, Jinsoo & Kim, Jinkyung Jenny & Lee, Kwang-Woo, 2021. "Investigating consumer innovativeness in the context of drone food delivery services: Its impact on attitude and behavioral intentions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. B. Vandecasteele & M. Geuens, 2008. "Motivated Consumer Innovativeness: Concept and Measurement," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 08/532, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    13. Oh, Ga-Eun (Grace) & Aliyev, Murod & Kafouros, Mario & Au, Alan Kai Ming, 2022. "The role of consumer characteristics in explaining product innovation performance: Evidence from emerging economies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 713-727.
    14. Vilches-Montero, Sonia & Pandit, Ameet & Bravo-Olavarria, Renzo & Chao, Chih-Wei (Fred), 2018. "What loyal women (and men) want: The role of gender and loyalty program characteristics in driving store loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 64-70.
    15. Reinhardt, Ronny & Gurtner, Sebastian, 2015. "Differences between early adopters of disruptive and sustaining innovations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 137-145.
    16. Muh‐Chyun Tang & I‐Han Liao, 2022. "Preference diversity and openness to novelty: Scales construction from the perspective of movie recommendation," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(9), pages 1222-1235, September.
    17. Catherine Viot & Caroline Bayart & Agnes Lancini, 2017. "The Consumer Intention to Adopt Smart Connected-Products: Does the Category Matter?," Post-Print hal-01991186, HAL.
    18. Anita Gärling & John Thøgersen, 2001. "Marketing of electric vehicles," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 53-65, January.
    19. Hwang, ShinYoung & Kim Seongcheol, 2017. "What triggers the use of mIM service provider’s sequel O2O service extensions?," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168494, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    20. Shen Liu & Hongyan Liu, 2021. "Tagging Items Automatically Based on Both Content Information and Browsing Behaviors," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 882-897, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:39:y:2022:i:4:p:1042-1058. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-research-in-marketing/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.