Role of ‘owned’ money and rational spending

Despite evidence that payment modes can influence spending behaviours, researchers have yet to rationalize how payment modes influence rational or a-rational spending. Evidently, payment modes serve as repositories or ‘stores of value’ and transactions involve ownership transfers of the ‘representative’ or ascribed values. This chapter examines the relationship between positive emotions to forms of owned money and overall grocery spending by examining (a) the mediating role of social gratification and money management and (b) the moderating role of sense of ownership and awareness of spending with payment modes. The data collection involved gathering data on the perceptions of payment mode (PPM) scale among 385 participants from Christchurch, New Zealand. Non-probability criterion-based purposive sampling was utilized. Results revealed social gratification and money management as influential mediators effecting positive emotions towards cash-based payment on rational spending. The sense of ownership and awareness of spending with payment modes moderated the mediated relationship. The studies offer empirical support to explain why sense of ownership and physicality of payment modes influences rational spending, while providing practitioners and consumer researchers with new insight into processes that underlie the concept of ‘owned’ money’