How sales promotions influence impulse buying : the critical role of affect and cognition

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How sales promotions influence impulse buying:

The critical role of affect and cognition

Thèse

Mahshid Omid

Doctorat en Sciences de l’administration

Philosophiæ Doctor (Ph.D.)

Québec, Canada

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Mieux comprendre le rôle des promotions de vente dans

l'achat impulsif: Influence des mécanismes affectifs et

cognitifs

Thèse

Mahshid Omid

Sous la direction de :

Frank Pons, directeur de recherche

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Résumé

Bien que la plupart des recherches antérieures montrent qu'un pourcentage important des achats impulsifs est influencé par des promotions de vente, aucune étude à ce jour n’a examiné les mécanismes psychologiques qui soutiennent cette influence. Cette thèse vise à combler cette lacune importante. Elle étudie les processus affectifs-cognitifs-comportementaux qui sous-tendent l'influence des promotions sur les achats impulsifs. Elle examine également l’influence de catégories de promotions et certains traits de personnalité des consommateurs sur ces processus.

Nous adoptons une approche cognitive-affective de l'achat impulsif qui tend à montrer le rôle de l’affect et la délibération cognitive lors d’influence des stimuli externes sur les comportements impulsifs. Les émotions envers une promotion sont définies en termes d’états affectifs éprouvés par le consommateur à un moment donné envers une promotion particulière. Les groupes d'émotions avec la même polarité sont classés comme l’affect positif ou l’affect négatif. La cognition envers une promotion est définie en termes d’évaluations des bénéfices qui peuvent être obtenus d’une promotion particulière avec l'achat du produit promu. Nous étudions le rôle médiateur de l’affect et de la cognition envers une promotion lors d’un processus d'achat impulsif. Nous examinons également la pertinence de la variable affect envers une promotion en étudiant si l’affect et la cognition jouent des rôles complémentaires ou redondants dans la prédiction du comportement du consommateur. Nos résultats révèlent que deux mécanismes distincts coexistants, soit le transfert de l’affect et de la cognition, sous-tendent l’achat impulsif des produits en promotion. En accord avec la théorie de l'Appraisal, les évaluations cognitives de bénéfices d’une promotion génèrent une réaction affective chez les consommateurs. Cette dernière à son tour influence leur comportement d’achat impulsif.

Des recherches antérieures constatent que les réponses impulsives des consommateurs aux promotions diffèrent d'une catégorie de promotion à l'autre. Cependant, la cause de cette différence est peu étudiée dans la littérature. Cette thèse vise à combler cette lacune. Nous attribuons cette différence au fait que les antécédents psychologiques varient entre les achats de produits promus avec différents types de promotions. Par conséquent, nous examinons le rôle modérateur de la catégorie de promotion dans le processus d'achat impulsif. Nos résultats confirment notre hypothèse. Ils démontrent que l'achat impulsif d'un produit promu par une promotion nonmonétaire est un acte de plaisir. La cognition hédonique et l’affect positif que les consommateurs éprouvent ont une influence significative sur leur achat impulsif. D'autre part, dans le cas des promotions monétaires les consommateurs font une évaluation coût-bénéfice dans laquelle ils considèrent également leur cognition utilitaire et l’affect négatif qu'ils éprouvent vers la promotion de ventes.

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Le dernier volet de cette recherche étudie comment le processus d'achat impulsif de produits en promotion diffère parmi les consommateurs ayant des traits de personnalité distincts. Nous choisissons deux traits de personnalité qui sont liés à l'attention et la réaction des consommateurs aux promotions et à leur tendance à faire des achats impulsifs, soit la tendance à l'impulsivité dans l'achat et la sensibilité aux promotions de vente. Nos résultats démontrent que ces traits influencent l’affect et la cognition que le consommateur éprouve envers une promotion. Ils modèrent également les rôles des mécanismes affectifs et cognitifs dans le processus d’achat impulsif. Les résultats de notre analyse de la relation entre ces traits de personnalité démontrent que les deux traits augmentent des impulsions et des achats impulsifs. Cependant, ils diffèrent en termes des réactions affectives et cognitives sous-jacentes. Les consommateurs impulsifs font des achats impulsifs en raison de leur forte tendance à chercher des récompenses, alors que l'achat impulsif des consommateurs sensibles aux promotions est un acte délibératif de l'auto-indulgence pour bénéficier des avantages utilitaires des promotions.

Cette thèse apporte des contributions importantes à la littérature. Parmi tous, nos résultats montrent comment les promotions de ventes encouragent les consommateurs à acheter sur impulsion. Il est confirmé que l’affect envers une promotion est un prédicteur important de réponses promotionnelles qui a été négligé dans les recherches précédentes. En outre, la catégorie de promotion et les traits de personnalité se trouvent à modérer les processus affectifs-cognitifs-comportementaux d’achat impulsif. Enfin, les implications managériales sont fournies pour manipuler des caractéristiques de promotion des ventes dans le but d'encourager les achats impulsifs à travers les consommateurs avec différents traits de personnalité.

Mots clés : Comportement de l'acheteur, Achat impulsif, Promotion de vente, Réponse émotionnelle, Affect

envers une promotion de vente, Réponse cognitive, Cognition envers une promotion de vente, Tendance à l'impulsivité dans l'achat, Sensibilité aux promotions de vente

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Abstract

Although past research demonstrates that a significant percentage of impulsive purchases come from sales promotions, no studies to date have examined the psychological mechanisms leading to this influence. To better understand the role of sales promotions in impulse buying situations, this dissertation aims to address this critical gap. To this end, first of all, we investigate cognitive-affective-behavioural processes underlying the influence of sales promotions on impulsive purchases. Further, we examine the moderating role of sales promotions category on these processes. Finally, we study how these processes differ among consumers with different personality traits.

This dissertation adopts a cognitive-affective approach to impulse buying. It claims that cognitive deliberation also plays a mediating role between external stimuli and impulse buying behaviour, although affective reactions would have more influence. Emotions towards promotions are defined in terms of subjective feeling states experienced by consumers at a given point of time towards a promotion. Clusters of emotions with the same polarity are referred to as either positive or negative promotion affect. Promotion cognition is defined as the evaluative meaning of a sales promotion in terms of the benefits that can be derived out of it with the purchase of the promoted product. We investigate the mediating role of promotion affect and promotion cognitions in impulse buying process of promoted products. We also examine the relevance of the construct of promotion affect by studying whether promotion affect and promotion cognition play complementary or redundant roles in predicting consumer impulsive behaviour. Our results reveal that two separate coexisting mechanisms, affect transfer and cognitions, are the underlying foundations of impulse buying decisions of promoted products. Consistent with the Appraisal theory, cognitive evaluation of the benefits of a promotion prompts consumer affective responses. This promotion affect in turn mediates the influence of promotion cognitions on consumer impulse buying behaviour.

Past research finds that consumer impulsive responses to promotions differ from a sales promotion category to other. However, the cause underlying this difference is still understudied in the literature. This dissertation aims to address this gap. It attributes this difference to the fact that psychological antecedents vary between purchases of products promoted with different types of promotions. Therefore, it examines the moderating role of sales promotion category on the process of impulse buying. The results confirm this role. They demonstrate that impulsive purchase of a product promoted by a non-monetary sales promotion is an all pleasure act; hedonic promotion cognitions and positive promotion affect that consumers experience have a significant influence on their impulsive purchase. On the other hand, in the case of monetary sales promotions, consumers make a cost-benefit evaluation where they also consider their utilitarian cognitions and negative affect that they may experience towards the sales promotion.

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The role of consumer personality traits is emphasized in both the impulse buying and behavioural pricing literature. To contribute to this understanding, this dissertation investigates the role of consumer personality traits in cognitive-affective triggers of impulsive promotional responses. Two consumer personality traits related to consumers’ attention and reaction to sales promotions and their propensity to make impulsive purchases are buying impulsiveness trait and deal-proneness trait. The results confirm that these traits influence affect and cognition that consumers experience towards promotions. They also moderate the process of impulse buying. Moreover, the results of our analysis about the relationship between buying impulsiveness and deal-proneness traits show that although both traits result in increased buying urges and impulsive purchases, they differ in focus and underlying affective and cognitive reactions. Impulsive consumers make impulsive purchases due to their strong reward seeking tendency, whereas the impulsive purchase of deal-prone consumers is a deliberative act of self-indulgence to gain from utilitarian benefits of promotional offers.

This dissertation makes important contributions to the behavioural pricing and impulse buying literature. Our results demonstrate how sales promotions encourage consumers to purchase on impulse. We also confirm that promotion affect is a previously overlooked standalone predictor of consumer promotional responses. Moreover, sales promotion category and consumer personality traits are found to moderate cognitive-affective-behavioural triggers of impulsive promotional purchases. Finally, managerial implications are provided and it is discussed how to manipulate sales promotion characteristics in order to encourage impulsive purchases across consumers with different levels of buying impulsiveness and deal-proneness traits.

Keywords: Buyer behaviour, Impulse buying, Sales promotion, Emotional response, Promotion affect,

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List of Tables

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of pre-test participants ... 38

Table 2: Descriptive statistics of main study participants ... 39

Table 3: Descriptive statistics of participant subgroups ... 39

Table 4: Descriptive statistics of participant subgroups ... 40

Table 5: Statistics of impulsiveness score of the eight selected product categories ... 44

Table 6: Results of the exploratory factor analysis ... 45

Table 7: Comparison of values between situations with and without sales promotions ... 46

Table 8: Comparison of mean values between situations with and without an impulsive purchase ... 47

Table 9: Testing the Appraisal theory in the sales promotion context ... 49

Table 10: Comparison of values between impulsive and nonimpulsive consumers ... 52

Table 11: Comparison of values between deal-prone and nondeal-prone consumers ... 55

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Table of Figures

Figure 1: General organisation of the dissertation ... 6 Figure 2: Conceptual Model: A psychological model of the influence of sales promotions on impulse buying . 37 Figure 3: Comparison of values between situations with and without sales promotions ... 46 Figure 4: Analysis of the structural model using standardized coefficients ... 48 Figure 5: Analysis of the structural model of subgroups with significant discounts and free gifts using

standardized coefficients ... 50 Figure 6: Comparison of values between impulsive and nonimpulsive consumers ... 52 Figure 7: Analysis of the structural model for impulsive and nonimpulsive consumers using standardized coefficients ... 53 Figure 8: Comparison of values between deal-prone and nondual-prone consumers ... 55 Figure 9: Analysis of the structural model for deal-prone and nondeal-prone consumers using standardized coefficients ... 56

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Acknowledgement

The present work is dedicated to my parents, Zahra and Mostafa. Without their unconditional love and never-ending support, I would not have come so far.

I express my sincere gratitude to my doctoral advisor, Professor Frank Pons. In sharing his insightful advice and guidance and showing great interest and belief in my research, he has provided me with a pleasurable learning experience.

I am very grateful to the co-referees of my doctoral committee, Professor André Richelieu, Professor Nizar Souiden, and Professor Mehdi Mourali. Their comments and feedback have been an invaluable input to my research.

Last but not least, I am keenly thankful to my family, friends, and colleagues, who supported and encouraged me through this research.

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Introduction

‘What makes your store a profit powerhouse is the extent to which it sells each customer something he or she did not intend to buy while making the planned purchase’ (Lewis, 1993, p. 24).

Impulse buying is increasingly salient among consumers across a broad range of product categories so that it is recognized as one of the main determinants of today’s companies’ sales revenue, specifically in the retailing and e-marketing sectors (Hausman, 2000; Vohs & Faber, 2007; Zhou & Wong, 2004). For instance, about 67% of groceries (Economides & Economides, 2007), 80% of luxury goods (Ruvio & Belk, 2013) and 48% of books are purchased on impulse (Pollara Survey, 2002). A recent study by BMO Financial Group reports that in 2012 every Canadian spent an average of $3,720 on impulsive purchases, with 31% of consumers borrowed money or took out a loan to pay for their impulsive spending. Moreover, 23% of consumers reported that due to spending on their impulses they could not afford what they needed (BMO Financial Group, 2012).

The importance of impulse buying phenomenon was the trigger of a multitude of research from academics and practitioners over the last seventy years. Impulsive purchase is defined as an unplanned purchase, resulted from a powerful, persistent, irresistible impulsive urge created by the store environment (e.g., Applebaum, 1951; Rook, 1987; Weun et al., 1998). The influence of different aspects of store environment (e.g., music, lighting, layout, scent, temperature, and signage) on impulsive purchases has been investigated (e.g., Levy & Weitz, 2007; Peck & Childers, 2006; Verplanken & Herabadi, 2001). In particular, price and in-store sales promotions are determined as major initiators of such purchases (e.g., Applebaum, 1951; Jalan, 2006; Kacen et al., 2012; Rook, 1987; Rook & Fisher, 1995; Tendai & Crispen, 2009; Weun et al., 1998; Williams & Dardis, 1972). For instance, BMO Financial Group (2012)’s study reports that at least 55% of consumers make impulsive purchases because a specific item is discounted. This kind of observations made the role of sales promotions more salient, which led to growing use of in-store promotional activities in the retailing industry. Sales promotions have become the most prominent marketing strategy of consumer packaged goods while accounting for a quarter of marketing budget of consumer product companies (Raghubir et al., 2004). For instance in 2008 Procter & Gamble Co. spent $3.5 billion on sales promotions and shopper marketing (Neff, 2009).

Although the influence of sales promotions on impulse buying caught the attention of several researchers and despite the number of research about impulse buying in retail settings, the important role of consumer psychological reactions to sales promotions has been relatively understudied. Researchers only investigated ‘whether’ sales promotions increase impulse buying while ignoring the ‘why’ and ‘how’ aspects of this influence. It led to a critical gap in the impulse buying literature, since although the influence of promotional

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stimuli on impulse buying is important, these stimuli do not cause all impulsive purchases and it is essential to study consumer internal mechanisms that are at the origin of impulsive purchases (Rook, 1987). This dissertation aims to address this gap. Therefore, its main research question is: why and how sales promotions influence impulse buying? In other words, through what psychological processes sales promotions influence impulse buying? This question leads to the following sub-questions: (1) What role consumer emotions play in the process of impulse buying of promoted products? (2) What role consumer cognitions play in the process of impulse buying of promoted products? (3) What is the interplay between emotions and cognitions in this process? (4) How sales promotion category influences the process of impulse buying? (5) How consumer personality traits influence the process of impulse buying of promoted products? The following explains why these sub-questions are important and how this dissertation aims to answer them.

(1) What role consumer emotions play in the process of impulse

buying of promoted products?

The relationship between emotions and consumer behaviour is well established in the literature. The impulse buying research demonstrates that impulsive purchase occurs when a consumer spontaneously feels strong emotions towards an in-store stimulus, which in turn give rise to a sudden, powerful, irresistible urge to buy on impulse (Baun & Gröppel-Klein, 2003; Beatty & Ferrell, 1998; Rook, 1987; Weinberg & Gottwald, 1982). For decades, the behavioural pricing research was cognitively biased and did not pay enough attention to consumer emotions (Peine et al., 2009). However, there is suggestive evidence that a relevant part of consumer responses to sales promotions is related to their affective reactions (Honea & Dahl, 2005). Given that this research lies at the intersection of the impulse buying and behavioural pricing literature, these findings lead us to our first research sub-question: what role consumer emotions play in the process of impulse buying of promoted products?

To answer this question, we define promotion affect as consumer emotional reactions to a sales promotion and investigate whether promotion affect mediates the influence of a sales promotion on impulsive purchase. In line with Honea and Dahl (2005), we adopt a two-dimensional conceptualization of promotion affect: positive and negative. This research is the first study about the relationship between promotion affect and impulsive purchase. Besides contributing to the clarification of the process of impulse buying, we contribute to growing understanding of the important role of consumer emotions in both the behavioural pricing and impulse buying literature.

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(2) What role consumer cognitions play in the process of impulse

buying of promoted products?

The relationship between cognitions and consumer behaviour is well supported in the literature. Impulse buying research demonstrates that cognitive deliberation plays a part in impulse buying decisions. It is shown that the information related to an external stimulus can be subject to deliberative processes focused on long-term rational concerns, short-long-term emotional concerns, or both (Burroughs, 1996; Shiv & Fedorikhin, 2002; Youn & Faber, 2000). As discussed above, the influence of cognitive price-related constructs on consumer behaviour is well established in the behavioural pricing literature. These findings lead us to our second research sub-question: what role consumer cognitions play in the process of impulse buying of promoted products?

A cognitive construct well established in the behavioural pricing literature is ‘consumer perceived value.' It is demonstrated that consumers respond to sales promotions because of the benefits that they provide (Keller, 1993). Therefore, in this dissertation, promotion cognition is defined as the evaluative meaning of a sales promotion in terms of the benefits that can be derived out of it with the purchase of the promoted product (Tesser & Martin, 1996). In line with Chandon et al. (2000), we distinguish between hedonic and utilitarian benefits of sales promotions. As a result, we utilize a two-dimensional conceptualization of promotion cognition: hedonic and utilitarian. With the aim of contributing to the clarification of the process of impulse buying, we investigate the mediating role of promotion cognition in impulsive responses to sales promotions. This is the first research about the relationship between promotion cognition and impulsive purchase.

(3) What is the interplay between emotions and cognitions in this

process?

Previous consumer research demonstrates that affect and cognition influence behaviour jointly, but independently (Ajzen, 2001; Bargh, 2002; Cohen & Areni, 1991; Edwards, 1990; Schwarz, 2000; Sojka & Giese, 1997). The impulse buying literature also shows that affective and cognitive mechanisms are operating concurrently to shape impulsive purchases (Hoch & Loewenstein, 1991; Rook & Hoch, 1985). Furthermore, Peine et al. (2009) for the first time indicate that consumer response to price-increase information is a two-dimensional construct consisting of both affective and cognitive dimensions. These findings lead us to our third research sub-question: what is the interplay between emotions and cognitions in the process of impulse buying of promoted products?

To answer this question, we examine the simultaneous influence of promotion affect and promotion cognitions and determine whether these mechanisms play complementary or redundant roles in predicting consumer impulsive behaviour. The influence of promotion affect and promotion cognition on consumer behaviour has

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been studied separately in the past and no studies to date have examined their simultaneous influence. Therefore, this is the first research in this domain and makes an important contribution to the sales promotion literature by investigating the blurred relationship between promotion affect and promotion cognition constructs. We also examine the relevance of the construct of promotion affect via evaluating its predictive validity and mediating role in conjunction with promotion cognition construct. Our findings contribute to both the behavioural pricing and impulse buying literature.

(4) Does sales promotion category influence the process of

impulse buying?

Although past research finds that different types of sales promotions influence impulse buying in quite different ways (Kacen et al., 2012; Liao et al., 2009), the underlying cause of this difference is not clear yet. We found a possible explanation in a comment by Blattberg and Neslin (1990). They note that the psychological antecedents vary across the purchase of products promoted with different sales promotions. It leads us to our fourth research sub-question: does sales promotion category influence the process of impulse buying of promoted products?

To answer this question, we investigate consumer impulsive responses to two different types of sales promotions, monetary versus nonmonetary, and examine how sales promotion category moderates the mediational role of promotion affect and promotion cognition in consumer impulsive responses to these promotions. The results will determine whether for a certain type of sales promotions the ability to evoke affect is more influential, whereas cognitions are more pivotal for others. They also clarify under what conditions promotion cognitions focus on the hedonic consequences of choosing an offer and when they focus on its utilitarian properties. Among all, we contribute to the understanding of psychological correlates of consumer promotional responses in both the behavioural pricing and impulse buying literature.

(5) How consumer personality traits influence the process of

impulse buying of promoted products?

There is a growing interest in the role of consumer personality characteristics in the impulse buying literature. It is argued that although the influence of external stimuli on impulse buying is important, these stimuli do not cause all impulsive purchases. It is thus essential to study personal characteristics that trigger consumers to act on impulse (Chang et al., 2011; Rook & Hoch, 1985; Yu & Bastin, 2010). The behavioural pricing literature also emphasizes the role of consumer personality characteristics. For instance, it is shown that consumers are very heterogeneous regarding their attention and reaction to price and sales promotions (e.g., Buil et al., 2013; Talukdar et al., 2010). These observations lead us to our fifth research sub-question: how consumer personality traits influence the process of impulse buying of promoted products?

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Given that this dissertation lies at the intersection of the behavioural pricing literature and the impulse buying literature, we are only interested in consumer personality traits that are related to consumers’ attention and reaction to sales promotions as well as their propensity to make impulsive purchases. Buying impulsiveness trait, or impulse buying tendency (these terms are used interchangeably in the literature), and deal-proneness trait fit in this framework. We investigate how buying impulsiveness and deal-proneness traits influence cognitive-affective triggers of impulsive promotional responses. Among all, the results contribute to the growing understanding of consumer psychological differences in the impulse buying and behavioural pricing literature.

Although consumer behaviour researchers have shown a great interest in investigating the role of buying impulsiveness trait and deal-proneness trait, these research areas have been studied separately, and the relationship between these traits did not catch enough attention from researchers. The existing literature is not thus able to fully demonstrate the differences that exist between impulsive and deal-prone consumers. To address this gap, this dissertation investigates whether buying impulsiveness and deal-proneness traits moderate the psychological reactions underlying the impulsive purchase of promoted products in different ways. The results make an important contribution to the investigation of the blurred relationship between affect, cognition, impulsive purchase, buying impulsiveness, and deal-proneness constructs.

In sum, the present dissertation models and explains all aspects of why and how sales promotions reinforce impulse buying behaviour and specifies the linkages among psychological affective and cognitive mechanisms, impulsive urge to buy, impulse buying behaviour, sales promotion category, and consumer buying impulsiveness and deal-proneness traits. Among all, our findings provide a better understanding of the role of sales promotions in impulse buying situations while demonstrating which mechanism under which condition has the greater influence on impulsive purchases. It also contributes to the limited understanding of consumer personal differences in impulse buying behaviour (Kalla & Arora, 2011), specifically in the context of sales promotions. This knowledge helps to improve the prediction of consumer impulsive behaviour towards promotional stimuli. It also could be used to design the sales promotions that generate more impulsive purchases.

General Organisation of the Dissertation

This introduction presented the relevance and importance of this dissertation. The next four chapters are devoted to presenting the literature review, the conceptual framework, the methodology, and the results in details. The final section is a general conclusion that discusses the main results, the theoretical and managerial contributions, and finally the limits and future research avenues. Figure 1 depicts the general organisation of this dissertation.

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Figure 1: General organisation of the dissertation

Conclusion and Discussion:

Theoretical Contributions, Summary of Findings, Managerial Implications, Limits and Future Research

Chapter 1: Literature Review

Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 3: Results

Sub-question 1:

What role consumer emotions play in the process of impulse buying of promoted

products?

Sub-question 2:

What role consumer cognitions play in the process of impulse buying of promoted products? Sub-question 3: What is the interplay between emotions and cognitions in this process? Research Question:

Why and how sales promotions influence impulse buying? In other words, through what psychological processes sales promotions influence impulse buying?

Sub-question 4: Does sales promotion category influence the process of impulse buying? Sub-question 5: How personality traits influence the process of impulse buying of promoted

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Chapter 1: Literature Review

Influence of Sales Promotions on Impulse Buying

The notion of exposure to external stimuli is firstly introduced to the impulse buying literature by Applebaum (1951). He argues that impulse buying is a purchase not planned by the consumer before entering a store, but resulted from an urge created by the promotional device in the store. Similarly, Rook and Gardner (1993) and Weun et al. (1998) state that impulsive purchase is a reactive behaviour that happens when a consumer experiences an unplanned, uncontrolled, spontaneous urge towards a stimulus encountered in the buying situation. It is argued that the store environment stimulates impulse buying by increasing consumer interest in different aspects of the store and capturing their attention to tempting items via in-store displays and promotions (Cobb & Hoyer, 1986; Cox, 1964; Dittmar et al., 1995). The findings show that different aspects of store environment (e.g., music, lighting, layout, scent, temperature, and signage) affect consumer decision-making process and their consequent impulse buying behaviours (e.g., Levy & Weitz, 2007; Peck & Childers, 2006; Verplanken & Herabadi, 2001).

In this regard, sales promotions are found to have one of the strongest influences on impulsive purchases. Williams and Dardis (1972) find that products on a promotional price prompt more impulsive purchases than non-promotionally priced products do. Accordingly, Jalan (2006) states that price and in-store sales promotions act as major initiators of impulsive urge and consequent impulsive purchases. Tendai and Crispen (2009)’s study demonstrates that factors of an economic nature (e.g., price, sales promotions) are more likely to influence impulse buying than those with an atmospheric effect. Kacen et al. (2012) also indicate that in-store factors may facilitate the impulsive decision by drawing consumer attention to a product and enhancing its appeal. In particular, their results show that a store environment with a low-high pricing strategy influences impulse buying the most, while on sale products are more likely to be purchased on impulse than products that are not on sale.

Given the important influence of sales promotions on impulsive purchases, the present dissertation investigates the mechanisms involved at the consumer level regarding this influence. The next section defines impulse buying using a cognitive-affective approach. It is followed by illustrating the interplay of cognitive and affective reactions resulting in buying on impulse. Further, we discuss how sales promotion category and consumer personality traits influence cognitive-affective triggers of impulsive promotional responses.

Cognitive-Affective Approach to Impulse Buying

The role of affect is firstly introduced to the impulse buying literature by Rook (1987). Based on the experiential approach to consumer behaviour analysis (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982), Rook defines impulse buying as an

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unplanned purchase where a consumer spontaneously feels positive affect towards a product or some promotional stimuli, which in turn gives rise to a sudden, often powerful, irresistible, and persistent urge to buy something immediately. His results show that impulse buying is hedonically complex and may stimulate emotional conflict by eliciting both pleasure and guilt in consumers. Impulsive buyers may simultaneously experience positive (e.g., good, happy, satisfied, light, wonderful, high, self-indulgent, frivolous, naughty) and negative feelings (e.g., strange, blank, restless, and nervous). In the same vein, Hoyer and MacInnis (2001) describe impulsive purchases as low-effort, feeling-based decisions that are more associated with emotions than with cognitive processing. Accordingly, Baun and Gröppel-Klein (2003) argue that impulse buying is the result of a decision-making phenomenon that is not directly and solely determined by external stimuli and needs to be studied in a more affective perspective. Their results show that the experience of positive emotions like joy and surprise along with low cognitive control experienced during an unplanned purchasing situation can differentiate impulsive purchases from ordinary purchases. Lee and Yi (2008)’s study also shows that impulse buying is often associated with intense feeling states.

Although the role of affect in impulse buying is extensively highlighted in the literature, there is suggestive evidence that affective reactions are not the only processes that influence impulsive decisions. Cognitive deliberation also plays a part in impulse buying decisions. In other words, the information related to a tempting stimulus can also be subject to cognitive deliberation. Rook and Hoch (1985) report that even at the height of impulse buying episodes consumers engage in ‘inner dialogues’ to cope with their buying impulses. These dialogues testify to consumers’ cognitive efforts. These cognitions may be associated with the potential negative consequences that impulsive purchases may have on consumer personal finance, post-purchase satisfaction, social reactions, or overall self-esteem (Rook & Fisher, 1995). However, the irresistible impulsive urge to buy may discourage consumers from considering these negative cognitions (Hoch & Loewenstein, 1991). In their study about the relationship between mood and impulse buying, Rook and Gardner (1993) approach impulse buying as an umbrella that includes varying degrees of spontaneous and deliberative behaviours. Berkowitz (1993) and LeDoux (1995, 1996) also suggest that impulsive behaviours prompted by affective reactions to an object can also be a result of higher-order processing when consumers allocate processing resources to their decision tasks. Furthermore, Burroughs (1996) states that cognitions involved in impulse buying are more than previously reported. Consumers utilize holistic information processing; they evaluate the purchase decision with great speed by generalizing product information, compare quite immediately though perhaps inadvertently its symbolic meanings to their self-image, and make an impulsive purchase once a match between the product and their self-image is found. This observation is in line with Cobb and Hoyer (1986) who note that impulsive buyers do in-store information processing and utilize simple cognitive evaluations to select a product or brand. Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999) argue that a spontaneous, short response to a purchase stimulus may involve higher-order controlled cognitive processes. Moreover, Shiv and

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Fedorikhin (1999, 2002)’s study shows that there are situations when consumers spend a lot of cognitive efforts that lead to impulsive behaviour. They explain that the information related to a stimulus can be subject to deliberative processes focused on the adverse consequences or the affect-laden results of choosing the stimulus, or both. These observations are supported by Dholakia (2000) and Youn and Faber (2000) who note that impulsive purchase decisions may be based on both long-term rational concerns and short-term emotional concerns. A recent study by Miao (2011) also demonstrates that although impulse buying has a spontaneous nature, consumers do go through a cognitive evaluation process to make normative judgments about their impulsive behaviours. This normative evaluation may happen subconsciously. Taking the findings of the above studies, the present dissertation adopts a cognitive-affective approach to impulse buying, which claims that cognitive deliberation plays a role in impulse buying decisions, although affect would have more influences.

It is noteworthy that the impulsive literature is mainly focused on negative cognitions associated with acting on impulse, while impulsive behaviours can also be associated with positive cognitions. In contradiction to the traditional and extreme societal view of impulsive behaviours, few researchers extended the analysis of impulse buying beyond a dysfunctional approach. They argued that impulsive behaviours would also be associated with benefits. For instance, Rook and Fisher (1995) suggest that impulse buying has usually been characterised as ‘being bad’ and causing negative consequences for personal finance, post-purchase satisfaction, social reactions, and overall self-esteem. However, there are situations in which impulse buying is viewed as a normatively neutral or even positively sanctioned behaviour, such as buying a product on impulse to take advantage of a store special. Rook and Fisher (1995) explain that in this kind of situations impulse buying is more virtuously motivated and elicits more positive cognitions. Likewise, Puri (1996) states that impulsive behaviours can provide several benefits, including the pleasure of yielding to temptations or any image-oriented benefits of avoiding control. Hausman (2000)’s study demonstrates that most consumers do not regard impulsive purchases as wrong and express a favourable evaluation of their impulsive behaviours. She emphasizes that once hedonic benefits are considered, impulse buying can be viewed as a valued pastime rather than just a means to grab goods. Similarly, Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999, 2002) show that the information related to a stimulus can be subject to deliberative processes focused on positive affect-laden attributes of choosing it. Based on these findings and opposite to mainstream studies of impulse buying, the present dissertation focuses on positive cognitions (instead of negative cognitions) that consumers experience while making an impulsive purchase. This quality can differentiate our research from common studies on impulse buying.

Cognitive Reactions to Sales Promotions or Promotion Cognition

Over the past thirty years, the increasing importance of pricing decisions led to a multitude of studies in the behavioural pricing domain. These studies mainly focused on the cognitive content of consumer reactions

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(Chandon, 1995). A cognitive reaction refers to evaluative judgments about the essence of a target and is derived from a process whereby consumers consider descriptive qualities of the target and map them onto an evaluation (Pham et al., 2001). According to the ‘cognitive approach’ (Raju & Hastak, 1980), a sales promotion is considered as a cue at the point of purchase that triggers certain psychological processes in consumer mind, including encoding the promotion and using it in the formation of beliefs used in the evaluation of the offer as well as post-trial experiences (Gardner & Strang, 1984). A cognitive construct well established in the behavioural pricing literature is ‘consumer perceived value’ (e.g., Christou, 2011; Fam et al., 2013; Jamal et al., 2012; Kwok & Uncles, 2005; Laroche et al., 2003; Mishra et al., 2012). The perceived value is defined as the benefits that a consumer attaches to a product (Keller, 1993). Consistent with this definition, the present dissertation defines promotion cognition in terms of the personal value that a consumer attaches in a given point of time to a promotional offer. Therefore, promotion cognition reflects the perceived benefits of a certain promotion for a certain consumer. As follows, we explain different dimensions of promotion cognition construct.

Past research made a distinction between utilitarian (extrinsic) benefits and hedonic (intrinsic) benefits (Holbrook, 1994; Stewart & Furse, 1986). Utilitarian benefits are primarily instrumental, functional, and cognitive, and are used as a means to an end. On the other hand, hedonic benefits are non-instrumental, experiential, and affective, and are appreciated for their own sake without considering their practical ends (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982). For two decades, the sales promotion literature was mainly based on the assumption that sales promotion benefits for consumers are limited to economic benefits (see Blattberg & Neslin, 1993 for a review). Few researchers have also emphasized the hedonic benefits generated by the purchase of promoted products (Schindler, 1989; Shimp & Kavas, 1984). Chandon et al. (2000) integrated both perspectives. They define sales promotion benefits as the perceived value attached to the sales promotion experience, including promotion exposure (e.g., seeing a promotion on a product) and usage (e.g., redeeming a coupon or buying a promoted product). The result of their study is a multi-benefit framework that classifies sales promotion benefits into utilitarian benefits (helping consumers maximize the utility, efficiency, and economy of their shopping) and hedonic benefits (providing intrinsic stimulation, fun, and self-esteem). According to this framework, sales promotions may provide consumers with monetary savings (savings benefit) or reduce the price of otherwise unaffordable products and enable consumers to upgrade to higher-quality products (higher-quality benefit). They may also advertise the availability and the promotional status of products at the point of sales and reduce consumer search and decision costs and improve their shopping convenience (convenience benefit). Sales promotions may also increase consumer self-perception of being smart or a good shopper and provide them with the opportunity to reaffirm their personal values (value expression benefit). Sales promotions may also create an ever-changing shopping environment, produce stimulation, and fulfil consumer need for information and exploration (exploration benefit), or provide consumers with an entertaining shopping or consumption experience (entertainment benefit). In this

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framework, savings, quality, and convenience benefits are classified as utilitarian benefits and entertainment and exploration benefits as hedonic benefits. The value-expression benefit entails both hedonic and utilitarian dimensions.

This dissertation adopts Chandon et al. (2000)’s framework. As a result, it utilizes a two-dimensional conceptualization of promotion cognitions. In line with Tesser and Martin (1996), we define hedonic cognitions as the evaluative meaning of a certain sales promotion in terms of the pleasure that can be derived out of it with the purchase of the promoted product. Consistently, we define utilitarian cognitions as the evaluative meaning of a certain sales promotion in terms of the functional utility that can be derived out of it with the purchase of the promoted product.

Affective Reactions to Sales Promotions or Promotion Affect

Bodenhausen (1993) suggests that when studying the effects of emotions on judgment, decision, or behaviour, one should differentiate between incidental emotional states and integral emotional responses. Incidental emotional states are associated with pre-existing mood or enduring emotional dispositions (e.g., chronic anxiety). Therefore, they are unrelated to the object of judgement or decision. On the other hand, integral emotional responses are emotions and feelings evoked by real, perceived, or even imagined features of the stimulus (Cohen et al., 2008). The focus of this dissertation is on integral emotional responses that consumers experience in the presence of promotional offers.

We define emotions towards sales promotions as subjective feeling states that consumer experiences in a given point of time towards a given sales promotion (such as joy, anger, or excitements) (Fiore & Kim, 2007). Clusters of emotions with the same polarity are referred to as either positive promotion affect or negative promotion affect (Oliver, 1997). A large body of theory and evidence suggests that emotions can be described in terms of two primary dimensions that form a circumplex. Watson and Tellegen (1985) indicate positive affectivity and negative affectivity as the two primary distinguishable orthogonal dimensions of this circumplex. Honea and Dahl (2005) support these findings in the sales promotion domain. They show that emotions experienced by consumers towards a promotional purchase can be classified into positive and negative valenced affective responses. Consistently, this dissertation adopts a two-dimensional conceptualization of promotion affect. In doing so, we hypothesize that positive and negative promotion affect make independent contributions to enhance the prediction of consumer impulsive behaviours towards sales promotions.

In recent years, affect has been a subject of increasing interest to consumer behaviour researchers. The idea of rational decision making wherein emotions and feelings are noises has been rejected. It is found that moods, feelings, and emotions are important determinants of consumer behaviour and decision making

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without their effects is impossible (e.g., Ajzen, 2001; Cohen & Areni, 1991; Damasio, 2000; Derbaix & Pham, 1991; Havlena & Holbrook, 1986; Lazarus, 1991a; Pham et al., 2001). The relationship between emotions and purchase behaviour is also well supported in the retailing literature (Donovan et al., 1994). A growing stream of research provides evidence that affective reactions are generated in response to purchase environment (e.g., Yoo et al., 1998), product and service consumption (e.g., Oliver, 1994), and marketing mix variables such as advertisements (e.g., Aaker et al., 1988). These affective responses are found to influence consumer attitudes, evaluations, and behaviour (e.g., Burke & Edell, 1989; Gardner & Rook, 1988; Rook, 1987).

Although in other areas of consumer research the role of affect is well established, the sales promotion literature has mainly focused on cognitive price-related phenomena such as perceived value judgments (e.g., Bearden et al., 1984; Berkowitz & Walton, 1980; Biswas & Blair, 1991; Blair & Landon, 1979; Blattberg & Neslin, 1990; Della Bitta et al., 1981; Folkes & Wheat, 1995; Hardesty & Bearden, 2003; Lichtenstein & Bearden, 1989; Urbany et al., 1988), price threshold (e.g., Blair & Landon, 1979; Della Bitta et al., 1981; Gupta & Cooper, 1992), price-quality inferences (e.g., Chandon, 1995; Davis et al., 1992; Gardner & Strang, 1984; Kahn & Louie, 1990; Kelley, 1973; Lichtenstein & Bearden, 1986; Lichtenstein et al., 1991; Neslin & Shoemaker, 1989; Olson & Fazio, 2001; Priya, 2004; Raghubir & Corfman, 1999), price knowledge (e.g., Grewal et al., 1996; Inman et al., 1990), and reference price (e.g., Diamond & Johnson, 1990; Kalwani & Yim, 1992; Kalwani et al., 1990; Kalyanaram & Winer, 1995; Lattin & Bucklin, 1989; Mayhew & Winer, 1992; Priya, 2004; Winer, 1986). Because of this cognitive bias, poor attention has been paid to the role of affect in consumer promotional responses.

Regardless of this cognitive bias, there is still suggestive evidence that affective reactions are important contributors to consumer responses to sales promotions. Some researchers indicate that promotions influence consumers through a feeling-based route. Scott (1976) was the first to argue that the effectiveness of a promotional offer can be explained through the affect that it generates in consumers. Moreover, Schindler (1989) and Inman et al. (1990) note that promotional purchases can result in specific pride-related responses such as feeling like a smart shopper. Lichtenstein et al. (1995) and Lichtenstein et al. (1997a) demonstrate that deal-prone consumers develop links between their liking of specific kinds of sales promotions and their inclination to buy products promoted by those promotions. Laroche et al. (2003) endorse this finding, stating that feeling good about using promotions positively influences consumer purchase intentions of promoted products. Heilman et al. (2002) note that a surprise coupon can elevate consumer mood and subsequently increase their basket size. According to Naylor et al. (2006), since consumers have repeatedly associated promotional stimuli to positive outcomes (e.g., monetary savings or feeling smart), positive affective responses may be conditioned to be evoked on exposure to promotional stimuli. The resulted positive reactions in turn may be generalized to products that are subsequently evaluated. Shirai (2009) shows that unexpectedly low

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prices arouse feelings of surprised, amazed, pleased, excited, enthusiastic, contented, and thrilled in consumers; these emotions in turn mediate the effect of the price experience on purchase intentions. Moreover, Palazon and Delgado-Ballester (2013)’s study about affective and cognitive reactions involved in choosing between hedonic and utilitarian free gifts shows that when a hedonic premium is preferred, affective reactions exert a direct impact on purchase intention of the promotional offer.

Consumer responses to promotional activities may also entail negative affect. Mittal (1994) proposes that consumers may feel ambivalent towards coupons; they may experience an approach-avoidance feeling due to monetary benefits versus hassle and negative enjoyment of couponing. d'Astous and Jacob (2002)’s study demonstrates that consumers may feel negative feelings regarding premium-based promotional offers due to lack of interest in the product category or the gift or the perceived complexity of the offer. Their study on the perceived dishonesty of the offer shows that mentioning the gift value may also have ambivalent effects. It increases consumer appreciation of the offer. It also can get consumers to the inference that there would be some gimmick behind the offer, which in turn results in consumer perception of manipulation. Raghubir et al. (2004, p. 30) define affective influences of a promotion as ‘feelings and emotions aroused by exposure to a promotion, purchase on a promotion, or missing a promotion.' They propose that negative affect associated with purchasing on deal can include overall feelings such as annoyance (e.g., when the discount level is low, or the consumer is inconvenienced) or irritation (e.g., due to having to clip the coupon and take it to the cashier). The judgement about how unfair a price change is can also provoke negative affect in consumers (Campbell, 1999; Peine et al., 2009). Consumers may also experience the embarrassment of feeling cheap or the regret of missing out on a deal (Chandon et al., 2000; Inman & McAlister, 1994; Sevdalis et al., 2006; Simonson, 1992; Tsiros, 2009; Tsiros & Hardesty, 2010). Likewise, Kim (2006) shows that consumer responses to rebates may entail negative affect. Rebates attempt to increase deal perceptions by getting consumers to compare two prices: the before- and after-rebate prices. Although rebates emphasize the lower-rebate price, savings from lower-rebates do not occur at the time of payment, and lower-rebate redemptions need consumer time and effort. As a result, consumers may perceive rebates as deceptive. This deception in turn leads to the experience of negative feelings, such as unhappy, upset, and angry. We believe that this finding can be generalized to other promotional activities as well. Consumers may not believe an offer to be genuine. They may question the quality of the product or the motivation of the seller and associate them to deceiving consumers in order to get rid of unwanted products or make more money (Feinberg et al., 2002; Lichtenstein & Bearden, 1989; Suri et al., 2002). A recent study by Choi et al. (2014) indicates that using odd-ending prices can decrease consumer anticipated guilt and provide justifications to choosing hedonic products over utilitarian ones.

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Although the mentioned studies confirm that affect is an important contributor to consumer responses to sales promotions, they face an important criticism; they only focus on narrowly perceived affect (i.e., liking or disliking a promotion) or consider one basic emotion, without providing a systematic study of the specific emotions or the dimensions of affect as pertained to consumer promotional responses (Honea & Dahl, 2005). Honea and Dahl (2005) have addressed this shortcoming. They examined the psychometric properties of consumer affect produced by sales promotions and developed a promotion affect scale (PAS). PAS is able to comprehensively measure consumer emotional responses to promotional stimuli. Honea and Dahl (2005)’s construct of promotion affect is defined very broadly in terms of emotions that consumers feel towards the overall encounter, including the product, the seller, the price, and the self. Such conceptual breadth may make it difficult to only trace affective reactions to promotional stimuli. The present dissertation aims to address this limitation through an empirical assessment of the emotions that consumers experience specifically towards promotional offers.

It is also noteworthy that the mentioned studies about consumer affective reactions to sales promotions are focused on ordinary purchases (instead of impulsive purchases). In retail settings, the empirical research clearly based on an affective definition of impulse buying is limited to Baun and Gröppel-Klein (2003)’s. They investigated the influence of two basic positive emotions of joy and surprise on consumer impulse buying, without studying the influence of other positive or negative emotions. Moreover, their study is about general grocery shopping excursions and does not examine the role of a specific external stimulus such as sales promotion. With the aim of providing a better understanding of the role of sales promotions in impulse buying situations, in general, and the role of affective reactions in this process, in particular, we are applying the findings of the mentioned research to the impulse buying context.

Impulsive Urge to Buy versus Impulsive Purchase

In the psychological literature, impulsive urge refers to a strong, irresistible urge that is not consciously planned but arises when a consumer encounters a certain stimulus (Goldenson, 1984). The impulsive purchase is defined as the fulfilment of impulsive urge (Beatty & Ferrell, 1998). Although resisting the urge felt in the moments following the exposure to a tempting stimulus is very difficult (Rook, 1987), consumers use a myriad of strategies to control their urges so that not every urge proceeds to an impulsive behaviour (Hoch & Loewenstein, 1991). Therefore, an impulsive urge although powerful and irresistible is not always acted upon (Rook & Fisher, 1995) and can be finally fought off leading to no purchase at all (Rook & Hoch, 1985). Based on these observations, Beatty and Ferrell (1998) suggest that impulsive urge and impulsive purchase are two different, although highly correlated constructs and thus in order to formulate a clear definition of impulse buying it is necessary to distinguish between these two constructs. Endorsing this suggestion, in this dissertation, we distinguish between impulsive urge and impulsive purchase constructs.

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Up to this point, we have reviewed the literature about the processes that happen when a consumer is spontaneously exposed to a tempting promotional offer and explained how they would prompt the consumer to make an impulsive purchase. The following section discusses the important role of consumer personality traits in the process of impulse buying.

Consumer Personality Traits

and Impulse Buying

The antecedents of impulse buying behaviour can be broadly classified into market driven factors and consumer individual factors (Xiao & Nicholson, 2012). Past research has mainly focused on the influence of market-driven factors on impulse buying (e.g., Levy & Weitz, 2007; Mattila & Wirtz, 2008; Mihić & Kursan, 2010; Mohan et al., 2013; Park & Lennon, 2006; Peck & Childers, 2006), which led to limited understanding of consumer individual differences in impulse buying behaviours (Kalla & Arora, 2011). The present dissertation aims to contribute to this gap. To this end, we study the role of two consumer personality traits highly emphasized in both the behavioural pricing and the impulse buying literature, namely buying impulsiveness trait and deal-proneness trait. As follows, we investigate how these traits influence consumer impulsive responses to promotional offers.

Consumer Buying Impulsiveness Trait

People vary in terms of a relatively stable pan-situational impulsivity trait (Gray, 1990; Puri, 1996). The general impulsivity trait is defined as ‘a tendency to respond quickly to a given stimulus, without deliberation and evaluation of consequences’ (Gerbing et al., 1987, p. 357). It is argued that as a result of differences in their impulsivity trait, consumers do not behave identically to situational stimuli (Beatty & Ferrell, 1998; Dawson & Kim, 2009; Jones et al., 2003; Rook & Fisher, 1995).

Consumer buying impulsiveness trait or impulse buying tendency (these terms are used interchangeably in the literature) is a sub-trait of the general impulsivity trait construct. Based on Eysenck and Eysenck (1985)’s model of personality, Rook (1987) offers the first definition of impulse buying tendency in terms of an individual difference variable that addresses the differential tendency of consumers to buy on impulse. Further, Rook and Fisher (1995) state that buying impulsiveness is a consumer consumption characteristic that embodies consumer tendency to think and act in an identifiable and distinctive way. They define buying impulsiveness trait as ‘a consumer’s tendency to buy spontaneously, unreflectively, immediately, and kinetically’ (p. 306). Their results show that impulsive buyers are more open and receptive to sudden, unexpected buying ideas than nonimpulsive buyers are. This definition of buying impulsiveness has been supported by several researchers. However, it is also argued that this definition primarily emphasizes the extrovert facet of buying impulsiveness (Rook & Fisher, 1995). To address this gap, several researchers studied other aspects of the buying impulsiveness trait. As follows, we briefly discuss the results of some of these studies.

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Puri (1996) argues that buying impulsiveness consists of three dimensions, including prudence (self-controlled, farsighted, responsible, restrained, rational, methodical, a planner), hedonism (impulsive, extravagant, easily tempted, enjoys spending) and carelessness. She also indicates that impulse buying is a function of the relative accessibility of benefits and costs associated with impulsiveness. Beatty and Ferrell (1998)believe that in the definition of impulse buying tendency it must differentiate between the impulsive urge and the impulsive action. Thereby, they propose an extended version of the definition of impulse buying tendency as the tendency to experience spontaneous, sudden urges to make on-the-spot purchases as well as to act on these felt urges with little deliberation or evaluation of consequences. Their results indicate that the impulsive action is the most critical element of an exhibition of impulse buying tendency. More importantly, Beatty and Ferrell (1998) argue that impulse buying tendency is an individual difference variable, whereas felt urge and impulsive purchase refer to what happens in a particular shopping excursion, which may or may not reflect the individual trait. Moreover, Youn and Faber (2000) demonstrate that buying impulsiveness is related to a combination of cognitive, affective, and behavioural elements. Cognitive elements include low cognitive deliberation, disregard of the future, and unplanned buying. Affective elements involve irresistible urge to buy, positive buying emotions, and mood management. Finally, behavioural elements are associated with rapidity and reactivity. Likewise, Verplanken and Herabadi (2001) indicate that impulse buying tendency is rooted in consumer personality. Using the big five personality model, they show that impulse buying tendency has both cognitive and affective facets. Cognitive facet is associated with a low personal need for structure, a low need to evaluate, and a lack of conscientiousness. Affective facet is related to act immediately and without inhibitions and be influenced by others. In the same vein, Jones et al. (2003) state that an impulsive consumer is characterized by a fast reaction time, lack of forecasts, and the ability to act without prudent planning.

Consumer Deal-Proneness Trait

Although promotional activities aim to generate a response across the market, not all consumers respond favourably to sales promotions. While some consumers are highly influenced by promotions, others are not really responsive (Blattberg et al., 1978). The literature about consumer responses to sales promotions frequently uses the terms deal-proneness and deal-prone consumers. Consumers’ deal-proneness trait is related to their responsiveness to promotions and deals (Blattberg & Neslin, 1990). Lichtenstein et al. (1990, p. 55) define deal-proneness as ‘a general proneness to respond to promotions because they are in deal form.' Thereby, deal-proneness is not the actual purchase of promoted products or services but the psychological propensity to buy them (DelVecchio, 2005).

The sales promotion literature analysed whether a consumer who is prone to purchase a certain kind of promotional offers will also respond favourably to other promotional actions. The results provide three different perspectives about deal-prone consumer segments. The first perspective states that deal-proneness is a

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domain-specific construct and sensitivities to sales promotions differ across consumers and promotional types. As a result, there is a need to segment the market based on consumer proneness to each deal type, such as a discount-prone segment, a coupon-prone segment, and a rebate-prone segment (e.g., Blattberg & Neslin, 1990; Henderson, 1988; Lichtenstein et al., 1995; Mayhew & Winer, 1992).

The second perspective contends that deal-proneness is a generalised construct and there are underlying characteristics that lead consumers to be either deal-prone across all deal types or deal-insensitive in general. According to this perspective, consumers who modify their purchase behaviour in response to certain promotions are likely to modify their behaviour in the presence of other promotions as well. It means that the market can be segmented into consumers sensitive to all deal types and consumers relatively insensitive to all deal types (e.g., Lichtenstein et al., 1997a; Price et al., 1988; Shimp & Kavas, 1984).

The third perspective adopts a middle position between these two perspectives. It suggests that deal-proneness is domain specific and consumers may respond to certain types of deals, but not others. In this respect, Schneider and Currim (1991) differentiate between active and passive proneness. Active deal-prone consumers are characterized as sensitive to store flyers and coupons and are deal-prone to engage in intensive search to find interesting promotions. Passive deal-prone consumers are described as more prone to respond to in-store promotions like special displays as it demands minimal search. Schneider and Currim (1991) show that consumers have a tendency to behave primarily in either active or passive manner, while few consumers act in both manners. In the same way, Ailawadi et al. (2001) distinguish between proneness to out-of-store promotions versus in-store promotions. Out-out-of-store promotions are those that take place out of store and demand some search effort from consumers (e.g., coupons). In-store promotions are those that consumers encounter in the store when shopping and using them requires minimal effort from consumers (e.g., special displays). In another study, Shimp (1993) differentiates between price- and non-price-oriented sales promotions. Price-oriented promotions result in lower purchase prices, whereas non-price-oriented promotions do not offer a lower purchase price.

This dissertation adopts the third perspective. In line with Ailawadi et al. (2001), we differentiate between in-store and out-of-in-store promotions while only considering in-in-store promotions. This decision is based on the fact that using out-of-store promotions demands search and planning activities before shopping. These activities increase the chance of making a planned purchase and decrease the chance of making an impulsive purchase (Ailawadi et al., 2001; Martínez & Montaner, 2006). In using this approach, our research only focuses on passive deal-proneness, since active deal-proneness would decrease the chance of making an impulsive purchase. The next chapter discusses the conceptual framework and research hypotheses.

How sales promotions influence impulse buying : the critical role of affect and cognition