Consumer Locus of Control as a Moderator of the Relationship between Mood and Consumers` Likelihood to Purchase

Felix Septianto
Minghao Huang
Jaeseok Jeong

Abstract

Although previous works have established that mood can considerably influence consumer behavior (Vohs et al. 2007), they provided inconsistent results (Cohen et al. 2008). In particular, previous works only examined the willingness of consumers to regulate their mood and implicitly assumed that consumers have the control to regulate their mood states. Thus, this research intends to fill the current gap in the extant literatures by investigating whether consumer locus of control (CLOC) can act as a moderator for mood effects on consumers` likelihood to purchase. In an experiment, participants` CLOC was initially measured. Afterwards, they watched different video clips to induce different mood states. Finally, participants rated their likelihood to purchase after seeing an advertisement. The results suggest that, in the positive mood, CLOC tendencies do not impact consumers` likelihood to purchase. However, in the negative mood, internal CLOC consumers show a higher likelihood to purchase than external CLOC consumers. This phenomenon occurs because consumers with high internal CLOC tendencies have the motivation to regulate their negative mood. These findings extend the extant literatures in four aspects. First, this paper shows that the CLOC tendencies could influence consumers` motivation to regulate their negative mood. Second, this research examines the moderating effect of CLOC in the relationship between mood and consumers` likelihood to purchase. Third, the results add further evidence regarding the role of negative mood in the self-regulation process. Finally, this research also shows that mood can unconsciously influence consumer behavior. This paper provides two managerial implications. First, marketers should consider the mood states and consumers` control tendencies in creating advertisements. Second, firms in retail or service business should aim to evoke a positive mood on consumers so that their CLOC tendencies would not influence their behaviors.

Recommended Citation

Septianto, Felix; Huang, Minghao; and Jeong, Jaeseok (2014) "Consumer Locus of Control as a Moderator of the Relationship between Mood and Consumers` Likelihood to Purchase," Asia Marketing Journal: Vol. 16 : Iss. 2 , Article 4.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.53728/2765-6500.1540