The effect of self-concept clarity on discretionary spending tendency

Gülen Sarial-Abi, Zeynep Gürhan-Canli, Tarcan Kumkale and Yeosun Yoon

International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2016, vol. 33, issue 3, 612-623

Abstract: Discretionary spending is an important indicator of economic well-being. However, prior research is limited in empirically testing who is more likely to make discretionary purchases. To address this research gap, this article suggests that those who have less clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and temporally stable self-knowledge (i.e., those who have low self-concept clarity [SCC]) have higher discretionary spending tendencies than high-SCC individuals. The results indicate that low-SCC individuals have higher discretionary spending tendencies because they are more likely to adopt avoidant coping strategies than are high-SCC individuals. This research further tests the effectiveness of elaboration on potential outcomes in reducing the discretionary spending tendencies of individuals with high- or low-SCC and demonstrates that it is effective only for high-SCC individuals. This article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of the results.

Keywords: Discretionary spending; Self-concept clarity; Coping; Elaboration on potential outcomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811615001391
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:33:y:2016:i:3:p:612-623

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2015.09.010

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Research in Marketing is currently edited by Roland Rust

More articles in International Journal of Research in Marketing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().