Can power predict consumers’ preferences for aesthetic products? The moderating role of locus of control

Mengmeng Xu, Hongyan Jiang () and Huimin Tan
Additional contact information
Mengmeng Xu: China University of Mining and Technology
Hongyan Jiang: China University of Mining and Technology
Huimin Tan: Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

Marketing Letters, 2023, vol. 34, issue 4, No 3, 575-589

Abstract: Abstract In the real life, consumers perceived as either powerful or powerless may be equally likely to be attracted by aesthetic products. However, it is unclear when and why one’s power can lead to his or her preferences for aesthetic products in the prior literature. This study aims to address such research questions by introducing the moderating role of locus of control (LOC) in the impact of power on aesthetic product preferences. Three experimental studies were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses, and the findings suggest that high- (vs. low-) power individuals prefer aesthetic products under external control condition, whereas low- (vs. high-) power individuals prefer aesthetic products under internal control condition. Moreover, such observed effect is driven by self-expression (vs. self-enhancement) motivation under external (vs. internal) locus of control. Our research provides crucial implications for marketing practitioners to develop the market segmentation strategies and to design the advertising plans for aesthetic products.

Keywords: Power; Aesthetic product preferences; Locus of control; Self-expression motivation; Self-enhancement motivation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-022-09661-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:kap:mktlet:v:34:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11002-022-09661-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... etailsPage=societies

DOI: 10.1007/s11002-022-09661-4

Access Statistics for this article

Marketing Letters is currently edited by Joel Steckel and Peter Golder

More articles in Marketing Letters from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().