The Influence of Personality on Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Motives and the Intention to Shop Online

Transcription

1 UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN The Influence of Personality on Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Motives and the Intention to Shop Online Does our personality determine how we shop? Florine Scheer 8 July 2014

2 The Influence of Personality on Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Motives and the Intention to Shop Online Does our personality determine how we shop? University of Groningen Faculty of Business and Economics Msc Marketing Management Master Thesis July 2014 Supervisor: prof. dr. L. M. Sloot 2 nd supervisor: S. Sadowski Florine Scheer Haddingestraat 2a/b 9711 KD Groningen Telephone: florinescheer@gmail.com Student number: S

3 Management summery This research is aimed at gaining more insights about peoples shopping motives and finding out what drives them to shop online and offline in regular stores. This is important for retailers to know, because this is the age of upcoming e-commerce, and the retail environment is changing. Retailers are presented with new online opportunities, but this also means that traditional offline retailers are facing some challenges: how do they keep people coming to their stores? In order for online and offline retailers to be as successful as possible, they must target the right people, know what kind of products to sell and know whether they should sell through an online or offline store. This research will therefore take a deeper dive into consumers shopping motivations, thereby differentiating between hedonic shopping (providing the shopper with enjoyment and fun) and utilitarian shopping (related to successfully accomplishing the shopper s goal) motivations to see how these motivations relate to online and offline shopping intentions. Previous research has shown that personalities may account for differences in shopping motivations. Also, our personalities may influence our intentions to shop online and in traditional stores. This paper therefore also researches the effect of the Big Five (Extroversion, Agreeableness, Openness to experience, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism) on shopping motives and the intention to shop online. The following research question has been formulated: What is the effect of hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives on the intention to shop online, and to what extent are these motives and the intention to shop online affected by the Big Five personality dimensions? The research was conducted by gathering data from 242 respondents that filled out a survey. Hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations were measured with a questionnaire disgned by Cardoso and Pinto (2010). Intentions to shop online were measured by assessing respondents preference towards an online or offline store when they were asked to imagine buying a selection of 16 products (8 hedonic and u utilitarian). Personality was measured with the Big Five Inventory (BFI) consisting of 44 self-report items. Results show that hedonic shopping motivations are negatively related to shopping online for hedonic products. Women have more hedonic shopping motives than men, and are therefore more susceptible to to shopping in regular stores. Males have higher intentions to shop online, 2

4 especially for utilitarian products. Regular stores should therefore namely focus on selling hedonic products and target females high on hedonic shopping motives, in order to gain competitive advantage over online stores. Online stores should focus on selling utilitarian products and come up with a campaign to target more males. When hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives are split up into multiple underlying shopping motives, this research finds role shopping shows a negative, but idea shopping shows a positive relation with intention to shop online. For retailers this means that online retailers should provide consumers with inspiration, latest trends, and new ideas and offline retailers should target consumers who enjoy shopping for others. Personalities don t seem to have a large impact on hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives overall, but when these are split up into multiple underlying shopping motives, this research found that extraversion is positively related to value shopping, agreeableness is positively related to role and achievement shopping, conscientiousness is negatively related to social shopping and neuroticism is positively related to pleasure and gratification shopping and achievement shopping. Finally, openness to experience is positively related to pleasure and gratification and idea shopping, and negatively related to value and efficiency shopping. Extraversion and agreeableness are negatively related to online shopping and openness to experience is positively related to the intention to shop online. 3

5 Preface In September 2009, I started as a psychology student at the Rijksuniversiteit. Although I was very interested in the field of psychology, I soon knew that this was not the direction I had in mind for my future career. During my bachelor, I grew towards social psychology with a special interest towards consumer behavior. I therefore decided to take two marketing courses in my minor and I was immediately hooked. I decided to transfer to the faculty of Economics and Business and start the master Marketing Management in September I knew I had made the right decision when I started my first three courses and I have developed a passion for marketing ever since. Of course I enjoyed some courses more than others. Probably due to my psychology background, I noticed that I was most drawn to B2C marketing and still enjoyed courses involving consumer behavior most. When you start your bachelor or even you master, writing a master thesis always seems so far away and frankly, a little bit scary. Time absolutely flew by this year and before I knew it I was filling out my preference form for a thesis topic. I was very happy to be given the topic Retail Marketing, because this was also a course that I had followed and enjoyed a lot. Under the supervision of prof. dr. Laurens Sloot I found a way to integrate psychology and marketing and came to this very interesting research. With mixed feelings I am now laying the last hand on my master thesis, because every sentence that I write that will bring me closer to finishing this paper, will also mean that I am closer to finishing my time as a student in Groningen. As much as I have loved my time in Groningen, all good things must come to end. But where one door closes, another one opens. In August I will start an internship at Unilever which I am very excited about. I would like to take this opportunity to thank some people that have helped me writing my thesis. First of all, I would like to thank prof. dr. Laurens Sloot for his guidance and feedback that was always just one phone call away. Thanks to my fellow thesis group members for the mental and practical support. Finally, a warm thanks to all my friends and family for filling out my endless questionnaire and helping me along the road. Groningen, July 2014 Florine Scheer 4

6 Table of content Management summery...2 Preface 4 1. Introduction Literature review and hypotheses The changing retail environment Hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives Motives for online shopping Motives for offline shopping Hedonic and utilitarian products Fundamental model The role of the Big Five personality dimensions Extended model Methodology Research design Participants Measurements Measuring hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives Measuring the Big Five personality dimensions Measuring the intention to shop online Control variables Plan of analysis Analyses of the demographics Basis analysis and pre-insights Testing hypotheses Extended analyses Results Descriptive statistics Online behavior and online shopping frequencies Basic analysis and pre-insights Big Five personality traits..38 5

7 4.2.2 Hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives Intention to shop online Test of normality Correlations Testing hypotheses Fundamental model Extended model Extended analysis Underlying hedonic and utilitarian constructs The effect of the underlying shopping constructs on the intention to shop online The effect of the big five on the underlying shopping constructs Mediation effects Discussion The effect of shopping motives on the intention to shop online The effect of the big five personality traits on shopping motives The effect of the big five on the intention to shop online The effect of the underlying shopping constructs on the intention to shop online The effect of the big five on underlying HSM and USM constructs Managerial implications Main findings Implications for offline retailers Implications for online retailers Limitations and further research. 78 References.80 Appendix 1. Original Big Five Inventory Appendix 2. Original shopping motives questionnaire 87 Appendix 3. Online questionnaire Appendix 4. Basic analysis: Skewness, Kurtosis and correlations Appendix 5. Testing hypotheses: Regression analyses output 97 Appendix 6: Extended analysis: Factor analyses 103 Appendix 7: Extended analyses: Regression output

8 1. Introduction In the age of upcoming e-commerce, retailers are presented with new opportunities for online retailing, but also with new challenges. Online sales are growing fast and online retailers are improving their websites and services rapidly in order to gain more market share. In order to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, online retailers can provide numerous advantages such as convenience, a well-designed user interface, customized information, a variety of product information, and competitive pricing (Verhoef & Langerak, 2001; Park & Kim, 2003). Lin (2010) also stresses the importance of the extent to which a customer can participate in an interactive multimedia-based environment and the extent to which a customer believes that paying online is secure. Whilst online sales are flourishing, traditional offline stores are confronted with decreasing store-traffic and declining sales, leading to increasing shop vacancies (Retail Gazette, 2013). In order to maintain consumers coming to the offline stores, more and more retailers are changing their store environment to provide consumers with superior customer experience in the store. In The Netherlands, the Bijenkorf has implemented a premium experience strategy, continuing only with their seven bestselling flagship stores in which they have invested in service, brands and their look and feel, in order to enhance the shopping experience. But who must they target? What do consumers value most in their store and online shopping experience? An understanding of why consumers select particular channels for their shopping is of greatest importance for online as well as offline retailers (Black et al. 2002). This research will therefore take a deeper dive into consumers shopping motivations, thereby differentiating between hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations. Utilitarian motives are related to acquiring a product and successfully accomplishing the shopper s goal. Hedonic motives are about providing the shopper with enjoyment and fun, and relate to the multisensory, fantasy and emotive aspects of one s shopping experience (Westbrook and Black, 1985). Previous research has shown that these shopping motives can be affected by consumers personalities. Different personalities may account for differences in shopping motivations. 7

9 Furthermore, our personalities may also influence our intentions to shop online and in traditional stores. This research will use the Big Five taxonomy of personality, according to which, human personality can be described by five main dimensions which are Extroversion (the preference for social interaction); Agreeableness (the orientation toward compassion and caring about others); Openness to Experience (the tolerance of new ideas and new ways of doing things); Conscientiousness (the preference for goal-oriented activity); and Neuroticism (the inability to cope effectively with negative emotions) (Digman, 1990). What the role of these personality dimensions exactly is and how personality, shopping motives and intentions to shop online/offline relate to each other is still unresolved and this research is conducted to find these answers. Does our personality determine how we shop? More specifically, the following research question has been formulated: What is the effect of hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives on the intention to shop online, and to what extent are these motives and the intention to shop online affected by the Big Five personality dimensions? In order to understand these relations in more detail, this research is divided into three main variables that may have effects on each other: hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives, the intention to shop online and the Big Five. The following three effects will be researched: 1. The effect of hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations on the intention to shop online. A distinction is made between shopping for hedonic or utilitarian products. 2. The effect of the Big Five personality dimensions on hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations. 3. The effect of the Big Five personality dimensions on the intention to shop online. This paper has the following structure. First the literature review will provide the theoretical background on the most important concepts. Throughout the literature review, hypotheses are formulated that correspond to a fundamental and an extended model that show the hypothesized relations between the concepts. Chapter 3, the methodology, gives an overview of the measurements used and the research design. The results of the research will be discussed in chapter 4 and chapter 5 will cover an analysis and a discussion of the results. Finally, the paper will conclude with managerial implications and limitations and suggestions for further research. 8

10 2. Literature review and hypotheses This literature review will give a good theoretical understanding of the concepts involved in this research and will substantiate the formulated hypotheses. To start, the changing retail environment will be discussed. Then, the concepts hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives will be discussed in depth and their effect on the intention to shop online will be hypothesized. The fundamental model will be proposed. Next, this literature review will discuss the Big Five personality dimensions in detail and propose the extended model, with its corresponding hypotheses. 2.1 The changing retail environment Ecommerce numbers are booming. According to forecasts by Forrester Research, online sales which generated $231 billion for U.S. retailers last year are expected to increase 13% to $262 billion in Online sales growth is expected to outpace sales growth at traditional offline stores over the next five years, reaching $370 billion in sales by Forrester Research expects that online sales in Western Europe will grow at an even faster rate than the U.S. in the next five years, from 112 billion in 2012 to 191 billion by 2017 which is an annual growth rate of 11%. Online and offline retailers present different shopping experiences, even when exactly the same products are purchased (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001). In an online environment, consumers interact trough the website interface, instead of interacting with employees in a physical store (Hoffman and Novak 1996). The growth of ecommerce is due to the success of online retailers and the fact that many traditional offline retail chains that have invested heavily in technology, allowing them to sell online as well as in their traditional stores. In addition, online retailers are gaining an increasing amount of touch-points with the customer, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, personal computers, and televisions, which can result in an increased customer base, added revenue and increased market share (Berman & Thelen, 2004). It has also been suggested that, in the increasingly busy lives of the customers, online retailing is more convenient because it saves time by reducing search costs, and eliminating the travel to the store (Szymanski & Hise, 2000). Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001) found that online shoppers 9

11 obtain more freedom and control trough convenience, selection, availability of information and lack of sociality. Additionally, other benefits that online retailers are able to provide to consumers are personalization through user input and interactivity trough chat, consumer reviews and . Furthermore, increased online product selections and online tools such as search engines and order tracking are praised (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001). They also found that online shoppers obtain more freedom and control trough convenience, selection, availability of information and lack of sociality. These online benefits and the increased competition have led to volume trickling from the offline stores. In the Netherlands a research by Locatus (2013) showed an increase in shop vacancy from 6,4% to 6,9% compared to the year before. This has forced traditional retailers to cut labor, reduce costs and sacrifice service. Because of this, they are less able to differentiate their offline store, which leads to customers focusing increasingly on price and convenience. This only strengthens the advantage of the online retailers (Rigby, 2011). But of course, there are also benefits for consumers to shop offline in traditional stores. Online purchasing is perceived to be more risky and therefore risk and trust play a more important role in online than in offline shopping (Forsythe and Shi, 2003). Other disadvantages of online purchasing are the difficulty of assessing quality, insecurity about payments and postponed gratification (Childers et al., 2001). Consumers may want to shop for sociality reasons and have the opportunity to speak to an employee when more product information is needed (Black et al. 2002). Offline also offers the opportunity of shopping with family and friends and asking them for advice (Nicholson et al. 2002). Product characteristics and especially experiential products cannot be fully assessed during online transactions. Therefore this is another reason for consumers to shop offline (Ba and Pavlou, 2002). The ability to see, feel, smell or try on a product is also identified as a benefit by Zeithaml et al. (2000). In order for offline retailers to stay in the race, they must exploit their benefits and focus on their strengths. Recent research has therefore stated the importance of the customer experience for offline retailers to keep consumer coming to the offline stores. The customer experience involves more than just the acquisition of goods; it is the experience that leads them to the goods, involving a superior shopping environment, elaborate store design, educational events, recreation and entertainment (Fiore & Kim, 2007). 10

12 2.2 Hedonic and Utilitarian shopping motives In order to further understand the perceived benefits of online and offline shopping, we need to take a deeper dive into what consumers value. Understanding consumer motivations and what drives them to shop online and/or in the traditional stores is key. The reasons to where and why we buy are linked to shopping values and motivations. Bettman (1979) proposed that the consumer was a logical thinker, who aimed to purchase the best available product. Based on this, Holbrook and Hirshman (1982) view the consumer as a goal-directed problem solver, who evaluates product information, weighs evidence and arrives at a carefully considered purchase decision. In contrast to this information-processing approach, Holbrook and Hirshman propose that some consumption experiences are experiential and can be intrinsically satisfying. In this experiential approach, the shopping experience has more to do with providing sensory stimulation and satisfying curiosity. Later, Westbrook and Black (1985) refer to the information-processing approach as utilitarian motive and to the experiential approach as hedonic motive. They describe utilitarian motive as product-related motives that are related to acquiring a product and successfully accomplishing the shopper s goal. Consumers with utilitarian motive are concerned with purchasing the products they need in an efficient and timely manner. Hedonic motives are described as non-product-related motives. These motives satisfy psychosocial needs and provide the shopper with enjoyment and fun. Hedonic consumption designates those facets of consumer behavior that relate to the multi-sensory, fantasy and emotive aspects of one s experience with products (Westbrook and Black, 1985). In order to measure these hedonic and utilitarian values, Babin, Darden and Griffin (1994) generated the Personal Shopping Value scale, which is based on consumers attitudes towards shopping. Since then, a lot of research has been focused on identifying antecedents to both hedonic and utilitarian shopping value. Arnolds & Reynolds (2003) identified six hedonic motivations: Adventure shopping referring to the thrill shopping gives the consumer, Value shopping which emphasizes the enjoyment of looking for discounts, Role shopping which is stated as enjoying shopping for friend or family. Idea shopping is to keep up with the trends, social shopping refers to enjoyment of socializing whilst shopping and the last is Relaxation/Gratification shopping, which refers to shopping as a way to relieve stress. To, Liau and Lin (2007) studied shopping motivations on the internet and identified four utilitarian values that lead to utilitarian motivation: cost saving, convenience, selection and information availability. They also found two hedonic values, adventure/explore and authority/status as 11

13 predictors of hedonic motivation. In contrast to Arnold and Reynolds, they found no support for value, social and idea shopping as hedonic motives Motives for online shopping Although results from previous literature are not all congruent, it seems that overall, utilitarian motives can be served best by online retailing and hedonic motives can be served best by offline retailing. However, research also speaks of dual motivations, which implies that both utilitarian and hedonic motivations can be present at the same time (Childers et al. 2001). Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001) acknowledged that consumers shop differently, depending on whether their motivations are mostly experiential or goal-orientated. They found that online shopping was more goal-orientated than experiential, and concluded that 66 up to 80 percent of the online purchases was goal oriented. Alba et al (1997) state that online retailing offers many opportunities that appeal to more utilitarian motivations such as the availability of product information, enabling direct multi-attribute comparisons, and reducing buyer search costs. Rigby (2011) also identified these opportunities, as well as convenient and fast check-out, and the customers ability to get anything, anytime, anywhere. Again, these are more utilitarian values. Chen & Lee (2008) found that consumers who perceive higher utilitarian values in websites will have a higher level of trust in online shopping. This was not true for higher hedonic values. Online shopping tends to be less hedonic, as the online shopping experience is still far less exiting than its offline competition (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001). Contrastingly, Childers et al. (2001) found that while utilitarian motives are important predictors of online attitudes, the more immersive, hedonic aspects play at least an equal role. They argue that online retailers now have powerful new media at their disposal that can fulfil hedonic needs such as, images, videos, humor, sounds, animation, games and more interactive multimedia that can make online shopping an enjoyable experience Motives for offline shopping For offline stores, fulfilling consumer s utilitarian needs by tempting them with low prices, broad assortments and extended store hours is no longer enough. In order for them to gain a competitive advantage the retailers must recognize the importance of hedonic motives and entertainment, the so called entertailing. Retailers can do this by leveraging their offline advantages and exceeding in hedonic areas that online retailers cannot match such as exceeding in high service, have highly trained staff and provide and entertaining and fun 12

14 environment (Wakefield & Baker, 1998). Rigby also argues that offline stores have the advantage of making shopping an exciting experience, have the ability to let consumers test, try and experience the products, and can provide personal face-to-face service. These advantages relate to Arnold and Reynolds adventure shopping and social shopping. According to Babin et al. (1994), seeking hedonic experiences is often far more significant than the acquisition of products. Of course, it must be kept in mind that the shopping experience is integrative (utilitarian and hedonic) of nature, and a retailer must be able to fulfill both hedonic and utilitarian needs (Baker et al. 2002). 2.3 Hedonic and utilitarian products We cannot only identify hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives, but products themselves can also be hedonic or utilitarian in nature. The hedonic component in products is related to sensory attributes, and focuses on the affective gratification of the consumer (Batra and Ahtola, 1991). Hedonic products can provide pleasure, fun and excitement to the consumer (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982). Examples of hedonic products can be sports cars, luxury watches, perfume and designer clothes. On the other hand, the utilitarian component in products relates to non-sensory and functional attributes and focuses on the instrumental expectations a consumer has about the product (Batra and Ahtola, 1991). Utilitarian products are goods such as microwaves, personal computers and detergent. It must be noted that although we can categorize products as being overall hedonic or utilitarian, it is the consumers perception of the product that defines them as such. A consumer buying a new car for example may care more about hedonic attributes (e.g. design) than about utilitarian attributes (e.g. gas mileage) leading to this car being hedonic to one consumer, and maybe utilitarian to another consumer. 2.4 Fundamental model The literature above provides the base for this research and subsequently the fundamental conceptual model with several hypotheses. This research will measure hedonic shopping motives (HSM) and utilitarian shopping motives (USM) and look at their effect on consumers online/offline tradeoff when presented with a number of hedonic and utilitarian products they have to imagine purchasing. This will be expressed as intention to shop online. In the 13

15 fundamental model, a distinction is made between the intention to shop online for hedonic products and the intention to shop online for utilitarian products. Consequently, a negative effect on the intention to shop online is a positive effect on the intention to shop offline in a regular store. The fundamental model is shown below in figure 1. Figure 1 Fundamental model From the literature it can be concluded that although consumers hedonic and utilitarian needs can be fulfilled by online as well as offline retailers, it seems that overall, online shopping is more utilitarian and offline shopping is more hedonic. Previous research has focused on either online or offline motives, and is lacking to show how hedonic and utilitarian motives affect a trade-off between online and offline when a purchase has to be made. This research will therefore try to identify the hedonic and utilitarian motives consumers have, and see how this affects their intention to shop online. However, it is expected that this intention to shop online is influenced by whether the product is hedonic or utilitarian. When a consumer has mainly utilitarian motives, it seems logical to suggest that this individual will prefer to buy utilitarian products online. But is this also true for hedonic products? Even when utilitarian motives are high, the benefits of online shopping that this consumer perceives may not apply when buying hedonic products, which are more experiential and fun. The same holds for hedonic motives. Overall, this research expects hedonic shopping motives to relate negatively to online shopping intention because consumers with hedonic motives value the fun, sociality and excitement of an offline shopping experience. On a deeper level however, this negative relation will be especially strong for hedonic products because these consumer need to be see, feel and try on the product in an offline store. For hedonic motive consumers, these benefits of an offline store might not apply to utilitarian products, because these are more functional. Table 1 below summarizes these relation expectations. 14

16 Online shopping: hedonic products Online shopping: utilitarian products Utilitarian shopping motives (USM) 0 + Hedonic shopping motives (HSM) - 0 Table 1 Expected effects of HSM and USM on intention to shop online. Based on this, the following has been hypothesized: H1a: HSM are negatively related to the intention to shop online for hedonic products. H1b: There is no relation between HSM and the intention to shop online for utilitarian products. H2a: USM are positively related to the intention to shop online for utilitarian products. H2b: There is no relation between USM and the intention to shop online for hedonic products. 2.5 The role of the Big Five personality dimensions For the above it seems that consumers motives could be important indicators of their choice between buying products online or offline. But how are these motives formed? This research examines if personality traits influence these motives. The fundamental model in figure 1 can be extended adding the effect of personality traits on these motives and on the intention to shop online. There is a long history of personality psychology, starting in 1937 when Gordon Allport identified personality terms in the English dictionary, most of them with varying meanings and many overlap with the meanings of other terms. Since then, personality psychologists have been interested in devising a more efficient vocabulary for describing personality by using factor analysis. Raymond Catell (1950) was a pioneer in using factor analysis and first brought the personality terms down to 170 factors, and after many years of research and testing with self-report questionnaires, Catell identified 16 basic trait 15

17 dimensions and developed the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire to measure them (Catell, 1973). Although this questionnaire is still used today, many researchers found it still overly complex and high correlations were found between factors. Today, with computer technology, it is easier to perform large scale factor analyses, and over the past 35 years, researchers have come to a broad but not universal consensus that most individual differences in human personality can be classified in the Big-Five framework with five broad dimensions, namely Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (Goldberg, 1981; John, 1990). The Big Five does not imply that personality differences can be reduced to only five traits. Rather, these five dimensions represent personality at the broadest level of abstraction, and each dimension summarizes a large number of distinct, more specific personality characteristics (John & Shrivastiva, 1999). Each Big Five dimension is a bipolar factor with two opposite sides to the spectrum. Neuroticism can be described as a vulnerability to emotional upset, and correlates with terms such as anxious, depressed, self-consciousness, impulsive and vulnerable. Neurotic individuals find comfort in their own environment and dislike engaging in settings beyond their control (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985). Opposite to Neuroticism is Emotional Stability. The dimension extroversion has introversion opposite to it, and relates to concepts such as being outgoing, thrill-seeking, talkative and energetic. Introversion is manifested in more reserved and solitary behavior. Extraverts are inclined to favor social activities and intense personal interactions (Bakker et al., 2006). Extroverts are people that are open to new experiences and are eager to interact with the outer world and introverts are known to be shy and feel less comfortable around strangers (Myers-Briggs et al., 1998). Individuals that score high on Openness to Experience are more creative, intellectual, open-minded, independent, and fantasy full. Opposite to Openness to Experience is Non-Openness. Agreeableness relates to concepts such as trusting, altruistic, compliant, and kindness, and is the opposite of Antagonism. Finally, individuals that score high on Conscientiousness are orderly, responsible and dependable and strive for achievement (John & Shrivastiva, 1999; Gray, 2007). Over the years, trait psychologists have developed many questionnaires to measure the Big Five. The most commonly used questionnaire is the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) and was developed by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (1992). In its full form, an individual rates 240 statements on a five-point Likert scale the questionnaire. Because evaluating 240 statements costs much time and can bring on fatigue in the respondent, many shortened 16

18 versions of the NEO-PI have been developed (Gray, 2007). The NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) has brought the questionnaire down to 60 items but is still quite long. The Big Five Inventory (BFI) was constructed in the late 1980s (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) and contains 44 short-phrase items. Gosling et al. (2003) developed an extremely brief 10 item-questionnaire to measure the Big-Five named the BFI-10. Although somewhat inferior to the NEO-PI, their instrument reached adequate levels of convergence with other multi-item questionnaires, high test-retest reliability and high correlation between self and observer ratings. However, it must be noted that there were substantial losses in comparison to the fullscale BFI and therefore the BFI-10 cannot be seen as substitute but rather as an alternative when time is limited. While the role of personality traits has been studied thoroughly in many different domains, there are only a few studies regarding the role of the Big-Five in the formation of hedonic and utilitarian shopping values. Furthermore, previous research is not always congruent. For offline shopping, Guido (2006) showed that Openness to experience, Agreeableness and Extraversion are correlated to the hedonic shopping values, whereas Emotional stability and Conscientiousness are correlated to the utilitarian shopping value. However, Karl, Peluchette and Harland (2007) did not exactly replicate these findings and found that consumers with higher levels of extraversion, openness to experience and emotional stability are more positive towards hedonic value-seeking behavior and consumers high on conscientiousness and agreeableness have higher utilitarian value seeking behaviors. Chen & Lee (2008) built on this research and similarly found that extraversion, emotional stability and openness to experience positively moderate the perceived hedonic value when assessing consumers attitudes towards websites. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were found to positively moderate utilitarian values when assessing websites. Huang and Yuang (2010) examined the relationship between personality traits and online shopping motivations. Extraversion and emotional stability were found to relate positively to sociality motivations for shopping online, which are more hedonic. They also found that openness was positively associated to adventure and idea motivations, which are more hedonic motives, and that conscientiousness was associated with convenience, which is more utilitarian. According to Kelly and Johnson (2005), people with high levels of conscientiousness are more controlling and like to plan, and therefore may have more utilitarian values. 17

19 There is very limited research done on the direct role of the Big Five on the choice between online and offline retailers. Different personality types have different values and this research expects that this will affect their desire to shop online or offline. Landers and Lounsbury (2004) looked at the relationship between internet usage and the big five, and found that internet usage was negatively related to Agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion. Goby (2006) suggests that the lack of physical closeness to strangers in an online environment may mask introverts insecurity and make communication easier. In the same research it was found that extraverts agreed more strongly that introverts that they were able to express themselves better in an offline environment. Guido (2006) Hedonic motivations Openness to experience agreeableness extraversion Utilitarian motivations Emotional stability conscientiousness Karl, Peluchette and Harland (2007) extraversion openness to experience emotional stability Conscientiousness and agreeableness Chen & Lee (2008) Huang and Yuang (2010) Kelly and Johnson (2005) extraversion openness to experience emotional stability Extraversion emotional stability openness to experience Conscientiousness and agreeableness Conscientiousness Conscientiousness Table 2 A summary of previous research on the effect of the big five on HSM and USM 2.6 Extended model By summarizing the research on the Big Five personality traits influence on hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives, we come to the extended conceptual model. With this model the relations between the traits extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism and hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives is shown and 18

20 hypothesized. The model also implies a direct effect of the big five personality traits on the intention to shop online. Figure 2. Extended model. Research shows that the traits openness to experience and extraversion seem to be predictors for hedonic motivations (Guido, 2006; Karl, Peluchette and Harland, 2007; Chen & Lee, 2008; Huang and Yuang, 2010). Considering that extraverts are outgoing, talkative and energetic, it seems logical to assume that they value the sociality aspects and therefore have more hedonic motivations such as Arnold and Reynolds social shopping. Extraversion relates closely with the quality of social interactions (Costa and McCrae, 1989). Matzler et al. (2006) found out that extroversive consumers were more inclined towards hedonic consumption and that such consumers had a higher degree of socialization, were more willing to share their experiences with others, that when they were buying things, they were more willing to take other people s suggestions into consideration. Morover, Stelmack (1990) found that extraverts are attracted to sensory stimulating environments, which also relates to hedonic motivations. Mooradian and Olver (1996) examined the role of personality on shopping motives and found that extraversion was linked to social experiences outside the home, communications with others having similar interests, peer group attraction and status and authority motives. Especially the social aspects relate to hedonic shopping motives. Therefore, 19

21 H3a: The personality trait Extraversion is positively related to HSM. H3b: The personality trait Extraversion is not related to USM. Individuals that have high openness to experience, value excitement and entertainment because of their creativity, open-mindedness and fantasy fullness. They have more imagination and curiosity and like variability (Costa and McCare, 1985). Furthermore, the more open to experience a person is, the more he is willing to consider various opinions and viewpoints, accept new experiences, and seek out opportunities to learn new things. Fantasy is related to hedonic shopping motives (Westbrook and Black, 1985). This research expects openness to experience individuals fantasy to relate to Arnold and Reynolds adventure shopping and therefore also have more hedonic shopping motives. Matzler et al.(2006) pointed out that consumers with more openness to experience showed stronger reactions to emotional stimuli and that it would therefore be attractive for such consumers to seek out hedonic values and gain gratification via shopping. Creativity and open-mindedness makes these individuals curious for new products, ideas and trends. Moordian and Olver (1996) found that openness to experience was correlated to sensory stimulation and learning about new trends. These are both hedonic motivations. Learning about new trends is related to Arnold and Reynolds idea shopping and Westbrook and Black (1985) relate multi-sensory aspects of the shopping experience to hedonic consumption. This research also expects openness to experience individuals to score high on Arnold and Reynolds adventure shopping and therefore also have more hedonic motives. The following is hypothesized: H4a: The personality trait Openness to experience is positively related to HSM. H4b: The personality trait Openness to experience not related to USM. Literature has come to the consensus that people who score high on conscientiousness have more utilitarian values (Guido, 2006; Karl, Peluchette and Harland, 2007; Chen & Lee, 2008; Huang and Yuang, 2010; Kelly and Johnson 2005). Conscientious individuals are orderly, responsible, cautious and strive for achievement (Pervin et al., 2004). This type of people tends to be less sensitive in interpersonal relationships, so they are likely to to seek satisfaction in achievement by being conscientious about their work. Consumers with higher degrees of conscientiousness tend to learn things from shopping such as information processing, evaluation and forming cognition (Karl et al.,2007). For example, this type of consumers will 20

22 utilize their knowledge to evaluate whether products are appropriate for their social status by assessing alternative products and making product selections. Moordian and Olver (1996) found Conscientiousness was inversely related to self-gratification which is hedonic. This has to do with the strive for self-control of these individuals. Therefore, it is expected that conscientious consumers tend to have utilitarian shopping motives and not so much hedonic shopping motivations. The following is hypothesized: H5a: The personality trait Conscientiousness is positively related to USM. H5b: The personality trait Conscientiousness not related to HSM. The outcomes of research on emotional stability are divided. Most research however, has found emotional stability to relate positively to hedonic shopping motives (Karl, Peluchette and Harland, 2007; Chen & Lee, 2008; Huang and Yuang, 2010). Consequently, the opposite of emotional stability, neuroticism, will be negatively related to hedonic motives. People who are more neurotic are more self-conscious and more vulnerable to emotional hurt or inflictions and they have stronger negative emotional reactions, keep their word, and tend to display negative emotional responses (Costa and McCrae, 1985). It can be argued that because of these neurotic traits, neuroticism relates negatively to hedonic shopping motivations. There selfconsciousness shy s them away from social interaction and and adventure and excitement only frightens them. Therefore the following is hypothesized: H6a: The personality trait Neuroticism is negatively related to HSM. H6b: The personality trait Neuroticism not related to USM. The literature is not consistent in its findings on agreeableness. Guido (2006) found a positive relation to hedonic motives, whereas Karl, Peluchette and Harland (2007) and Chen & Lee (2008) found a positive relation to utilitarian motives. People with a higher degree of agreeableness are more able to form friendly relationships with others (Digman and Inouye, 1986), and more trusting. Put it another way, less agreeable people are less trusting and more suspecting (Pervin et al., 2004). Agreeable consumers are more easily trusting and influenced by the visual and aesthetic shopping elements and they enjoy more the gratification that arises from the interaction with others whilst shopping. Therefore, consumers with a higher degree of agreeableness are easier to have their hedonic shopping motivation invoked. Furthermore, Ho, Weingart & Rousseau (2004) found that agreeable people tended to engage in activities that 21

23 were beneficial to reach their goals. Based on this previous research, this study therefore proposes that consumers who are more agreeable also tend to have utilitarian shopping motivations. This leads to the following hypotheses: H7a: The personality trait Agreeableness is positively related to HSM. H7b: The personality trait Agreeableness is positively related to USM. This research also expects to find direct effects of the Big Five personality traits on the intention to shop online. Extraversion and openness to experience are expected to have a negative direct effect on online shopping. Extraverts are likely to value the excitement and sociality that an offline experience can offer and will therefore prefer a physical store over shopping online. Mooradian and Olver(1996) examined the effect of personality on shopping motives and found a positive relation between extraversion and social experiences outside the home which supports the expectations. Furthermore, extraverts are attracted to sensory stimulating environments (Morover, Stelmack, 1990). Even though online web shops can stimulate sight and hearing, stimulation is much less than in an offline store, where one can also feel, smell and possibly even taste products. Based on this the hypothesis below is formulated: H8: Extraversion is negatively related to the intention to shop online. People who are open to experience are creative and fantasy full. They are found to have a positive relation to sensory stimulation and learning about new trends (Mooradian and Olver, 1996). Based on this, shopping offline seems to fit these people better because of the more creative environment and the inspiration and new ideas they can gather in shopping windows and in-store displays. H9: Openness to experience is negatively related to the intention to shop online. Furthermore, this research expects neuroticism and conscientiousness to relate positively to online shopping. Conscientious individuals are expected to value the efficiency, convenience and availability of information of online shopping. Research by Huang and Yang (2010) found marginal support that conscientiousness is positively related to convenience motivations for 22

24 shopping online. (Mooradian and Olver, 1996) found a positive relation between conscientiousness and bargains. Online web shops can have competitive pricing because they don t have to invest in employee service or a shop. Online shopping also has the advantage to easily compare the different prices in different stores without having to go from shop to shop. Conscientious individuals will probably value this, and like to get the best price. Therefore the following is hypothesized: H10: Conscientiousness is positively related to the intention to shop online. Neurotics are expected to value the control they have whilst shopping online and they can shop in their own, safe environment. Also, Huang and Yang (2010) found that neuroticism is positively related to online shopping due to a lack of sociality. Tsao and Chang (2010) found that consumers with high degrees of neuroticism tend to utility motivated to shop online. H11: Neuroticism is positively related to the intention to shop online. Individuals that are high on agreeableness are trusting so they will not really perceive the risks of online shopping, but also like offline shopping. They will probably let their choice depend on their environment and because they are compliant and altruistic, they are easily influenced by others around them. Overall, they do not particularly prefer online or offline shopping. From these expectations the hypothesis below has been formulated: H12: Agreeableness is not related to the intention to shop online. 23

25 3. Methodology The previous chapter has summarized previous literature and come up with several hypotheses and shown these in a conceptual model. To test this conceptual model, an empirical research is performed. This chapter will specify the methodology of this research. First, the research design and the method of data collection will be elaborated on, followed by the questionnaire design and the measurement of the different variables. 3.1 Research design This research investigates the influence of personality and shopping motives on the intention to shop online. In able to test the hypotheses, the conceptual model will be empirically tested through quantitative research. Data will be obtained through an online questionnaire with selfreport measures. In the questionnaire, participants personality will be assessed and they will be assigned a score on each of the big five personality traits. The questionnaire will also ask participants about their hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives. Finally, participants will be presented with 20 products and they need to choose whether they prefer to buy these products online or offline. This will measure the intention to shop online. The questionnaire ends with a number of questions concerning control variables. The questionnaire will be distributed online among people living in the Netherlands aged 18 to 80 years old. This group is expected to be confronted regularly with the choice between buying online or offline and can make independent decisions. An online questionnaire is chosen because the distribution is fast and flexible. Another benefit is that the collected data will be digital with is more efficient to process results (Malhotra, 2006). Furthermore, the online link to the questionnaire can be distributed through multiple channels such as , Facebook and snowballing (ask direct contacts to forward the link to their friends and family). 3.2 Participants This research consists of 242 participants, 40.9% male and 59.1% female. The participants ranged from 18 to 76 years old. The level of education of the respondents ranged from vmbo/mbo (4.5%), havo/vwo (6.6%), HBO/WO bachelor (39.7%) to WO masters/doctor 24