The Yin and Yang of Hard Times: When Can States of Vulnerability Motivate Self-Improvement?

Abstract

This chapter advances our understanding of vulnerable consumers by exploring new relationships between resource scarcity and consumer decision-making. Although resource scarcity often prompts individuals to pull back on spending, recent research has shown that it can also increase consumers' motivation to engage in behaviors that fulfill their need for personal control. We extend this stream of research by offering the novel proposition that because resource scarcity motivates the desire for control, activating thoughts about scarcity will increase consumers' interest in products offering self-improvement benefits. We offer initial empirical evidence for when resource scarcity causes consumers to forgo their desire to save by increasing their willingness to pay for products that offer self-improvement benefits. In doing so, this chapter (i) highlights resource scarcity, a state of vulnerability, as an antecedent to the desire for self-improvement, (ii) provides a more nuanced perspective on the motivational underpinnings of resource scarcity and its effects on consumption, and (iii) sheds light on when resource scarcity can increase rather than decrease consumer spending.

Citation

Goldsmith, K., Roux, C., Cannon, C. and Tezer, A. (2024), "The Yin and Yang of Hard Times: When Can States of Vulnerability Motivate Self-Improvement?", Lee, A.Y. (Ed.) The Vulnerable Consumer (Review of Marketing Research, Vol. 21), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 83-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1548-643520240000021006