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Dogs have masters, cats have staff: Consumers' psychological ownership and their economic valuation of pets

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  • Kirk, Colleen P.

Abstract

Results of three experiments reveal that consumers place a higher economic valuation on dogs versus cats, as evidenced by willingness to pay more for life-saving surgery, medical expenses, and specialty pet products, as well as increased word-of-mouth about the pet. This effect is explained by consumers' enhanced psychological ownership of and resulting emotional attachment to the pet. The effect is reversed when a dog acts like a cat and a cat acts like a dog and is due to the perceived ability to control the animal's behavior rather than other attributes intrinsic to the pet. This research offers a first look at psychological ownership of a living creature and its effect on economic valuation.

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  • Kirk, Colleen P., 2019. "Dogs have masters, cats have staff: Consumers' psychological ownership and their economic valuation of pets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 306-318.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:99:y:2019:i:c:p:306-318
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.057
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    4. Kirk, Colleen P. & Rifkin, Laura S., 2020. "I'll trade you diamonds for toilet paper: Consumer reacting, coping and adapting behaviors in the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 124-131.
    5. Kumar, Jitender, 2024. "Psychological mechanisms behind access-based luxury brand consumption: Empirical investigation from the lens of new ownership paradigm," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    6. Bong-Goon Seo & Do-Hyung Park, 2020. "The Effective Type of Information Categorization in Online Curation Service Depending on Psychological Ownership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, April.
    7. N. Gromek & J. Perek-Białas, 2022. "Why is pet goods consumption imperceptible for economists? A scoping review," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(11), pages 1-25, November.
    8. Kim, Hyunsu & Li, Jing & So, Kevin Kam Fung, 2024. "Psychological ownership research in business: A bibliometric overview and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).

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