IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v79y2024ics0969698924001012.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Healing or hesitation? The impact of anthropomorphism on consumers' repair intentions for products

Author

Listed:
  • Qin, Huanyu
  • Xie, Zhipeng
  • Ding, Chen
  • Wang, Jingyuan
  • Xu, Yi

Abstract

Anthropomorphism has been recognized as a powerful marketing tool that imbues products with life, enhancing the feeling of aliveness for consumers. Despite the popularity of research on this topic, little attention has been given to its impact on consumers' repair behaviors after purchase. Based on cognitive metaphor theory, this study seeks to understand the influence, mechanism, and boundary of anthropomorphism on consumers' intentions to repair products. Results show that anthropomorphism leads consumers to overestimate a product's self-healing capability, consequently affecting their repair intentions. Specifically, (a) anthropomorphism reduces consumers' repair intentions; (b) the perception of self-healing ability mediates this effect; and (c) the gender features of products moderate the relationship. Consumers exhibit lower repair intentions towards products with more masculine characteristics compared to those with more feminine attributes. This research offers an insightful look into how consumers interact with anthropomorphic products and provides businesses with valuable guidelines on how to develop product renewal strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Qin, Huanyu & Xie, Zhipeng & Ding, Chen & Wang, Jingyuan & Xu, Yi, 2024. "Healing or hesitation? The impact of anthropomorphism on consumers' repair intentions for products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:79:y:2024:i:c:s0969698924001012
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103805
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698924001012
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103805?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:79:y:2024:i:c:s0969698924001012. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.