On the Mental Accounting of Restricted-Use Funds
How Gift Cards Change What People Purchase
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2237356 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicholas Reinholtz (0000-0003-0696-1972, Georgia State University), Daniel M Bartels (0000-0003-1642-8426, Georgia State University), Jeffrey R Parker (0000-0003-4587-9381, Georgia State University) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Pages | ucv045 |
| Publication date | 2015-08-26 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Consumer Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0093-5301 • E-ISSN: 1537-5277 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jcr/ucv045 |
| OpenAlex | W2263503001 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 47 |
This article emphasizes the role of categorization in mental accounting and proposes that once a mental account is established, purchases that are highly congruent with the purpose of the mental account (i.e., typical category members) will be more preferred in selection decisions compared to purchases that are less congruent (i.e., atypical category members). This hypothesis is tested in the context of gift cards. Six studies find that people shopping with a retailer-specific gift card-and so, the authors argue, possessing a retailer-specific mental accountexpress an increased preference for products more typical of the retailer compared to those shopping with more fungible currency. This pattern is found to occur for both well-known retailers, where people already possess product-typicality knowledge, and fictional retailers, where product-typicality cues are provided. An alternative account based on semantic priming is not supported by these data. These results both broaden the contemporary understanding of how mental accounting influences preferences and provide retailers deeper insight into their customers' decision processes.
Actuarial science · Advertising · Business · Categorization · Cognition · Context (archaeology) · Currency · Economics · Mental accounting · Mental representation · Microeconomics · Preference · Priming (agriculture) · Product (mathematics) · Product category · Computer Science · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Marketing · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence
The Big Book of Concepts
Ideals, central tendency, and frequency of instantiation as determinants of graded structure in categories.
Spotlights, Floodlights, and the Magic Number Zero
The Psychology of Windfall Gains
Semantic distance and the verification of semantic relations
Illusions of immediate memory
Basic objects in natural categories
Ad hoc categories
Preference Fluency in Choice
Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice
Retrieval time from semantic memory
Toward a positive theory of consumer choice
Choices, values, and frames
Mental accounting matters
Categories and Concepts
Levels of personal agency
Categorization of Natural Objects
Dimensions of Consumer Expertise
Alternative Models of Categorization
Mental Budgeting and Consumer Decisions
To Know and to Care
Choosing Here and Now versus There and Later
Opportunity Cost Consideration
Value from Regulatory Construal Fit
Opportunity Cost Neglect
Death to Dichotomizing
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,78 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |