희소성 메시지의 유형과 수준이 구매의도에 미치는 영향: 시간적 거리의 조절효과를 중심으로

Scarcity message is a powerful promotion tool frequently used by marketers to create consumers'interest. Prior researches have explored consumers' purchase intentions for two types of scarcitymessages(limited-quantity and limited-time). They have found that limited-quantity messageshave a greater impact on purchase intention than limited-time messages, because limitedquantitymessages create a greater sense of competition with other buyers. However, the existingstudies have not sufficiently examined whether the effect of scarcity message on purchaseintentions can be influenced by scarcity level and temporal distance. This study investigates the impact of three critical factors on purchase intentions: scarcitymessage type, scarcity level, and temporal distance. Study 1 is conducted to investigate scarcityeffects in the new product launching situation. Using a 2 x 2 x 2 between subject factorialdesign, we find interaction effects among these factors. For the limited-time messages, purchaseintention is higher when level of scarcity is high than level of scarcity is low. On the otherhand, participants exposed to the limited-quantity messages are found to have higher purchaseintention when scarcity level is low. It is also found that a three-way interaction among temporal distance, scarcity message type,and scarcity level is significant. For the distant-future framed messages, neither scarcity messagetype nor scarcity level has a significant effect on purchase intentions. However, for the nearfutureframed messages, the influence of scarcity message type on consumers' purchase intentionis significantly different depending on the scarcity level. Lastly, perceived uniqueness is found to mediate the effect of interaction(scarcity message type x scarcity level) index on purchaseintentions. Study 2 investigates the scarcity effect in the price discount setting. The results of study 1 and2 reveal similar findings. However, unlike study 1(mediation effect of perceived uniqueness),value perception is found to mediate the effect of interaction(scarcity message type x scarcitylevel) index on purchase intentions. This finding demonstrates that although three main variableshave same effects on consumers' purchase intentions both in new product launching and inprice discount settings, the effect is formed by different perception processes. Based on the results, this study suggests several theoretical and practical implications. Thisstudy provides more practical implication by incorporating boundary conditions of scarcity leveland temporal distance in explaining the effect of scarcity messages on consumers’ purchaseintentions. When designing scarcity appeals, it is advised that scarcity message is presented indistant-future format than near-future format. If the scarcity message is presented in nearfutureframe, marketing managers should consider the interaction effect of scarcity messagetype and scarcity level. Thus, it is better to set scarcity level higher for limited-time messageswhereas it is recommend to set scarcity level lower for limited-quantity messages. Besides, it isnecessary to consider temporal distance if a company wants to use scarcity appeals based onlimited-quantity messages and high scarcity level. In this case, it is more effective to suggestscarcity appeals in distant-future format than near-future format. Lastly, understanding theunderlying process mechanism of scarcity effect on purchase intentions in two different settingsshould provide meaningful insights to the marketers.