The Moderated Mediation Roles of Motivational Systems in the Interaction Effects of Distinct Self-discrepancy and Implicit Theories on Compensatory Consumption

This study explored the interaction effect of distinct self-discrepancy and implicit theory on compensatory consumption type and mediation roles of avoidance/approach motivations in the interaction effect. 2 (local self-discrepancy vs. global self-discrepancy) between-subjects design with implicit theory as within-subject was used to collect data for testing the hypotheses. The results indicate that approach motivations are highly aroused to incremental (vs. entity) theorists which leads to within-domain (vs. across-domain) compensatory consumptions when they experience local self-discrepancy (vs. global self-discrepancy). And avoidance motivations are highly activated to entity theorists which results in across-domain (vs. within-domain) consumption when they experience global self-discrepancy (vs. local self-discrepancy). This paper contributes to the development of compensatory consumption behavior theory via highlighting the mediation roles of motivation type in the interactive effects of self-discrepancy type and implicit theory on the compensatory consumption, and suggests that marketers should develop and conduct strategies by grasping consumers’ distinct internal motivations based on consumers’ implicit theory and self-discrepancy type.