Social influence, regulatory focus and purchase intention

Based on the regulatory focus theory, individuals who are with promotion focus are more concerned with achievement and advancement, and they are sensitive to gain and non-gain. They tend to expect positive results, so they will tend to be risky to pursue their goals. On the contrary, individuals who are with prevention focus are more concerned to duties and responsibilities, and they are sensitive to loss and non-loss.

They tend to avoid negative results, so they will tend to be more safety to accomplish their goals (Higgins et al., 2001). As a result, this research considers two types of regulatory focus as the moderator to test if consumers with different regulatory focus personalities reveals different levels on purchase intention.

When consumers who are in promotion focus personality are affected by the informational social influence with positive opinions from shopping companions, consumers with promotion focus will perceive benefits, because consumers with promotion focus are more care about positive results, so they will listen to positive opinions given by shopping companions, and thus they will have great social support

affected by the informational social influence with negative opinions from shopping companions, consumers with promotion focus will perceive risks, but because consumers with promotion focus tend to be more risky to approach their goals, so they will not listen to negative opinions given by shopping companions. Even if they do not have social support in knowledge from shopping companions on this product, their purchase intention may still be high, but it will not be higher than purchase intention with positive opinions.

To put it another way, when consumers who are in prevention focus personality are affected by the informational social influence with positive opinions from shopping companions, consumers with prevention focus will perceive benefits, because consumers with prevention focus tend to select the safety choice, so they will listen to positive opinions given by shopping companions, and thus they will have social support in knowledge from shopping companions on this product, and it further increase their purchase intention. When consumers who are in prevention focus personality are affected by the informational social influence with negative opinions from shopping companions, consumers with prevention focus will perceive risks, because consumers with prevention focus tend to avoid negative results, so they will listen to negative opinions given by shopping companions. Since they do not have social support in knowledge from shopping companions on this product, it further greatly decreases their purchase intention.

When consumers who are in promotion focus personality are affected by the normative social influence with positive opinions from shopping companions, consumers with promotion focus will perceive benefits, because consumers with

promotion focus expect positive results, so they will listen to positive opinions given by shopping companions, and thus it is likely to enhance consumers’ self-concept from shopping companions on this product, and it further greatly increase their purchase intention. When consumers who are in promotion focus personality are affected by the normative social influence with negative opinions from shopping companions, consumers with promotion focus will perceive risks, because consumers with promotion focus tend to be more risky on their choice, so they will not listen to negative opinions given by shopping companions. Even if it is likely to harm consumers’ self-esteem from shopping companions on this product, their purchase intention may still be high, but it will not be higher than purchase intention with positive opinions.

On the other hand, when consumers who are in prevention focus personality are affected by the normative social influence with positive opinions from shopping companions, consumers with prevention focus will perceive benefits, because consumers with prevention focus tend to select the safety choice and avoid failure, so they will listen to positive opinions given by shopping companions, and thus it is likely to enhance consumers’ self-concept from shopping companions on this product, and it further increase their purchase intention. When consumers who are in prevention focus personality are affected by the normative social influence with negative opinions from shopping companions, consumers with prevention focus will perceive risks, because consumers with prevention focus are more afraid of negative results happening and they will tend to avoid negative results, so they will listen to negative opinions given by shopping companions. Since it is likely to harm consumers’ self-esteem from shopping companions on this product, and it further greatly decreases their purchase intention.

General speaking, this research assumes that consumers who are affected by the normative social influence and informational social influence with positive opinions from shopping companions, promotion focus personality results has higher purchase intention compared to prevention focus personality because promotion focus consumers tend to have strong desire and pursue achievement and advancement in connection with products.

On the other hand, this research assumes that consumers who are affected by the normative social influence and informational social influence with negative opinions from shopping companions, prevention focus personality has lower purchase intention compared to promotion focus personality. The reason is that prevention focus consumers tend to avoid potential failures resulting from using and having products, so they will make safety decisions on purchase. To summarize, this research proposed the following hypotheses:

H3a: Consumers in promotion focus have higher purchase intention than consumers in prevention focus on informational social influence with positive opinions from shopping companions

H3b: Consumers in prevention focus have lower purchase intention than consumers in promotion focus on informational social influence with negative opinions from shopping companions

H3c: Consumers in promotion focus have higher purchase intention than consumers in prevention focus on normative social influence with positive opinions from shopping companions

H3d: Consumers in prevention focus have lower purchase intention than consumers in promotion focus on normative social influence with negative opinions from shopping companions.