The Effects of Self-Gift Purchase Motivation on Psychological Well-Being and Repurchase Intention: Focusing on the Moderating Effects of Product Type

This study aims to investigate the impact of consumers’ self-gift purchase motivation on their psychological well-being and repurchase intention in the context of the consumption trend of pursuing self-healing and small happiness for themselves and to verify whether there are differences in the relationship between these research concepts by product type. To this end, hypotheses and research models were derived from the theoretical background, and a survey was conducted among Chinese consumers who had purchased utilitarian or hedonic products as self-gifts, and the results were tested using a structural equation model. The research findings are summarized as follows. First, the investment motive, consolation motive, and imitation motive of self-gifting had a positive effect on psychological well-being after self-gifting, and the investment motive had a positive impact on the repurchase intention of self-gifting. Second, psychological well-being after self-gift purchase positively affected repurchase intention. Third, the moderating effect of product type was significant in the relationship between all consumption motives and psychological well-being except for the self-gift imitation motive. In particular, psychological well-being had a positive effect on repurchase intentions after self-gifting hedonic products for reward and comfort motives, and psychological well-being had a positive effect on repurchase intentions after self-gifting utilitarian products for investment motives. These results suggest that companies should focus on consumers’ preferences for self-gifting, develop differentiated products, and establish differentiated marketing strategies based on consumers’ purchase motives, such as developing communication messages appropriate to their product types.