The Best I Can Be: How Self‐Accountability Impacts Product Choice in Technology‐Mediated Environments

Abstract

Technology-mediated environments are important not only as the location for an increasing proportion of purchases, but also as an even more pervasive part of the purchase journey. While most research into online consumer behavior focuses on attitudes as an antecedent of product choice, this article focuses on an important but hardly explored variable that may be impacted by technology-mediated environments: self-accountability. Laboratory experiments suggest that self-accountability may influence online purchases, but this has not been confirmed in field studies. Furthermore, although this prior work suggests that self-accountability may impact product choice through the elicitation of guilt, the role of positive emotions has not been explored. Using two surveys with online retailers, this paper (a) shows that in a technology-mediated environment, self-accountability influences product choice; (b) proposes and confirms a complementary route for this effect through pride that is stronger than that through guilt; and (c) evidences the relationship between self-accountability and perceived consumer effectiveness. These results show a clear opportunity for digital marketers to encourage self-accountability, to thereby elicit pride and not just guilt, and hence to impact consumer decision making in technology-mediated environments, particularly when choices have sustainability implications.

Research on the Relationship Between Self-improvement Values and Green Brand Identity

“…The Cronbach's Alpha for this scale was 0.71. In order to measure consumers' environmental self-accountability, we have borrowed from the 3-item scale developed by Rowe [7]. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of this scale is 0.890.…”

What Determines Consumer Attitude toward Green Credit Card Services? A Moderated Mediation Approach

“…Self-accountability is defined as the activation of a person's desire to live up to internal self-standards [50]. Prior studies have stressed the importance of self-accountability in inducing consumers' ethical consumption behaviors and environmentally friendly behaviors [50][51][52][53]. In the context of green consumption, self-accountability refers to the desire of consumers to practice environmental self-standards.…”

“…As noted, heightening self-accountability makes consumers become more aware of the importance of their desired responsibilities and duties, thereby enhancing consumers' ethical behavior [50][51][52][53]. Moreover, drawing on the regulatory focus theory [56], prevention-(vs. promotion-) focused consumers perceive their self-standards, responsibilities, and duties as more important.…”

Towards a typology of personal information management behavior: exploring and defining people's interactions with personal information

“…Ideal PIM behavior refers to practices they would like to use but are not, for one reason or another. When there are gaps between their actual and ideal PIM behavior, people may feel they are unable to perform in a way that meets their personal preferences and goals (Higgins, 1987; Rowe et al , 2017). They may feel less able to manage their personal information efficiently and may exhibit low PIM skills (Alon et al , 2018; Alon and Nachmias, 2020b).…”