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The influence of unawareness set and order effects in consumer regret

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Abstract

Prior research on regret has assumed a consideration set of only two-alternatives. The authors have relaxed that assumption and have developed hypotheses to examine the influence of the unawareness set and order effects in the measurement of consumer regret in a post-purchase evaluation. The results demonstrated that the brands consumers were previously unaware of, do indeed influence consumer regret, especially in a post-purchase upward comparison situation (comparing to superior unknown brands); this was not the case in a post-purchase downward comparison situation (comparing to inferior unknown brands). Order effects were also found to moderate consumer regret.

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Acknowledgments

The authors like to thank George A. Neuman as well as the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This research was supported by a grant from the Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship, awarded to Wen-Hsien Huang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Central University, Jhongli City, Taiwan

    Chien-Huang Lin

  2. Soochow University, Taipei County, Taiwan

    Wen-Hsien Huang

  3. Department of Business Administration, Soochow University, No.56, Sec. 1, Gueiyang Street, Taipei City, 100, Taiwan

    Wen-Hsien Huang

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  1. Chien-Huang Lin
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  2. Wen-Hsien Huang
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Correspondence to Wen-Hsien Huang.

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Lin, CH., Huang, WH. The influence of unawareness set and order effects in consumer regret. J Bus Psychol 21, 293–311 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-006-9030-9

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