To find out whether some main effects are changing for certain sub-groups of our sample, we also included the organismic moderators gender, age, brand shopper, and reflective shopper in the analysis. Data on these mod- erators come from the pre- and post-purchase surveys.
Gender and age are popular organismic moderators that often alter the effect of focal variables on dependent variables considerably (Baron and Kenny 1986; MacKinnon 2008). We deem it very valuable to also analyze their role in the context of our example product category. Especially the role of gender could be important due to the DIY context of our example product category. Common sense nudges us to believe that, overall, men might approach a choice in such a technical, DIY-related category differ- ently from women.
Specifically, we test for three gender-related moderation effects: gender X price, gender X weight, and gender X willingness to pay, for the following reasons: We expect female shoppers to pay more attention to less expensive products and evaluate them better, as male shoppers might be more emo- tionally inclined to go for a more capable and technically advanced, but also pricier gadget. We guess that women would also pay more attention and give better evaluation to lighter products – bear in mind that cordless screwdrivers are a hand operated tool and we hypothesize that women appreciate a less heavy tool. We expect a significant moderation effect of gender on willingness to pay. Women with a high willingness to pay could engage in a more intense decision-making process than men with a compa- rable willingness to pay for a screwdriver, for men might be fascinated more easily by a high-tech screwdriver for the sake of having a nice gadget per se, whereas women who are willing to spend an above average amount on such a tool might rather be driven by an actual need for a high-performing tool. In such a situation, women should scrutinize the products on offer more closely than men, to make sure the chosen item fulfills their need.
H12: Female shoppers pay more attention to less expensive products and evaluate these better, as shown in a significantly positive interaction coefficient for gender X price.
H13: Female shoppers pay more attention to less lighter products and evaluate these better, as shown in a significantly positive interaction coefficient for gender X weight.
H14: Female shoppers with a high willingness to pay engage in a more thorough search process than men, which manifests itself in a signi-ficantly positive interac- tion coefficient for gender X willingness to pay
We also investigate an age-related moderation effect: Age X format type.
We seek to find out whether the test format with the more clearly structured
and better presented information material changes the attention or evalu- ation of younger versus older shoppers. Especially older shoppers might find the better info material at the POP easier accessible compared to the standard format and in turn might pay more attention to the products or evaluate them better.
H15: Older shoppers pay more attention to the products and evaluate them better in the test format, as shown in a significantly positive interaction coefficient for age X format type.
Apart from age and gender, we also explore potential moderating effects of two traits: brand shopping and reflective shopping. Participants were asked to characterize their shopping preferences before the experiment and we use this information to see whether different types of shopping preferences influ- ence the relationship between in-store and out-of-store factors and atten- tion and evaluation. Shopping preferences differ from shopper to shopper, at it seems reasonable to expect that they might influence the way people pay attention and evaluate products at the POP. It might well be that they change how an independent variable of our model impacts attention and evaluation levels, which warrants their inclusion as potential moderators.
We chose to test for two specific moderating effects, given their inherently logical appeal, as the next two paragraphs explain.
One of the two moderating effects concerns the interplay between the brand shopping preference and the favorite brand variable. The previous chapter showed that favorite brand has the strongest impact on attention and evaluation of all in-store and out-of-store factors’ main effects – it is the single most impactful determinant. We are hence intent on finding out whether the brand shopper-trait alters this relationship, i.e. whether brand shoppers treat products from their favorite brand differently than non- brand-shoppers. We thus test for the moderation brand shopper X favorite brand and presume that brand-shoppers pay even more attention to their favorite brand’s products and evaluate them even better than non-brand- shoppers; in other words, we expect brand-shoppers to pay significantly less attention to brands other than their favorite brand, as their brand prefer- ences should be more pronounced and stable from the outset.
H16: The interaction effect between the brand-shopping trait and favorite brand positively influences attention and evaluation levels.
The other moderating effect chosen for inclusion in the model encompass- es the reflective shopping trait and a products price. Being a high-involve- ment category with a usually intensive associated shopper decision-making process, we consider the influence of the reflective shopping trait a poten- tially insightful one. One could expect that people considering themselves reflective shoppers in general should engage in an all the more intense decision-process once making a choice about a pricy product. To find that out, we test for the moderation reflective shopping X price. We expect a reflective shopper interested in a pricy product to examine that product more closely than a non-reflective shopper.
H17 : The interaction effect between the reflective-shopping trait and price positively influences attention levels.