사람들은 일상속에서 상황을 주도하며 능력 있게 살아가고 싶어하지만, 종종 상황에 이끌려 무력감을 느끼곤 한다. 예를 들어, 직장생활을 하면서 상사에게 무시를 당하고 질책을 받을 때, 사려고 하는 물건이 너무 비싸 살수 없을 때 등과 같이 자신이 상황을 통제할 수 없다고 느끼는 경우 무력감을 경험한다. 무력감을 느끼게 되면 사람들은 좌절, 슬픔, 분노와 같은 부정적 감정을 느끼게 되기 때문에 대부분 무력감을 줄이거나 벗어나기 위한 행동 중 하나로 보상소비를 하는 경향을 보인다. 이러한 보상소비 심리를 반영하듯이, 무력감을 해소하기 위해 자신의 능력을 보여주는 상품인 파워상징상품에 대한 소비행동이 나타나기도 한다. 본 연구의 목적은 소비자들이 느끼는 무력감의 원천에 대해 알아보고, 소비자가 무력감을 느낄 때, 보상소비로 어떤 소비행동을 보이는지 살펴본다. 또한 보상소비에 영향을 줄 수 있는 소비자 가치인 물질주의와의 관계를 분석해보는 것이다. 이를 위해, 연구1에서는 20~50대의 남녀소비자들을 대상으로 탐색적 연구를 진행하고, 연구2에서는 소비자들이 무력감을 느낄 때, 파워상징상품 추구와 소비자의 내재된 가치인 물질주의 추구성향에 따라 파워상징상품에 미치는 영향관계를 실증분석 한다. 마지막으로 연구의 결론과 종합적 의의, 향후 연구방향에 대해 차례로 논의한다. 본 연구는 세 가지 측면에서 의의를 가질 수 있다. 첫째, 소비자들의 무력감을 중심으로 무력감이 소비행동에 미치는 영향을 탐색적 연구와 실증분석을 통해 증명하였다는 점이다. 둘째, 무력감의 원천뿐 아니라 무력감으로 인해 발생하는 소비자들의 부정적 감정의 종류를 밝혀내고, 이를 해소하기 위한 파워상징상품 보상소비 형태를 분석하였다. 마지막으로, 소비자가 무력감을 느낄 때, 물질주의가 높으면 높을수록 파워상징상품에 대한 추구가 높아지는 결과를 통해 소비자 물질주의가치에 대한 중요성을 밝혀내었다. 본 논문은 소비자의 무력감이 보상소비에 미치는 영향관계뿐 아니라, 물질주의와 소비자의 파워상징상품 추구와의 연결을 시도한 논문이라고 할 수 있다.
Although people want to control their own circumstances, losing the control can cause undesirable situations which in turn sometimes lead people to experience a feeling of powerlessness. For example, uncontrollable situations such as reproaches by a superior at work and lack of money to buy products they want may lead people to experience powerlessness. Since experiencing powerlessness is likely to cause negative emotions such as frustration, sadness, and anger, and also increase desires to regain power, people try to come up with coping strategies to reduce the feeling of powerlessness (Rucker and Galinsky 2008; Dubois, Rucker and Galinsky 2012). One of the coping strategies that people use is compensatory consumptions for power products suchas luxurious shoes and bags as a means of recovering and showing their power (Han, Nunes, and Drese 2010). It is generally believed that the compensatory consumptions for power products can appear more often for people who highly value materialism. Reflecting the phenomenon, main objectives of the current study are to examine how consumers show compensatory consumption behaviors when they experience powerlessness and how materialism moderates the relationship between powerlessness and compensatory consumption. In order to achieve the main objectives, two studies were conducted. In study 1, we employed an exploratory method to find out the sources that cause powerlessness, emotions that consumers feel when they experience powerlessness, and compensatory behaviors that consumers show to cope with the emotions. In study 2, we empirically investigated the relationship between powerlessness and desire to purchase power-products and how materialism moderates the relationship based on results of study 1. The result of study 1 showed that there are seven sources of powerlessness: economic resource, position of authority, failure, control, expertise, relationship with people and respect from others. In addition, powerlessness caused negative emotions for consumers such as frustration, sadness, lethargy, anger, and gloom. The results also showed that in order to cope with the negative emotions, consumers showed compensatory behaviors such as going to movies, sleeping, and going shopping. Especially, when consumers go shopping as compensatory behaviors, they mostly purchased shoes, bags, and clothes. Main hypotheses tested in study 2 are as follows. H1: consumers`` willingness to pay (WTP)for power products is higher when consumers experience powerlessness than when they experience power. H2: the more consumers value materialism, consumers’ WTP is higher for power products when consumers experience powerlessness than when they experience power. To test the hypotheses, we conducted t-test and ANOVA. The results showed that the main hypotheses were supported. As a result of H1 test, consumers showed higher WTP for power products when they experience powerlessness than when they experience power. As a result of H2 test, consumers who value materialism showed higher WTP for power products when they experience powerlessness. There are significant academic contributions made by the current study. First, this study employed both exploratory and empirical research method to examine the effect of powerlessness on consumer behavior by focusing on powerlessness in consumer domain. Second, this study not only revealed the sources of powerlessness and the negative emotions caused by the powerlessness, but also showed how consumers perform compensatory consumption for power products as a means of coping with the negative emotions. Finally, this study showed the importance of materialism in consumer study by finding that the more consumers value materialism, the higher WTP is for power products when consumers experience powerlessness.