Do Unto Others As You Would Do Unto Yourself: Variety-Seeking Motives in Gift Giving

EXTENDED ABSTRACT - Is consumer variety-seeking behavior limited to one’s own purchases, or might it also extend to purchases made for others? Prior research has provided considerable support for variety-seeking tendencies in purchase behavior (McAlister and Pessemier 1982; Ratner and Kahneman 1999). Researchers have also distinguished between variety seeking as an internal trait versus variety seeking triggered by external stimuli such as price promotions (Kahn and Louie 1990; Kahn and Raju 1991; van Trijp et al. 1996). More recently, researchers have also investigated the role of contextual variables (e.g., public vs. private decisions) in variety-seeking behavior (Ratner and Kahn 2002).

Citation:

Tilottama G. Chowdhury, S. Ratneshwar, and Kalpesh K. Desai (2004) ,"Do Unto Others As You Would Do Unto Yourself: Variety-Seeking Motives in Gift Giving", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 31, eds. Barbara E. Kahn and Mary Frances Luce, Valdosta, GA : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 22-23.