Consumers’ Usage Intention of Refill-Stations: An Empirical Examination of Station Design Aspects
(A2022-107015)

AUTHORS

Louisa Pfeifer, University of Hamburg; Jennifer Zeißler, University of Hamburg

ABSTRACT

This research shows that consumers’ curiosity about refill-stations has a positive effect on their usage intention. The authors suggest that refill-stations as a new distribution channel entail unknown information for consumers, which leads to increased curiosity and the desire to close this information gap from a customer’s side. More precisely, it is believed that curiosity mediates the effect of a consumer’s shopping goal (hedonic vs. utilitarian) on usage intention, given a fit between consumer goal and the product benefits promoted on the respective refill-station. In fact, curiosity does fully mediate the effect of consumer goal on usage intention in a utilitarian fit situation, but not in a hedonic fit situation. The findings provide useful guidelines to marketers in the successful design of refill-station aspects in order to increase consumers’ first-time usage intention.