The Timing of Repeat Purchases of Consumer Durable Goods: The Role of Functional Bases of Consumer Attitudes

Abstract

In an attempt to bring consumer psychology theories into research on the timing of repurchase of consumer durables, the authors suggest that attitude functions (knowledge, value expressive, social adjustive, and utilitarian) can help explain and predict interpurchase intervals. Adopting an interactionist perspective, the authors propose that the effect of the attitude functions is contingent on contextual factors, which they theorize as the nature of the product (along public-private and luxury-necessity dimensions) and the nature of the decision (forced or unforced purchase decision). Hypothesis testing is facilitated by survey data on actual purchase decisions and hazard models that incorporate individual heterogeneity. The results support the suggested role of attitude functions in explaining and predicting interpurchase intervals and suggest means by which managers can position their products to shorten interpurchase intervals.