Blind Box Gifts: The Impact of Self-Gift Motivation and Lifestyle on Repurchase Intention

Yingji Li; Xin Yang; Ping Wang; Yanshu Jia; Di Xiang & Qiang Li

Research Article: 2022 Vol: 28 Issue: 6S

Blind Box Gifts: The Impact of Self-Gift Motivation and Lifestyle on Repurchase Intention

Yingji Li, Chongqing Institute of Engineering

Xin Yang, Chongqing Institute of Engineering

Ping Wang, Zhengzhou Technology and Business University

Yanshu Jia, Quest International University Perak

Di Xiang, Shanghai Technical Institute of Electronics & Information

Qiang Li, Shanghai Technical Institute of Electronics & Information

Citation Information: Li, Y., Yang, X., Wang, P., Jia, Y., Xiang, D., & Li, Q. (2022). Blind box gifts: The impact of self-gift motivation and lifestyle on repurchase intention. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 28(S4), 1- 16.

Abstract

This study uses blind boxes as a consumption context to explore the relationship between self-gift and repurchase intention. The study divided the motivation of self-gift into four aspects: reward, enjoyment, celebration, and treatment. The study examined the influence of self-gift giving on repurchase intention. At the same time, the lifestyle is divided into fashion-oriented and self-enjoyment. The study examined the influence of lifestyle on repurchase intentions. The research found that: (1) Self-gift motivation has a significant impact on repurchase intention. (2) The self-enjoyment lifestyle has a significant impact on the willingness to repurchase. (3) The Repurchase intention is a partial mediator of: Self-gift on regret, and Fashion- oriented lifestyle.

Keywords

Blind Box, Self- Gift, Lifestyle, Repurchase Intention

Introduction

With the upgrading of consumption, the blind box appears in the lives of young people. As the name suggests, the blind box is a box containing different styles of dolls. There are several boxes in a set, and people don’t know the contents before opening them. The earliest blind box, known as the "blessing bag", was born in the Edo era of Japan. During the New Year, merchants put corner fabrics, gold woven threads and kimono belt into cloth bags for sale at a reduced price. If they draw gold woven thread or kimono belt, they can get good luck for a year. Subsequently, due to the vigorous development of the two-dimensional culture in Japan, the merchants put the animation models into plastic balls, put them in the machine corresponding to the theme, and sold it by randomly selecting coins or cards. With the popularity of the Japanese two-dimensional culture, it has taken the world by storm. Now there are more than these two forms of blind boxes. With the explosion of blind boxes, blind boxes are not limited to dolls. There are many kinds of blind boxes, such as book blind boxes, air ticket blind boxes, stationery blind boxes, manual blind boxes, archaeological blind boxes, fresh blind boxes and so on. There are many factors that affect young people's willingness to buy blind boxes, but most young people buy blind boxes not for others, but for themselves, that is, self-gift, and the motivation is called self-gift motivation. At the same time, the different lifestyles of young people will make young people show different consumption behaviors. In such an era when blind boxes are popular, how do self-gift and lifestyle affect consumers' repurchase behavior in the process of buying blind boxes, and how do repurchase behaviors affect the emotion of regret generated in blind box purchases. It is very important for blind box companies to induce consumers to buy blind box products multiple times and to reduce consumers’ regrets after repeated consumption.

The popularity of blind box consumption and the expansion of the blind box market have led more and more scholars to conduct research on blind boxes. The current research on blind boxes is mainly focused on blind box strategy research (Zhang, 2021; Zhao & Xu, 2021). Chen (2021) conducted a research on blind box consumers. The research of these scholars shows that the blind box economy and the expansion of the blind box market are closely related to consumers themselves, but this concentration of research on blind box consumers and related strategies leads to the relative lack of empirical research on blind box. The research on self-gift mainly focuses on the following three aspects: the influencing factors of self-gift, the impact of self-gift on luxury consumption motivation, and impulsive self- gift behavior. For example, Ripp, et al., (2019) show that anxiety attachment and avoidance attachment are the psychological premise of self-gift giving behavior; SEO & Hodges (2020) confirmed that emotion and promotion promote impulsive self-gift giving behavior; Lawry (2021) found that self-gift is very important to promote luxury shoppers to accept the physiological shopping experience. A large number of studies have shown that self-gift has a strong influence on consumers' purchase intentions, but this kind of concentration of research hotspots has led to relatively insufficient research on the influence of self-gift on consumers' repurchase intentions.

Based on empirical research, this study starts from the new consumption situation of blind box, and takes blind box consumers as the object to carry out relevant research on blind box consumption motivation and their own lifestyle. The purpose is to explore the influence of self-gift giving motives, lifestyles on blind box consumers’ repurchase intentions and the influence of consumers’ repurchase intentions on regret emotions, make up for the current research gap, and help the blind box industry reduce consumers' regret while carrying out marketing through consumers' gift motivation and lifestyle.

Literature Review and Development of Hypotheses

Variable Definition

Self-gift

As the behavior of giving gifts to oneself becomes more and more common, Mortimer, et al., (2015) believe that this phenomenon has attracted the attention of many marketing and consumer behavior scholars. The earliest related concept was the “self-gift” proposed by Mick & DeMoss (1990). Mike and DeMoss defined “self-gift” as: individual symbolic self-communication through special indulgence, which is usually planned in advance and highly related to the background situation. Subsequent studies have cited the definition of Mick & DeMoss (1990) and made their own interpretations. For example, Atalay & Meloy (2011) believe that self-gift is the consumption of products and services, which meets the psychological and behavioral needs of consumers. The process is exclusively personal, pleasure-oriented and independent of an immediate need. Scholar Heath (2015) defined self gift in his research as: pleasure oriented, symbolic and special consumption experience. It is self-oriented or jointly oriented with others. Consumers think it is a legitimate behavior in their situation, and the behavior will produce situation related emotions before and after the occurrence. Because Pereira (2006) believe that "self-gift" behavior has certain fuzziness in actual judgment, sometimes we may not be able to judge whether a consumer's purchase behavior is a self-gift. The definition of Mike & DeMoss (1990) clearly pointed out the four elements of self-gift, namely, advance planning, symbolic self-communication, special self-indulgence, and high correlation with background situations, in view of this, this study cites the definition of Mike & Demoss (1990) as the definition of self-gift in this study. Mike & demoss (1990) divided the motivation of self-gift into four categories: reward, celebration, treatment and pleasure. Heath, et al., (2011) believed that when consumers reached a goal, consumers often felt that they should be rewarded. Self-gift at this time is a self-gift based on reward. Heath, et al., (2011) mentioned that when consumers celebrate their birthday, anniversary or special day, they are likely to give themselves a gift to celebrate. Sherry (1983) mentioned that when consumers feel depressed or sad and they want to cheer themselves up, they may give therapeutic self-gift. Alias, et al., (2018) found that end with hedonic self-gift, which generally occur when consumers want to be kind to themselves. In the past, most studies on self-gift focused on luxury consumption motivation. For example, Kauppinen-Räisänen, et al., (2014) conducted research on luxury consumers’ motivation for self-giving luxury goods consumption; Wang (2014) conducted a research on Chinese and British consumers’ luxury consumption motivation; Lawry (2021) Studied the mediating role of self-gift in the purchase of luxury goods. This research studies the blind box situation on the motivation of self-gift, and expands the research scene of self-gift.

Lifestyle

The term "lifestyle" was first proposed by the scholar Max Weber, Lazer & Lazer (1963) were the first scholars to study the relationship between lifestyle and marketing. They believe that lifestyle is "the lifestyle of the whole society or one person", in the research of follow-up scholars, Solomon (1994) put forward a more specific definition of lifestyle: "the way a person spends time and money". Peter & Olson (1994) defined lifestyle as "the way people live, including their activities, interests and views." In the purchase situation of blind box, consumers' interests and views are one of the influencing factors of whether they buy blind box. Therefore, this study defines lifestyle as the unique activity forms and behavior characteristics of blind box consumers, including the way they spend time and money, as well as their activities, interests and views.

Fashion-oriented lifestyle is a subsidiary concept of lifestyle. Fashion-oriented lifestyle refers to consumers' attitudes, concerns and opinions in purchasing fashionable products (Gutman & Mills, 1982). Lee (1999) mentioned that buying fashion products is not just a simple demand, but an action of personal interest, attitude, value and joint effect. Sproles (1979) put forward that buying fashion products is a personal way of life, which is closely related to the lifestyle of consumers. In China, blind box products are a trendy toy, which exists as a fashion item. Han (2013) found that the lifestyle of self-enjoyment is a lifestyle of enriching oneself, self-expression and individuality. Zhang (2021) pointed out in the research that many blind box buyers share their own experience in picking blind boxes and exchange items obtained from blind boxes on some platforms. Blind box consumers express themselves and show themselves through this way of individual life. In summary, this research will conduct research from the perspective of fashion - oriented lifestyle and self-enjoyment lifestyle.

Repurchase Intention

As for repurchase intention, according to the concept put forward by Hendarsono & Sugiharto (2013), repurchase intention is the behavior of customers, that is, customers respond positively to the company’s offerings and are interested in returning to visit or agree to the company’s products. Sriram (2019) believes that purchase intention is a measure of the likelihood of a consumer to buy a product he/she knows. Thamrin & Francis (2012) believe that "repurchase intention is a purchase intention based on the purchase experience that has been done in the past." Chathurani (2018) it is a consumer behavior intention to measure the trend of continuing, increasing, or reducing the number of products exported from the current. It means that people tend to buy the same brand and the same product / service from the same company. The repurchase intention for specific products or specific points of sale will be affected by various factors. Such as physical environment, service and product quality, brand preference, customer satisfaction, perceived value, etc. In summary, this study believes that repurchase intention is the willingness of consumers to purchase a certain kind of goods and services again or purchase multiple times.

Regret

Regret originated from Kahneman's research on loss aversion in 1979, and then Kahneman and Tversky further improved the research connotation in counterfactual thinking in 1982, In the same year, Loomes (1982) believed that regret was due to the difference between the actual benefits obtained by the selected decision and the maximum benefits that other unselected decisions might obtain. Sugden (1985) believes that regret is a negative cognitive emotion that arises when comparing the actual result of an event with other possible situations. Landman (1993) pointed out in the research that regret is an emotional state of self-blame, annoyance, regret and other psychological states of self-blame, annoyance, remorse, etc., under the influence of subjective and objective factors. Zeelenberg (1999) defines regret as a feeling that people may bring better results if their original actions are different from what they are now. It is a negative emotion generated from cognition. To sum up, regret is a composite emotion generated by comparison. This comparison is generally a comparison of choices. The emotions generated are generally negative emotions such as self blame, chagrin and regret. Zeelenberg (2002) proposed decision-making regret in his research and defined decision-making regret as the regret generated when an individual realized or imagined that the result of the behavior would be better if he had taken other behaviors previously. Since the final result of consumers buying blind boxes depends on their decisions during the purchase process, they are more likely to regret their decisions. To sum up, this study selects the definition of decision regret proposed by Zeelenberg (2002) as the definition of regret in this study, that is, blind box buyer regret is the feeling when blind box consumers realize or imagine that the results will be better if they take other actions previously.

Variable Relationship

Self-gift and Repurchase Intention

Astous (2021) confirmed in his research that gift giving behavior, as a behavioral response to various events in life, will accumulate and make people more satisfied with life. Based on the expectation inconsistency theory and behavior intention theory, customers are evaluated based on the comparison between the actual perceived utility after receiving the service and the previous psychological expectation. Customers with high satisfaction show a strong willingness to repeat purchase. Zeithaml (1996) pointed out that consumers with high satisfaction are more likely to repurchase and recommend brands to others. Chen & Cao (2018) when consumers perceive a higher degree of satisfaction, the action and frequency of the original behavior will increase, so repurchase will increase. In recent years, many scholars have studied the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase intention from different angles. Lee (2019) empirically found that the purchase satisfaction of Chinese consumers who buy Korean smartphones has a positive impact on recommending such brand loyalty and repurchase intention to others;

Ranjbarian (2019) confirmed in the study of department stores in Iran that perceived quality affects store image, customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. At the same time, customer satisfaction also affects repurchase intention. It can be considered that with the increase of people's behavior of giving gifts to themselves, many consumers will repeatedly buy some products for themselves as gifts in order to enhance their satisfaction in life. Does the self-gift motivation of consumers in the blind box situation affect their willingness to buy blind box products again? According to the above discussion, this study puts forward the following research hypotheses:

H1: The self-gift motivation of blind box consumers has a positive impact on the repurchase intention of blind box consumers.

Lifestyle and Repurchase Intention

Lifestyle is a unique activity form and behavior characteristic when a person interacts with society. Feldman & Thielbar (1971) summarized four characteristics of lifestyle from the perspective of social psychology: lifestyle is a group phenomenon, and a person's lifestyle is affected by his social group and his relationship with others; Lifestyle covers all aspects of life. A person's lifestyle makes him/her show consistency in behavior. Therefore, when we know a person's behavior in one aspect of life, we can infer his behavior in other aspects; Lifestyle reflects a person's core life interests, and many core interests shape a person's lifestyle, such as family, work, leisure, religion and so on; Lifestyle shows differences in different demographic variables, including age, gender, nationality, social class, religion and other determinants. Apupianti (2019) consumers have their own preferences when shopping, which reflects their lifestyle. According to Mokhlis (2006), shopping orientation is one of the concepts of consumer behavior, which can classify consumers according to behavior and shopping lifestyle. Preez, et al., (2007) understanding this lifestyle will help marketers effectively promote and communicate products. Blackwell (2009) life style affects consumption behavior and is also affected by consumption behavior. We classify the lifestyle of blind box consumption into two types: fashion - oriented lifestyle and self-enjoyment lifestyle.

In the follow-up research, scholars have relatively consistent research conclusions on the relationship between them for different research backgrounds and objects. For example, in the fashion-oriented lifestyle, Apupianti (2019) found that the shopping lifestyle has a significant positive impact on the purchase intention in the research on the impact of the purchase intention of popular clothing. Saputra, et al., (2020) concluded from the research on the influencing factors of millennials' online purchase intention that lifestyle affects online purchase intention.

Purwoko (2019) concluded from the study on the purchase intention of Surakarta—Indonesia herbal medicine that the higher the consumer's consumption value and lifestyle orientation, the higher the consumer's intention to purchase herbal medicine in Surakarta—Indonesia. From this, it can be seen that lifestyle affects consumers' behavior and consumption choice of products, brands and services. Therefore, identifying different consumer lifestyles has great advantages in predicting consumer behavior, that is, use intention. Especially when consumers are faced with a variety of alternatives, the purchase decision becomes the last stage of the purchase process. In the lifestyle of self-enjoyment, Dutta (2016) believes that this is not the end, because every seller wants consumers to repurchase. Repurchase is an effort that sellers need to consider, so that online retailing can become the main choice for consumers to purchase goods. Therefore, the factors for seeking repurchase interest may be the same as the factors that influence the purchase decision.

Zhang (2021) proposed in the research that blind box consumers buy blind boxes partly because of the IP value of blind boxes, and IP is the carrier and medium of users' emotion. At the same time, many blind box buyers share their experience in picking blind boxes and exchange the items obtained from blind boxes on some platforms. Such behavior not only brings them social and entertainment experience, but also shares their fashion feelings with others. In the process of buying blind boxes, will consumers be affected by this self-enjoyment lifestyle or fashion - oriented lifestyle? According to the above discussion, this study puts forward the following research hypotheses:

H2: The fashion - oriented lifestyle of blind box consumers has a positive impact on the repurchase intention of blind box consumers.

H3: The self-enjoyment lifestyle of blind box consumers has a positive impact on the repurchase intention of blind box consumers.

Repurchase Intention and Regret

Zhang (2021) suggested that scarcity can lead to irrational behavior of consumers due to the marketing mechanism of blind box products. Chen (2021) pointed out that some consumers have a hunting attitude and thus cannot control their behavior and produce persistent buying behavior, which is not rational. This is also supported by a large number of studies. Hoch & Loewenstein (1991); Wood (1998). It can be known that the purchase of blind boxes is often accompanied by impulse purchases, which induce regret. Wood (1998) argued that many impulse purchases lead to regret and anger. Lin, Chuang & Lai (2005) found that the higher the level of impulse purchases, the higher the level of regret, and the lower the level of satisfaction. Piron (1991) stated that impulse buying leads to regret. Blind box consumers tend to constantly experience the urge to buy more in response to multiple stimuli, and most of the time consumers are unable to exercise control over the desire to buy more (Baumeister, 2002), and blind box consumers' choices become more biased towards immediate gratification, Wood (2005) The negative consequences caused by immediate gratification can lead to regret. Thus, after repeated purchases of blind boxes, blind box consumers are bound to trigger their regretful feelings.

H4:The repurchase intention of blind box consumers has a positive impact on the regret of blind box consumers.

Based on the above theoretical assumptions, this study constructs a structural equation model of the impact of self-gift lifestyle on repurchase intention. (Figure 1)

Figure 1

Research framework

The dimension (variable) of the research model is defined according to the research topic on the basis of the existing relevant research concepts, and the observation index, i.e. item, is set based on this. The operational definitions of the five structural planes are shown in Table 1.

Table 1DEFINITION
Variables		Variable definition	References
Fashion - oriented lifestyle		Build consumers' lifestyle. They like to express themselves and are sensitive to popular elements.	Li (2017)
Self-enjoyment lifestyle		Enrich oneself, express oneself and personality.
Self-Gift	Reward	Give something to (sb) in recognition of their service, efforts or achievements.
	Celebratory	Relating to or considered pleasant (or unpleasant) feelings.
	Hedonic	Publicly acknowledge (an important or happy day or event) through social gatherings or pleasant activities.
	Therapeutic	The branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of diseases and the action of therapeutic agents.
Repurchase intention		Consumers maintain the tendency and desire to continue to buy blind boxes.	Fang et al., (2014)
Regret		When consumers realize that the original action is different from now, it may bring better results.	Davvetas & Diamantopoulos (2017)

Data Analysis

A Partial Least Squares (PLS) research model was used to verify the model stability and hypotheses testing. SmartPLS 3.0 software was utilized to perform the PLS analysis (Ramayah et al., 2018). PLS is a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique that is based on path analysis and regression analysis. This technique has recently become critical for analyzing causal relationship models with multiple constructs. PLS is superior covariance-based SEM for the following four reasons (Urbach & Ahlemann, 2010). (1) PLS can simultaneously process reflective indicators and formative indicators;(2) PLS yields stable parameter values from a small sample;(3) PLS overcomes the problem of multicollinearity;(4) PLS can analyze complex predictive models (with many research constructs and variables).

Subjects

Considering China's regional differences, urban consumers in Southwest China are at a medium level in terms of economic income and living standards, lower than those in the East and higher than those in the northwest and northeast, which is more representative. The sampling method of this study adopts convenient sampling, and the questionnaire is distributed through the questionnaire website "questionnaire star" from October 17, 2021 to December 7, 2021. The questionnaire is distributed one-to-one, and conducted field research on social networking sites and offline. The respondents need to be consumers who have already had blind box consumption behavior. A total of 753 questionnaires were distributed in this survey. 416 valid questionnaires remained after excluding the non survey population (who had not purchased the blind box), and 375 valid questionnaires remained after data screening (excluding abnormal data, etc.). The demographic data of the study sample (N= 375) are as follows:

Table 2 SAMPLE DEMOGRAPHICS
Demographic variables	Category	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Gender	Male	127	33.9
Gender	Female	248	66.1
Age	22 years and under	323	86.1
	23-30 years old	40	10.7
	31 years and over	12	3.2
Education level	High school and below	9	2.4
	College degree	37	9.9
	Bachelor degree	311	82.9
	Master degree or above	18	4.8
Cost	Less than 1000 yuan	68	18.1
	1001-1500 Yuan	159	42.4
	1501-2000 Yuan	63	16.8
	2001-3000 Yuan	34	9.1
	3001-5000 Yuan	27	7.2
	5001-10000 Yuan	20	5.3
	Above 10001 yuan	4	1.1
Total amount		375	100

Measurement

On the basis of full reference to previous studies, it also meets the requirement of at least three items for each aspect of the structural equation model (Hair, Black, Babin & Anderson, 2014). Each aspect of this research has three or more items. For the measurement items, all questions use a seven-scale scale. 1 is strongly disagree, 2 is disagree, 3 is slightly disagree, 4 is general, 5 is slightly agree, 6 is agree, and 7 is strongly agree.

The specific measurement scale is shown in Table 3:

Table 3MEASUREMENT ITEMS OF CONSTRUCTS
Variables	Code	Questions	References
Reward	REW1	When I make progress, I will draw the blind box.	Li (2017)
	REW2	When I get recognition (promotion, salary increase, award, scholarship), I will draw the blind box.
	REW3	In order to reward myself, I will draw a blind box.
Hedonic	HE1	Blind box drawing is an exciting way of entertainment.
	HE2	I enjoyed the process of drawing the blind box.
	HE3	The blind box makes me happy.
Celebratory	CE1	I draw the blind box to make my special moment more unforgettable.
	CE2	I regard blind box as my record of major events.
	CE3	I use the blind box as a way to celebrate.
Therapeutic	TR1	Drawing blind box inspires me to do more.
	TR2	The blind box can inspire me to work harder (Study).
	TR3	In order to motivate myself, I will draw a blind box.
Pursue a fashion - oriented lifestyle	FOL1	I like to try various styles and follow fashion.
	FOL2	I am very fashionable
	FOL3	I often try the latest hairstyle.
Self-enjoyment lifestyle	SEL1	I have my own criteria for choosing fashion brands.
	SEL2	I mainly buy products that conform to my brand image and style, not well-known or popular products.
	SEL3	My own style is more important.
Repurchase intention	RI1	I'm likely to buy the blind box again.	Fang, et al., (2014)
	RI2	I am willing to continue to buy blind boxes.
	RI3	I would like to recommend relatives and friends to buy blind boxes.
Regret	REG1	If I think carefully, I can draw what I want.	Davvetas & Diamantopoulos (2017)
	REG2	If I choose carefully, I can draw what I want.
	REG3	If I had chosen something else, I could have drawn what I wanted.
	REG4	If I choose another blind box, I can draw what I want.
	REG5	If I can choose again, I won't choose this blind box.
	REG6	If I can choose again, I will choose the blind box of other stores.
	REG7	If I can choose again, I will make a better decision when selecting the blind box.
	REG8	If I can choose again, I will pay more attention to selecting the blind box.

Model Analysis and Results

A complete Structural Equation Model (SEM) evaluation includes the evaluation of measurement model and the evaluation of structural model (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). In this study, Partial Least Squares (PLS) is used to study the model to verify the stability of the model and test the model hypothesis. Partial Least Squares (PLS) is adopted because it is suitable for discussing the causal relationship between structural variables and can also deal with model structure and project measurement at the same time (Petter et al., 2007). Moreover, PLS has loose requirements for the normality and randomness of variables. In addition, PLS has loose requirements for the normality and randomness of variables, which is suitable for dealing with variable relationships with abnormal data distribution. Finally, it has the advantage of analyzing complex prediction models (Chin & newsted, 1999). This study investigated the relationship between self-gift, lifestyle, repurchase intention and regret of blind box consumers, because in the past literature, each variable contains many measurements. In order to study the causal relationship between variables, reduce measurement error and avoid collinearity, SEM analysis using PLS is more suitable for this study than SEM analysis using other methods.

This study tested the measurement model from reliability, aggregate validity and discriminant validity.

Reliability Analysis and Convergent Validity

This study analyzes the five dimensions of self-gift, fashion - oriented lifestyle, self-enjoyment lifestyle, repurchase intention and regret. According to the requirements of reliability and aggregation standard, the load of standardization factor greater than 0.60 is acceptable, the most ideal should be greater than 0.70 (Chin, 1998; Fornell & larcker, 1981), and the composite reliability should be greater than 0.60. If the average variance extracted is higher than 0.50, it indicates that the measurement model has good aggregation validity (hair, black, Babin and Anderson, 2014). The factor load of this study is between 0.88-0.97, which shows that each item has reliability; The Cronbach coefficients (Cronbachsα) of all facets are between 0.86-0.97 and the Composition Reliability (CR) is between 0.91-0.98, indicating that each facet has good internal consistency; The Average Variance Extraction (AVE) is 0.71-0.90 (as shown in Table 4), which meets the standard. Therefore, the five dimensions have good reliability and aggregation validity.

In this study, the rigorous AVE method was used to test the discriminative validity of the measurement model. If the square root of AVE of each facet is greater than the correlation coefficient between facets, it indicates that the model has discriminative validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Table 4 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS AND CONVERGENT VALIDITY
Variables	Measurement items	Standard load factor	Cronbach'sα	rho_A	Composite Reliability (CR)	Average Variance Extraction (AVE)
REW	REW1	0.931	0.929	0.930	0.949	0.824
	REW2	0.948
	REW3	0.929
CE	CE1	0.932	0.931	0.920	0.951	0.830
	CE2	0.935
	CE3	0.916
HE	HE1	0.916	0.923	0.923	0.945	0.813
	HE2	0.936
	HE3	0.937
TR	TR1	0.958	0.867	0.945	0.912	0.723
	TR2	0.962
	TR3	0.925
FOL	FOL1	0.901	0.949	0.902	0.960	0.829
	FOL2	0.920
	FOL3	0.920
SEL	SEL1	0.915	0.961	0.935	0.972	0.895
	SEL2	0.904
	SEL3	0.918
RI	RI1	0.938	0.938	0.909	0.956	0.845
	RI2	0.928
	RI3	0.888
REG	REG1	0.945	0.944	0.951	0.953	0.717
	REG2	0.937
	REG3	0.939
	REG4	0.922
	REG5	0.903
	REG6	0.894
	REG7	0.919
	REG8	0.914

As shown in Table 5, the root mean square of AVE on the diagonal plane of this study is greater than the correlation coefficient outside the diagonal. Therefore, the plane of this study has good discriminant validity.

Table 5 CORRELATION MATRIX
	SG	FOL	SEL	RI	RE
SG	0.826
FOL	0.719	0.910
SEL	0.452	0.664	0.946
RI	0.747	0.607	0.478	0.919
REG	0.731	0.609	0.384	0.689	0.847
Notes: 1. Diagonal bold values are the square root of AVE of each facet, and others are the correlation coefficients between facets. 2. SG=Self-gift; FOL = Fashion - oriented lifestyle; SEL= Self-enjoyment lifestyle; RI= Repurchase intention; REG= Regret.

Inner Model and Hypotheses Testing

Hypothesis Test

This study uses partial least squares analysis to test the hypothesis, uses the model to estimate the path coefficient and T value. The path coefficient represents the strength and direction of the variable relationship to show the causal relationship between the observed variable and the latent variable. The R² value is the percentage of the dependent variable that can be explained, representing the predictive ability of the model. Self-gift is a secondary factor.

Table 6 MODEL HYPOTHESIS TEST
Hypothesis	Variable relationship	Standardized path coefficient	T Statistics	Accept/Reject
H1	SG -> RI	0.627	11.391***	Accept
H2	FOL -> RI	0.072	0.975	Reject
H3	SEL -> RI	0.150	2.938**	Accept
H4	RI -> REG	0.688	18.428***	Accept
Notes: 1. RI = Repurchase intention; REG = Regret; SG = Self-gift; FOL = Fashion - oriented lifestyle; SEL = Self-enjoyment lifestyle. 2. p-value < 0.05; * p-value < 0.01; *** p-value < 0.001.

It can be seen from Table 6 and Figure 2 that self-gift has a positive and significant effect on repurchase intention, supporting H1 (SG→RI: β =0.627, t value =11.391).

The fashion-oriented lifestyle has no significant direct effect on repurchase intention; therefore, H2 is rejected (β =0.072, t value =0.975). Self-enjoyment lifestyle has a significant impact on repurchase intention, supporting H3 (SEL→RI: β =0.150, t value =2.938). The H4 of this study is also supported (β =18.428, t value =18.428).

Figure 2

Standardized path coefficients and significance of inner model

Mediation Effect Test

Additionally, we test the mediator effect of overall trust. In doing so we follow the guidelines of Preacher & Hayes (2008); Hair, Hult, Ringle & Sarstedt (2014); and Nitzl, Roldan & Cepeda (2016). In case of mediator variables, it is necessary that direct and indirect effects are statistically signifificant. After these two criteria were met we could compute the Variance Accounted For (VAF) (Hair et al., 2014). Based on the findings reported in Table 7 we can conclude that the Repurchase Intention (RI) is a partial mediator of: Self-gift on Regret (REG), and Fashion - Oriented Lifestyle (FOL).

Table 7MEDIATION EFFECTS
Effect of	Directeffect(t-value)	Indirecteffect(t-value)	Totaleffect(t-value)	VAF(%)	Conclusions
SG → RI→ REG	0.491***	0.208***	0.699***	29.7%	Partial mediation
SEL → RI →REG	0.306***	0.016***	0.322***	4.96%	Indicates no mediation
FOL → RI → REG	0.070	0.108***	0.178***	60.6%	Partial mediation
Notes: RI = Repurchase intention; REG = Regret; SG = Self-gift; FOL = Fashion - oriented lifestyle; SEL = Self-enjoyment lifestyle.VAF= variance accounted for; VAF < 20% indicates no mediation; 20% <VAF> 80% partial mediation; VAF > 80% full mediation.

Discussion

This study can be used by researchers and practitioners of marketing in the context of blind box. From the results of data analysis, self-gift has a significant positive impact on the repurchase intention of blind box. At the same time, self-gifts also indirectly affect consumers' regret through repurchase intention. The results of the observational variable analysis of "self-gift" have the following two meanings: First, at the level of theoretical model, Lawry (2021) investigated the impact of self-gift discovery on promoting luxury shoppers to accept physiological shopping experience, but has not further studied the operation of "self-gift" as a measurement index. This study operationalizes the motivation of blind box consumers to send gifts to themselves, tests whether and how this "independent variable" affects blind box consumers' repurchase intention and regret, and proves it with data through hypothesis. This dimension can be an important predictor of the effect of self-gift motivation on the repurchase intention and regret of blind box consumers. Second, previous studies on the motivation of self-gift mostly focused on luxury consumption motivation (Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2014; Wang,2014; Lawry,2021). This study confirmed that self-gift can affect the repurchase intention and regret of blind box consumers, found and confirmed that incentives such as reward, pleasure, celebration and treatment can enhance the repurchase intention of consumers of blind box products. For consumers, buying a blind box product is not only a simple item or decoration, but also a reward when they complete their goals, a treatment when they are sad or sad, a way to celebrate when something important happens, and a way to enjoy happiness.

In the data analysis, the lifestyle of self-enjoyment has a significant positive impact on the repurchase intention of the blind box. At the same time, the lifestyle of self-enjoyment also indirectly affects consumers' regret through repurchase intention. The results of the observational variable analysis of "self-enjoyment lifestyle" show that consumers will be affected by their own self-enjoyment lifestyle when buying blind boxes, and respond to the view that blind boxes have strong entertainment attributes proposed by Zhang (2021) in the research on blind box marketing strategy from an empirical perspective.

In the study, the fashion-oriented lifestyle has no significant impact on the repurchase intention of blind box consumers, which may be caused by the factors of the blind box product itself. The blind box product itself is a probabilistic product, and consumers cannot determine the style of internal goods at the time of purchase, so they cannot determine the fashion attribute of goods, which is different from the research results of Wei (2011).

In the study of blind box repurchase intention on regret, it is concluded that repurchase intention significantly affects blind box consumers' regret. In previous studies, most of them focused on the regret caused by impulsive buying. This analysis results expanded the influencing factors of regret, and explained that consumers of blind box will have regret once they realize that different choices will have other results in the process of buying blind box.

Research Limitations and Future Work

Although this study strives to be rigorous in the research process, there are still limitations. In the sampling process of the questionnaire survey, although the geographical distribution representativeness of the sample is considered, due to the limited time and manpower, the survey sample of this study is limited to students in colleges and universities, which may reduce the universality of the survey concluded. . Moreover, due to the non random sampling method of issuing the questionnaire, the filling quality of the questionnaire will be insufficient compared with the on-site interview. The follow-up research should consider conducting face-to-face investigation in the process of investigation, and conducting sample investigation in a wider range through random sampling. Secondly, the research is based on the investigation of blind box consumers, because the factors causing regret may be different in other aspects, so the results of repurchase intention and regret may change. Finally, in the process of building the model, this study may ignore the existence of some other important influencing factors, such as satisfaction, loyalty, sense of experience, which are considered to be the driving factors affecting repurchase intention. In the follow-up research, we can explore and add some relevant antecedent variables, so as to build a more comprehensive and reasonable research model to explore the driving factors of consumers' repurchase intention and regret in the blind box consumption scenario.

Conclusion

It can be concluded self-gift motivation and self-enjoyment lifestyle have a significant impact on the willingness to repurchase. The repurchase intention is a partial mediator of Self-gift on regret, and Fashion - oriented lifestyle.

Acknowledgement

Corresponding author: Qiang Li, Shanghai Technical Institute of Electronics & Information, China.

References

Anderson, J.C., & Gerbing, D.W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological bulletin, 103(3), 411-423.

Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal (Print ISSN: 1087-9595; Online ISSN: 1528-2686)

Blind Box Gifts: The Impact of Self-Gift Motivation and Lifestyle on Repurchase Intention

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Literature Review and Development of Hypotheses

Variable Relationship

References

References