Self-gratification and self-discrepancy in purchase of digital items

Published date09 September 2019
Date09 September 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-10-2018-0434
Pages1608-1624
AuthorShuainan Li,Chee Wei Phang,Hong Ling
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management
Self-gratification and
self-discrepancy in purchase
of digital items
Shuainan Li
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Chee Wei Phang
EMM, University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China, and
Hong Ling
School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Abstract
Purpose While previous research underscored self-presentation desire as an important motivator of digital
item purchase, user needs for digital items may become increasingly inner-focused with the maturation of
virtual communities (VCs). The purpose of this paperis to posit that self-discrepancy and self-gratification are
key to explaining user purchase of digital items.
Design/methodology/approach A survey of 310 users of a social media-based VC well supports the
hypotheses.
Findings The tenet of this study is that individuals purchase digital items in VCs not only for self-presentation
purpose per se, but more importantly for reasons of more inner-focused, such as due to their self-discrepancy that
motivates them to purchase digital items to enhance self-esteem, and also for self-gratification. Furthermore,
self-discrepancy arising from comparing onescurrent self against how they perceive others expect them to ideally
be (i.e. self-other discrepancy) increases their self-presentation desire.
Originality/value Overall the findings enrich the current view that individuals purchase digital items
mainly to present themselves to others (Kim et al., 2012), thus affording a more complete understanding of this
behavior that has both important research and practical implications.
Keywords Social media
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Virtual communities (VCs) have become a prevalent and matured information system
phenomenon today. People with common interests and goals interact with one another in
these online spaces (Sproull and Arriaga, 2007; Faraj et al., 2011), which become an important
part of life to many (Ridings and Gefen, 2004). As technology platforms for supporting VCs
improve, in particular with the proliferated use of social software (Haefliger et al., 2011;
Ngai et al., 2015), newopportunities arise for firms to leverage value from VCs (Barrettet al.,
2016). One way to realize VC value is through the sales of digital items (Hamari andKeronen,
2017; Jung and Pawlowski, 2014; Kim et al.,2012). Indeed, sales of digitalitems have become a
lucrative market, with an estimated value of $52bn (Vanzo, 2017) and is deemed The Next
Big Gold Rush(Bonder, 2017).
Digital items (also known as virtual goods or virtual items)[1]refer in general to virtual
objects such as avatar clothing, wallpaper, theme, characters, game equipment and tokens
that are offered in virtual environments (Hamari and Keronen, 2017; Lehdonvirta, 2009).
It may seem counterintuitive at first that people would want to buy digital items that are
intangible and considered as simply piles of datathat have no real-world value
(Lakhani, 2014). However, as an article in The New York Times Magazine succinctly puts it,
With more of life lived online, spending on things that dont exist seems more normal.
Consuming things made of bits might sound weird, but actually it offers many of the same
attractions that make people consume things made of atoms(Walker, 2009, p. 28).
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 119 No. 8, 2019
pp. 1608-1624
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-10-2018-0434
Received 5 October 2018
Revised 12 April 2019
25 May 2019
Accepted 29 May 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
1608
IMDS
119,8
A variety of reasons has been offered for why people want to purchase digital items
(see Hamari and Keronen, 2017 for a review). Prior research has considered the influences
of traditional technology acceptance factors such as perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness (e.g. Mäntymäki and Salo, 2011; Shang et al., 2012). Perceived enjoyment and
flow have also been identified as important factors in virtual environments especially
those that entail game elements (e.g. Hamari, 2015; Hamari and Lehdonvirta, 2010;
Paavilainen et al., 2013). In addition, given social interactions constitute a key property
of many virtual environments, social-related factors are consistently highlighted as
important to consider for, such as network size, network exposure, social presence,
subjective norms, and social influence (e.g. Guo and Barnes, 2011; Jung and Pawlowski,
2014; Mäntymäki and Salo, 2011; Shang et al., 2012). In the context of VCs that focus on
general social interactions (i.e. non game-based interactions), recent research has
advanced this posi tion further by explicating self-presentation desire as a pertinent factor
influencing the purchase of digital items (Kim et al., 2012).
Self-presentation desire refers to the extent to which an individual wants to present his or
her preferred image in a VC of interest (Kim et al., 2012). It is suggested that as individuals
interact with others in the VC, they desire to present themselves in a preferred manner to
others (Ma and Agarwal, 2007), and digital items can help them achieve this objective.
Indeed, self-presentation desire has been shown to be a key motivator for the purchase of
digital items (Kim et al., 2011). While this offers a new and valuable perspective to why
people buy digital items, in this study we argue that with the maturation of VCs and as
people become seasoned VC participants, there is a need to look beyond self-presentation
desire per se, and consider something of more inner-focused. In particular, based on
symbolic self-completion theory (Gollwitzer et al., 1982), we posit that individuals purchase
digital items as a way to enhance their self-esteem, a motivation that arises due to high
perceived self-discrepancy (Higgins, 1987). In addition, as previous research indicates that
the purchase of symbolic items is also motivated by self-gratification desire (Solomon and
Douglas, 1987; Yurchisin and Johnson, 2004), we consider this factor to be important for
digital items of which their consumption is primarily symbolic in nature (Animesh et al.,
2011; Lehdonvirta et al., 2010).
Conceptual background
The purchase of digital items is considered a form of symbolic consumption (Animesh et al.,
2011; Lehdonvirta et al., 2010; Martin, 2008), which refers to consumption situations in which
consumers focus on meanings beyond the tangible, physical characteristics of the products
(Levy, 1959). Products of symbolic consumption nature serve as a means of communication
between the individual and his significant references(Grubb and Grathwohl, 1967, p. 24).
Such consumptions help individuals construct and express their self-concepts as well
as to identify their association with others (Dittmar, 1992; Wattanasuwan, 2005). Typical
symbolic consumption products investigated in the literature include fashion, luxury and
cultural goods.
Motivations of symbolic consumptions
Symbolic consumptions, such as the purchase of luxury goods, have been noted to involve
two forms of motivations, namely external motivations, e.g., self-presentation, and internal
motivations, e.g., self-gratification (Amatulli and Guido, 2011). In other words, individuals
engage in symbolic consumptions not only to impress others, but also to satisfy their inner
needs. While the former type of motivations (i.e. self-presentation desire) has been
investigated in the literature on digital item purchase (Kim et al., 2012), the latter (internal
motivations such as self-gratification desire) has not received the deserved attention in this
context. It is important to note that while the purchase of digital items share some
1609
Self-
gratification
and self-
discrepancy

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT