Compra por impulso del consumidor y uso de la tarjeta de

crédito: un examen empírico utilizando el modelo lineal de

registro

RESUMEN - La mayor parte del trabajo en el comportamiento de compra por impulso

ha investigado la asociación de variables socioeconómicas y compras no planificadas
con resultados equívocos. Este documento examina la interrelación entre las compras
impulsivas, el uso de la tarjeta de crédito, el costo de los artículos comprados y los
ingresos de los compradores. Se utiliza un enfoque lineal logarítmico para evaluar la
bondad de ajuste de varios modelos jerárquicos, y se encuentran resultados bastante
sorprendentes. Estos incluyen la falta de interacción entre la compra impulsiva y el uso
de posesión de la tarjeta de crédito, incluso cuando se controlan los ingresos y el costo
de los artículos comprados por los consumidores.

CITACIÓN:

Rohit Deshpande y S. Krishnan (1980), "Compra por impulso del consumidor y uso de
la tarjeta de crédito: un examen empírico utilizando el modelo lineal de registro", en
NA - Avances en la investigación del consumidor Volumen 07, eds. Jerry C. Olson, Ann
Abor, MI: Asociación para la Investigación del Consumidor, Páginas: 792-795.
Avances en la Investigación del Consumidor Volumen 7, 1980     Páginas 792-795
COMPRA DE IMPULSO DEL CONSUMIDOR Y USO DE LA TARJETA DE
CRÉDITO: UN EXAMEN EMPÍRICO USANDO EL MODELO LINEAL DE
REGISTRO
Rohit Deshpande, Universidad de Texas en Austin
S. KrishnanUniversidad de Pittsburgh
RESUMEN -
La mayor parte del trabajo en el comportamiento de compra por impulso ha investigado
la asociación de variables socioeconómicas y compras no planificadas con resultados
equívocos. Este documento examina la interrelación entre las compras impulsivas, el
uso de la tarjeta de crédito, el costo de los artículos comprados y los ingresos de los
compradores. Se utiliza un enfoque lineal logarítmico para evaluar la bondad de ajuste
de varios modelos jerárquicos, y se encuentran resultados bastante sorprendentes. Estos
incluyen la falta de interacción entre la compra impulsiva y el uso de posesión de la
tarjeta de crédito, incluso cuando se controlan los ingresos y el costo de los artículos
comprados por los consumidores.
INTRODUCCIÓN
Aunque las compras no planificadas constituyen una proporción sustancial de las
compras de los consumidores, hay poca investigación empírica disponible sobre este
tema en la literatura de marketing. Esta escasez de material no es una reflexión sobre la
importancia del tema de investigación. Por ejemplo, una categoría de productos tan
ubicua como las colas marrones depende de sus ventas casi por completo de compras no
planificadas de los consumidores. Los limitados estudios conceptuales y empíricos de la
compra por impulso se han centrado principalmente en la demografía como predictores
de compra. La literatura sobre venta minorista indica que el nivel de compras no
planificadas aumenta con el monto total en dólares gastado en un viaje de compras en
una tienda por departamentos en particular (Prasad 1975). Este es un hallazgo bastante
intuitivo, sin embargo, este y otros estudios no diferencian entre los artículos comprados
a lo largo de un continuo de costo unitario, aunque esto parece ser una variable
relevante para controlar. Del mismo modo, el modo en que se realiza el pago no ha
recibido atención empírica, sin embargo, es importante distinguir entre las compras
realizadas en efectivo y las que utilizan una tienda o tarjeta bancaria.
This last comment brings up the growing literature on credit card usage. Similar to early
work on impulse purchasing, credit and store card owners' characteristics have been
carefully studied. These characteristics encompass both traditional demographics and
life style measures. In particular, bank card holders appear to be upscale in income and
education and more socially active than non-card holders. More recent work has added
mobility and benefit predictors to explain greater variance in the use of credit cards
(Hirschman, Srivastava, and Alpert 1978). Yet not much light has been shed on the
extent of planning prior to purchase. This is surprising since both supporters and
detractors of credit instruments seem to hold strong views on whether or not the
acquisition of credit cards increases the likelihood of impulse purchases (Hawes,
Talarzyk, and Blackwell 1976).
The research reported here attempts to address these issues. The growth of the
companies issuing bank cards, travel and entertainment cards, and store cards merits
some understanding of their effect on purchases. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, it is
necessary to distinguish between costs of the items purchased and also between incomes
of the purchasers. The conceptual framework below ties together the elements of credit
cards possession and usage, impulse purchase, cost of item, and income of purchaser
with a set of propositional hypotheses that are later tested.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The hypotheses described below relate both to earlier empirical work in impulse
purchasing and credit card usage areas, and to hitherto unresearched propositions that
stern out of the lacunae in retailing literature mentioned briefly above. This permits a
grounding of the research discussed in this paper in other work and allows also a
venture beyond what is already known. Accordingly, each hypotheses is presented with
a brief rationale including, where relevant, citations to previous literature.
Most empirical studies investigating demographic characteristics of credit card
possessors have found them to have higher incomes than individuals who do not possess
cards (Wiley and Richard 1975, Hirschman and Goldstucker 1978). This is almost
tautological since having an income above a certain threshold is one of the prerequisites
for card possession eligibility. Yet there are persons with upscale incomes who do not
possess cards, and hence it is important to determine if this is true for the consumer
sample in this study. Thus the first hypothesis to be tested is:  H1:  The higher the
income of a purchaser, the more likely possession and usage of a card.
One can now begin to narrow the inquiry to specific purchases made using a card. Much
earlier literature takes a largely macroscopic focus to assess attitudes and opinions of or
about, card users (Mathews and Slocum 1969, Plummer 1971). But unless particular
purchase situations where cards are actually used are studied, knowledge about the
usage phenomenon will lack specificity.
One of the more important parameters when studying particular buying situations is the
cost of the item purchased. Following from the first hypotheses, it would also appear
that if credit cards are possessed by individuals, they would be used in purchase
situations where cost of the item was relatively high. Accordingly, the second
hypotheses is:   H2:  The more likely card possession, the greater the likelihood of card
usage for higher cost items.
Turning now to the extent of planning that occurs before a purchase is made, it would
seem this too is affected by cost of the item being purchased. Although factors such as
time of shopping (i.e. morning, day, or evening), nature of the shopping trip (major or
fill-in), existence of prepared shopping lists, and so on have not been found to affect the
level of unplanned buying (Prasad 1975, Kollat and Willett 1967, Williams and Dardis
1972), earlier work on consumer risk-taking (Ross 1975) would indicate that there is an
extended hierarchy-of-effects for a major, high cost of item, purchase. The third
hypothesis to be tested, therefore, is:   H3:  The higher the cost of the item purchased,
the more likely prior planning of the purchase.
Also, the issue of cost of a purchased item cannot be considered in isolation of
purchaser's characteristics. The most relevant such characteristic is the purchasing
power of the buyer, generally measured in terms of income. The hypothesis stemming
from this reasoning is:  H4:  The higher the purchaser's income, the greater the
likelihood of higher cost items being purchased.
Relating the favorite hypothesis to the earlier discussion on pre-purchase planning, it
would seem that more affluent consumers can afford to spend less time in deciding what
to buy since they are not hampered by budgetary stringency. This is expressed in the
fifth hypothesis as:   H5:  The higher the purchasers' income, the greater the likelihood
of unplanned purchases. (each of these terms is defined in the sections that follow).
Finally, since availability of credit-instruments such as bank or store cards increases the
flexibility of consumers to go beyond (cash) budget limits, it would appear that card
possessors are more likely than non card holders to make impulse purchases. This can
be stated formally as:   H6:  The more likely card possession, the greater the likelihood
of card usage for unplanned purchases.
Each of these six hypotheses were tested using data gathered from individuals in a retail
shopping setting. The sample, data, definition of variables, and analysis are discussed
below.
METHODOLOGY
Before describing the sample used in this study, it is necessary to make an important
distinction. Work in the philosophy of science by Bunge (1963) and others (Kaplan
1964, Stinchcombe 1968) speaks to the major difference between associative and causal
models. The former can be described as those where variables under investigation are
tested for covariation. Causal models, on the other hand, are tested for the level of
explanation provided by a set of one or more predictor variables impacting upon one or
more criterion variables. These tests are based upon assumptions that a chronological
sequence is theoretically determined or empirically observable, and that independent
variables can be controlled so that researchers know that they are the only variables
causing a change in the dependent variable.
The model described below is an associative one. Rather than make the assumptions of
chronological independence, variables are assumed to be interdependent. Hence, testing
of the model involves an empirical investigation of patterns of covariation of variables
without implications of causality.
The necessity of an associative model becomes clear when one realizes that the model
includes variables such as the unit costs of items purchased, as well as whether
purchases were preplanned. The research reported here does not attempt to determine
whether the availability of a credit card led to unplanned purchases of high cost item, or
whether the cost of the item necessitated the use of a credit card. This study focuses on
the specific interactions between card possession/usage, extent of prepurchase planning,
cost of items purchased, and purchasers' income that have been suggested in the six
hypotheses described earlier.
Data used in this study were taken from a survey of department store customers in tow
metropolitan areas of population 2,000,000 and 500,000. 3,000 small intercept
interviews were conducted in the first city and 1,225 in the second city. All interviews
were conducted on a random intercept basis at five branches (of the same store) in the
larger city and at one branch in the other city. Questions asked of respondents included
the type and cost of items purchased, the mode of payment, whether the items were
planned purchases, and attitudes regarding store image and various credit instruments.
This study describes data from a subset of questions from the larger survey.
Respondents existing from a branch of the store were asked if they had purchased
anything at the store. If they had made a purchase, the item was recorded by the
interviewer as a product category. The cost of the item purchased (c) was coded into
two categories: below or equal to $25, and greater than $25. Respondents were also
asked whether they had made the trip to the store to buy the item purchased. The
question was "Did you come to (this store) today for the specific purpose of buying (the
item) or did you just happen to see it while you were here? Answers in the former
category were coded as 'planned purchase', and in the latter as 'impulse purchase.'
Additionally, respondents' incomes were ascertained and coded (for the purpose of this
analysis) into two categories: below or equal to $15,000, and more than $15,000.
Finally, store and/or bank credit card possession was determined in a series of questions
that preceded the ones mentioned above. Following Russell (1975), the analysis
reported here categories consumers as possessor or non-possessors of cards without
distinguishing between types of cards. After asking about particular items purchased at
the store, respondents were asked what mode of payment was used: card or cash. The
categories of card possession and mode of payment were collapsed into one variable,
called card-possession/ purchase mode (P). The reason for this collapsing procedure is
that consumers not possessing cards can only pay in cash and hence the category not
possess/ card payment is meaningless. As such separating variables of card-possession
and mode of payment will result in what is referred to as "structural zones" (Bishop et al
1975: Ch. 5) in the combined category of not possess/card payment. Accordingly, the
variable card-possession/purchase-mode (F) can take 3 values: not possess/cash
payment, possess/cash payment, and possess/card payment. The other three variables in
the analysis are prepurchase planning (M) in the categories: planned and impulse; cost
of item purchased (c) with values: less than or equal to $25 and greater than $27; and
purchaser income (I) with values: less than or equal to $15,000 and more than $15,000.
Since the model to be tested is one of association and variables are categorically scaled,
analysis used to fit the data utilized a log linear approach. As Green et al (1977) have
indicated in their excellent seminal article, the log linear model is eminently suited to
the analysis of qualitative (nominal) data to test interdependence structures involving
unordered variable categories.
ANALYSIS
The four variables of card possession/purchase mode, prepurchase planning, consumer
income, and item cost were cross-tabulated to form a multiway frequency table (Table
1). The total sample size (n=3756) refers to the number of purchases reported. These for
the units of analysis.
Following the procedure suggested by Bishop et al (1975), and by Dixon et al (1977), a
saturated log linear model can be fitted to the data in Table 1. This model includes all
possible interactions (up to the fourth order maximum) for the four variables under
consideration. Table 2 shows chi-square statistics for increasing orders of interaction. It
can be seen that only the first two orders are significant. This indicates that the log
linear model to be used does not require to be more complex than the second order to fit
the original data adequately. This can be further seen in Table 3.
TABLE 1
MULTIWAY FREQUENCY TABLE FOR REPORTED PURCHASES
Table 3 describes specific interactions at second and lower orders that are (or are not)
significant. As can be seen all main effects are significant as well as interactions of
income with purchase mode, and cost with purchase mode and prepurchase planning.
Both marginal and partial associations are described following Brown (1976) since a
single test may not be sufficient to determine the relative importance of an effect.
The results from Table 3 are extremely interesting. The first three hypotheses posited
(IXP, CXP, CXM) are confirmed. However, the next three hypotheses (IXC, IXM,
PXM) are rejected. This means that there is
TABLE 2
TESTS OF SIGNIFICANCE FOR INCREASING ORDERS OF INTERACTION
no association (as for as this sample is concerned) between income and cost of item, or
income and impulse purchases, or the mode of purchase and impulse purchases. These
rather surprising and counterintuitive results need further explanation. Table 4 shows
statistics for goodness of fit when the unsaturated model of IP, CP, CM is tested. This is
the model suggested by the significant interactions in Table 3. Besides having chi
squares that are statistically significant, adding more variables does not substantially
improve the fit (i.e. this model is sufficiently complex to explain the hypothesized
interactions). As Bishop et al (1975: 327-332) suggest, Pearson's chi squares of 18.01
and likelihood ratio chi squares of 19.02 with 13 degrees of freedom is more than a
satisfactory fit.
Since a log linear model is fitted to cell frequencies of the original data (Table 1), it can
be expressed as the natural logarithm additive function of main effects and interactions
(similar to ANOVA). The unsaturated model in Table 4 therefore describes the
function:
LN Fijkl = q + lI + lC + lP + lM + lIP + lCP + lCM
where q is the mean and the lambdas are parameter values for each main effect and
specified interactions. Estimates of these parameters are shown in Table 5. In terms of
main effects, the greatest impact on the logarithm of the expected cell frequency comes
from the cost of the item (absolute value 0.924), followed by card possession/purchase
mode (primarily not possess/ cash payment of 0.802 and possess/card payment of
0.788), and then preplanning of purchase (0.478) and income (0.274). However, lambda
parameters of the iterations are even more interesting.
TABLE 3
TESTS OF PARTIAL AND MARGINAL ASSOCIATION FOR SPECIFIC
INTERACTIONS
TABLE 4
GOODNESS-OF-FIT STATISTICS FOR UNSATURATED MODEL
It appears for instance (looking now at both directions and magnitude) that for low
income respondents (< $15,000) the not possess/cash payment is used over the
possess/cash payment and possess/card payment. This seems intuitively sensible as does
the fact that higher income respondents (> $15,000) use cards when they possess them
(0.303) over cash (0.190), or cash when they do not possess cards (-0.493).
The pattern for cost of item also shows a trend toward cash payment even when cards
are possessed for low cost items (0.179 and 0.097) and a reverse trend for higher cost
items (0.275 and -0.179) where cards tend to be used.
Finally, impulse purchases seem to occur for low cost items (0.093) and prior planning
is done for items that cost over $25.
Although the analysis thus far is replete with both anticipated and nonintuitive findings,
it is incomplete without an examination of the stability of the parameters described.
Tables 6 and 7 attempt to remedy this deficiency. Table 6 shows standardized residuals
which are calculated as follows.
standardized residuals = observed cell frequency - fitted frequency
                                                                           (fitted frequency)1/2
                           i.e.   = (fijkl - Fijkl)
                                       (Fijkl)1/2
TABLE 5
ESTIMATES OF THE LOG-LINEAR PARAMETERS (LAMBDA)
TABLE 6
STANDARDIZED RESIDUALS
The sum of squares of these residuals is the chi square test. And it can be seen that
values of not possess/ cash payment for cost of items above $25 seem to be causing the
error (for instance, -1.492 and 1.626 for planned purchases). If we refer back to the
multiway contingencies in Table 1, we can see that these high residuals are due to low
numbers of cases in the respective cells (for instance, 19 and 24 for the two residuals
cited). Clearly, the relative paucity of observations in these cells is leading to the minor
instability which keeps our model from providing a better fit, although the overall fit is
extremely good (as evidence by consistently low residuals in other cells).
CONCLUSION
Briefly summarizing the findings from the analysis, ownership and usage of credit cards
is associated with both income and cost of items purchased. Higher income consumers
seem more likely to possess cards, and use them to buy higher cost products and
services (i.e. over $25). Additionally, impulse purchases are associated with lower coat
items.
However, unplanned purchases appear not to be associated with income (i.e. both higher
and lower income consumers make impulse purchases), or with the mode of purchase.
This last result means that the popular sentiment that credit card ownership is more
likely to stimulate impulse purchases is not borne out by this data. As indicated above,
cost of item (rather than income or purchase mode) is the only variable in this analysis
that is likely to explain any variance in planned or unplanned purchase behavior.
Finally, consumer income and cost of items purchased do not show an interaction. We
caution that this is true for the particular coded categories of income thresholds of
$15,000 and cost thresholds of $25.
As indicated in the analysis, third order interactions are absent. So more explanation is
unlikely from using additional variables in the above propositions. This leads us to offer
some initial statements about causality.
If we were to redefine this study to build a predictive, causal model rather than
descriptive, associative one, we might seek to measure variables such as item cost and
income on an interval scale in the hope of getting additional explanation. Also, the
research design itself may be further refined to look at other variables such as types of
product and service categories purchased, and also whether they were on sale at the
stores. This last issue could be a major predictor of whether a consumer decided to
purchase an item on "impulse." Theoretical discussion in this area is limited, but it is
possible to hypothesize that desire to purchase an item is latent in consumers' minds,
and is triggered by discounts or heavy point-of-purchase promotional displays.
Although this may indeed provide further explanation, the study described in this paper
suggests that the presence or absence of credit cards will not directly stimulate an
impulse purchase when such a purchase is defined as the acquisition of an item which
the consumer just happened to see in a store (without prior planning to make a trip to
buy the item). Alternative definitions of impulse purchases that distinguish between
latent consumer cognitive demand and physical purchase are possible, but are beyond
the scope of this paper.
En conclusión, parece que el fenómeno de la compra por impulso permite una
investigación más teórica y empírica. El área es lo suficientemente rica como para
justificar una mayor investigación programática sobre los procesos cognitivos que
atraviesa un consumidor para realizar una compra no planificada y también para
determinar qué factores (como la comunicación de boca en boca, la pronunciación del
punto de compra, etc.) aumentan la probabilidad que los fondos disponibles se asignarán
a un producto o servicio sobre otro en entornos minoristas.
Referencias
Bishop, YM, Fienberg, SE y Holland, PW (1975), Discrete Multivariate Analysis:
Theory and Practice , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Brown, MB (1976), "Efectos de detección en tablas de contingencia
multidimensionales" , Estadístico aplicado , 25, 37-46.
Bunge, Mario. (1963), Causalidad: el lugar del principio causal en la ciencia moderna ,
Nueva York: Meridian.
Dixon, WJ, Brown, MB, Engelman, L., Frame, JW y Jennich, RI (1977), BMDP-77:
Serie P de programas de computadora biomédica , Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 297-332.
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