Resource Scarcity Spurs Effortful Pursuit of Rewards

The face of human society is ever changing. As we mastered mass production, resource availability has emerged as the order of living in modern industrialized societies, starting to supplant scarcity (Côté 1993, 1996; Riesman 1950). Simultaneously, individuals’ drive to exert effort and achieve rewards has been a fundamental force propelling human society forward (McClelland 1961). One question that arises is: how does the increasing resource availability in our society affect individuals’ effort exertion during the pursuit of rewards? More importantly, will activating a general sense of resource scarcity versus resource abundance lead to different level of effort tolerance? While extant literature has extensively examined the impact of resource availability on consumers’ cognitive performance (Mani et al. 2015; Mehta and Zhu 2016; Mittal et al. 2015), attention allocation (Mullainathan and Shafir 2013; Shah, Mullainathan, and Shafir 2012) and choice strategies (Griskevicius et al. 2013; Laran and Salerno 2013; Roux, Goldsmith, and Bonezzi 2015; Zhu and Ratner 2015), the motivational consequences of scarcity versus abundance on consumer effort exertion remains an intriguing, uninvestigated question. This issue holds significance as consumers are frequently exposed to contextual cues that may remind them of resource scarcity or resource abundance in daily lives, and such encounters can impact their motivational orientation and affect subsequent reward achievements. The current research proposes that overall perception of scarcity versus overall perception of abundance increases consumers’ effort tolerance. We argue that this effect occurs because scarcity induces an achievement orientation in the reward-seeking process, i.e., the motivation by which individuals strive to be competent after effort inputs (Elliot and Church 1997). The activated tendency to seek achievement subsequently enhances consumers’ effort exertion during the pursuit of rewards. Our theorization is based on several separate streams of research suggesting that scarcity brings higher perceived constraints and deprives people’s sense of personal control (Lachman and Weaver 1998; Mittal and Griskevicius 2014), the feeling of achievement can potentially serve as a mean to restore personal control through the behaviour-outcome contingency (Heckhausen 1993; Seligman 1975), and that effortful process often provides a sense of value and competence (Aronson and Mills 1959; Norton, Mochon, and Ariely 2012; Weiner 1972). In experiment 1, participants (N = 171) were asked to either recall three or four situations where they felt that resources are scarce or abundant (Fischhoff et al 2003; Mehta and Zhu 2016; Roux et al. 2015), or recall three or four things they did during the past week as a baseline control condition. Next, in an ostensibly unrelated task, 86 / Effects of Resource Scarcity on the Consumer Decision Making Process participants were asked to type some randomly generated 6-letter strings (e.g., “rlgows”) in the reversed order (e.g., “swoglr”). For each correct string typed, participants received a monetary reward and they were given a maximum of 3 minutes for the task. As expected, participants in the scarcity condition typed more strings and persisted longer in the task than those in the abundance and control conditions (No significant difference was found between the two). Experiment 2 demonstrates that, rather than activating a general motivation to earn monetary incentives, scarcity only increases consumers’ intention to pursue rewards when the reward-seeking process requires effort exertion. We employed a 2 (scarcity vs. abundance) × 2 (effortful vs. effort-free) between subject design (N = 447). After completing the same resource manipulation as experiment 1, participants indicated their intention to join a customer reward program. We manipulated effort perception by informing participants that they would need to call the customer service and provide a10-digit validation code to the representative in order to receive a monetary rebate after each purchase (effortful condition), or that they would receive the monetary rebate after each purchase without any extra procedure (effort-free condition). Whereas participants in the scarcity (vs. abundance) condition indicated higher intention to join the effortful reward program, there was no significant difference across the two groups when the reward program was effort-free. Experiment 3 provides direct process evidence by showing the mediating role of achievement orientation and the moderating role of consumers’ lay belief about the relationship between effort and achievement. After finishing the same resource (scarcity vs. abundance) recall manipulation as in experiments 1 and 2, undergraduates (N = 209) indicated their intention to join an effortful reward program provided by a chain coffee shop, which required consumers to download a smartphone app and enter a 10-digit validation code into the app to receive a future discount after each purchase. Consistent with our theorization, participants in the scarcity (vs. abundance) condition indicated higher intention to join the reward program, an effect mediated by achievement motivation and attenuated for those participants who did not believe that greater effort leads to greater achievement (Mirels and Garrett 1971). Experiment 4 provides further process evidence by demonstrating the moderating role of self-affirmation through a 2 (scarcity vs. abundance) × 2 (affirmation vs. control) between subject design. Participants (N = 470) first read a fictitious news article that highlighted either the scarcity or abundance of five natural resources, and wrote about how the article could be relevant to them and affect their personal life. Next, while half of the participants wrote about three or four positive aspects of themselves, or occasions in which they behaved positively (Blanton et al. 2001; the self-affirmation condition), the other half listed three or four features of their immediate environment (the control condition). Finally, all participants indicated their intention to join a customer reward program similar to the one used in experiment 3. As expected, participants in the scarcity (vs. abundance) condition indicated higher intention to join the reward program, a difference that disappeared when the participants’ sense of achievement was restored through self-affirmation. The current research contributes to the existing scarcity literature by documenting a positive linkage between scarcity and consumers’ effort tolerance during reward-seeking. By systemically investigating the mechanism underlying this effect, this research also extends our understanding of achievement orientation in the marketing context. Further, our research offers rich practical implication for marketers in terms of how to better utilize the level of consumer effort embedded in their marketing activities.