On Multiple Reference Points of Consumer Regret

• Main Authors: Wen-Hsien Huang, 黃文仙
• Other Authors: Chien-Huang Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/14731590922755624876

博士 === 國立中央大學 === 企業管理研究所 === 94 === Regret is the result of a comparison between “what is” and “what might have been”. Although regret is a relevant emotion in our daily life, research studying how regrets are influenced by multiple reference points is lacking. This dissertation presents two studies that investigated the regrets of decision makers in relation to multiple “what might have been” scenarios. In the context of a choice set comprising three alternatives, the first study of 539 MBA and EMBA students demonstrated that people use multiple reference points in judging their post-decisional regrets. The second study of 227 real stock investors in a field survey further showed that investors’ regrets are most influenced by what their outcomes might have been had they not invested, by their expected outcomes and by the best-performing rejected stocks. Among these reference points, the non-investment (inaction) outcome has the largest impact on regret. In addition, we also found that the feeling of regret was influenced by losses or gains relative to each reference point rather than by the size of the loss or gain. Several theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and future research directions are suggested.