Abstract

In a quest to investigate whether perceptions of death anxiety can influence the intention of nostalgia consumption of luxury brands, based on Terror Management Theory (TMT), the present study examines the influence of perceived death anxiety on consumers’ nostalgia feeling, and its impact on consumers’ intention of purchasing nostalgia luxury products. Data were collected online and offline from 419 brand users and examined using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. The results reveal that perceived death anxiety positively influence consumers’ sense of nostalgia that includes personal nostalgia and interpersonal nostalgia. It also positively influences consumers’ intention to purchase nostalgia luxury brand products, where nostalgia consumption refers to style and craft-induced nostalgia consumption and storytelling induced nostalgia consumption. This proves the mediating role of nostalgia emotion. Moreover, self-construal moderation analysis reveals that consumers with interdependent self-construal are more concerned with their own sense of belonging and interpersonal relationships, are more easily affected by the environment and will have a higher intention of buying nostalgic luxury goods after experiencing stronger death anxiety. This confirms the moderating role of self-construal.

Key words: Death anxiety, terror management theory, nostalgic consumption, self-construction.