Title: Influence of emotions on purchase loyalty among child consumers: The moderating role of family communication patterns

Abstract

Though the role of emotion and family communication patterns in purchase behavior including purchase loyalty is essentially significant, it has received scant empirical attention in the context of children’s consumption behavior. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the influence of children’s emotions induced by food product TV commercials, particularly pleasure and arousal, on their purchase loyalty. It also examined the moderating effects of socio- and concept-oriented family communication patterns on this relationship. The empirical analysis of survey data of 209 fifth- and sixth-grade Iranian students through confirmatory factor analytic approaches and structural equations modeling indicates the need for reflecting on their emotions as they intend to make purchase decisions. Our findings reveal that children’s emotion exercises a significant impact on their purchase loyalty and the more positive they feel about a product, the more loyal they remain towards it. Regarding the moderating roles of family communication patterns, it is found that these maverick consumers make purchase decisions independently regardless of their parents’ communication styles. The achievements not only contribute to the theory of planned behavior by indicating emotion as a significant attitudinal element affecting purchase behavior but also they have crucial implications for developing effective marketing communication strategies for young-consumer markets.