Measuring Consumer Perceived Warm-Glow for Technology Adoption Modeling

TL;DR

This study develops and validates measures for two types of consumer warm-glow—extrinsic and intrinsic—in technology adoption, revealing that warm-glow is a blended, complex phenomenon influenced by subtle cues and overlapping motivations.

Contribution

It introduces validated constructs for measuring extrinsic and intrinsic warm-glow in technology adoption, highlighting their intertwined nature and experimental elicitation challenges.

Findings

Singularly evoking extrinsic warm-glow only slightly increases perception.

Intrinsic warm-glow also triggers extrinsic warm-glow, indicating overlap.

Warm-glow is a blend of extrinsic and intrinsic dimensions.

Abstract

In this paper, we adapt and validate two constructs-perceived extrinsic warm-glow (PEWG) and perceived intrinsic warm-glow (PIWG)-to measure the two dimensions of consumer perceived warm-glow (i.e., extrinsic and intrinsic) for use with the practice of technology adoption modeling. Taking an experimental approach, participants were exposed to one of four vignettes designed to simulate either the absence or the presence of warm-glow (specifically, extrinsic warm-glow, intrinsic warm-glow, and concurrently extrinsic and intrinsic warm-glow). The results revealed that both constructs measured their respective forms of warm-glow with two caveats. Firstly, singularly trying to evoke extrinsic warm-glow led to only a slight increase in consumer perception of extrinsic warm-glow. We attributed this finding to individuals not being attracted to technology products that overtly target and seek to satisfy their vanity, instead preferring technology that does so in a more subtle way. The second is that singularly trying to evoke intrinsic warm-glow also resulted in the manifestation of extrinsic warm-glow. Thus, warm-glow appears as a blend of extrinsic and intrinsic dimensions. This finding serves to reinforce what has already been reported in existing literature regarding warm-glow and the idea of impure altruism.