First come, first served: The importance of purchase priority in new product purchase competition

Abstract

Even when new products are not inherently scarce, where one person's purchase does not prevent another's, consumers often display competitive behavior for purchase priority. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological processes that motivate consumers to engage in FCFS-based competition when purchasing new products. The findings revealed that both the need for superiority and self-enhancement values increased the perceived importance of purchase priority, which in turn heightened competitive arousal. Consumers experiencing competitive arousal are more likely to anticipate favorable purchase outcomes through the FCFS discipline and to perceive it as a fairer purchasing method. Both perceived predictability and fairness of the FCFS discipline positively influenced consumers' intentions to participate in FCFS-based purchase. While prior research has primarily attributed consumer competition to scarcity conditions involving time or quantity constraints, this study extends the literature by demonstrating that competitive purchasing behavior can also emerge in non-scarcity contexts. These findings suggest that retailers can strategically employ FCFS disciplines to attract consumers who value superiority and self-enhancement, enabling them to anticipate purchasing outcomes based on their effort and investment.