Abstract:

The aim of the study is to analyze the effect of smokers’ guilt on regret and the effect of regret on attitudes and repurchase intention towards tobacco smoking. In addition, it is aimed to determine whether attitudes have a mediating effect on the relationship between regret and repurchase intention towards smoking. Face-to-face survey is conducted to collect data with 429 tobacco smokers in Izmir-Turkey by judgment-sampling method. The findings showed that the post-purchase guilt felt by consumers in terms of health, financial and moral guilt resulted in a feeling of regret. Regret was also found to affect repurchase intention due to the mediating effect of attitudes towards smoking. Another finding also displays that, despite the sample of consumers’ represent negative attitudes, they could still exhibit repurchase behavior towards tobacco smoking. The contribution of this study is to investigate guilt and regret simultaneously, to reveal their effects on attitudes and, repurchasing intention towards smoking within the context of social marketing.

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