The impact of work-family conflict on product preferences: The role of self-control

Despite the high incidence of work-family conflict, there has been a lack of research that investigates its impact on employee behavior, particularly concerning their consumption behavior, which has received inadequate attention. The present study draws on the strength model of self-control and investigates the influence of individuals’ work-family conflict on their preferences for hedonic and utilitarian products via self-control, with frugality acting as a moderator of this relationship. This study gathered data from 502 full-time employees with families in China. Results from the moderated mediating model analysis conducted using the SPSS-PROCESS macro revealed that work-family conflict was positively associated with a preference for hedonic products and negatively associated with a preference for utilitarian products. Self-control was found to mediate the relationship between work-family conflict and product preferences, with a weaker mediating effect observed for individuals with higher levels of frugality in the case of utilitarian products. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on work-family conflict and have implications for organizations and merchants in understanding and addressing the impact of work-family conflict on employee consumption behavior. Specifically, this study provides insight into how organizations can better manage work-family conflict and how merchants can make more informed marketing decisions for hedonic and utilitarian products.