Beyond the horse's mouth: Exploring acquisition and exchange utility in gift evaluation

This investigation examines the contribution of acquisition utility, exchange utility, and their interaction in the evaluation of the gifts that consumers receive. Two experimental studies explore recipients' evaluation of gifts, and the tendency to reciprocate as a function of giver's sacrifices, the gift appropriateness, and the giver-recipient relationship. Conjoint analyses and analyses-of-variance reveal the hypothesized additive and multiplicative effects of the hire utilities on gift evaluation, they express the importance of social relationships in consumers' gift evaluations, and they indicate that behavioral and financial costs are imperfectly substitutable in gift-giving. Implications for gift-giving theory are formulated.