分类数量对消费者选择类型影响的实证分析

消费者在日常生活中经常面临享乐品和实用品的选择问题.本研究通过实验发现,保持备选规模不变,分类数量增加,会显著提高消费者选择实用品的可能性,实验显示,决策困难在分类数量对消费者选择实用品的效应上起中介作用,当消费者感觉到决策并不困难时,分类数量对消费者选择实用品的正向作用消失.最后讨论了本研究的理论与实际管理意义.     

双语品牌名称的呈现顺序对消费者品牌评价的影响

文章探究了中国市场大量出现的“品牌名称双语化”现象，检验了双语品牌名称的水平呈现顺序对消费者品牌评价的影响及其中介机制。两个研究结果表明，双语品牌名称的水平呈现顺序和有利的来源国形象对消费者品牌评价的交互作用显著。具体而言：当双语品牌名称的“左中右英”(vs.“左英右中”)呈现顺序对应于有利的中国来源国形象，或当“左英右中”(vs.“左中右英”)的呈现顺序对应于有利的欧美来源国形象时，能够提高消费者的品牌评价。其中，当双语品牌名称的不同呈现顺序与消费者相应的有利来源国心理图式相匹配时，图式一致性效用发挥中介作用。文章丰富了品牌命名理论，同时为企业根据消费者的来源国形象感知调整双语品牌名称的水平呈现顺序提供了导向性参考。     

产业政策扶持对企业金融资产配置——基于“五年规划”变更的自然实验

以产业政策“五年规划”的变更构建双重差分与中介效应检验，分析了政策扶持对企业“主观投资意愿”和“客观投资机会”的双重影响，以及在两种影响的共振作用下，如何进一步影响企业金融资产配置决策的微观逻辑。研究发现：产业政策扶持对企业金融资产配置具有显著促进作用。一方面，产业政策扶持不仅会通过融资约束缓解效应提升企业投资意愿，还会通过庇护效应提高企业风险容忍度、强化风险承担，从而进一步提升“主观投资意愿”。另一方面，政策扶持引发投资潮涌会恶化市场竞争、政策前瞻性及其社会价值性，又对企业短期经济价值产生抑制，从而导致企业“客观投资机会”下滑。最终，企业在客观投资不确定性加剧而主观投资意愿上升的共振作用下选择转向具有替代性的金融资产投资。异质性方面，主业投资机会、主业经营收益率和主业经营风险越高的企业增加金融资产投资的意愿更弱，说明企业进行金融资产配置更像是锦上添花，而非根本上的“脱实向虚”。     

外资零售业“价签门”事件理论阐析——异质化信息条件下的逆向选择与三方博弈

文章以近期发生的外资零售业“价签门”事件为背景,深度分析零售市场中信息不对称条件下“逆向选择”引起的外资零售商价格欺诈行为的理论必然性;在此基础上,进一步构建政府、零售商、消费者三方互动的不完全信息博弈模型,分析零售商价格欺诈行为的发生条件。分析结果表明,首先,竞争市场中的零售商不可能对消费者采取严重欺诈行为;其次,严格的政府市场监管确实能有效杜绝零售商欺诈行为;最后依据零售商价格欺诈决策条件,政府可以制定全方位的价格监管体系并有针对性的实施价格欺诈防范对策。     

进口“近邻”与集群创新：成本追逐还是质量竞争？

中国经济长期“外循环”发展模式导致中间品严重依赖进口,对于制造业产业集群,微观企业创新动力无法转化为集群整体创新合力。以集群内部“行业内企业间” 研究视角切入,采用“近邻效应”模型深入探求邻居企业进口中间品行为对群内同行企业创新传导路径,结论发现：邻居进口对同群企业创新影响存在“成本追逐效应” 和“ 质量竞争效应”,中间品进口质量高低影响企业模仿创新和原始创新能力;“质量竞争效应” 的创新溢出可通过一般贸易渠道、人力资本渠道与市场规模渠道实现;有为政府持续创新激励和市场化导向制度改革有助于实现产业链与创新链“双链融合”及创新“量质齐飞”。     

关系专用性投资的全球价值链升级功效——基于浙江本土代工企业的实证研究

本土代工企业在全球价值链嵌入中进行代工关系专用性投资,具有何种升级功效？针对主流全球价值链理论的“升级”与“伪升级”争议,文章基于跨国买供间关系治理理论与关系租金攫取视角的升级界定,采用浙江本土代工企业146个二元代工关系层面调查数据的实证研究表明,关系专用性投资通过关系建构,有助于本土代工企业的关系租金攫取,具有“升级”效应;但同时会导致权力销蚀,存在“伪升级”效应。当代工能力具有较高的专有性水平时,升级效应处于主导,反之则伪升级效应处于主导。结论表明,本土代工企业在全球价值链嵌入中进行关系专用性投资,只能锦上添花、不能雪中送炭。这一结论澄清了本土代工企业“升级”与“伪升级”争议,对代工企业升级的战略决策具有直接应用价值。     

Internet市场遵循“一价定律”吗？——来自天猫商城的证据

根据搜寻理论,线上市场由于极大地降低了消费者搜寻成本,应当实现“一价定律”,然而大量的证据表明线上市场存在显著的价格离散现象。文章选取了中国最大B2C电子商务平台天猫商城上高度同质化、标准化的虚拟产品——手机充值卡作为研究对象,发现确实存在价格离散现象。然后,利用固定效应向量分解模型和蒙德拉克模型,检验了哪些因素会影响价格离散程度,发现零售商异质性越大、商家数量越多,价格离散程度越大;商品越是畅销、商品价值越大,其价格离散程度越小。文章在数据上有较大创新,对已有文献形成有益补充;结论有助于增进对中国线上市场效率的认识,能够为Internet市场“效率悖论”提供一些线索和启示。     

“互联网+”还是“回归实体”？——消费模式与零售企业战略选择

互联网与移动互联网技术迅速发展，带动了许多实体零售企业投身于电子商务的创新实践，但也不乏亚马逊、阿里巴巴等网络零售企业通过投资、并购等方式积极涉足实体零售企业。文章试图解释企业进行不同战略选择的原因，采取“互联网+”或是“回归实体”的依据。在分析互联网对零售企业影响的基础上，文章建立了包括消费者与零售企业在内的一般均衡模型，分析了消费者选择不同零售企业的依据，以及零售企业的应对之策。分析结果表明，消费者在不同零售商店的相对支出比例取决于零售商店提供服务组合的相对效率。因此，基于“有限商圈”与“有限品类”的经营战略成为企业扩大销售收入的关键，现网络零售与实体零售战略选择本质上可以归纳为品类专业化与区域专业化之间的收益比较。     

网购产品信息线索对消费者选择的影响分析

文章通过建立实证模型分析了电子商务环境下产品线索与消费者选择的相关性。 结果表明:商品价格和物流费用对消费者态度产生负向影响,商品销售量和物流正面评价对消费者态度产生正向影响;消费者态度对消费者选择起到中介作用,同时消费者态度对消费者选择产生正向影响;随着消费者对产品涉入度的提高,消费者选择会受到产品价格、产品品牌和产品销量的影响也就越大;消费者对产品的涉入度较低时,消费者选择更容易受到物流费用和物流评价的影响。     

品牌仪式的“见”之效应：品牌仪式如何影响消费者信任

受新冠肺炎疫情的影响，大多消费者只能在线观看企业通过互联网实施的品牌仪式，然而以往研究更多揭示的是消费者直接参与的仪式效应，鲜有消费者不直接参与的仪式研究。基于社会交换理论，文章运用实验法探讨了当消费者见到但不实际参与品牌仪式时，品牌仪式对消费者信任的影响机制，即品牌仪式的“见”之效应。结果表明：作为视觉材料呈现的品牌仪式（对比随机动作）也能激活消费者的仪式感知，增加消费者对品牌的信任。原因在于当消费者从品牌仪式的互动体验中获取相应的积极情感资源（心流体验）后，会更倾向与品牌建立信任关系。此外，消费者品牌关系规范会调节品牌仪式对消费者信任的影响，对于共享型关系中的消费者，品牌仪式通过增强消费者心流体验，进而增加消费者对品牌的信任，但对于交易型关系中的消费者，该效应消失。     

The influence of word-of-mouth on attitudinal ambivalence during the higher education decision-making process

This study investigates the influence of word-of-mouth (WOM) on consumers' attitudinal ambivalence in the context of higher education decision-making. Construal level theory (CLT) is combined with attitudinal ambivalence literature to generate hypotheses about how different types of WOM (i.e., praise and activity) received during the decision-making process reduce attitudinal ambivalence. The subsequent consequences of attitudinal ambivalence for decision-making are also studied. A two-wave survey of applicants to international higher education programs is used to test the hypotheses. This study contributes to the ambivalence literature by showing that different types of WOM information reduce attitudinal ambivalence depending on the temporal closeness of a choice and the consumption of a service. The findings have implications for the management of attitudinal ambivalence and WOM throughout the consumer decision-making process and consequently for assisting consumers in making choices.     

Positive affect moderates the impact of assortment size on choice satisfaction

The present research proposes that positive affect mitigates choice overload. Results from four studies show that whereas people in neutral affect feel less satisfied when choosing from a large relative to a small assortment, people in positive affect do not experience a decline in satisfaction and may even feel more satisfied when choosing from a large, relative to a small assortment. It is proposed that positive affect has these effects by shifting people's attention from the difficulty of the choice task to the quality of the assortment, as a basis for judgment of choice satisfaction.     

The effect of information overload on consumer choice quality in an on‐line environment

As more and more consumers become part of the net population, retailers and manufacturers as well as dot‐com storefronts are touting consumers by providing an ever‐increasing amount of product information. Their long‐term survival and profitability may be determined by how much and how well their product information is presented to and processed by the consumers. By combining both the traditional and structural approaches to the information‐overload phenomenon, this study investigates the impact of Web site information on consumer choice and psychological states in an on‐line environment. Varying the number of alternatives and attributes (traditional measure) and attribute level distribution across alternatives (structural measure), this study asks subjects to choose the best (dominant) CD player in a given set. Their subjective states such as satisfaction, confidence, and confusion are also measured. Results show that the number of attributes and attribute level distribution are good predictors of the effect of information overload on consumer choice. In addition, the study finds that on‐line information overload results in less satisfied, less confident, and more confused consumers. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consequences of ambivalence on satisfaction and loyalty

The key objective of this study was to understand the consequences of subjective ambivalence on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and the satisfaction–loyalty relationship. The conceptual and theoretical discussions were derived largely from recent research in social psychology and integrated with marketing literature on satisfaction and loyalty. Given that product evaluations are typically positive and extreme, these findings indicate a negative relationship between ambivalence and satisfaction. Even though a great deal of the variance in ambivalence is shared with satisfaction, ambivalence did prove to have an independent and direct effect on loyalty. Ambivalent consumers are not only less loyal because they are less satisfied, but for other reasons, as well. Ambivalence was not found to moderate the satisfaction–loyalty relationship. The results of the study underscore the importance of taking ambivalence into consideration when measuring satisfaction and modeling satisfaction–loyalty relationships. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of retail assortment size on perceptions,choice, and sales: Review and research directions

We perform a meta-analytic review of the effect of retail assortment size on consumer perceptions, choice, and retail sales/share using a database comprising of 177 studies obtained from 95 academic papers published during 1970–2021. We define assortment size broadly as the total number of distinct alternatives (options) available to the consumer when he/she makes a choice in a product category. This number of alternatives manifest in the form of a number of brands, number of stock-keeping-units (SKUs), or simply number of items such as different colors or packaging. An increase in assortment size can lead to beneficial effects such as assortment preference, perceived choice satisfaction, confidence, freedom, purchase incidence, sales, and profits, as well as negative consequences such as information overload, increased cognitive effort, choice uncertainty, choice difficulty, and hence choice avoidance. Numerous researchers have reported the effect of assortment size on one or more of these factors. We summarize these effects using a metric called assortment size (net) benefit elasticity by positively valuing the beneficial effects and negatively valuing the harmful effects. Assortment size benefit elasticity is defined as the percent change in net benefit for a 1% change in assortment size. Our meta-analysis reveals that the mean assortment size benefit elasticity across 1936 valid elasticity observations is .082, and this effect is moderated by many study design and environmental factors. We also explore nonlinearity in assortment size effect and whether the effect is different for online vs. offline purchasing. Based on these findings, we list 30 characteristics conducive for assortment addition/deletion and specify several directions for future research.     

Linking Sources of Consumer Confusion to Decision Satisfaction: The Role of Choice Goals

Previous empirical research on the relationship between consumer confusion and customer satisfaction has largely neglected the role of choice goals. In a context of technologically complex products, the authors analyze the effect of selected choice goals on the consumer confusion‐decision satisfaction link. The empirical findings, which are based on a field study of smart phone users, show that different sources of confusion have distinctive effects on choice goals, which in turn influence decision satisfaction. For example, while confusion caused by ambiguous information and choice overload is found to reduce choice confidence, perceived attribute similarity between products or brands increases choice confidence. Among the choice goals, evaluation costs and negative affect are found to increase decision satisfaction. The findings have important implications for marketers and consumer policymakers in terms of marketing communication and customer satisfaction.     

When self‐customization backfires: The role of a maximizing mindset

Self‐customization in online shopping contexts readily offers an abundance of options for consumers. However, the sheer amount of information can quickly become overwhelming. One way to give people the freedom to choose without overwhelming them with information is to simplify the decision process by breaking it down into a series of smaller steps. Contrary to a common assumption that simpler decisions increase choice likelihood, however, this study demonstrates that a simple by‐attribute self‐customization process may activate a maximizing mindset, which increases people's desire to find better options and decreases their satisfaction with the ones available. Consequently, simplifying the self‐customization process can sometimes backfire by decreasing choice likelihood. Three studies suggest that although by‐attribute self‐customization formats are easier to choose from, compared with more complex matrix formats, they may sometimes—paradoxically—increase choice deferral. The findings suggest that a maximizing mindset mediates this effect, casting doubt on information‐based alternative explanations. The findings also suggest that whether by‐attribute self‐customization increases or decreases choice likelihood may depend on the presence of objective quality cues, which indicate that an objectively‐best option can be found. This study furthers the understanding of how decision difficulty and maximizing influence self‐customization decisions.     

Boycott them! No,boycott this! Do choice overload and small-agent rationalization inhibit the signing of anti-consumption petitions?

The Internet and social media have increased the number of organizations and individuals asking consumers to sign petitions against transgressing brands. This raises a question as to whether such increases in requests to sign a petition to support a boycott positively or negatively impact on consumer willingness to enact anti-consumption. Via experiments, this study investigates the effect that choice overload has on consumers signing a petition in support of a boycott call. The findings establish that individuals who need to make a choice from numerous boycott calls (i.e., large choice-sets) are less likely to sign a petition to support a boycott than individuals making a similar choice from a small number of boycott calls (i.e., small choice-sets). The study further introduces a mediator that explains this effect. Compared with individuals facing a small choice-set, those facing numerous options are more likely to experience the small-agent rationalization, and thus, are less likely to sign the petition to support a boycott. The small-agent rationalization (SAR) relates to one's acceptance of inequity in the world as well as perceptions of their own powerlessness. The study establishes the role of choice overload in boycott literature and empirically tests SAR as the process mechanism. Theoretical, practical, and policy implications are discussed.     

Effects of Product Option Framing and Temporal Distance on Consumer Choice: The Moderating Role of Process versus Outcome Mental Simulations

This research demonstrates that the type of product option framing (additive vs. subtractive) and the temporal distance between an option choice and later buying behavior can influence decision difficulty. In two studies, the authors show that consumers who engage in additive option framing experience greater difficulty in making decisions for the near future than for the distant future, whereas consumers who engage in subtractive option framing experience greater difficulty in making decisions for the distant future than for the near future. In addition, by using theories of mental simulation, the authors show that communication strategies that promote process simulations for distant‐future choices in the subtractive option framing condition and those that promote outcome simulations for near‐future choices in the additive option framing condition are most effective in reducing decision difficulty. These effects hold across varying product categories and varying option prices.     

Gifts as conduits in choice overload environments

This study investigates competing for theoretical stances (i.e., choice overload vs. choice cornucopia) and explores how increases in spending occur in high and low choice conditions following receiving promotional gift offers in a service consumption setting. This study includes a nonobtrusive field experiment (n = 200) that includes measured and manipulated variables: purchase versus nonpurchase conditions and size of expenditures. The study's context tests the use of two versus five promotional gift options and two levels of gift value (6 vs. €20). Findings using symmetrical (analysis of variance [ANOVA]) and asymmetrical (fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis [fsQCA]) methods of analysis support the choice overload hypothesis in this unobtrusive field experiment. Also, spending in the high versus low choice condition increased when hotel guests were offered a high‐value gift for using room service. Given the nature of the nonobtrusive field experiment, this study provides valuable information for marketers and consumers regarding the moderating effects of promotional gifts in many option environments. While prior studies explore the conditions of choice cornucopia versus choice overload, to date few or possibly no attempts to identify practical ways of reducing the negative effects of choice overload.