Asia pacific journal of information systems

The Korea Society of Management Information Systems (한국경영정보학회)
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Consumers' Channel Selection Behavior Based on Psychological Distance Cue: Regulatory-Focus as Moderator

  • Jungyeon Sung (Department of Business Administration, SungKyul University) ;
  • Sangcheol Park (Department of Business Administration, Daegu University)
  • Received : 2018.10.29
  • Accepted : 2019.01.28
  • Published : 2019.06.30
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Abstract

As merging online and offline channels into one single platform, individuals could easily and frequently switch between online and offline channels. In order for understanding such unique behaviors, this study attempts to explore why and how consumers choose their channels to search and purchase a product. We have drawn on multiple theories that have been used to explain individuals' judgment and decision making (i.e., construal level theory and regula-tory focus theory) in order to develop and tested two-way ANOVA based models of how both regulatory focus (e.g., promotion vs. prevention) and product types (e.g., experience goods vs. searching goods) including the psychological distance cue separately and jointly affect individuals' channel selection behavior (e.g., intention to use single channel vs. intention to use cross-channels). Our results have indicated that consumers with promotion-focus are more likely to use a single channel in experience goods rather than in searching goods when there exists the psychological cue. Based on our findings, the implication for both research and practice are discussed.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A5A2A03926710)

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