• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.103-128
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• 2013

When a consumer needs a product or service and multiple sellers are available online, the process of selecting a seller to buy online from is complex since the process involves many behavioral dimensions that have to be taken into account. As a part of this selection process, consumers may set minimum trust expectation that can be used to screen out less trustworthy sellers. In the previous research, the level of consumers' trust expectation has been anchored on two important factors: product involvement and perceived risk. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a consumer perceives a specific product important. Thus, the higher product involvement may result in the higher trust expectation in sellers. On the other hand, other related studies found that when consumers perceived a higher level of risk (e.g., credit card fraud risk), they set higher trust expectation as well. While abundant research exists addressing the relationship between product involvement and perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the integrative view of the link between the two constructs and their impacts on the trust expectation. The present paper is a step toward filling this research gap. The purpose of this paper is to understand the process by which a consumer chooses an online merchant by examining the relationships among product involvement, perceived risk, trust expectation, and intention to buy from an e-tailer. We specifically focus on the mediating role of perceived risk in the relationships between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. That is, we question whether product involvement affects the trust expectation directly without mediation or indirectly mediated by perceived risk. The research model with four hypotheses was initially tested using data gathered from 635 respondents through an online survey method. The structural equation modeling technique with partial least square was used to validate the instrument and the proposed model. The results showed that three out of the four hypotheses formulated were supported. First, we found that the intention to buy from a digital storefront is positively and significantly influenced by the trust expectation, providing support for H4 (trust expectation ${\rightarrow}$ purchase intention). Second, perceived risk was found to be a strong predictor of trust expectation, supporting H2 as well (perceived risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Third, we did not find any evidence of direct influence of product involvement, which caused H3 to be rejected (product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Finally, we found significant positive relationship between product involvement and perceived risk (H1: product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ perceived risk), which suggests that the possibility of complete mediation of perceived risk in the relationship between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. As a result, we conducted an additional test for the mediation effect by comparing the original model with the revised model without the mediator variable of perceived risk. Indeed, we found that there exists a strong influence of product involvement on the trust expectation (by intentionally eliminating the variable of perceived risk) that was suppressed (i.e., mediated) by the perceived risk in the original model. The Sobel test statistically confirmed the complete mediation effect. Results of this study offer the following key findings. First, enduring product involvement is positively related to perceived risk, implying that the higher a consumer is enduringly involved with a given product, the greater risk he or she is likely to perceive with regards to the online purchase of the product. Second, perceived risk is positively related to trust expectation. A consumer with great risk perceptions concerning the online purchase is likely to buy from a highly trustworthy online merchant, thereby mitigating potential risks. Finally, product involvement was found to have no direct influence on trust expectation, but the relationship between the two constructs was indirect and mediated by the perceived risk. This is perhaps an important theoretical integration of two separate streams of literature on product involvement and perceived risk. The present research also provides useful implications for practitioners as well as academicians. First, one implication for practicing managers in online retail stores is that they should invest in reducing the perceived risk of consumers in order to lower down the trust expectation and thus increasing the consumer's intention to purchase products or services. Second, an academic implication is that perceived risk mediates the relationship between enduring product involvement and trust expectation. Further research is needed to elaborate the theoretical relationships among the constructs under consideration.

• 마케팅과학연구
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.37-46
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• 2009

The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced in May 2008 that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for 2006 reached $ 107 billion, up from $ 87 billion in 2005 - an increase of 22 percent. From 2001 to 2006, retail e-sales increased at an average annual growth rate of 25.4 percent. The explosive growth of E-Commerce has caused profound changes in marketing channel relationships and structures in many industries. Despite the great potential implications for both academicians and practitioners, there still exists a great deal of uncertainty about the impact of the Internet channel introduction on distribution channel management. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the ownership of the new Internet channel affects the existing channel members and consumers. To explore the above research questions, this study conducts well-controlled mathematical experiments to isolate the impact of the Internet channel by comparing before and after the Internet channel entry. The model consists of a monopolist manufacturer selling its product through a channel system including one independent physical store before the entry of an Internet store. The addition of the Internet store to this channel system results in a mixed channel comprised of two different types of channels. The new Internet store can be launched by the independent physical store such as Bestbuy. In this case, the physical retailer coordinates the two types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the two stores. The Internet store also can be introduced by an independent Internet retailer such as Amazon. In this case, a retail level competition occurs between the two types of stores. Although the manufacturer sells only one product, consumers view each product-outlet pair as a unique offering. Thus, the introduction of the Internet channel provides two product offerings for consumers. The channel structures analyzed in this study are illustrated in Fig.1. It is assumed that the manufacturer plays as a Stackelberg leader maximizing its own profits with the foresight of the independent retailer's optimal responses as typically assumed in previous analytical channel studies. As a Stackelberg follower, the independent physical retailer or independent Internet retailer maximizes its own profits, conditional on the manufacturer's wholesale price. The price competition between two the independent retailers is assumed to be a Bertrand Nash game. For simplicity, the marginal cost is set at zero, as typically assumed in this type of study. In order to explore the research questions above, this study develops a game theoretic model that possesses the following three key characteristics. First, the model explicitly captures the fact that an Internet channel and a physical store exist in two independent dimensions (one in physical space and the other in cyber space). This enables this model to demonstrate that the effect of adding an Internet store is different from that of adding another physical store. Second, the model reflects the fact that consumers are heterogeneous in their preferences for using a physical store and for using an Internet channel. Third, the model captures the vertical strategic interactions between an upstream manufacturer and a downstream retailer, making it possible to analyze the channel structure issues discussed in this paper. Although numerous previous models capture this vertical dimension of marketing channels, none simultaneously incorporates the three characteristics reflected in this model. The analysis results are summarized in Table 1. When the new Internet channel is introduced by the existing physical retailer and the retailer coordinates both types of stores to maximize the joint profits from the both stores, retail prices increase due to a combination of the coordination of the retail prices and the wider market coverage. The quantity sold does not significantly increase despite the wider market coverage, because the excessively high retail prices alleviate the market coverage effect to a degree. Interestingly, the coordinated total retail profits are lower than the combined retail profits of two competing independent retailers. This implies that when a physical retailer opens an Internet channel, the retailers could be better off managing the two channels separately rather than coordinating them, unless they have the foresight of the manufacturer's pricing behavior. It is also found that the introduction of an Internet channel affects the power balance of the channel. The retail competition is strong when an independent Internet store joins a channel with an independent physical retailer. This implies that each retailer in this structure has weak channel power. Due to intense retail competition, the manufacturer uses its channel power to increase its wholesale price to extract more profits from the total channel profit. However, the retailers cannot increase retail prices accordingly because of the intense retail level competition, leading to lower channel power. In this case, consumer welfare increases due to the wider market coverage and lower retail prices caused by the retail competition. The model employed for this study is not designed to capture all the characteristics of the Internet channel. The theoretical model in this study can also be applied for any stores that are not geographically constrained such as TV home shopping or catalog sales via mail. The reasons the model in this study is names as "Internet" are as follows: first, the most representative example of the stores that are not geographically constrained is the Internet. Second, catalog sales usually determine the target markets using the pre-specified mailing lists. In this aspect, the model used in this study is closer to the Internet than catalog sales. However, it would be a desirable future research direction to mathematically and theoretically distinguish the core differences among the stores that are not geographically constrained. The model is simplified by a set of assumptions to obtain mathematical traceability. First, this study assumes the price is the only strategic tool for competition. In the real world, however, various marketing variables can be used for competition. Therefore, a more realistic model can be designed if a model incorporates other various marketing variables such as service levels or operation costs. Second, this study assumes the market with one monopoly manufacturer. Therefore, the results from this study should be carefully interpreted considering this limitation. Future research could extend this limitation by introducing manufacturer level competition. Finally, some of the results are drawn from the assumption that the monopoly manufacturer is the Stackelberg leader. Although this is a standard assumption among game theoretic studies of this kind, we could gain deeper understanding and generalize our findings beyond this assumption if the model is analyzed by different game rules.

• 마케팅과학연구
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.110-122
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• 2010

20世纪60年代中期, 随着1967年 ${\ll}$产业购买和创造营销${\gg}$的出版, 组织购买行为这一领域的兴起为企业如何在市场中运作提供了新的思维方式, 而不只是为最终用户服务. 无论是 "工业营销" 或 "企业营销"(B-to-B),组织的购买行为仍然是这个领域的核心. 本文探讨了动态因素的影响,影响了几个组织彼此相关的迅速增长的相互依存,反过来会影响组织的购买行为. 文章还提出了一个问题,组织购买行为的概念模型,在一个相互依存的世界是否仍然会在这个充满活力的经营环境中引导研究和管理的思想,. 本文提出并探索三个关于组织相互依存的问题: 1.哪些因素和趋势驱动了组织的相互依存的兴起? 2.在过去半个世纪中发展起来的组织购买行为的主要概念模型仍然适用于今天这个相互依存的组织的世界吗? 3.研究中组织的相互依存的启示是什么? 组织购买行为的实践活动是什么? 考虑到组织关系中驱动组织的相互依存的因素和趋势和5个关键驱动因素有关并影响他们的购买行为:加速全球化, 平整的网络组织, 破坏价值链, 强化政府的介入, 不断细分客户需求. 这五个相通的相互依存和潜在的技术上的优势可以改变组织购买产品和服务的市场中保持竞争力的关系. 在一个客户驱动的营销策略背景下, 这些力量影响三个层次的战略发展: (1)进化的客户需求, (2)产生的产品/服务和解决方案以满足这些需求, 和(3)的组织能力和工艺制定和实施了以满足需求. 组织中相互依存的五个驱动因素在他们影响组织如何购买时不需要独立的操作. 他们可以相互作用和更加有效的影响组织购买行为. 例如,加速了全球化的影响,出现了新的网络进一步破坏传统价值链之间的关系, 从而改变机构购买的产品和服务. 提高政府参与可能会增加成本,因此在其它国家的新兴市场开公司做生意寻求低成本的来源. 这可以减少一国的就业机会增加另一个国家的就业机会, 在另一方面, 从而进一步加速全球化. 第二个主要的问题是相互依存的五个驱动因素对组织购买行为的核心概念模型有什么影响. 考虑三个在 ${\ll}$产业购买和创造营销${\gg}$ 和 ${\ll}$组织购买行为${\gg}$ 书籍中发展的概念模型:组织购买过程, 购买中心,以及购买的情况. 回顾这些核心模型, 作为最初的概念,他们仍然是有效的, 而且不可能改变. 在买家和卖家相互依赖的情况下, 什么会改变买卖双方相互作用的方式. 例如,增加了相互依赖的机会可能导致增加协作以及组织之间的冲突的买卖,从而改变购买过程. 此外,组织中的沟通过程的重要性作为一个成功的购买关系的判断依据将增加. 第三个问题对这些组织购买行为的关系的影响和意义进行了探讨. 以下是本文所考虑到的: 为了增进对网络对组织购买行为的影响的理解,需要增加了解所扮演的角色之间的信任, 增强在网络环境中如何管理组织购买的理解的需要, 需要增加了解在价值网络中的客户需要,并且需要增加了解新兴的商业模式对组织购买行为的影响. 在许多方面,这些从增加的组织的相互依存派生出来的需要是组织购买行为传统概念的扩展. 在1977年,Nicosia 和Wind建议把焦点集中在组织间而不是组织内部观点,自1990年以来, 这个趋势的势头很强. 对于管理者来说,也想在越来越相互依存的世界中生存,他们将需要更好地了解组织如何与另一组织相关的复杂性. 从组织的相互依存的观点已经开始,必须不断地发展提出一种对这些重要的关系改进的理解. 互相依赖的网络观点的转变需要很多学术界人士和实践者从根本上挑战和改变他们商业中的心智模型和组织购买行为模型. 不再只关注购买组织和销售组织之间的关系而应该是网络中所有的相关成员, 包括消费者, 发展者, 供应商和中间者. 我们来看这个例子. 由SAP创造的有众多合作伙伴的网络包含了超过9000个公司和超过一百万的参与者. 互相依赖的进展, 复杂性和不确定的现实和多变的网络需要重新考虑如何做出购买决定. 结果是他们应该关注学术中下一阶段的研究和理论建设并关注有实践者构建的实践模型和实验. 我们希望这样的研究能够展开, 不是孤立在象牙塔里, 也不是限制在商业世界中, 而是学术和实践的结合. 总而言之, 组织之间相互依赖的提高的考虑揭示了组织购买行为的基础模型的持续关联性. 然而在相互依存的世界中来提高这些模型的价值, 学术界和实践者应该提高他们对一下内容的理解 (1)网络的影响; (2)如何更好地管理这些影响的作用; (3)组织之间信任和价值的作用, (4)价值网络中客户需求的演变; (5)组织购买行为的新兴的新商业模型的影响. 为了实现这一目标, 我们需要产业界和学习界更好的合作从而提高我们对在相互依赖的世界中的组织购买行为的理解.

• 한국유통학회지:유통연구
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.37-63
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• 2012

가맹사업에 있어 배타적 영업지역보호정책의 문제는 경제학 및 경영학 분야뿐만 아니라 사회 정치적으로 매우 중요한 쟁점이다. 본 연구는 배타적 영업지역과 관련한 기존 문헌을 토대로 가맹사업에서의 효율성 관점에서 배타적 영업지역보호에 영향을 미치는 변수와 배타적 영업지역 보호가 가맹본부 및 가맹점의 성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하고 있다. 가맹점의 대부분이 중소상인들이란 점을 감안하면 유통정책적으로도 중요한 의미가 있다고 할 수 있다. 본연구는 사회적으로도 잇슈가 될 수 있는 기업의 전략을 타당성과 당위성, 그리고 논리성으로만 평가하는 것이 아니라 실제 자료를 근거로 분석하였다. 또, 정책연구들이 가지고 있는 자료와 이론의 한계를 감안한 탐색적 방법론을 활용하여 보다 실질적이고 현실적용성이 뛰어난 분석을 제안하였다. 분석 결과, 배타적 영업지역보호는 긍정적인 효과가 있기는 하지만 통계적으로 유의하지 못하였으며, 가맹점과 가맹본부간의 로얄티가 많아서 위험공유성향이 클때에는 배타적 영업지역보호를 하지 않는 것이 효과적이었고, 가맹점을 모집하기 위해 배타적 영업지역보호를 해주거나 배타적 영업지역보호를 통해서 가맹사업본부내의 효율성을 키우기 위한 경우에는 긍정적인 효과가 유의하게 나타나는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 하지만 외부경쟁으로부터 직영점을 보호하기 위하거나 시장성장을 활용하기 위한 배타적 영업지역보호는 좋은 성과를 내지 못하였다. 또한 쉽게 배타적 영업지역보호를 할 수 있기에 이런 제도를 도입하는 것도 역시 좋은 성과를 내지 못한 것으로 나타났다. 결과적으로 배타적 영업지역보호가 기업의 운영효율을 증대시키기 위하여 하는 경우는 성과가 좋으나 다른 목적을 위하여 배타적 영업지역보호를 활용하는 것은 바람직한 결과를 못내는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 분석결과를 토대로 영업지역 보호를 획일적으로 활용하거나 법으로 강제하기 보다는 가맹사업본부와 가맹점의 관계 및 상황, 또 동기에 맞추어 탄력적으로 적용하는 것이 바람직하다는 제안을 하고 있으며, 이를 근거로 몇 가지 정책적 시사점을 제시하였다.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.29-52
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• 2012

Consumers differ in the way they make a purchase. An audio mania would willingly make a bold, yet serious, decision to buy a top-of-the-line home theater system, while he is not interested in replacing his two-decade-old shabby car. On the contrary, an automobile enthusiast wouldn't mind spending forty thousand dollars to buy a new Jaguar convertible, yet cares little about his junky component system. It is product involvement that helps us explain such differences among individuals in the purchase style. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a product is perceived to be important to a consumer (Zaichkowsky, 2001). Product involvement is an important factor that strongly influences consumer's purchase decision-making process, and thus has been of prime interest to consumer behavior researchers. Furthermore, researchers found that involvement is closely related to perceived risk (Dholakia, 2001). While abundant research exists addressing how product involvement relates to overall perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the relationship between involvement and different types of perceived risk in an electronic commerce setting. Given that perceived risk can be a substantial barrier to the online purchase (Jarvenpaa, 2000), research addressing such an issue will offer useful implications on what specific types of perceived risk an online firm should focus on mitigating if it is to increase sales to a fullest potential. Meanwhile, past research has focused on such consumer responses as information search and dissemination as a consequence of involvement, neglecting other behavioral responses like online merchant selection. For one example, will a consumer seriously considering the purchase of a pricey Guzzi bag perceive a great degree of risk associated with online buying and therefore choose to buy it from a digital storefront rather than from an online marketplace to mitigate risk? Will a consumer require greater trust on the part of the online merchant when the perceived risk of online buying is rather high? We intend to find answers to these research questions through an empirical study. This paper explores the impact of enduring product involvement and perceived risks on required trust level, and further on online merchant choice. For the purpose of the research, five types or components of perceived risk are taken into consideration, including financial, performance, delivery, psychological, and social risks. A research model has been built around the constructs under consideration, and 12 hypotheses have been developed based on the research model to examine the relationships between enduring involvement and five components of perceived risk, between five components of perceived risk and required trust level, between enduring involvement and required trust level, and finally between required trust level and preference toward an e-tailer. To attain our research objectives, we conducted an empirical analysis consisting of two phases of data collection: a pilot test and main survey. The pilot test was conducted using 25 college students to ensure that the questionnaire items are clear and straightforward. Then the main survey was conducted using 295 college students at a major university for nine days between December 13, 2010 and December 21, 2010. The measures employed to test the model included eight constructs: (1) enduring involvement, (2) financial risk, (3) performance risk, (4) delivery risk, (5) psychological risk, (6) social risk, (7) required trust level, (8) preference toward an e-tailer. The statistical package, SPSS 17.0, was used to test the internal consistency among the items within the individual measures. Based on the Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficients of the individual measure, the reliability of all the variables is supported. Meanwhile, the Amos 18.0 package was employed to perform a confirmatory factor analysis designed to assess the unidimensionality of the measures. The goodness of fit for the measurement model was satisfied. Unidimensionality was tested using convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. The statistical evidences proved that the three types of validity were all satisfied. Now the structured equation modeling technique was used to analyze the individual paths along the relationships among the research constructs. The results indicated that enduring involvement has significant positive relationships with all the five components of perceived risk, while only performance risk is significantly related to trust level required by consumers for purchase. It can be inferred from the findings that product performance problems are mostly likely to occur when a merchant behaves in an opportunistic manner. Positive relationships were also found between involvement and required trust level and between required trust level and online merchant choice. Enduring involvement is concerned with the pleasure a consumer derives from a product class and/or with the desire for knowledge for the product class, and thus is likely to motivate the consumer to look for ways of mitigating perceived risk by requiring a higher level of trust on the part of the online merchant. Likewise, a consumer requiring a high level of trust on the merchant will choose a digital storefront rather than an e-marketplace, since a digital storefront is believed to be trustworthier than an e-marketplace, as it fulfills orders by itself rather than acting as an intermediary. The findings of the present research provide both academic and practical implications. The first academic implication is that enduring product involvement is a strong motivator of consumer responses, especially the selection of a merchant, in the context of electronic shopping. Secondly, academicians are advised to pay attention to the finding that an individual component or type of perceived risk can be used as an important research construct, since it would allow one to pinpoint the specific types of risk that are influenced by antecedents or that influence consequents. Meanwhile, our research provides implications useful for online merchants (both online storefronts and e-marketplaces). Merchants may develop strategies to attract consumers by managing perceived performance risk involved in purchase decisions, since it was found to have significant positive relationship with the level of trust required by a consumer on the part of the merchant. One way to manage performance risk would be to thoroughly examine the product before shipping to ensure that it has no deficiencies or flaws. Secondly, digital storefronts are advised to focus on symbolic goods (e.g., cars, cell phones, fashion outfits, and handbags) in which consumers are relatively more involved than others, whereas e- marketplaces should put their emphasis on non-symbolic goods (e.g., drinks, books, MP3 players, and bike accessories).