• 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).

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.141-170
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• 2010

User created content (UCC) is created and shared by common users on line. From the user's perspective, the increase of UCCs has led to an expansion of alternative means of communications, while from the business perspective UCCs have formed an environment in which an abundant amount of new contents can be produced. Despite outward quantitative growth, however, many aspects of UCCs do not meet the expectations of general users in terms of quality, and this can be observed through pirated contents and user-copied contents. The purpose of this research is to investigate effective methods for fostering production of creative user-generated content. This study proposes two core elements, namely, reward and motivation, which are believed to enhance content creativity as well as the mediating factor and users' committement, which will be effective for bridging the increasing motivation and content creativity. Based on this perspective, this research takes an in-depth look at issues related to constructing the dimensions of reward and motivation in UCC services for creative content product, which are identified in three phases. First, three dimensions of rewards have been proposed: task dimension, social dimension, and organizational dimention. The task dimension rewards are related to the inherent characteristics of a task such as writing blog articles and pasting photos. Four concrete ways of providing task-related rewards in UCC environments are suggested in this study, which include skill variety, task significance, task identity, and autonomy. The social dimensioni rewards are related to the connected relationships among users. The organizational dimension consists of monetary payoff and recognition from others. Second, the two types of motivations are suggested to be affected by the diverse rewards schemes: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation occurs when people create new UCC contents for its' own sake, whereas extrinsic motivation occurs when people create new contents for other purposes such as fame and money. Third, commitments are suggested to work as important mediating variables between motivation and content creativity. We believe commitments are especially important in online environments because they have been found to exert stronger impacts on the Internet users than other relevant factors do. Two types of commitments are suggested in this study: emotional commitment and continuity commitment. Finally, content creativity is proposed as the final dependent variable in this study. We provide a systematic method to measure the creativity of UCC content based on the prior studies in creativity measurement. The method includes expert evaluation of blog pages posted by the Internet users. In order to test the theoretical model of our study, 133 active blog users were recruited to participate in a group discussion as well as a survey. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire on their commitment, motivation and rewards of creating UCC contents. At the same time, their creativity was measured by independent experts using Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Finally, two independent users visited the study participants' blog pages and evaluated their content creativity using the Creative Products Semantic Scale. All the data were compiled and analyzed through structural equation modeling. We first conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the measurement model of our research. It was found that measures used in our study satisfied the requirement of reliability, convergent validity as well as discriminant validity. Given the fact that our measurement model is valid and reliable, we proceeded to conduct a structural model analysis. The results indicated that all the variables in our model had higher than necessary explanatory powers in terms of R-square values. The study results identified several important reward shemes. First of all, skill variety, task importance, task identity, and automony were all found to have significant influences on the intrinsic motivation of creating UCC contents. Also, the relationship with other users was found to have strong influences upon both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Finally, the opportunity to get recognition for their UCC work was found to have a significant impact on the extrinsic motivation of UCC users. However, different from our expectation, monetary compensation was found not to have a significant impact on the extrinsic motivation. It was also found that commitment was an important mediating factor in UCC environment between motivation and content creativity. A more fully mediating model was found to have the highest explanation power compared to no-mediation or partially mediated models. This paper ends with implications of the study results. First, from the theoretical perspective this study proposes and empirically validates the commitment as an important mediating factor between motivation and content creativity. This result reflects the characteristics of online environment in which the UCC creation activities occur voluntarily. Second, from the practical perspective this study proposes several concrete reward factors that are germane to the UCC environment, and their effectiveness to the content creativity is estimated. In addition to the quantitive results of relative importance of the reward factrs, this study also proposes concrete ways to provide the rewards in the UCC environment based on the FGI data that are collected after our participants finish asnwering survey questions. Finally, from the methodological perspective, this study suggests and implements a way to measure the UCC content creativity independently from the content generators' creativity, which can be used later by future research on UCC creativity. In sum, this study proposes and validates important reward features and their relations to the motivation, commitment, and the content creativity in UCC environment, which is believed to be one of the most important factors for the success of UCC and Web 2.0. As such, this study can provide significant theoretical as well as practical bases for fostering creativity in UCC contents.

• 한국유통학회지:유통연구
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.111-137
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• 2010

본 연구는 서비스 시장에서의 지각된 품질과 개인가치간의 인과적 관계 및 고객의 인지욕구에 따른 온 오프라인상의 조절효과에 대해 실증분석하였으며 이를 통해 개인가치에 대한 서비스 전략과 마케팅 관리의 중요성을 제시하고 있다. 서비스 시장에서 서비스 제공자와 구매자간의 장기적 거래관계의 중요성이 크게 부각됨에 따라 관계구축 및 강화에 매우 중요한 역할을 하는 개인가치에 관한 연구는 학계뿐만 아니라 실무적으로도 고객관계관리의 관점에서 시사하는 바가 크다고 할 수 있다. 실증분석을 위해 대형마트(할인점)와 인터넷 쇼핑몰을 이용하는 고객을 대상으로 설문을 통해 데이터를 수집하였으며 온 오프라인의 비교분석을 통한 차이검증을 위한 인과적 구성모델에 대해 구조방정식 모델분석을 통해 가설검증하였다. 구성모델에 대한 분석결과 물리적 환경, 상호작용 품질, 그리고 결과품질로 구성된 지각된 품질은 안정적 삶, 사회적 인식, 사회적 통합으로 구성된 서비스 개인가치에 통계적으로 매우 유의한 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며 집단간 차이효과분석을 통해서도 온 오프라인에 따른 조정효과는 온라인에서보다는 오프라인에서 더 유의한 것으로 나타났다. 그리고 온라인상에서의 서비스에 대한 인지욕구가 높을 때보다는 오프라인상에서의 서비스에 대한 인지욕구가 높을 때 개인가치에 더 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로 본 연구의 구성모델에 대한 적합도 역시 수용할만한 수준인 것으로 나타났다.

• 마케팅과학연구
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.147-187
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• 2008

온라인 게임에서의 경험을 설명하는 대부분의 이전 연구들이 플로우의 역할을 강조하고 있으며, 플로우의 선행요인과 결과요인을 밝히는데 초점을 두었다. 플로우는 온라인상의 몰입경험을 설명하는데 타당한 것으로 기존 연구에서 검증되었고 성과와 직결된다는 점에서 중요한 변수임은 분명하지만, 쾌락적 경험으로서의 온라인 게임을 설명하는 데 있어서는 부족하다. 이러한 기존 연구의 부족한 점을 보완하고자, 본 연구는 음악과 영화분야에서 연구된 쾌락적 반응 연구를 온라인 게임에 적용하여 온라인 게임에서의 다차원적인 경험과정을 보여주고자 하였다. 또한 기존에 쾌락적 반응에 관한 연구를 보완하여 감각적 반응, 상상적 반응, 분석적 반응이 감정적 반응에 주는 영향을 검증하였으며, 플로우를 대신해 쾌락적 반응들이 게임 만족에 주는 영향, 게임 만족이 충성도에 주는 영향을 규명하고자 하였다. 그리고 쾌락적 선호를 조절하거나 매개하는 변수로 알려진 지각된 복잡성에 따른 조절 영향을 확인함으로써, 자극의 차이에 따른 쾌락적 반응의 영향차이를 보지 않았던 기존연구를 확장하였다. 연구결과, 감각적 반응, 상상적 반응, 분석적 반응의 감정적 반응에 대한 유의한 영향, 각각의 쾌락적 반응의 만족에 대한 유의한 영향, 만족의 충성도에 대한 영향이 검증되었다. 그리고 이러한 영향은 지각된 복잡성이 다른 집단 별로 달랐는데, 예상한 바대로 지각된 복잡성이 높은 집단에서는 분석적 반응이 전반적으로 강한 영향을, 그리고 낮은 집단에서는 감각적 반응이 감정과 만족에 강한 영향을 주는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 연구 마지막에는 이러한 결과들에 대한 요약 및 해석, 시사점 및 한계점이 논의되었다.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.155-175
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• 2010

본 연구는 관계혜택과 브랜드 동일시에 관한 탐색적 연구로서 충성도에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 알려져 온 관계 혜택과 브랜드 동일시를 함께 고찰하려는 데에 목적이 있다. 관계 혜택과 브랜드 동일시는 각각 충성도와 유의한 관계가 있는 것으로 잘 알려져 왔으나, 그들 간의 관계를 함께 살펴본 연구는 거의 없는 실정이다. 한편으로는 카드산업에서 관계혜택이 중요한 전략적 요소인 동시에 최근에는 브랜드 개성과 이미지를 카드에 연결시키려는 시도를 하고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 관계 혜택과 충성도와의 관계를 브랜드 동일시가 매개할 것으로 보고 그 영향을 탐색하였다. 결과적으로 관계혜택 차원, 즉 확신적 혜택과 특별대우혜택이 개인적 동일시와 사회적 동일시에 영향을 미치고, 개인적 동일시가 충성도에 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며, 특히 확신적 혜택은 충성도에 직접적인 영향도 있는 것으로 나타났다.

• 해양환경안전학회지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.175-183
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• 2010

갯벌 패류양식장의 구조물 설치 및 지형적 공간배치에 따른 저서생물 현황을 파악하기 위해 고흥 남성리 양식장의 실제적인 사례를 조사하였다. 그 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. (1) 남성리 갯벌양식장의 지반 경사는 약 $1^{\circ}$ 미만으로 매우 평탄하며, 육지로부터 약 150 m까지는 $\sqcup$형, 그 후는 $\sqcap$형 지반형태를 가진다. $\sqcup$형 지반은 간출시 해수를 가두고 $\sqcap$형 지반은 외해 유출을 가로막을 뿐만 아니라 내부인자로서 해수 유출 시간을 지연시키는 작용/영향을 하게 될 것으로 생각된다. (2) 양식장 구분 시설물로 설치된 굴 패각 망태 또는 사석의 축제 형식은 총 5가지로 구분할 수 있으며, 양식장 대기 노출 시간과 침수시간은 각각 181분과 434분이었다. (3) 수치실험결과로서 대상해역의 내습 심해파랑은 최대파고 약 0.5m로서 매우 정온한 해역특성을 가지며, 탁월 입사파향은 나로대교 하단부는 S방향, 갯벌양식장 인근은 SE, SSW, S방향으로 조사되었다. (4) 고흥 남성리 주변 해역의 입도분석결과, 퇴적물은 Gravel 0.0~5.81(평균 1.70)%, 모래 14.15~18.39(평균 13.23)%, 실트 27.59~47.15(평균 30.84)%, 점토 35.79~55.73(평균 36.19)%로 구성되어 있으며, Folk 분류법에 의해 (g)M, sM(Sandy mud), gM(Gravelly mud)로 분류되었다. (5) 2010년 1월 남성리 패류 양식장 저서생물 현황조사에서는 총 11종이 1%이상의 우점종으로 출현하였으며 이 중 연체동물이 1종, 다모류가 8종, 갑각류가 2종이었다.