摘要
从有限理性视角,基于阶段性决策过程模型和成本-收益权衡原则,以信息负载、决策支持工具和推荐信号构成网络购物信息环境,通过2×2×2组间实验、431个样本数据来探讨对考虑集和选择集的影响机制,结果表明:1)不同的信息负载下,消费者会采用不同的决策策略来平衡决策质量与决策成本;2)决策支持工具的使用延长了决策时间,增加了认知努力付出,但决策质量提高,决策主观自信和满意度增加,但在高信息负载下,个体仍然会增加对启发式线索的依赖;3)作为启发式线索的推荐信号并没有被用来简化信息处理过程。
Information dissemination has always been an important issue in both marketing practice and research field. Many studies show that information overload problems can result in poor customer decisions and shopping experiences. In online environment,due to the unlimited shelf space e-retailers can provide excessive information to consumers. Information overload issues are worsening with the lowering searching cost. However, with the help of Internet technology e-retailers can provide decision aid tools to facilitate informationintegration and processing. In addition, advanced Internet technology can provide useful information, such as products＇ sales volume,user ratings,recommendations and other extrinsic cues,to help consumers making purchase decision. Thus, Information load,decision aid tools and products＇ extrinsic cues are unique, key factors for online shopping environment. It is important to study how consumers make their decisions in the e-tailing context. Most previous studies focus only on the effect of these factors on consumers＇ decision outcomes. Only few studies are concerned about their mechanisms. It is still unknown about how ＂information overload＂ leads to consumers＇ poor decision quality, and how decision aid tools and recommendations change consumers＇ decision-making process. According to the Cost-Benefit theory from the perspective of bounded rationality, information processing produces cognitive cost. Because consumers pursue both saving cognitive effort and improving decision quality,they will choose decision strategies that balance information-processing cost and decision quality. When information context changes,consumers＇ decision- making strategies change accordingly. As a result, different decision outcomes are achieved. By implementing a 2（information overload ： low vs high） ＊ 2 decision aid tools（ yes vs no）＊ recommendation signals（yes vs no） multi-factor experimental design, this paper investigates subjects＇ consideration set and choice set. In addition, this paper explores how information affects consumers＇ decision-making process in different contexts. Experimental result shows some conclusions. Firstly, when information load increases, consumers＇ consideration set size and choice set size increase, the ratio of familiar brands＇ products in the sets increases, and the heterogeneity of consideration set decreases. This means that when information load increases and information-processing cost increases, consumers shift to more cost-saving heuristic decision strategy and rely more heavily on heuristic cues. These social cues can result in the increase of homogeneity and selectivity of the sets, and decrease of openness. Meanwhile, when consumer extends the time-to-make decision, it does not improve subjective confidence and satisfaction. This reflects the trade-off between decision-making quality and cognitive cost. Secondly, decision aid tools will help consumers find information needs of their own products（set size decreases）, and reduce the dependence on familiar brands in the second phase of decision-making. With decision aid tools, consumers will spend more time to make decision, and improve subjective confidence and satisfaction of decision makers. Decision aid tools help consumers make better decision. However, when consumers face a wealth of alternatives（high information load）, they will still screen alternatives using heuristic clues, and reflect the consumer trade-off between decision quality and decision efforts. This paper makes several contributions. First,it adopts the cost-benefit theory to explore consumers＇ decision-making process（consideration set and choice set） and understand information overload problems from the perspective of bounded rationality. Second, the paper investigates the characteristics of consideration set and choice set separately and conducts comparative analysis to explain decision-making processes. Third, our hypotheses show that consumers still tend to reduce cognitive cost in online environment with rich and easy accessible information. This research helps understand consumers＇ decision-making strategy and decision behavior, understand what kind of products have easier access to consumer＇s choice set, and guide online retailers and producers in developing marketing strategies.
出处
《管理工程学报》
CSSCI
北大核心
2016年第2期38-47,共10页
Journal of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
基金
国家自然科学基金资助项目(71172114)
关键词
有限理性
决策过程
信息负载
决策支持工具
推荐信号
bounded rationality
decision process
information load
decision support tool
recommend signal
