Effect of Manufacturer Reputation,Retailer Reputation,and Product Warranty on Consumer Judgments of Product Quality: A Cue Diagnosticity Framework

In this article, we examine how consumers assess product quality when confronted with multiple cues. Based on cue diagnosticity, a conceptual framework is developed that differentiates between cue types and suggests that the diagnosticity of some cue types depends on the valence of other cue types in the environment. The cue diagnosticity framework is then used to assess the effects of manufacturer reputation, retailer reputation, and product warranty on consumer perceptions of product quality. Consistent with the conceptual framework, we find in 2 studies that warranty is not used in judgments of product quality when a manufacturer with a poor reputation sells directly to consumers or sells through a retailer with a poor reputation. However, when the same manufacturer sells through a reputed retailer, then the warranty is used in making quality evaluations. The results not only support the conceptual framework, but also highlight the important role that the retailer plays in assessments of product quality. The implications of the findings are discussed along with directions for future research.     

The Use of Cues Depends on Goals: Store Reputation Affects Product Judgments When Social Identity Goals Are Salient

The role that a given cue plays in consumer judgments depends on the motive that is salient for the consumer. We focus on store reputation as a cue whose utilization can depend on salient goals. Research has suggested that store reputation does not influence product judgments when brand and price information are available. In 3 experiments, however, we show that when social identity goals are salient or are perceived as relevant to the product, store reputation (because it conveys image‐relevant information) is used in evaluations of product quality. Specifically, store reputation has an impact on product judgments when either (a) consumers’ social‐image goals are directly heightened or (b) an interdependent self‐construal, characterized by a greater concern with social identity, is salient. The role of product type in moderating these effects is also examined.     

Guess Who Buys Cheap? The Effect of Consumers’ Goal Orientation on Product Preference

The current research examines how goal orientation affects consumer preference among products with different prices. We argue that a less expensive product may have not only lower perceived quality but also greater perceived quality variability. This greater perceived variability provides the opportunity for optimistic, promotion‐oriented consumers to overestimate the quality of the less expensive product. This effect is weaker, however, for a more expensive product that consumers perceive to have less quality variability and which thus provides less room for quality overestimation. As a result, we hypothesize that promotion‐oriented consumers, as compared to prevention‐oriented consumers, will demonstrate a stronger preference for a less expensive product. In a field study and two laboratory experiments, we obtain empirical support both for the hypothesized effect of consumers’ goal orientation on their product preference and for its underlying process. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our results.     

An Investigation of the Processes by Which Product Design and Brand Strength Interact to Determine Initial Affect and Quality Judgments

Prior research on product design has focused predominantly on the importance of product aesthetics in generating favorable consumer response. Interestingly, little attention has been given to the importance of aesthetics relative to product function (a fundamental component of product design) or to brand strength–two factors that are also considered to have a significant influence on consumers’ product evaluations and on product success. This study investigates how product design (conceptualized as product aesthetics and function) interacts with brand strength to influence consumers’ product liking and quality evaluations. Results suggest that design and brand strength differentially impact liking and quality judgments. In addition, judgments of liking and quality are found to be different in the way they are formed. Specifically, product liking appears to be readily formed through a process that integrates design information only; brand strength exhibits no significant influence. Quality judgments appear to take longer to process, and involve the integration of design and brand information.     

Perceived helpfulness of online consumer reviews: The role of message content and style

The rise of online reviews written by consumers makes possible an examination of how the content and style of these word‐of‐mouth messages contribute to their helpfulness. In this study, consumers are asked to judge the value of real online consumer reviews to their simulated shopping activities. The results suggest the benefits of moderate review length and of positive, but not negative, product evaluative statements. Non‐evaluative product information and information about the reviewer were also found to be associated with review helpfulness. Stylistic elements that may impair clarity (such as spelling and grammatical errors) were associated with less valuable reviews, and elements that may make a review more entertaining (such as expressive slang and humor) were associated with more valuable reviews. These findings point to factors beyond product information that may affect the perceived helpfulness of an online consumer review. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Did They Earn It? Observing Unearned Luxury Consumption Decreases Brand Attitude When Observers Value Fairness

People frequently observe others’ consumption, making inferences about both the consumer and the consumed brands. Although these observations are often beneficial for brands, this research demonstrates that observing luxury brand consumers whose consumption arose from unearned (vs. earned) financial resources reduces observers’ brand attitudes when observers place a high value on fairness. When fairness values are high, observers do not perceive luxury brand consumers who use unearned (vs. earned) consumption resources as prestigious, and in turn, lower prestige perceptions adversely affect observers’ brand evaluations for luxury brands. Consistent with our theorizing regarding the signaling of prestige, the joint effect of consumers’ consumption resources and observers’ fairness values on observers’ brand attitudes does not hold for nonluxury brands, which are not associated with prestige and thereby are not denigrated when the consumer is not perceived as prestigious. This research sheds light on the role of moral values in marketplace judgments of luxury consumption and brand attitude by considering the influence of consumption resources on observers’ judgments.     

How a perceived status change increase consumers’ tendency toward consumption through double psychological mechanisms

While previous research has demonstrated that status significantly affects consumer behaviour, most studies have examined objective status rather than perceived status. The present article, therefore, aims to examine how a perceived change in status affects consumers’ status consumption as well as the underlying psychological mechanisms for this behaviour. Study 1 manipulates participants’ perceived status change and measures their tendencies toward status consumption. Results show that both participants undergoing status improvement and those perceiving a threat to their status are more inclined towards status consumption than participants in a control condition. Study 2 manipulates participants’ perceived status change and measures their self‐presentation motivation, self‐compensation motivation, and status consumption tendency. A series of mediation analyses shows that self‐presentation, rather than self‐compensation, mediates the positive effect of status improvement on consumers’ status consumption and that self‐compensation, rather than self‐presentation, mediates the positive effect of status threat on consumers’ status consumption. Results of our studies suggest that consumers who perceive status improvement seek status consumption for self‐presentation purposes, while consumers who perceive status threat seek status consumption for self‐compensation. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical contribution of this research and offering practical suggestions regarding product marketing.     

Judgments about judgments: the dissociation of consideration price and transaction commitment judgments

There are many contexts in which people make judgments about prior judgments. For example, Internet shopping bots (e.g., NexTag.com) allow consumers to search for products and, if the price is too high, list a price at which they would consider making the purchase (i.e., base judgment). If the price drops to this level, the vendor generates an e-mail inviting the consumer to execute the transaction at the reduced price (i.e., contingent judgment). The authors show that the consideration price depends on the content of retrieved information, whereas the willingness to execute the transaction at the consideration price depends on the ease-of-retrieving the information. The authors use different offer prices to encourage the consumer to retrieve information consistent with different product quality levels. The authors also select offer prices so that information retrieval is more difficult at moderate offer prices than at high or low offer prices. Accordingly, the authors show that the consideration price increases as the offer price increases, but the willingness to execute the transaction at the consideration price is greater when there are high and low, as opposed to moderate, offer prices.     

The moderating role of consumer entitlement on the relationship of value with customer satisfaction

This research provides an extension of Oliver's (1980) expectancy disconfirmation model of satisfaction by examining the moderating role of consumer entitlement in the relationships between service quality and perceived value with customer satisfaction. Using a sample of season ticket holders of the National Hockey League franchise in the southeastern USA (n = 234), we found that consumer entitlement moderates the relationship of value with satisfaction, such that the impact of consumer‐perceived service value on satisfaction is mitigated for highly entitled consumers. That is, the positive value–satisfaction relationship is stronger for individuals low in consumer entitlement. This finding suggests that highly entitled consumers' satisfaction judgments are dominated by expectations, while less entitled consumers rely more on disconfirmation assessments. Strengths, limitations, suggestions for future research, and practical implications are offered. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

B2C电子商务中消费者的风险来源及其影响

研究目的是通过考察B2C(Business to Consumer)电子商务中消费者知觉到的风险来源来验证电子商务交易中的虚实界面假设。通过访谈法和问卷法调查了337名被试,探讨了B2C电子商务中消费者认知到的风险来源结构,以及这些风险来源对消费者认知风险的影响。结果表明：消费者在B2C电子商务中的认知风险一部分来源于虚实界面     

产品空间位置、价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的影响

本研究采用实验法考察了视听单通道及双通道下产品空间位置与价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的潜在影响。结果发现,呈现在空间右侧以及以较长音节播放的产品使得被试的价格感知升高;短音节条件下,个体对空间右侧产品的价格感知显著高于空间左侧,长音节条件下两侧则无显著差异;相对于单通道刺激呈现,视听通道呈现信息一致时出现信息冗余效应,个体判断的速度更快,验证了共激活模型假设,视听不一致条件下的速度降低则支持了预测编码模型。     

产品空间位置、价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的影响

本研究采用实验法考察了视听单通道及双通道下产品空间位置与价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的潜在影响。结果发现,呈现在空间右侧以及以较长音节播放的产品使得被试的价格感知升高;短音节条件下,个体对空间右侧产品的价格感知显著高于空间左侧,长音节条件下两侧则无显著差异;相对于单通道刺激呈现,视听通道呈现信息一致时出现信息冗余效应,个体判断的速度更快,验证了共激活模型假设,视听不一致条件下的速度降低则支持了预测编码模型。     

Goal‐Derived Categories: The Role of Personal and Situational Goals in Category Representations

Prior research often emphasized a stimulus‐based or bottom‐up view of product category representations. In contrast, we emphasize a more purposeful, top‐down perspective and examine categories that consumers might construct in the service of salient (i.e., highly accessible) goals. Specifically, we investigate how the point of view imposed by salient consumer goals might affect category representations assessed by participants’ similarity judgments of food products. A key factor in our study is that we examine both individual and situational sources of variability in goal salience. In addition, we also vary the surface‐level, visual resemblance of the stimulus pairs of foods used in the study. The results suggest that personal goals (e.g., health) and situational goals (e.g., convenience) act in conjunction and exert a systematic impact on category representations. Both types of goals, when salient, enhanced the perceived similarity of goal‐appropriate products and reduced the similarity of product pairs when only one product was ideal for the particular goal. The similarity‐enhancing effect was most pronounced when the surface resemblance between the products was low, and the similarity‐diminishing effect was more apparent when surface resemblance was high. Implications are discussed for current theoretical assumptions regarding categorization in consumer research.     

Price‐Matching Guarantees and Consumer Evaluations of Price Information

In 3 experiments, we show that price‐matching guarantees affect the process through which consumers translate price information into subjective judgments. In Experiment 1, we find that price‐matching guarantees appear to change the standard used in price evaluation by raising consumers’ estimates of the lowest and average prices in the market. This leads consumers to perceive products and stores that offer price‐matching guarantees as less expensive. In Experiment 2, we show that evaluations of product price information are affected by the presence of a price‐matching guarantee only when consumers do not know the range of market prices. In Experiment 3, we extend these findings to show that consumer evaluations of the cost of products in a store, inferred on the basis of store characteristics, are also influenced by the presence of a price‐matching guarantee.     

Assuring me that it is as ‘Good as New’ just makes me think about how someone else used it. Examining consumer reaction toward marketer‐provided information about secondhand goods

The current study explores consumer reaction to marketer‐provided information regarding secondhand products. Contamination fears and repugnance have not been addressed at length in consumer research. This study seeks to understand why consumers react negatively to used goods from a perspective of the Accessibility and Diagnosticity of information, addressing the issue of consumer reaction elicited by information about contamination of those goods by others. Specifically, it looks at the process of information processing in consumer reaction to marketer‐provided information, assuring them that secondhand goods are as good as new. Two studies were done to determine the difference in consumer reaction to information about a pair of pants between three conditions: used pants, used pants with assurance that they are as good as new and new pants. Results find that consumers may react negatively to positive marketer‐provided information, even if they believe it. Even though marketer‐provided information can persuade consumers to believe that a secondhand product is as good as new, consumer reaction is more negative than if consumers saw no such information. Negative emotions revolving around perceived contamination are elicited by this information that influences consumer reaction seemingly independent of beliefs about used goods. These results have implications for understanding the impact of information processing on consumer reaction to secondhand goods and to marketing communications in general. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of construal level and need for cognition on consumers' responses to temporally framed benefits

Applying construal level (CL) theory as a theoretical framework, this study examined the conditions under which temporally framed messages are effective. A 2(temporal framing: near‐future vs. distant‐future rewards) × 2(CL: high vs. low) × 2(need for cognition: high vs. low) between‐subjects design was employed. Data from two online experiments showed that consumers generated more favorable responses to the ad when the temporal distance matched consumer CL. Low‐construal consumers, either chronic or primed, were found to prefer product information framed with near‐future rewards. This CL temporal match effect appeared for consumers high in need for cognition only. Further, the matched message enhanced consumers' perception of message quality and this perceived message quality mediated the effect of the CL temporal match on consumer responses to the ad. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.     

Consumer Trust and Advice Acceptance: The Moderating Roles of Benevolence,Expertise, and Negative Emotions

I explored advice acceptance for high‐stakes decisions (i.e., those with subjectively important and risky outcomes), focusing on the relative influence of two components of consumer trust—benevolence and expertise—as well as perceived emotional decision difficulty. Participants solicited advice from experts when their decisions were low in perceived emotional difficulty but favored the advice of predominantly benevolent providers when making highly emotionally difficult decisions. Although consumers who faced emotionally difficult decisions were willing to trade off expertise for benevolence, they did not perceive this non‐normative trade‐off to influence decision quality. Instead, the results support a “stress buffering” effect whereby consumers were more confident in the accuracy of predominantly benevolent providers’ advice.     

Assessing the predictive validity of perceived globalness and country of origin of foreign brands in quality judgments among consumers in emerging markets

Consumers in emerging markets are known to have strong preferences for well‐known foreign brands. Drawing on schema and categorization theories, this study empirically investigates how accessible two components of brand foreignness – globalness and country of brand origin – are in consumer perceptions of brand quality in emerging markets. In addition, we argue that brand globalness can be shaped by inferential reasoning and test how consumer perceptions of brand globalness are affected by both a brand's country of origin and its perceived quality. Two different studies were conducted with young‐adult consumers in China. The study found that in their evaluations of foreign brands consumers are more influenced by country of origin than by brand globalness. It also found that consumers tend to perceive a high level of globalness in high‐quality brands and brands from a favorable country‐of‐origin. Further, this tendency was found to differ between well‐known and lesser‐known brands. These findings confirm the predictive validity of country of origin, but contrast with extant literature on the role of brand globalness as a principal quality cue for foreign brands among consumers in emerging markets. Our findings also imply brand globalness can be an inferred attribute of perceived brand quality and country‐of‐origin image. Keywords: brand foreignness, brand globalness, country‐of‐origin effect, emerging markets.     

Can a Rude Waiter Make Your Food Less Tasty? Social Class Differences in Thinking Style and Carryover in Consumer Judgments

Building on the notion that cognitive processes vary across social classes, we predict that social class shapes thinking style, which in turn affects consumer judgments. In doing so, we employ service failure domains as a way to understand social class effects. Across four studies, we show that, when faced with a failure incident occurring in one service dimension (e.g., rude employees), consumers in the low social class, relative to those in the high social class, carry over to influence their evaluations of the other service dimensions (e.g., food quality) that are unrelated to the failure incident. We further show that low‐class consumers favor a holistic style of thinking, whereas high‐class consumers favor an analytic style of thinking and that these differences in thinking style account for the carryover effects on evaluations. The pattern of the effects exists when the service failure is perceived to be severe rather than minor.     

The Effects of Electronic Word of Mouth on Product Judgment and Choice: The Moderating Role of the Sense of Virtual Community1

Electronic word‐of‐mouth (WOM) communication influences potential consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a product. Since consumers frequently assess online information based on their relationships with communities, rather than with individuals, online communities themselves function as referents for assessing information quality. This study examines whether consumer perceptions toward virtual communities (i.e., sense of virtual community or SOVC) moderate the perceived influence of product comments on attitude and purchase intention. This study manipulated 2 scenarios involving positive comments and negative comments regarding a newly issued game product. Analytical results indicated that SOVC reinforced the influences of online comments on attitude and purchase intention. Thus, marketers should consider the role of virtual communities when implementing WOM strategy online.