趨利或避害:資訊內容對新產品知覺風險之影響

Abstract

從以往探討新產品的研究可以得知，消費者對於新產品會產生負面感受的最大原因，就是新產品具有不確定性的特徵。而公司若能提共足夠的資訊，將有助於減少這個問題。但是，究竟消費者擔心的不確定性是哪些成分，以及資訊呈現方式的不同，是否會影響不確定性感受上的差異，過去研究則較少探討。本研究認為，其實不確定性會反應在消費者的知覺風險上。而且從過去研究中可以發現，消費者在面對新產品時，除了一般風險外，還有很多關於學習認識上的問題，也會讓消費者感到不確定性。因此，本研究認為必須進一步分析新產品所衍生出的知覺風險類型，才可以幫助我們提升消費者對新產品的評估。另外，從增加正面好處的觀點，或是從減少負面壞處的觀點，這兩種不同資訊內容的呈現方式，對消費者降低各種風險的效果是否會有所差異，是本研究另一個企圖深入探討的課題。從本研究結果得知，當消費者在面對新產品時，除了如同一般產品讓消費者感知到的財務、功能、身體、社會、心理五種風險外，消費者還會另外感受到學習時間、遭遇困難、解決問題，這三種因新產品特性而具有的學習性風險。一般產品的風險則是與產品的有用性評估較有顯著負相關，學習性風險則與消費者對產品的易用性評估較有顯著負向關係。另外，本研究發現，避害型資訊會讓消費者知覺到的一般風險較低，而趨利型資訊則會讓消費者知覺到的學習風險較低，可見不同類型的資訊，對於消費者知覺風險是有不同影響的。最後，本研究根據分析結果，提出相關管理意涵與對未來研究之建議。

Previous researches have studied on why consumers feel negative when they face the new products. And the answer is they feel uncertain about the new products. If company can offer enough information of the new products, it may reduce such problem. However, fewer previous researches have studied on which part of the uncertainty is consumers’ most concerned, and whether the different feelings or not when company illustrates product information in different ways. This study treats uncertainty as some kinds of perceived risk. We assumed consumers’ perceived risk about new products is not only composed of the risks that previous studies generally discussed, but also composed of learning risk. In order to improve consumers’ evaluation of new products, this study attempt to analyze the components of new products’ perceived risk. In addition, this study attempt to analyze the consumer's perceived risk effect of different illustrations of information contents: one from increasing positive advantage point of view, the other from reducing negative disadvantage. This study showed that consumers will perceive not only general risks, such as financial, performance, physical, social, psychological risk, but also learning risks, when they purchase new products. And general risks are more related to perceived usefulness, while learning risks are more related to perceived ease of use. In addition, offering prevention-focused information will let consumers feel less general risks, while offering promotion-focused information will let them feel less learning risks. Therefore, it is obvious that different information contents have different influence on consumer's perceived risk. Finally, according to the results, this study discussed some relevant management implications and suggestions for future studies.