探討口碑來源親近度與社會比較對於客製化商品

Abstract

大量客製化可以廣泛地定義為廠商透過消費者共同參與產品設計的過程，以達到每一位消費者的個人需求與偏好。本篇研究旨在探討消費者接收到不同親近度的口碑推薦人推薦時，並產生社會比較情形之下，對於客製化產品的購買意願高低效果，是否會受到口碑接收者本身能力不同而有所差異。因此本研究設計為2(口碑來源人親近程度)x2(社會比較)x2(本身能力)的形式。結果顯示，本身能力並不會調節口碑推薦與社會比較之間的效果。研究發現，高(低)能力消費者在向上比較比在向下比較之下的有較高(低)的購買意圖。此外，高(低)能力消費者對於陌生人(朋友)的推薦則是比朋友(陌生人)的推薦之下，有較高的購買意圖，然而平均而言，購買意願分數仍然高於低能力消費者。 對於客製化廠商而言，口碑推薦的效果可有效經由親近的高能力消費者傳遞給低能力的消費者，以達到購買意圖的提升，可視為一個極佳的商業機會，若能成功創造正面口碑，對於利潤的提升會有很好的幫助。

Mass customization is generally defined as “a customer co-design process of products and services which meet the needs of each individual customer.” This study examined the change of customer’s purchase intention when a customer received a recommendation from different close people and occurred social comparison. We want to test how the customer’s self-skill will affect the interaction. Thus a 2(source of WOM)x2(social comparison )x 2 (self-assessed skill) experimental design was employed. Results show there is no interaction between three factors. Our study results reveal that the purchase intention of high (low) skill people is higher (lower) in the upward comparison than in the downward comparison. In addition, the purchase intention of high (low) skill people is higher when the WOM information is from a stranger (friend) than from a friend (stranger). Moreover, purchase intention of high skill people is higher than low skill people in average. For firms, this is good news for knowing low skill people’s purchase intention can be increased by a high skill close friend. It is a good opportunity for gaining profit if the firms can make positive word-of-mouth information through their customers.