消費者對罰款的反應: 跨文化的比較

Abstract

在現代經濟社會中，賣方對消費者罰款，是常會看到的現象。然而，學術文 獻對罰款的探討相當有限，而且這些研究都以美國消費者為研究對象。目前並沒 有文獻探討不同文化中的消費者，對罰款的反應如何?彼此是否有所不同?本研究 以社會心理學裏個人主義/集體主義和regulatory focus 的論點，將以四個實驗 來探討跨文化消費者對罰款反應的異同。 此研究主要的貢獻，將有下列幾點：一、此研究的結果，將對跨文化心理學 和跨文化消費者行為領域有所貢獻，支持或不支持文化是動態的觀點，此觀點認 為文化的某些面向是可以依情境而改變。二、此研究將對顯示消費者對罰款的公 平認知和付款意願，將因文化而有所不同，三、此研究將顯示，對消費者解釋因 而改善的公平認知和忠誠度，對東方的消費者較有效，四、此研究將顯示消費者 對罰款的反應，在情感方面，將因文化而有所差異。

Penalty fees imposed on consumers by sellers are widespread in modern economies. Yet, there are only a limited number of studies concerning penalty fees in the literature. All of these studies were conducted with Americans as the subjects of the studies. Consumer responses to penalty in other cultures are currently not explored and are likely to be different from those in the U.S. Relying on research in social psychology explaining cultural differences in terms of individualism/collectivism distinction and regulatory focus, this study will employ four experiments to examine consumers’response to penalty fees across cultures. This research aims to contribute to the literature in several ways. First, the results will contribute to our knowledge in cross-cultural psychology and cross-cultural consumer behavior, supporting or rejecting the thesis that culture is dynamic and that aspects of culture can be situationally primed. Second, this work adds to the consumer behavior literature by showing cultural differences in the context of penalty fees. Third, this study will show that to improve customer fairness perception and loyalty, explanation would be more effective for Easterners than for Westerners. Fourth, this research would show that emotional responses are different across cultures and these differences will contribute to differences in their repurchase behaviors.