The Impacts of Consumer Knowledge and Attribute Balance on Consumer Choice under Incomplete Information

• Main Authors: Pei-Hsun Wu, 吳佩勳
• Other Authors: Chien-Huang Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/93317305644253335522

博士 === 國立中央大學 === 企業管理研究所 === 94 === Consumers often need to make choices based on incomplete information. Previous research has argued that consumers will place more weights on the common attribute (defined as the specific attribute values of all options are known) between options in the case of incomplete information. Kivetz and Simonson (2000) demonstrated that a common dimension may lead to intransitive preference (A>B, B>C, but A<C). Contrary to previous research, the present research employed five studies to explore the influence of the levels of consumer knowledge and attribute balance option (when known attribute values of specific option are equal) presented in the choice set on consumer preference when information is incomplete. Study 1 demonstrated that consumer preference toward the options in a choice set is a function of consumer knowledge. Base on the inferences to a high-knowledge consumer will more possibly to adopt brand-based processing, whereas a low-knowledge consumer will more possibly to adopt attribute-based processing. A high-knowledge consumer would choose an option whose known attribute performance is fairly average in the attribute range in the marketplace (when compared to an option with mixed known attribute values), even when that the option performance in common attribute is relatively poor. A low-knowledge consumer, on the other hand, would tend to choose an option that has better performance in the common attribute. Study 2 introduced two different evaluation modes of joint evaluation and separate evaluation, demonstrated that the preference differences in high-knowledge consumers’ application of both joint (choose from two simultaneously presented options) and separate (present and evaluate one option one by one) evaluation modes are smaller than those in low-knowledge consumers. Study 3 explored the interaction effect of consumer knowledge and category reference with common attribute value on choice deferral under incomplete information, demonstrated that the proportional differences among low-knowledge consumers in choosing no-choice option when facing with two conditions of either common attribute of the category reference being better or worse than the common attribute of the options in a choice set will be greater than those in high-knowledge consumers. Furthermore, we introduced the concept of scale equivalence in Study 4 and 5. Study 4 demonstrated that when attribute balance is unavailable in both options, consumers will prefer the option whose common attribute performs better; in contrast, when attribute-balance is available in one option, consumers will prefer the option with attribute-balance even the common attribute performs worse. Study 5 explored the presence of attribute balance would prevent consumers from exhibiting preference intransitivity. We demonstrated that when attribute balance is unavailable in the three options, intransitivity will be observed. In contrast, when any one of the three options includes an attribute balance, intransitivity will not be observed and the attribute balance option will dominate the other options in the choice set. The present research also conducted discussions regarding theoretical and practical implications based on the research results.