Investigating the Moderating Impact of Hedonism on Online Consumer Behavior

탐색쾌악주의대망상소비자행위적조절작용(探索快乐主义对网上消费者行为的调节作用)

Considering the benefits for both consumers and suppliers, firms are taking advantage of the Internet as a medium to communicate with and sell products to their consumers. This trend makes the online shopping environment a growing field for both researchers and practitioners. This paper contributes by testing a model of online consumer behavior with websites varying in levels of hedonism. Unlike past studies, we included all three types of emotions (arousal, pleasure, and dominance) and flow into the model. In this study, we assumed that website interfaces, such as background colors, music, and fonts impact the three types of emotions at the initial exposure to the site (Mazaheri, Richard, and Laroche, 2011). In turn, these emotions influence flow and consumers' perceptions of the site atmospherics-perception of site informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment. This assumption is consistent with Zajonc (1980) who argued that affective reactions are independent of perceptual and cognitive operations and can influence responses. We, then, propose that the perceptions of site atmospherics along with flow, influence customers' attitudes toward the website and toward the product, site involvement, and purchase intentions. In addition, we studied the moderating impact of the level of hedonism of websites on all the relationship in the model. Thus, the path coefficients were compared between "high" and "low" hedonic websites. We used 39 real websites from 12 product categories (8 services and 4 physical goods) to test the model. Among them, 20 were perceived as high hedonic and 19 as low hedonic by the respondents. The result of EQS 6.1 support the overall model: $\chi^2$=1787 (df=504), CFI=.994; RMSEA=.031. All the hypotheses were significant. In addition, the results of multi-groups analyses reveal several non-invariant structural paths between high and low hedonic website groups. The findings supported the model regarding the influence of the three types of emotions on customers' perceptions of site atmospherics, flow, and other customer behavior variables. It was found that pleasure strongly influenced site attitudes and perceptions of site entertainment. Arousal positively impacted the other two types of emotions, perceptions of site informativeness, and site involvement. Additionally, the influence of arousal on flow was found to be highly significant. The results suggested a strong association between dominance and customers' perceptions of site effectiveness. Dominance was also found to be associated with site attitudes and flow. Moreover, the findings suggested that site involvement and attitudes toward the product are the most important antecedents of purchase intentions. Site informativeness and flow also significantly influenced purchase intentions. The results of multi-group analysis supported the moderating impacts of hedonism of the websites. Compared to low (high) hedonic sites, the impacts of utilitarian (hedonic) attributes on other variables were stronger in high (low) hedonic websites. Among the three types of emotions, dominance (controlling feelings) effects were stronger in high hedonic sites and pleasure effects were stronger in low hedonic sites. Moreover, the impact of site informativeness was stronger for high hedonic websites compared to their low-hedonic counterparts. On the other hand, the influence of effectiveness of information on perceptions of site informativeness and the impact of site involvement on product attitudes were stronger for low hedonic websites than for high hedonic ones.

考虑到消费者和供应商的利益, 公司利用网络为媒介来沟通并向消费者销售产品. 这一趋势使得很多研究者和实践者都关注网上购物环境这一领域. 本文测试了网上消费者行为和具有不同快乐主义水平的网址的模型. 与以往的研究不同, 我们包括了所有三种情绪(激励, 快乐和支配)并将此运用到模型中. 本研究中, 我们假设网址的外观, 例如背景颜色, 音乐和字体在消费者最初接触到网址时均影响三种情绪(Mazaheri, Richard, and Laroche, 2011). 反之, 这些情绪会影响消费者对网址氛围的感知–网址信息量, 效率和娱乐性的感知. 这些假设与Zajonc (1980)的研究一致. 他认为情感的作用是独立于感性的和认知操作并且可以影响回应. 我们因此提出网址氛围和流量的感知影响消费者对网址和产品的态度, 网址卷入和购买意图. 另外, 我们研究网址的快乐主义水平对模型中所有关系的调节作用. 因此, 我们比较享乐网址路径系数 "高" 和 "低". 我们用39个真实的网站涵盖了12种产品类别(8种服务和4种实物产品)来测试模型. 这其中, 回复者认为20个是高享乐, 19个为低享乐. EQS6.1的结果支持整体模型: x2=1787 (df=504), CFI=.994; RMSEA=.031. 所有假设都是显著的. 另外, 多群组分析表明在高享乐和低享乐网址群组之间的几个非不变量结构路径. 这些结果支持三种情绪影响消费者对网址氛围, 流量和其他消费者行为变量的认知. 我们发现快乐极大的影响这网址态度和网址娱乐性的认知. 激励积极的影响其他两种情绪, 网址信息量的认知和网址卷入. 而且, 激励对流量的影响非常显著. 这些结果说明在支配和消费者对网址效率的认知之间有很强的相关. 支配同时和网址态度和流量相关. 另外, 结果还表明网址卷入和对产品的态度是购买意图最重要的两个因素. 网址信息量和流量也积极的影响购买意图. 多群组分析的结果支持网址快乐主义的调节作用. 与低(高)享乐网址相比, 实用(享乐)属性对其他变量的影响比高(低)享乐网址更强. 在这三种情绪中, 支配(控制感)影响在高享乐网址中更强. 快乐影响在低享乐网址中更强. 而且, 网址信息量的影响对高享乐网址更强. 另一方面, 信息效率对网址信息量认知的影响和网址卷入对产品态度的影响在低享乐网址中更强.