會計師網站認證標章對網路消費者產品評價之影響

The Impact of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Web Assurance Seal on Online Consumers' Product Evaluations

許多實證研究發現，消費者對網路購物的首重因素是交易安全機制的允當性。因此透過外界第三者對電子商務網站從事獨立性的認證評估程序，已成為一重要管理議題。而會計師對電子商務網站之認證服務不僅擴大其業務範疇，更符合利害關係人對非財務資訊品質之專業評估需求。本研究目的在於探討會計師網站認證標章WebTrustSM對不同網路消費者產品評價之影響。透過實驗設計方式來驗證「網站資訊品質認證程度」與「消費者資訊搜尋行為」對產品「價格溢酬」與「知覺品質期望失驗」之評價。實証結果發現：（1）依據網路消費者內部與外部資訊搜尋程度上的差異，可將消費群分為內部導向群、外部導向群、資訊整合群、非理性決策群四類型。此分類彌補以往研究將不同資訊搜尋屬性的消費者聚合成同一群施測，可能會對實証結果產生某種程度之偏誤；（2）不同資訊搜尋群的消費者對於網站產品的「知覺品質期望失驗評價」與「價格溢酬」具有顯著之差異性（主效果顯著）。其中「資訊整合群」對於受測產品有最低的負向失驗程度，其次是「外部導向群」；而「內部導向群」的負向失驗程度高於「外部導向群」；「非理性決策群」則有最高的負向失驗程度；（3）高資訊品質認證下的網站（WebTrustSM認證），則高度資訊搜尋的消費者，會有較低的產品「知覺品質期望失驗評價」；（4）然而，「網站資訊品質認證程度」與「資訊搜尋程度」之交互作用效果對產品「價格溢酬」的評價並未呈現顯著性。代表消費者對產品價格的購前、購後評價主要係受到個人資訊搜尋程度之主因影響。此發現證實消費者對於產品價格的公平性認知，通常直接以產品「成本面」來斷定其應有的價格，也因此無論是否有網站認證標章，並非消費者評價產品價格是否合理的主要原因。

According to the findings of empirical researches, the most important determinant of shopping online is the fitness of the security mechanisms. In other words, it is an important management issue to explore the web assurance of independent third-party. Hence, the CPA web assurance service not only increases CPA's business coverage but also satisfies the stakeholders' need of professional evaluation in non-financial information. The object of this study is to explore the impact of CPA web assurance seal on online consumers' product evaluations. The research applies experiments to verify the impact of "level of information quality assurance" and "types of information searching" on the product evaluations of price premium and perceived quality. The empirical results show that: (1) According to the application degree of internal and external information, this study categorizes online customers into four types: internal-oriented cluster, external-oriented cluster, information integrator, and non-rational decision cluster. It is also one of the main innovative contributions in this study. This category compensate the previous researches only see all customers as the same group, and the empirical results of these literatures may exist some biases. (2) There are significant differences among the effect of different types of information searching customers on the web product evaluations of price premium and perceived quality (the main effect is significant). Hence, the "information integrator" has the lowest negative expectancy-disconfirmation; the "external-oriented cluster" ranks the second; the "internal-oriented cluster's" negative expectancy-disconfirmation is higher than the "external-oriented cluster"; the non-rational decision cluster" has the highest negative expectancy-disconfirmation. (3) When in the website of high level of information quality assurance (WebTrustSM assurance), the more information searching behaviors customers have, the less the perceived quality expectancy-disconfirmation of product will happen. (4) However, the interaction effect of "level of information quality assurance" and "types of information searching" on the product evaluations of price premium is not significant. It means that the determinant of the product evaluations between the "pre-purchase" and "after-purchase" is "information searching". This finding confirms that customers' price fairness perception is from the cost perceptive to determine product price. No matter what types of assurance seals, those are not the determinant for customers to evaluate the rationality of product price.