產品受歡迎資訊與網路購物：以消費者解讀為干擾變數

Popularity Information and Online Purchases: Consumer Interpretation as the Moderator

產品受歡迎資訊往往是網路消費者做購物決策時的重要指標。這種資訊在網路上可以即時更新，所以特別受到網路消費者的重視。這個研究主要在探討消費者如何解讀兩種產品受歡迎資訊－－產品市場（反映產品在市場上的需求量）與產品銷售量。這兩種資訊在網路上常常是共同存在的，而且通常會引發兩種不同的解讀（品質評估與社會比較），當小眾產品的銷售量與大眾產品的銷售量相同時，大多消費者會把這種訊息解讀為產品品質的指標，認為小眾產品的品質較好。然而，同樣的資訊也可以被解讀為潮流的指標，會吸引消費者去跟其他消費者做比較，而且覺得自己應該要得到那些消費者所擁有的東西。這種比較的過程，就是所謂的社會比較。這篇研究假設，當產品的市場大小與銷售量是不一致時（例如：小眾產品的銷售量大過於大眾產品時），購買小眾產品的機率會比當產品的市場大小與銷售量是一致的狀況下來得高，而其增加的量是以用產品品質為聯想的狀況高過於以社會比較為聯想的狀況。這個實驗是以實驗法，讓200位受試者在網路上進行實驗。最後的實證結果強烈支持我們的假設，並且對電子商務提供了許多實質的意涵。

Popularity information of products, frequently observed by consumers for making purchase decisions, has become an even more common point of reference in E-commerce where such information is readily updated. This study investigates how consumers interpret breadth of appeal and sales volume, which are two common kinds of popularity information that often co-exist on the Internet, with different inferences (quality evaluation or social comparison) under conditions when the two kinds of popularity information are congruent or incongruent. It is hypothesized that when a product's breadth of appeal and sales volume are incongruent, the probability of purchasing a narrow-appeal product significantly increases compared to the condition of congruence; moreover, the magnitude of increase between the two conditions of congruency is higher for consumers with the inference of quality evaluation compared to that of social comparison. The method of laboratory experiment was adopted, with 200 participants. The empirical results strongly supported the proposed hypotheses and provided practical implications for e-commerce.