服务定制情境下选项的战略呈现:呈现框架对消费者选择的影响

在服务定制情境下,企业可以采用两种不同方式让消费者定制服务包:呈现完整服务包让消费者从中删除不想要的业务(减法式);呈现基本服务包让消费者选择添加所需附加业务(加法式).本研究考察了这两种不同的选项呈现方式对消费者心理反应和选择行为的影响,分析了业务类型与呈现方式之间的交互作用,通过以移动通信服务为背景的实验发现:(1)相对于呈现基本服务包来让消费者进行"加法"定制来说,消费者在完整服务包基础上进行"减法"定制时会选择更多数量和更高总金额的附加服务;(2)选项呈现框架与业务类型之间具有显著的交互作用.相对于减法框架,在加法框架下,实用型业务会比享乐型业务更有可能被选择;而在减法框架下,享乐型业务会比实用型业务更有可能被选择;(3)在减法框架下,消费者的反应时间更长,感知到的决策乐趣更高,对决策结果更不易后悔.但是,两种框架下消费者的心理冲突和决策难度没有显著差别.基于上述研究发现,作者讨论了本研究的理论意义和应用价值,并围绕企业如何通过有效的服务业务组合和战略呈现来创造利润提出了管理建议.

The Effect of Option Framing on Consumer Choice in Service Customization Context

Service customization is becoming an increasingly popular method of catering to the heterogeneous needs of consumers. Compared to the standard offerings, customization allows consumers to specify the product or service characteristics they desire. This has the effect of increasing the perception of value and consumer satisfaction, which, in turn leads to improved consumer loyalty and higher purchase intentions. Although customization is critical for service firms, there is surprisingly little research to be found in the service marketing literature capable of providing either theoretical or practical guidance to managers. Meanwhile, previous studies focusing on the framing effects reveal that consumers tend to choose different options when they under different decision frame. However, less is known about the influence the subtractive/additive methods have on consumer choices. The major goal of this study is to examine the effect of framing approach (subtractive versus additive) on consumers' choice over multiple utilitarian/hedonic service options. An experiment in the context of mobile communication service produces the following findings: (1) consumers tend to choose more service options as well as higher total sum price when they are treated with subtractive option framing; (2) framing approach and service option type impose a significant interaction effect; consumers are increasingly likely to choose more utilitarian (hedonic) options, given the additive (subtractive) framing approach; (3) in addition, consumers spend more time on decision making, perceive more task enjoyment and less anticipated regret under subtractive framing. While in terms of perceived choice difficulty and psychological conflict, there are no significant differences between additive and subtractive framing approach. The findings from the current study have very important managerial implications for service companies. First, they confirm the attractiveness of service customization through subtractive methods to service firms. As evidenced by the above results, consumers usually end up paying a higher total price for the service package, thus increasing sales revenue. Second, in light of the finding that option framing has more effect on hedonic service customization than utilitarian services; marketers may want to emphasize these hedonic services more while promoting the whole service package. In other words, service firms may increase perceived utility loss by,highlighting the hedonic features of the optional service attributes.