| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 商學研究所 === 88 === THESIS ABSTRACT
Graduate Institute of Business Administration
National Taiwan University
NAME: Chang, Kai-Yun MONYH/YEAR: JUNE,2000
ADVISER: Processor Chang, Chung-Chau
The Effect of Common and Unique Features in Consumer Choice.
Consumer choice often involves a comparison among the available alternatives. Recent research finds that features shared by alternatives are canceled and greater weight placed on the unique in choosing among alternatives provided (Tversky 1972). Besides, many formal analyses suggest that the evaluation of an alternative can vary depending on the valence of its unique features (Houston an d Sherman 1995). Given the importance of the unique features in comparative judgements, different choice contexts may highlight different features, and the valence of such features may influence the decision whether to choose as well as the relative preference for a specific alternative. Following the previous studies, this research is interested in proving that the attractiveness of the choice set can be enhanced or reduced by altering which features appear unique.
We examine the effect on consumer preferences of altering the features that are seen as common or unique in a choice set. Specifically, building on the notion of different focus on unique as opposed to common features, we expose the fact that the uniqueness of certain features in a given context can make the choice set appear more or less attractive depending on whether the good features are unique and the bad features are shared or the bad features are unique and the good features are shared. In order to examine all the hypotheses, the experiments divide into three parts and the purpose of each experiment are stated below. In experiment 1, we want to increase the attractiveness of the choice set as a whole and test our proposition by altering the choice set under consideration such that either the good or the bad features are unique and, thus, are seen as central and important. Further, we propose that manipulations of the uniqueness of the good or bad features can influence the willing to switch to a new alternative, and allow subjects to change their decision after an initial choice. In the experiment 2, we show that the focus on the unique features can also alter the relative preference for an alternative when a new option is added to the choice set. In the last experiment, the research wants to prove the attractiveness of a single alternative can be most enhanced by the introduction of many new options.
The findings of this research are as follows:
1.「Unique good pairs」lead to an increase and「unique bad pairs」lead a decrease in the attractiveness of the choice set as a whole.
2. The relative preference of any single alternative can be enhanced by adding a new alternative which make the single option whose good features appear unique and bad features appear common in the choice set.
3. If we add too many new options into choice set, the attractive of the specific alternative will decrease because of information overload.
To sum up, the manipulation of the unique and common features not only can affect the attractiveness of the choice set as a whole; it can also affect the attractiveness of any single alternative in that set. Our results indicate that it is not the objective values of the alternatives taken independently that contribute to the preference; rather, it is the comparison process engaged by the preference task that brings about these effects. The same item can be chosen and valued highly, chosen and valued little, rejected and valued highly, or rejected and valued very little depending on the features of the other alternatives in the choice set. Theses findings will help some companies to find out how to influence consumer''s decision by manipulating the choice set.
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