The Effects of Option Framing on Consumer Decision

• Main Authors: Tai, Yun, 戴芸
• Other Authors: 張重昭
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/07984457945020348080

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 商學研究所 === 89 === This research is directed at exploring the possible effects of initial preference point and decision-making option framings on consumers’ psychological reactions, decision processes, and final actions. Two different option framings ("Adding alternatives to a standard commodity," and "Deleting alternatives from a complete commodity") are used to analyze the effects of option framing on the alternative choice outcomes of the final consumption, the valuation of brand, the price of the final consumption, the degree of difficulty in decision-making, and consumers’ willingness of buying such a commodity. The target commodities are car and life insurance and two 2x2x2 experiments are employed in this research. In the first experiment, we consider the effect of the following three variables: option framing, the price of alternatives, and the categories of commodity. In the second experiment, we use option framing, the expectation of regret, and the description of alternatives as the three variables. The major conclusions are as follows: In the aspect of consumers' final decision：(1) Compared with the consumers engaged in the adding option framing, those who engaged in the deleting option framing chose more alternatives. (2) When alternative prices become lower, consumers chose more alternatives. However, there is no significant difference between these two option framings. (3) Option framing has weaker effects on service product due to its intangibility and uncertainty. (4) The irreversibility of alternative choices do not have significant effects on option framing. (5) Negative option description lowers the desire of consumption for both of the option framings. In the aspect of psychological reactions (1) Consumers engaged in the deleting option perceive higher evaluation for both the brand and the final commodity. (2) Consumers engaged in deleting option framing perceive greater difficulty in decision-making and have lower willingness of buying the commodity. (3) When the alternative choice is irreversible, consumers engaged in the deleting option framing have higher perceived value and satisfaction of purchasing. (4) Negative option description lowers satisfaction of purchasing. The implications from this research include: (1) Deleting option framing causes consumers to choose more alternatives, and thus increases the profit for the producer. (2) Deleting option framing could be used as an effective way to develop brand value and increase perceived value. (3) When using the deleting option framing, the product should use marketing tools such as trail or warrantee to reduce consumers’ difficulty in decision-making. (4) Deleting option framing has better effect in promotion. (5) Do not use negative description options. (6) Producers need to lower perceived risk of the service products to increase the effect of option framing.