“Time” is Different! Effects of Mental Simulation and Product Type in Different Time Perspectives

• Main Authors: Hao-Wei Hsu, 許皓崴
• Other Authors: Chun-Tuan Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/17089132091646606573

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 企業管理學系研究所 === 100 === “Time” is fleeting. People tend to ponder the needs in the present and develop procrastination for the future. Because of these tendencies, researchers in marketing examine topics such as impulsive buying and purchase in advance. For companies, understanding how consumers perceive time differently is beneficial to their promotion strategy development. Previous research has investigated the impacts of temporal distance and time window. Based on these time perspectives, this research incorporates two moderators in influencing consumer behavior: mental simulation and product type. The study uses experimental design to explore the advertising effects and gift coupon redemption. With the manipulation of different time perspectives, two experiments are conducted. Experiment 1 is a 2 (temporal distance: near future vs. distant future) × 2 (mental simulation: process simulation vs. outcome simulation) × 2 (product type: search goods vs. experience goods) factorial design. Experiment 2 is a 2 (time window: short vs. long) × 2 (mental simulation: process simulation vs. outcome simulation) × 2 (product type: search goods vs. experience goods) factorial design. With the eight conditions, the participants’ intention and behavior are assessed. Results indicate that when promoting a search good, outcome simulation presented in the ad is more effective to participants who see the near future than those who see the distant future. However, in the coupon redemption behavior, when redeeming an experience good, there will be interaction effect between time window and mental simulation. When redeeming an experience good under the long time window condition, outcome simulation gets higher redemption rate than process simulation. While under the short time window condition, process simulation enhances higher redemption rate than outcome simulation. The findings provide marketing insights regarding how to frame time and mental simulation differently in the promotions while product type is considered.