دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تاثیر میزان شناخت بر ترجیحات مصرف کننده برای محصولات پیشرفته - الزویر 2016

Abstract

Prior research documents that individuals may categorize themselves along a hierarchy of social identities and that their subsequent behavior is guided by whichever identity is salient at the moment. The current research investigates how activating one's social identity at different breadth levels influences consumers' subjective knowledge and the consequences for product choice. We propose and document that consumers will perceive that they have greater knowledge and thus prefer more advanced product options when their broad identity rather than narrow identity is salient (experiment 1). We also rule out simple categorization mindset and construal level as the alternative explanations of the identity breadth effect (experiments 2A and 2B). Moreover, our findings suggest that the effect of identity breadth on subjective knowledge will lessen for consumers with high self-esteem (experiment 3) and will reverse when the product domain is highly relevant to the narrow identity (experiment 4). Both theoretical contributions and marketing implications are discussed.

Conclusions

The current research identifies identity breadth (broad vs. narrow identity) as one important antecedent of consumers' subjective knowledge level and investigates its consequences on their decision-making. Findings from four experiments using both student and non-student samples provide consistent evidence for the proposed hypotheses. Results of experiment 1 established the basic link between identity breadth and consumer preference for advanced products. Experiment 1 also documented that the proposed effect was mediated by subjective knowledge rather than objective knowledge. Results of experiment 2A and 2B suggested that the effect of identity breadth on consumer choice of advanced products could not be explained by simple categorization mindset nor by construal level, empirically ruling out these alternative explanations.

Experiment 3 validated individual differences in self-esteem as a boundary condition for the identity breadth effect in consumer choice of more advanced products and further tested its underlying process. In particular, we found that compared with individuals whose narrow identity was made salient, those whose broad identity was made salient preferred more advanced cameras when they were primed with low self-esteem. In contrast, when they were primed with high self-esteem, the influence of identity breadth on consumer choice was alleviated. The interaction effect was mediated by consumers' subjective knowledge.