The Effect of Price Dispersion and Price Volatility in an e-Market on Consumers' Intentions to Join Group Buying

電子市集價格分布與價格波動對消費者加入集體購物意願之影響

10.6382/JIM.201201.0001

賴香菊(Hsiang-Chu Lai)；林皇吉(Huang-Chi Lin)；董和昇(Her-Sen Doong)；楊鎮遠(Chen-Yuan Yang)

價格分布 ； 價格波動 ； 線上集體購物 ； 交易效用 ； 參考價格 ； Price dispersion ； price volatility ； online group buying ； transaction utility ； reference price

資訊管理學報

19卷1期（2012 / 01 / 01）

1 - 26

英文

本研究以訊息經濟學與交易效用理論為基礎，藉由比較消費者內部參考價格與預期價格的差異，探討市場價格分布與價格波動如何影響消費者加入集體購物的意圖。實驗結果顯示市場價格波動對於消費者的行為沒有顯著影響，而在價格分布較窄的市場中，消費者感受到較高的內部參考價格以及預期最終價格。除了最佳情況價格外，消費者在價格分布較窄的市場中同時也擁有較高的交易效用。進一步來說，無論市場價格如何分布，消費者在最有可能價格的組別中擁有最高的交易效用；迴歸分析結果亦顯示消費者在最有可能價格的組別中，其加入團購的意圖最高。整體來說，消費者在價格分布較窄的市場中加入團購的意圖最高，實際加入的比例亦高於市場價格分布較寬的情況。

Based on the economics theory of information and the transaction utility theory, this paper investigates whether the market price dispersion and price volatility affect a consumer's intention to join group-buying transactions using the transaction utility, which compares the consumer's internal reference price and the predicted final price of group buying. The experimental data indicate that price volatility has no influence on consumers' behavior. However, it shows that consumers consistently perceive a higher internal reference price as well as a higher predicted final price of group buying in a market with narrow price dispersion. Consumers also perceive a higher transaction utility in a market with narrow price dispersion, except in the best case. Furthermore, the transaction utility in the most-probable case is the highest irrespective of the price dispersion. This is consistent with the transaction utility in the most probable case being most strongly correlated with the intention to join group buying. Overall, consumers exhibit a higher intention to join group buying in a market with narrow price dispersion, and our results also show that the percentage of subjects joining group buying is much higher in a market with narrow price dispersion than in one with wide price dispersion.

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