脱销情境下消费者会购买相似品吗——自我建构视角的分析

Will Similar Products Be Chosen under the Out-of-stock Situation? Analysis on the Perspective of Self-construal

现有文献片面地聚焦偏好产品脱销带来的负面效应,且对于脱销如何影响可得产品的选择缺乏一致结论。本研究根据与脱销产品在主观感知的差异程度,将可得产品划分为相似品和非相似品,并结合情境效应的相关研究,提出在呈现产品脱销信息情境下,自我建构对相似产品选择存在差异影响;同时不同脱销诱因会传递差异化的情境线索,并对自我建构的上述效应起到强化或抑制作用;而这种强化或抑制作用则是通过信息处理流畅性对购买意愿产生影响,且处理流畅性的中介效应受到自我建构的调节。

There exist some articles partially focusing on the negative effects of preferred alternative out-of-stock. And a consistent conclusion has not yet been formed about how out- of-stock affecting the choice of available products. According to the differentiation level of human＇s subjective perception toward the available products and out-of-stock products, the study sorts the available products into similar alternatives and non-similar alternatives. Some scholars think that out-of-stock passes on perceived scarcity and increases the purchase urgency of consumers. In order to avoid inaction regret, consumers would increase purchases of similar alternatives. Some other researchers point out that out-of-stock would provoke negative emotions and cause psychological reactance. Under ＂boomerang effect＂, consumers probably will choose non-similar alternatives or make choice deferral out of reasserting freedom in their purchase decisions. This study, combiried with the related researches on context effect, draws to the following conclusions. Firstly, different kinds of self- construal can function deferentially on the choice of available products under the context of out-of-stock information presented. Consumers of interdependent （vs. independent） self-construal prefer to choose similar alternatives, whereas consumers of independent （vs. interdependent） self-construal would rather to choose non- similar alternatives. Secondly, various out-of-stock inducements can deliver different context cues （out-of-stock resulting from high demand delivers ＂popularity cues＂, while out-of-stock induced by limited supply transmits ＂scarcity cues＂）, which may strengthen or weaken the impacts of self-construal. Specifically, compared with context with no out-of-stock inducement, out-of-stock induced by limited supply will promote （reduce） their purchase will for consumers who are mainly independent （interdependent） self- construal, while out-of-stock resulting from high demand will further reduce （promote） their purchase will. Finally, this research also finds that the strengthening or weakening effect influences purchase will through the processing fluency of the information, and the mediating effect of this kind of fluency is moderated by self-construal. Findings in this paper make proper supplements for research in context effect, phantom decoy effect and out-of-stock.