本研究旨在探討目標導向焦點、時間距離與產品屬性對消費者產品升級偏好與選擇之影響。由於「產品升級」對廠商與產業的重要性日益提升,而「目標導向焦點」、「時間距離」等概念在近年來常被用來解釋消費者行為,不同的「產品屬性」也往往激發人們不同的需求與偏好行為。本研究將結合上述之主題,主要討論三項議題:(1)不同目標導向焦點下消費者對不同產品升級之偏好與選擇。(2)不同時間距離下消費者對不同產品升級之偏好與選擇。(3)不同產品屬性是否影響消費者對不同產品升級之偏好與選擇。本研究採2(目標導向焦點:促進焦點與預防焦點)×2(時間距離:遠與近)×2(產品屬性:歡樂性與功能性)的組間實驗設計。 而研究最後結果大致符合預期,獲得以下結論: 一、促進焦點的消費者較偏好非線性升級,預防焦點的消費者較偏好線性升級。 二、時間愈長,消費者愈傾向選擇非線性升級。 三、產品屬性為歡樂性時,消費者對於集中性升級、非線性升級都有較高的偏好;產品屬性為功能性時,消費者則較偏好一般性升級、線性升級。 總結以上,本研究結論可應用於實務之新產品升級如下:廠商在選擇採取何種類型之產品升級時,可依消費者之目標導向焦點、面對之時間距離與產品屬性之性質,以找出不同情形下消費者較易接受之產品升級方式。
The main goal of this study was to find out the effect of self-regulatory focus, temporal distance and product attributes on preference and choice of product upgrades. On the one hand, the importance of “product upgrades” is increasing to the firms recently. On the other hand, the concepts of “self-regulatory focus” and “temporal distance” are often quoted to explain consumer behaviors nowadays. Also, different “product attributes” usually provoke different needs and preference. Based on above points, this study examined three main topics: (a) Discuss how “regulatory focus” affects consumers’ preference and choice on different ways of “product upgrades”. (b) Discuss how “temporal distance” affects consumers’ preference and choice on different ways of “product upgrades”. (c) Discuss how “product attributes” affects consumers’ preference and choice on different ways of “product upgrades”. This research took experiments with 2 (regulatory focus: promotion focus versus prevention focus) x 2 (temporal distance: distant future versus near future) x 2 (product attributes: hedonic attributes versus utilitarian attributes) between-subjects design. The conclusions of this study are as follows: 1. Consumers with promotion focus prefer nonalignable enhancement while consumers with prevention focus prefer alignable enhancement. 2. With longer temporal distance, consumers prefer nonalignable enhancement. 3. Consumers facing hedonic attributes prefer nonalignable enhancement and focus enhancement while consumers facing utilitarian attributes prefer alignable enhancement and general enhancement. Above all, this study found that firms can take self-regulatory focus, temporal distance and product attributes into account when choosing the most appropriate type of product upgrades.