本研究基於對實務現象之觀察,發現身處在競爭激烈與科技日新月異的資訊科技廠商,常常將競爭重點放在縮短其產品上市期間的同時,卻忽略了其所引發的產品價格跌價迅速,而使得一般消費大眾發生策略性的延遲購買行為。而從一般在談論到消費者之延遲購買行為,多認為其原因來自於例如美伊戰爭、SARS與通貨緊縮等非常態性的總體經濟現象,使得消費者的消費信心不足而產生。因此本研究首先欲證明延遲購買現象將常態性的因為產品生命週期縮短而存在,而不再只是非常態性的總體經濟現象所引起。而一旦本推論經證實,其結果將可能使得廠商的預期利潤無法在預期的時點產生,進而影響其未來的產品開發能力與競爭利基等。因此,本研究以消費者的延遲購買行為為本研究主題,另外從網路外部性觀點:關鍵存續量意義,其內涵:消費者在購買具有網路外部性產品時,則該產品的銷售量或市場佔有率,至少需達到某一定規模,消費者才會購買該產品,而所謂的一定規模被稱為關鍵存續量(Rohlfs,1974;Etziony & Weiss,2001),延伸出另外一個可能導致消費者產生延遲購買行為的重要因素,即當一個市場中具有規格戰爭,使得消費者對於產業中的規格產生不確定性風險,而會產生延遲購買行為。 為了證實以上兩個客觀的產業特性將會使得消費者產生延遲購買行為,又受限於產品類別(必需品或奢侈品)所可能造成實驗上的影響,以及動態的價格關注行為難以被衡量等因素,本研究最後使用消費者主觀層面的價格敏感度與知覺主流設計做為本研究的自變數。另外,亦根據Lefkoff-hagius & Mason(1993)和Guiltinan(1999)等學者的研究,引入產品形象與產品相對優勢等干擾變數,來試圖探討其對延遲購買行為是否能產生干擾效果,進一步來幫助廠商在實務上之應用。 本研究方法採實驗設計,形成2×2×2×2=16組的實驗設計,並選定實驗產品為亞太地區的消費者發生延遲購買行為的前四大商品之一,且其產品生命週期在近期明顯縮短,再者,其記憶卡並未形成主流規格,因此某種程度的包含主流設計的構面。而由於選擇之實驗產品為數位相機,因此選擇實驗對象為數位相機的最大消費族群:大學生,同時數位相機也是其未來最想購買的數位產品,符合本研究定義之延遲購買行為。 由於本研究之依變數(延遲程度與等待時間)間具有高度相關性,因此本研究的分析方法採多變量變異數分析(MANOVA),最後結果顯示,高價格敏感度或已知覺到主流設計的消費者,其表現出的延遲購買行為程度會顯著的大於那些價格敏感度低或未知覺到主流設計的消費者。因此可以進一步推論當產業具有產品生命週期縮短或網路外部性的特性時,將使得消費者產生延遲購買行為。 而當產品形象對於消費者具有獨特價值,而能夠賦予消費者想要給人的形象或歸屬感或當產品相較於市場中的其他商品,具有相對優勢時,消費者的延遲購買行為會受到干擾並修正。而兩者干擾能力的比較,雖無法經由統計上的檢定予以驗證,但基本上可以看到產品形象變數,對於延遲購買行為具有較強的干擾能力。 因此,藉由以上驗證,本研究之貢獻乃在於提醒企業一個值得企業注意的實務現象:延遲購買以及其所可能帶來的影響,並藉由整個架構的建立,提供企業對延遲購買行為的因應例如:產品要賦予消費者獨特價值、在市場上具有相對優勢並且釋放「不會跌價」訊息。並在實驗過程中,發現以下值得後續研究者研究的方向:將研究樣本擴大至非大學生、問卷設計尺度上提高成為連續尺度、利用產品價格來進一步操弄「產品相對優勢」變數、引入「產品本身價格高低」的變數來進一步探討延遲購買行為、將產品層次的產品形象干擾變數拉大到企業層次的「品牌權益」等。
In the information technology industry with keen competition, the firms often focus on cutting down their time to market. However, they seemed to ignore that it will bring the price of the product to fall and then consumers will delay their buying behavior, which calls Purchase-postponement. And relevant news reports often says that it is because some kind of aggregate economics phenomenon, such as SARS, deflation or war between the America and Iraq, make people lack confidence of consumption. Therefore, this study hopes to verify that the cutting down of product life cycle, which has become normal, will make purchase-postponement happen constantly. And this will probably make the firms in this kind of industry be unable to make anticipated profit at the anticipated timing, and then will influence their ability of product development and competing niche. In addition, this study takes purchase-postponement as the key subject, from the network externality view, to enrich the intension of purchase-postponement. In order to test the industry with these two characteristics will bring purchase-postponement, and limited to the influence of product category and hard to measure the dynamic price caring behavior, this study uses price sensitivity and perceived dominant design as the independent variables. Then, in order to provide the firms some measures to purchase-postponement, this study uses the product image and product relative superiority as the moderating variables by the researches of Lefkoff & Mason(1993) and Guiltinan(1999). This study uses experimental design with 2×2×2×2=16 treatments and chooses digital camera as the experimental product just because it is one of the products with purchase-postponement and it has both the cutting down of product life cycle and network externality at the same time. Then this study chooses the college students as the experimental objects because they are the biggest part of the users on digital camera and they indeed want to buy digital camera in the future. Because the high correlation between the dependent variables, the study uses MANOVA as the analyzing tool. The result is the consumers with high price sensitivity or having perceived dominant design will significantly have stronger purchase-postponement than those with low price sensitivity or having not perceived dominant design. Therefore, this study can inference that an industry with cutting down of product life cycle or network externality will make consumers to delay their buying behaviors. And when the product image can give consumers some kind of uniqueness or when the product is with relative superiority, consumers’ purchase-postponement will be interfered and modified. Although it is unable to be tested, this study finds that the interference from product image is bigger than the interference from product relative superiority. Through verifications above, the contribution of the study is to remind the firms of the purchase-postponement and the influence which it may cause. And by establishing the framework of this study, this study provides some measures as giving consumers uniqueness, with relative superiority and price-holding signal. And this study advises the follow-up researchers some deserving views. For example, expand the samples to not only college students, increase the scale to interval scale, use product price to experiment the product relative superiority variable with taking account of the influence of product price itself at the same time, and enlarge the product image at product level to brand equity at enterprise level.