What Factors Affect Distance Perception?

The original concept of Perceived Risk was a psychological extension of Harvard's Bauer (1960). He believes that any purchase by consumers may not be sure whether their expected results are correct, and some results may be unpleasant to consumers. Therefore, the uncertainty of the results is implicit in consumer purchase decisions, and this uncertainty is the original concept of risk.

Perceived risk

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The original concept of PerceivedRisk was

Ball thinks "perceived risk" includes two factors

1 Uncertainty of decision results

For example: I bought a laptop computer, its performance may be very good, or there may be some problems, such as often inexplicable crashes, slow running speed and so on.

2 Severity of consequences of wrong decisions

That is, the importance of possible loss, for example: If the laptop you buy always has problems, will it affect work efficiency? Will it cause work errors? Will you suffer from buying this bad computer? Laughing from family, friends, and colleagues?

Customers are worried about what risks new products will bring to themselves. Some foreign scholars have done in-depth research on this. In 1972, Jacoby and Kaplan divided customer perceived risk into

Customers' buying process can generally be divided into five stages: confirming needs, collecting information, evaluating plans, buying decisions and

General approaches to reduce customer perceived risk

Research on customers' perceived risk

Dimensions of perceived risk

The dimensions of perceived risk refer to the specific content or types of perceived risk. In a 1972 study by Jacoby and Kaplan, 148 students measured the perceived risks of 12 different consumer products. As a result, they found that the five dimensions of financial risk, performance risk, physical risk, psychological risk and social risk explained the overall Risk of 61.5% variation.

Bettman (1973) divides perceived risk into inherent risk and handled risk. Inherent risk is the potential risk that a product category perceives as a consumer. Processed risk is the risk perceived by consumers when they choose a brand in a product category, and it contains information about a specific brand. For example, the consumer feels risky when buying aspirin, but he feels relieved when he buys his favorite brand. The inherent risk is high here, and the risk that is processed may be low. When consumers do not have any product information, the inherent risk is the same as the processed risk.

In 1993, Stone and Gronhaug verified the existence of the six risk dimensions of financial risk, performance risk, physical risk, psychological risk, social risk, and time risk, but at the same time put forward the opposite view of Jacoby and Kaplan (1972). . They believe that the latitudes are not necessarily independent of each other. Since all risks are perceived by individuals, and perception is related to psychology, the psychological dimension of risk should be highly related to other latitudes of risk. Therefore, Stone and Gronhaug first put forward in the study the hypothesis that each risk dimension plays a role in the overall risk through the adjustment of psychological risk, and confirmed this hypothesis through empirical research on consumers purchasing personal computers. The research by Stone and Gronhaug (1993) also showed that the above six dimensions of risk explained 88.8% of the overall perceived risk, but they also pointed out that if the unexplained part is not caused by measurement errors, then the total The understanding of risk is still incomplete. "There is no doubt that we need to further explore the truth of the risk structure."

The multi-dimensional theory of risk believes that the latitude composition of perceived risk will change with changes in the product and the purchasing situation. The ability to explain the overall risk of each dimension is also different in different purchasing situations. In some purchasing situations, some risks may Risk is more important or prominent than the other part. For example, in Stone and Gronhaug (1993) 's empirical research on purchasing personal computers, financial risk is the most significant, followed by psychological risk, and the least significant is physical risk.

Measurement model of perceived risk

Cunningham (1967) first proposed a two-factor model, that is, the uncertainty of the risk = the harm of the result. The two-factor model has become the mainstream model for research on perceived risk for more than 30 years. However, whether the uncertainty of the loss and the harmfulness of the result are multiplied or added is still controversial among researchers.

Greatorex and Mitchell (1993) synthesize a new conceptual model based on previous research. They believe that there is a certain mismatch between the level of consumer demand for a particular attribute and the level it actually achieves, and the amount of loss that consumers experience during shopping is directly proportional to the degree of this mismatch. When considering the possibility that the attribute cannot reach the required level, this loss will be converted into risk. At the same time, the loss is also affected by the importance of attributes, the importance of the product, and the individual's ability to tolerate the loss. This model also includes the uncertainty perceived by consumers when evaluating the level of requirements, the importance of attributes, etc., and characterizing these uncertainties as a probability distribution rather than a point estimate. But this model needs to be tested by empirical research.

Dynamic process of perceived risk

A large number of related studies have measured the perceived risk in different situations, but these studies rarely deal with how the perceived risk changes at different stages of the purchase decision process. Many studies implicitly assume that consumers' perceived risk remains constant at different stages of the purchasing decision process. The validity of such a hypothesis deserves further consideration. We need to explore the dynamic process of perceived risk.

Mitcell and Boustani first discussed this issue in 1994. They believe that the perceived risk level is constantly changing at different stages of the purchasing decision process. At the problem recognition stage, because there is no direct solution to the problem or available products, the perceived risk level continues to rise; after starting to search for information, as the possession of information increases, the risk level begins to decrease; at the evaluation plan stage, perceived risk The level continues to decline; before making a purchase decision, due to the uncertainty of the decision, the risk level rises slightly; if the purchase result is satisfactory, the perceived risk level drops rapidly. (As shown in Figure 3). However, Mitchell and Boustani (1994) emphasized that this is only a "hypothetical change" and needs empirical research to test it.

Existing problems and future research directions

Mitchell (1999) believes that consumers tend to reduce their perceived risk instead of maximizing their perceived benefits when purchasing. Perceived risk is stronger and more powerful in explaining consumer purchasing behavior. Explaining consumer purchasing behavior with the theory of perceived risk is a focus of foreign consumer behavior research. Western research on perceived risk has a history of more than 40 years, but due to the complexity of the concept of perceived risk, many issues in this field are still controversial. First of all, the connotation of perceived risk needs to be further clarified. The measurement model of perceived risk still needs further development, and it needs the test and support of empirical research. Secondly, it is necessary to integrate the dimensions of perceived risk, the influencing factors of perceived risk, and the dynamic process of perceived risk into a model to systematically and comprehensively examine the issue of perceived risk. In addition, perceived risks are specific to a product or service, and the risks perceived by consumers of different products or services are also different. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a systematic risk measurement model for a variety of different types of products or services. In addition, in the context of new Internet marketing, do consumers' perceived risks when shopping online have the same dimensions and structure as those in traditional shopping environments? Compared to online viewers, do online shoppers perceive different types of risks? What risks have become potential obstacles to online shopping? How will the type of risk perceived by online shoppers affect their online shopping behavior? How to reduce consumers' perceived risk when shopping online? These are the directions for future research.