The consumption of hedonic products e.g., game machines, DBM phones, and skiboards has steadily increased worldwide. Nowadays, the hedonic product consumption has not only been considered a kind of leisure activities but also led to a state of mania ...
The consumption of hedonic products e.g., game machines, DBM phones, and skiboards has steadily increased worldwide. Nowadays, the hedonic product consumption has not only been considered a kind of leisure activities but also led to a state of mania behavior. However, until recently, studies on hedonic product consumption have mainly focused on its pleasurable and entertaining aspect, and little research has been conducted on its characteristic of mania behavior. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effects of the characteristics of consumption, including the characteristics of the hedonic products and those of the individual consumers, on commitment and community activities and the resulting effects of commitment and community activities on mania behavior. The study also attempted to suggest business implications that the industry can apply to their mania consumers.
A survey was conducted using questionnaires both on-line and off-line for three weeks. A total of 120 questionnaires were distributed and 96 questionnaires were returned, of which 74 were used in the final analysis. Of the 74 questionnaires, 56 were conducted on-line, and 18 off-line. Data analysis was conducted with the SPSS 11.1 program. In order to test the validity and reliability a (confirmatory) regression analysis was performed. The findings of the study are as follows.
First, of the two individual characteristics, challenge and self-efficacy, only challenge showed a statistically significant effect on commitment, while of the two hedonic product characteristics, entertainment and interactivity, only interactivity significantly affected commitment. These results indicate that in playing a game challenge leads to greater commitment through the feeling of step-by-step accomplishment with the game, while more interaction, rather than pleasurable or entertaining aspect of the game, leads to greater commitment.
Second, in hedonic product consumption, the individual characteristics of challenge and self-efficacy and the hedonic product characteristic of interactivity showed a significant effect on community activities, but not the hedonic product characteristic of entertainment. The results imply that in using a game machine, stronger challenges and confidence in the use can lead to more active community activities through information exchanges and communication with other members. The results also suggest to the game machine industry that they should develop programs that are geared not only to the simple entertaining aspect but also to the consumer's perception of challenges, confidence in using the machine, and feeling of accomplishment and interaction, which will help increase the mania consumer population by encouraging activities in the brand community.
Third, commitment did not have a significant effect on community activities in using a game machine. It seems that the committed consumers who have already acquired expertise about the game are reluctant to join the community, which requires complex procedures to get access to the information available only to a certain classified members.
Fourth, both commitment and community activities affected mania behavior in using a game machine. The results show that the mania behavior of a consumer in using a hedonic product can be elicited by strong commitment without community activities such as joining a particular brand community. As for the industry, the results imply the importance of not only operating the brand community but also introducing and utilizing a consumer service system for their consumers with strong commitment.
The findings of the present study show that consumer's commitment to hedonic products takes both consumer's perception of challenge and interaction with others while playing the game, whereas challenge, self-efficacy, and interactivity lead to community activities. These findings imply that in hedonic product consumption, the consumers perceive its entertainment aspect as a basic, not a differential, attribute. Therefore, in order to elicit consumer's mania behavior in hedonic product use, it is the first and most important step for the industry to develop game programs which encourage feeling of accomplishment, self-confidence and interaction rather than merely emphasizing the entertainment aspect of their product, which will lead to stronger commitment or community activities, which in turn, will elicit mania behavior.