(A) study for the effect of accessibility on behavior intention : the moderating effect of mental simulation and product type

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In these days, many brands have their own franchise stores distributed across various geographical locations. Stores located in different places also generate different amount of sales. Therefore, in order to attract more customers and increase the profits, stores need to provide customers with extra benefits.
Generally, people tend to form their attitude negatively toward the stores located in distance. If it takes long time to visit the store, customers think it is inconvenient and annoying. These tendencies also make customers to form negative attitude toward to products or services as well.
However, this study shows that positive attitude can also be formed toward the stores with low accessibility, which is represented by longer travel time. Although it takes time and efforts to visit the stores, customers still could be attracted by several other aspects of the products or. This means that in order to maximize the profits, stores should implement effective strategies such as advertisement or promotion to attract customers.
In this study, we test for the effect of accessibility on behavior intention with the moderating effect of mental simulation and product type. The results showed that outcome-focused simulation and hedonic product type could overcome the disadvantages caused by stores’ low accessibility. If customers are offered products or services with outcome-focused simulation, such as pleasurable benefits or sensory cues, they would be willing to visit the stores located in distance. Furthermore, when the customers are to purchase or use the products or services with hedonic dimension, low accessibility won’t be considered as impediments on patronage intentions.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. Introduction 1
• II. Literature Review 2
• Accessibility 2
• Mental simulation 5
• Types of mental simulation 8
• Outcome-focused simulation 9
• Process-focused simulation 10
• Product type: Hedonic and utilitarian goods 12
• III.Study 1: Moderating effect of mental simulation 14
• Hypothesis development 14
• Method 16
• Procedure 17
• Results 20
• Discussion 23
• IV.Study 2: Moderating effect of product type 23
• Hypothesis development 23
• Method 26
• Procedure 26
• Results 29
• Discussion 32
• V. Conclusion 33
• VI. Limitations and Further research 34
• References 37