The Effect of Corporate Association on the Perceived Risk of the Product

국문 초록 (Abstract)

기업연상(corporate association)이 제품 평가(product responses)에 어떻게 영향을 미치는 가에 대한 연구가 부진하다는 Brown and Dacin(1997)의 문제 제기가 있은 후, 기업연상이 제품 판단에 미치는 영향과 과정에 대한 조절변수와 매개변수들을 파악하려는 연구가 진행되어 왔다. 본 연구에서는 기업연상의 두가지 유형인 CA(corporate ability) 연상과 CSR(corporate social responsibiliy) 연상이 성능과 재무위험에 미치는 영향력과 그 영향력을 조절하는 변수들을 조사하였다. 분석 결과에 의하면, 주효과(main effects)에 있어서는, 가설에서 기대한 바와 같이 CA 연상이 성능위험과 재무위험에 유의한 영향력을 갖는 것으로 나타난 반면, CSR 연상은 성능위험과 재무위험에 대해 유의한 영향력을 갖지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 조절변수로 인한 상호작용효과와 관련해서는, CA 연상이 성능위험과 재무위험에 미치는 주효과에 대해 조절변수로 인한 상호작용효과와 관련해서는, CA 연상이 성능위험과 재무위험에 미치는 주효과에 대해 제품범주 지식과 관여는 각각 유의한 조절효과를 나타내었다. 하지만, CSR 연상이 성능위험과 재무위험에 미치는 주효과에 대해서는 제품범주 지식과 관여의 조절효과는 나타나지 않았다. 이러한 연구 결과를 통하여 제품의 기능적인 속성에 대한 정보가 부족한 제품에 대해 소비자가 지각하는 위험을 감소시키기 위하여, 기업은 CSR 연상보다는 CA 연상에 대해 강조할 필요가 있다는 결론을 내리게 되었다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Brown and Dacin (1997) have investigated the relationship between corporate associations and product evaluations. Their study focused on the effects of associations with a company's corporate ability (CA) and it corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers' product evaluations. Their study has found that both of CA and CSR influenced product evaluation but CA association has a stronger effect than CSR associations. Brown and Dacin (1997) have, however, claimed that there are few researches on how corporate association impacts product responses. Accordingly, some of researchers have found the variables to moderate or to mediate the relationship between the corporate association and the product responses. In particular, there has been existed a few of studies that tested the influence of the reputation on the product-relevant perceived risk, but the effects of two types of the corporate association on the product-relevant perceived risk were not identified so far. The primary goal of this article is to identify and empirically examine some variables to moderate the effects of CA association and CSR association on the perceived risk of the product.
In this articles, we take the concept of the corporate associations that Brown and Dacin (1997) had proposed. CA association is those association related to the company's expertise in producing and delivering its outputs and CSR association reflected the organization's status and activities with respect to its perceived societal obligations. Also, this study defines the risk, which is the uncertainty or loss of the product and corporate that consumers have taken in a particular purchase decision or after having purchased. The risk is classified into product-relevant performance risk and financial risk. Performance risk is the possibility or the consequence of a product not functioning at some expected level and financial risk is the monetary loss one perceives to be incurring if a product does not function at some experiences or knowledge of the product in consumer position and novice consumers does not.
The model tested in this article are shown in Figure 1. The model indicates that both of CA association and CSR association influence on performance risk and financial risk. In addition, the effects of CA and CSR are moderated by product category knowledge(product knowledge) and product category involvement (product involvement).
In this study, the relationships between the corporate association and product-relevant perceived risk are hypothesized as the following form. For example, Hypothesis la(H1a) is represented that CA association has a positive influence on the performance risk of consumer. Also, the hypotheses that identified some variables to moderate the effects of two types of corporate association on the perceived risk of the product are laid down. One of the hypotheses of the interaction effect is Hypothesis 3a(H3a), it is described that consumer's knowledges of the product moderates the negative relationship between CA association and product-relevant performance risk.
A field experiment was conducted in order to examine our model. The company tested was not real but imagined to meet the internal validity. Water purifiers were used for our study. Four scenarios have been developed and described as the imaginary company: Type A with both of superior CA and CSR, Type B with superior CSR and inferior CA, Type C with superior CA and inferior CSR, and Type D with both inferior of CA and CSR.
The respondents of this study were classified ingo four groups. One type of four scenarios (Type A, B, C, or D) in its questionnaire was given to the respondent who filled out questions.
Data Were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire to the respondents, chosen in convenience. A total of 300 respondents filled out the questionnaire but 207 were used for further analysis.
Table 1 indicates that the scales in this study are reliable because the range o