品牌形象是由消費者對品牌屬性之信念(belief)所組成，是消費者評估產品品質的外部線索之 一。消費者會利用產品的品牌形象來推論或維持其對於產品的知覺品質，亦或用來代表整個產品 的所有資訊。因此，在消費者制定購買決策時，品牌形象可以正向地影響消費者對於該產品的預 期，也因此會提高消費者的購買可能性。 然而，根據決策後悔(post-decision regret)的文獻，本研究認為品牌形象可能與購後後悔呈正 相關。因為較高的預期意味著較高的負向失驗或較低正向失驗。許多研究指出，負向失驗會引起 自發性的反事實思考，進而產生決策後後悔。此外，品牌形象可以降低消費者在購買決策階段的 知覺風險。當消費者的知覺風險較低時，消費者會更有自信心得減少其他產品的資訊搜尋。近來 已有實證研究指出，由於在購買決策前沒有做更多的搜尋，消費者在購買後比較容易產生搜尋後 悔(search regret)的感受。由於整體的決策後悔是包括決策程序的後悔與決策結果的後悔，所以當 消費者在決策之後經歷到搜尋後悔的時候，整體的購後後悔程度也會比較高。 本研究擬以手機作為研究客體，以中國文化大學商學院五個碩士班修習行銷研究課程之學生 為實驗對象，以 2 (品牌形象：高、低) × 2 (已選擇的選項之結果：好的、不好的) × 2 (決策合理 性：決策理由之合理性強、決策理由之合理性弱)之組間設計(between-group design)，以實驗法蒐 集假說檢定之資料，並以結構式問卷蒐集操弄檢定之資料，以檢定操弄之有效性。最後，針對研 究結果提出理論與管理上之含意。 Being one of the external clues to evaluating the quality of a product, brand image consists of consumers’ beliefs in the brand attributes. Consumers tend to utilize brand image to infer or maintain the perceived quality of a product and/or to represent the overall information about the product. Therefore brand image can positively affect consumers’ expectation of the brand, which can thus enhance the purchase likelihood. However, according to the literature on post-decision regret, the present study proposes that brand image is positively related to post-purchase regret. It is because higher expectation implies higher negative disconfirmation or lower positive disconfirmation. Researches have found that negative disconfirmation can lead to spontaneous counterfactual thinking, and then further to post-decision regret. In addition, brand image can reduce the perceived risk in the decision-making phase. The lower the perceived risk is, the higher the self-confidence of the consumer’s becomes. And that reduces information search by consumers for other products. Some recent empirical researches have also showed that consumers are more likely to have the feelings of search regret after purchase due to the fact that they have not done much more information search before making purchase decision. Since the overall decision regret includes process regret and regret from decision outcome, search regret will lead to higher overall post-purchase regret. This study intends to use smart phones as objects. Graduate students of college of business at Chinese Culture University will be the participants. The research design will be a 2 (brand image: high, low) x 2 (outcome from option chosen: good, bad) x 2 (decision justifiability: weak, strong) between-group design. Self-administered structured questionnaires will be used. We will empirically investigate the research hypothesis and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of research results.
