A Study On Mechanism Of Customers Channel Extension And Selection

With the rapid development of new electronic marketing channels, such as electronic commerce (e-commerce) and mobile commerce (m-commerce), combined with the increasing diversity of consumer demand, increasingly more traditional companies begin to transform their marketing strategy into the multi-channel operation model. By using the multi-channel strategy, enterprises are expected to expand their contact points with consumers, increase consumers' switching costs, and thus effectively reducing the loss rate of their consumers. Many studies have also confirmed that consumers who use multiple channels can bring more benefits for the enterprise than consumers who use single-channel.In practice, however, as consumer behavior in multi-channels is more complex than the behavior in traditional single-channel, many companies with multi-channel marketing strategy is often faced with the plight to promote their multi-channels to their single-channel consumer. In academia, since the consumer multi-channels behavior is a relatively new research topic, the literature therefore still lacks a systematic investigation into the internal mechanism of consumer behavior in multi-channels. This dissertation aims to reveal the internal mechanism of consumer channel extension and channel selection behavior, so as to provide theoretical basis for better develop and implement enterprises multi-channels marketing strategy, to maintain long-term consumer relationships.First, this dissertation defined the concepts related to consumer multi-channels behavior. Based on literature review, this dissertation then clarified the existing research status and the research topic for further studies. The brand extension theory, perceived Entitativity theory and trust transfer theory are selected as the theoretical basis for the research of consumer channel extension behavior. The task technology fit theory; usage context theory and consumer decision-making process theory are selected as the theoretical basis for research of consumer channel selection behavior. Based on the above theoretical guidance, the dissertation develops an overall theoretical model for research of consumer channel extension and channel selection behavior.In the research of consumer channel extension behavior, this dissertation introduces an internal transfer theoretical framework, and develops a research model which reflects the consumer channel extension behavior from offline channel to e-commerce channel. The empirical results indicate that perceived offline channel service quality has a cross-channel impact on the corresponding perceived e-commerce channel service quality. Perceived Entitativity and individual innovativeness has indirectly influence on this cross-channel relationships; This dissertation introduces a trust transfer theoretical framework, and develops a research model which captures the consumer channel extension behavior from e-commerce channel to m-commerce channel. The empirical results indicate that consumer trust in e-commerce channel has a cross-channel impact on his corresponding trust in m-commerce channel, and, further, that trust in combination with the positive and negative valence determinants directly and indirectly influenced the consumer channel extension behavior.In the research of consumer channel selection behavior, this dissertation introduces a fit based theoretical framework of consumer m-commerce channel selection, and develops a research model which reflects the impacts of task-channel fit and usage-context fit on consumer mobile commerce channel selection. The empirical results suggest that task-channel fit and usage-context fit are two important factors that influence consumer channel selection and preference behavior; This dissertation introduces a consumer decision-making process based consumer channel selection theoretical framework, and develops a two-stage (information search and product purchase) consumer channel selection model. The empirical results indicate that the different channel characteristics of offline channel and e-commerce channel has different influence on consumer channel selection behavior. In addition, there are strong locked-in effects on consumer channel selection within the intra-channel's information-seeking and product purchase stages. There are significant negative synergies effects on consumer channel selection in the same stages between the different channels; Consumer channel selection behavior for the search products and experience products are also different.