합리적 행동이론을 적용한 소비자 쇼루밍 행동의 이해 (Understanding of showrooming behavior based on the Theory of Reasoned Action)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국유통학회
· 수록지 정보 : 유통연구 / 20권 / 4호 / 79 ~ 103페이지
· 저자명 : 염민선

초록

유통기업들은 고객 접점을 다양화하고 기존 고객들의 다양한 니즈에 대응하며 더 나은 서비스를 제공하고자 다양한 매체들을 활용하는 멀티채널 전략을 구사하고 있다. 이러한 멀티채널 환경에서 고객들은 자신들의 니즈를 보다 효율적으로 충족시키고자 여러 채널을 전략적으로 취사선택하여 상호 보완적으로 활용하고자 한다. 즉, 멀티채널 환경에서 구매자들은 온라인에서 정보를 탐색하고 오프라인 점포에서 구매하기도 하고 반대로 오프라인 매장에서 정보를 탐색하고 온라인에서 구매하기도 한다.
그러나, 온오프라인을 자유롭게 넘다들며 복잡한 구매행동을 하는 멀티채널 소비자에 대한 연구는 부족한 실정이다. 특히, 기존 연구에서는 멀티채널 고객의 행동패턴을 유형화하는데 그쳐 다양한 멀티채널 소비행동 유형에 대한 심도 있는 논의가 이루어지지 못했다. 이에 본 연구는 멀티채널 유통환경에서 최근 이슈가 되고 있는 쇼루밍 현상에 주목하였다. 본 연구는 쇼루밍 행동이 소비자의 합리적 판단에 근거한 행동이라 판단하고 Fishbein과 Ajzen이 제시한 합리적 행동이론을 적용하여 쇼루밍 행동의 메커니즘을 이론적으로 검증하고자하였다.
분석결과, 지각된 쇼루밍 경제적 가치와 인터넷쇼핑 친밀감은 쇼루밍 태도를 강화하는 것으로 나타나 가설은 채택되었다. 또한 쇼루밍 태도는 쇼루밍 행동의도에 정(+)의 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타나 가설은 지지되었다. 반면, 주관적 규범과 쇼루밍 태도 간의 영향 관계는 예상과 달리 통계적으로 유의하지 않는 것으로 나타나 기각되었다.
이러한 분석결과는 쇼루밍 소비자가 개별 채널이 가지는 차별적인 장점을 상호보완적으로 이용함으로써 경제적 이익을 도모하려는 합리적이고 계획적인 소비자임을 시사한다. 또한, 쇼루밍 소비자는 온라인 구매행동의 익명성으로 인해 사회적 압력에 덜 민감하다는 것으로 해석될 수 있다.
본 연구는 쇼루밍 현상에 관한 연구가 거의 전무한 현실을 감안할 때 관련연구를 확산시키고 유통기업의 채널 통합전략을 수립하는데 기초자료로 활용될 수 있다.

영어초록

Today, a lot of corporate distributors adopt a multi-channel strategy that utilizes a variety of media while diversifying service encounters in a bid to provide customers with better services and to meet their various sophisticated needs(Wallace, Giese, and Johnson 2004).
Meanwhile, customers selectively and strategically choose their preferred channels that are considered mutually complementary under the multi-channel environment in order to meet their needs more effectively(Wallace, Giese, and Johnson 2004). That is, some consumers browse products online and make their purchases in offline stores while others visit offline stores to check out products and make purchases online in this multi-channel environment(Chatterjee 2010).
However, there is a lack of research into multi-channel consumers who shows complicated purchase behaviors, moving around online and offline without restrictions. In particular, previous researches fell short of profound discussions of multi-channel consumer behavior patterns, limiting their coverage to classifying those behavior patterns.
This study has focused on showrooming phenomenon that is becoming an issue recently in multi-channel distribution environment. Showrooming refers to a consumer pattern where a shopper visits a store to check out a product but makes a purchase online instead at a lower price(Verhoef, Kannan and Inman 2015; Sevitt and Samuel 2013). In fact, surveys show 23% of domestic customers experienced showrooming, checking and comparing products in offline store but actual purchasing is made online.
This study seeks to promote understanding of showrooming behaviors of consumers by theoretically investigating the mechanism of showrooming behavior by applying the theory of reasoned action presented by Fishbein and Ajzen(1975), based on the assumption that showrooming behavior among consumers is based on their rational decision.
Major hypotheses generated by this study are as follows. First, consumers who find showrooming economically valuable are likely to show strong attitude toward showrooming(H1). Also, given that showrooming consumers make actual purchases online, those who are familiar with online channels are more likely to engage in showrooming(H2). It is also assumed that consumers who have a positive attitude toward a specific behavior and have their behavior accepted by significant people around them are more likely to have higher intention of engaging in that behavior(H3). Based on these hypotheses, a research model has been set up as illustrated in Figure 1.
To test the hypotheses presented above, this study has conducted a survey among males and female shoppers in their 20s through 40s who live in the metropolitan area and have the experience of showrooming fashion items within the latest six months. A clothing product that is purchased usually upon completion of a careful decision-making process has been chosen as the target product of the study.
The survey was conducted during the period between October and November 2014 through a professional survey service provider. A total of 200 survey sheets have been collected, out of which 198 sheets have been used for statistical analysis. The typical characteristics of the sample are described in Table 1.
Following the confirmatory factor analysis and measurement model analysis, the theoretical model that corresponds to the research model has been analyzed. The analysis results of the theoretical model are presented in Table 5. Hypothesis One is about finding out the effects of recognizing economical value of showrooming on the showrooming attitude and was adopted with the path coefficient of .635(C.R. =0.987, P<.01), which indicates the former makes a statistically positive(+) or significant influence on the latter. Hypothesis Two is about finding out the effects of familiarity with online shopping on the showrooming attitude and was also confirmed with the path coefficient of .326(C.R.=5.362 p<.01), which indicates the former makes a statistically positive(+) or significant influence on the latter. Meanwhile, Hypothesis Three designed to verify the correlation between the subjective norm and showrooming behavioral intention was not adopted with the path coefficient of-.108(C.R.=-.1753 p>.05), which indicates it goes counter the direction of hypothesis and is not statistically significant either.
The study presents the following implications. First, the analysis result that says the familiarity with online shopping makes a positive(+) effect on the showrooming attitude implies that more experience in online shopping consumers have, the more likely they make purchases online without checking out a product offline. Next, the conclusion that the economic value showrooming makes a positive (+) impact on the showrooming attitude indicates that showrooming consumers engage in planned and rational shopping by taking advantage of different channels on a mutually complementary manner in order to maximize their economic benefits. Finally, the third hypothesis that the subjective norm makes a positive (+) impact on the showrooming behavioral intention has been rejected, which demonstrates that showrooming consumers are relatively less sensitive to social pressure due to anonymity in their online purchase behavior.
I expect this study to instigate relevant researches given the reality of near absence of research into showrooming and to serve as the basis to establish channel integration strategies for distributors.

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