소비자의 심리적 일탈, 라이선싱 효과 (Licensing Effect, the Consumers’ Psychological Deviance)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 22권 / 1호 / 219 ~ 243페이지
· 저자명 : 서문식, 거원원, 노태석

초록

현대 사회에서 많은 소비자들은 종종 자신도 자각하지 못하는 상태에서 비합리적인 소비행동을 일삼기도 한다.
이러한 비합리성 역시 소비자행동의 중요한 일부분이며, 많은 연구자들에 의해 다양한 연구가 이루어져 왔다. 특정활동에 있어서 노력을 기울이게 되면, 이후의 선택에 있어서 좀 더 쾌락적인 선택을 하기 쉬워진다는 Khan and Dhar(2006)의 연구에서는 이러한 현상을 라이선싱 효과(licensing effect)라 명명하고, 이에 영향을 미치는 요인들을 다양한 실험들을 통해 분석하였다. 본 연구에서는 선행연구에서 제시한 이슈의 폭을 확대하기 위한 연구문제를 설정하고 이를 실증적으로 고찰하고 있다.
주요 연구결과를 설명하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 라이선싱 효과는 다양한 상황에서 존재한다는 것을 증명하면서 특정 과업의 실행에서 노력수준이 높은 집단이 그렇지 않은 집단보다 높은 자아개념을 보이고 이에 따른 일탈행위를할 확률이 높다는 결과를 보여주었다.
둘째, 노력수준과 자기통제 수준이 라이선싱 효과에서 상호작용 효과를 나타낸다는 것을 제시하였다. 노력수준이높은 사람이 자기통제 수준이 낮을 때, 노력수준이 낮은 사람이 자기통제 수준이 높을 때 일탈행위에 대한 의도가높게 나타난다는 것을 확인할 수 있었다.
실험 결과에 의하면, 소비자들은 일반적으로 과업을 완수한 후에는 비합리적 소비를 해도 된다는 심리적 면죄부를 가져서 자신의 목표 추구에 있어서 바람직하지 않았던 제품의 구매나 서비스의 이용을 하게 되는 경향이 있고이러한 경향이 소비자의 노력수준과 자기통제 수준에 따라 달라질 것이라는 결론을 내릴 수 있었다. 본 연구에서는이러한 연구결과에 대하여 소비자행동 관점에서 연구의 이론적 및 실무적 시사점을 검토하고 향후 연구방향을 제시하였다.

영어초록

Most of researches about consumer choice focus on the decision processes by which consumers choose among a set of alternatives, independent of the way they arrive at the choice. In contrast to this focus on isolated, or “single shot” choices, consumers in the real world often make a series of decisions in which one choice follows another. Preferences among alternatives can be affected by consumers’ prior actions. Prior decisions and actions can serve as a license to choose options that are inconsistent with the salient self. Licensing can operate by committing to an affirmative action, which reduces the feeling of guilty associated with the purchase of relative luxuries. Studies demonstrate the proposed licensing effect of a prior commitment to an affirmative action on subsequent choice.
The purpose of this study is to examine the customer response in the licensing situation.
To verify how customers decide to buy hedonic products a 2(Type of goal : health, learning) X 2(level of effort : high, low) X 2(level of self-control : high, low)factorial design experiment was conducted with undergraduate students at university at Korea as part of their course requirement. Several factors including self-concept, self-control and purchase intention were selected from prior studies and manipulations for each scenario were checked.
Due to multiple dependent variables(self-concept, purchase intention), we used a MANCOVA to test four hypotheses developed.
The results show that type of goal has no effect on self-concept(learning: mean=4.75 /health : mean=4.74, p=.643) and purchase intention(learning : mean=4.60 / health :mean=4.50, p=.321). According to this result, we assumed that licensing effect could occur in various situations. The main effect of level of effort was significant for two dependent variables (self-concept : F=31.477, p<0.01 / purchase intention : F=40.130, p<0.01) in support of H1 and H2. Interaction effects between level of effort and self-control for H3 and H4 on two dependent variables were significant(self-concept : F=17.533, p<0.01 / purchase intention :F=13.472, p<0.01).
The research results show that consumers who study hard or work hard are more preferring to buy hedonic goods than people do not do like that in various situations. Individuals who pay more effort to achieve their goals are more likely to buy hedonic goods. Ironically, people who think they have high level of self-control are more likely to make indulgent choice when they pay a lot of effort for their objectives. Furthermore, there are interaction effects between level of effort and self-control. Study on licensing effect in consumer choice is helpful for understanding consumers’ irrational behaviors. For marketers, take advantage of human irrationality is one of the means of sales promotion. Although this way maybe inconsistent with the ethical management, from the perspective of consumers, understanding licensing effect could be helpful because it make them to try to avoid bad choices.
The fact that data were obtained from only a specific segment of the population by experiment is one of limitation in this research. Also, selection of the goal or product type for the research did not allow alternative options that differed significantly in terms of licensing effect.
Therefore, expanded research targeted consumers who really in licensing condition with various situations need to be conducted for accuracy and generalization. Additionally, for deeper understanding of licensing effect of consumers, qualitative research approach is needed.

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