The Stuey of Relationship among Product Convenience, Customer Involvement and Well-being –An Example of the Consumption of Frozen Prepared Foods

[[abstract]]二十一世紀是消費型態快速轉變、市場多元化之新紀元。在顧客至上的時代， 消費者之購物行為不僅在應付生活需要，其消費與產品使用經驗亦能回饋至其心 靈感受當中。據此，顧客在產品使用後之認知體驗，例如產品所帶來的幸福感受， 是當前重要的課題，亦為本研究關心之焦點。 本研究欲深入探討冷凍調理食品所具有之顯著便利性，對消費者在使用後的 幸福感受影響為何。而這樣的心理感受又是否會受使用者是否有高度的過程涉入 影響。綜觀之，本研究在嘗試連結過去文獻中較為分散並較易為研究者忽略之ㄧ 組關係。 在模式中詳細的研究假說包含了：在各式賣場出售之冷凍產品消費現象中， 產品便利性對於幸福感之影響，到底是正面亦為負面? 其次，顧客涉入對於顧客 購後之幸福感受影響為何? 最後，上述兩項對於幸福感具影響力之因素，是否相 互作用，並亦影響到購後幸福感受? 本文採便利抽樣，並以台灣各縣市賣場外購買冷凍調理食品之消費者為研究 範圍，共涵括台北市、台中市、台南縣、台南市、高雄市、屏東市等地，進行問 卷調查。有效回收問卷為273 份。分析方法則以一般敘述統計、迴歸分析為主，進行研 究。 研究結果發現如下。首先，產品便利性對於顧客售後之幸福感係產生一正面影響。 其次，顧客涉入對於幸福感亦為一正向之影響。最後，顧客涉入在產品便利性對幸福感 之關係中，扮演一正向調節之角色。 研究結果顯示產品特性(如本研究中之便利性)能夠提升顧客之產品使用(食用)經驗 感受，但更重要的是，透過親身感受、涉入此一便利性所帶來的食用經驗，將使幸福感 受更為增強。[[abstract]]In an age of consumer-oriented business management, the evaluation of the success of the transactions between firms and customers consumers often lies in the customers’ satisfaction and psychological fulfilments. Under such background, a systematic research on the customers’ after-purchasing psychological feeling thus becomes necessarily important. This study tends to make investigation on the influence of product characteristics (i.e. the easiness-of-use), customer behaviour (i.e. customer involvement), and their interactions on customers’ after-purchase psychological state (i.e. happiness). It tries to link three critical variables that were used to be considered separately in the academic perspective. Specifically in the first set of theory, the present study tends to test a debate on whether the easiness-of-use of the frozen food will directly has positive or negative impact on customers’ happiness. In the second stage, the study tries to investigate the direct influence of customer involvement, as well as customer involvement’s moderating effect on the relationship between the ease-of use of the frozen food and the happiness of the customer. The study adopts a survey-based approach, with 276 frozen food purchaser spotted in different major cities in Taiwan (Taipei, Tai-Chung, Tainan, Kaohsiung county, Kaohsiung city, and Ping-Tong). Sampled individuals were randomly selected outside the retailers, the convenience stores, etc (e.g. the 7-11). Quantitative analysis like multiple regression were used for further anatomy of the raw data. Results show that, firstly, the easiness-of-use of the sold frozen foods positively influences the happiness of the customers (H1 supported, while H2 rejected). Second, Customer involvement has positive impact on the happiness, too (H3 supported). To be ensured for the role of the customer involvement in the model, we ran hierarchical regression for the integrative model, and result shows that the customer involvement plays as a moderator when all major variables are all in the model. Our results demonstrate several important implications on firm’s product development strategy and marketing strategy. Limitation and future directions are discussed finally