Exploring the Antecedents and Consequences of Buying-Group Identification

[[abstract]]團購能夠替買賣雙方創造出一種雙贏的局面。透過團購，業者能夠降低庫存、行銷與招募顧客的成本；消費者則可以較低的價格購得想要的商品。因此，在北美、歐洲以及亞洲等地區，團購相當受到消費者的青睞，也變成一種受歡迎的購物管道。但是在西方國家，仍有許多知名的團購網站，因經營不善而宣告倒閉或者重新調整經營策略。要能幫助團購業者擬定更適當的經營策略，須對消費者的團購行為有深入的研究與瞭解。然而，目前團購的相關文獻仍是相當不足。 本研究藉由社會認同理論的社會與心理的觀點，從認知、評估、情感以及行為等層面來探討團購成員對其團購群體認同的前置與結果變數，以期能夠找出決定團購成員認同，以及誘導出他/她們對團購群體支持性行為的重要因素。同時，本研究也探討團購形成的環境，對於各個前置變數與團購群體認同之間關係的干擾效果，希望能藉此發現影響傳統團購者與網路團購者，對其群體認同的決定要素之間的不同。 本研究透過向許多不同類型的工作組織的人員發放書面問卷，並在google網站架設網路問卷等兩種方式來蒐集樣本資料，總共回收866份問卷，在剔除無效問卷後，最後可用的樣本數為779份問卷。本研究採用SEM結構方程式來驗證假設，經由AMOS6 0分析結果後顯示，團購群體的聲望、認知的相似性與接觸的頻率等，都會正向影響團購成員對其群體的認同。此外，情感性價值以及對團購群體的滿意度，也會正向影響團購成員對其群體的認同。研究結果同時顯示團購群體的認同，將會導致團購成員的正面口碑以及再參與群體的意願。 至於團購形成環境所造成的干擾效果，研究結果顯示，群體的聲望對網路團購者的群體認同比對傳統團購者的群體認同影響大。而情感性價值，對於網路團購者的群體認同比對傳統團購者的群體認同影響大。雖然社會價值對於整體團購者的群體認同沒有顯著的影響，但它卻會影響傳統團購者對其團購群體的認同。[[abstract]]Despite the popularity of group buying in Europe North America and Asia the issue of group buying still has received relatively little attention in the existing literature This study employs social identity theory to investigate the antecedents and consequences of buying-group identification from cognitive evaluative emotional and behavioral perspectives Moreover this study examines the moderating effects of group buying context on the relationship between each antecedent and buying-group identification as well Data were collected through both handed-out questionnaires and an online survey After excluding non-usable data of the 866 completed questionnaires the final sample size of this study was 779 The hypotheses were tested by utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS 6 0 The results of this study demonstrate that group prestige perceived similarity and frequency of contact are positively associated with buying-group identification Besides emotional value and satisfaction are also positively related to buying-group identification Buying-group identification is shown to have positive impacts on group members’ word-of-mouth and re-patronizing intentions Furthermore trust and satisfaction lead to group members’ positive word-of-mouth and re-patronizing intentions With regard to the moderating effects of group buying context the findings indicate that the relationship between group prestige and buying-group identification is stronger for online group buyers than for offline buyers The relationship between emotional value and buying-group identification is stronger for online group buyers than for offline buyers Social value is shown to only influence offline group buyers’ rather than overall group buyers’ identification with their buying grou