In addition to the internal and external values, we cannot neglect the third variable in the model, functional value. As a matter of fact, the functional value is considered the most essential part (Sheth et al., 1991) when discovering the consumer’s purchasing behavior. In this study, the functional value will contain four attributes which are price, quality, need and usage.
In the marketing world, price certainly is a very important aspect as many people will base on their understanding of what is cheap or expensive and then make their decision of whether to buy the good or not. It is always the first thing that comes into our mind since the price tag is just in front of our eyes. In economics, people would
judge on what is the equilibrium price so that it equates supply and demand (Callan &
Thomas, 2007). As for the commodity itself, the merchant will charge the price in order to show the value towards the product; the consumers will evaluate their willingness to pay before the transaction occurs. The price sensitivity for each person may differ, therefore making the seller hard to adjust the price from time to time. For example, if the price was raised by three percent, some buyers would think it is too expensive and change to another brand. But price reduction may not be the best solution to improve value for money perception (Turel et al., 2010). As a result, the pricing decision remains one of the toughest goals for the retailer as they would have to choose the right price in order to gain profit and maintain customer loyalty.
Besides price, the quality factor is another segment that we would put into serious consideration when consuming. Generally, higher quality will require a higher price (Zeithami, 1988), contributing to a positive relationship. The standard of living has been increasing so people are more aware of the quality of life that they would like to enjoy. Citizens of this global village perceive that in order for them to live a plentiful life, the commodities that they use must meet high standards. Hence, the quality factor deserves to be acknowledged and should be examined carefully in order to understand the level of satisfaction for customers.
Price and quality are closely related and seem inseparable. The determination of how much quality should be presented according to the constant price level will vary across every consumer due to the fact that everyone’s perception is different. Mostly, this is still very subjective so that there should not be a specific number but within a reasonable range. For example, we cannot conclude that the price of a T-shirt is exactly four hundred NT dollars, but to give it a range between three hundred to six hundred NT dollars seem acceptable. When the demand increases, the pressure of increasing quality rises (Nagurney et al., 2014), leading to a higher quality within the
products. From this, we can see that the retailers are afraid that their customers will change their consumption to another brand. To mitigate the effect, the best solution is to increase the quality and try to maintain consumers or even attract other groups of buyers.
There are a lot of necessities for us to survive or appreciate our life. Water and oxygen are the most basic elements in our daily lives. Products like clothes and jeans are required in order to keep us warm. But as technology improves, some people would consider having a computer is a necessity. The need to own a computer has already penetrated into our brain, making us feel that we cannot live without a laptop.
Subjects tend to convey their desire to own a product when they make first contact to the actual good (Chang et al., 2006). Some commodities are considered a prerequisite for some people whereas others may not think so. As a result, this is another subjective matter because of the distinct level of ambition between humans. In this study, subjects might require tools in order for them to play the sport. In other cases, the aspiration level could conquer the value of need and purchase the product even though it is not considered a prerequisite.
The last factor that falls into the functional value is the usage variable. In this segment, the essential concept is the actual process of implementing the procedure.
While using the product, are users satisfied with the content or is it convenient enough for them to operate are the two main questions that they will face. User-friendly is considered one of the most important factors today, because it would make the procedure more smoothly. In other words, convenience and the ease of accessibility will definitely increase our repurchase intention. If end users do not need to spend much time to go over the instruction book and can adapt to it easily, they will perceive positive feelings towards the product (Karahana, 1999). Therefore, the current study attempts to reveal whether functional value affects satisfaction and proposes the forth
hypothesis as follow.
H4: Functional value significantly influences satisfaction
However, aside from the above mentioned theories and concepts, the role that information visibility plays to the effect on repurchase willingness has not been addressed. A quick survey of literature indicated that few researches have incorporated information visibility into the model to alternatively describe repurchasing intention. Information visibility is basically the concept that whether enough information can be seen or is provided on a specific platform. When it can be easily seen, we would find it more applicable because we can notice the message right away. If one cannot immediately access to the information provided, the value that conveys will be decreased (Handfield, 2003). Therefore, information visibility is an essential part of the whole process. It is also an important role in the supply chain.
Joshi (2000) reported that information visibility likely increased the efficiency level, and in consequence enhanced the possibility of transaction.
In the supply chain, each sector has to complete their task in order to let the whole process function well. If one part has a delay or did not work properly, there will be some negative effects towards the outcome. Therefore, it is very paramount to carefully examine each and every region of the chain so that the damage can be limited to the least amount. Just like the teamwork in sports, if one player is dominating but cannot gain help from any other team members, he will still be struggling and will have a hard time competing, not to mention to gain a victory for his team.
Information visibility has not been proved that it can help companies achieve benefits as a concrete example, but it does show some positive effects towards marketing. Lee et al (2013) reveals that there are two main components concerning the success of information visibility. The collaborative behavior between firms and
the supply chain partners has to be positive and both parties should have trust in one another. If one of them falls into the prisoner’s dilemma, or lost faith in their counterparts, the possibility of succeeding will be reduced dramatically. The opportunistic behavior is also vital due to the fact that firms want to retain information asymmetry and manage the behaviors of supply chain partners (Lee et al., 2013). If the firm has no idea or feels confused about what their supply chain partners are up to, the relationship will be more difficult to maintain. Also, in the resource dependence theory adopted by Lee et al. (2013) proved that visibility can actually improve the performance of supply chains.
The overall performance of the chain can be traced back to each individual sector taking full responsibility of their own job and completing the mission for the greater success. But the management and the ability to connect each other remains the main task for supervisors. Thus, tracking and keeping records are key components and should be handled properly. The aim of visibility is to foster planning and controlling the operations (Musa et al., 2014). If this does help the management sector within a company, it can be extended to the service sector and ultimately improve sales and have a big impact on the market.
In the past, not a lot of research has been done using information visibility as the main investigator, leading to higher degree of motivation towards this study. As a result, we can determine whether this specific variable has a big impact on online repurchasing behavior. Due to the fact that it is such a new mindset, this concept is still in an immature stage with limited resources across the field. This research would face some obstacles as not a lot has been mentioned by scholars. But on the other hand, this is a great opportunity as well because there will be more research conducted later on. The market would always be in a trade-off, so in the case of more reliant information, the space for development would be limited. As for this case,
although nothing much has been done in the past, there is a chance that this study can spark other scholars and development more about information visibility in the near future. In chapter three, the model is described to examine whether information visibility can increase the effects of the independent variables towards the dependent variable. In other words, we are to investigate whether information visibility performs as a mediator or not in the developed model. Therefore, the fifth, sixth, and seventh hypothesis are defined as follow.
H5: Information visibility mediates the effect of internal value on satisfaction H6: Information visibility mediates the effect of external value on satisfaction H7: Information visibility mediates the effect of functional value on
satisfaction
Chapter Three: Research Method