Specification Seeking: How Product Specifications Influence Consumer Preference

Christopher K. Hsee, Yang Yang, Yangjie Gu and Jie Chen

Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 2009, vol. 35, issue 6, pages 952-966

Abstract: We offer a framework about when and how specifications (e.g., megapixels of a camera and number of air bags in a massage chair) influence consumer preferences and report five studies that test the framework. Studies 1-3 show that even when consumers can directly experience the relevant products and the specifications carry little or no new information, their preference is still influenced by specifications, including specifications that are self-generated and by definition spurious and specifications that the respondents themselves deem uninformative. Studies 4 and 5 show that relative to choice, hedonic preference (liking) is more stable and less influenced by specifications. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Date: 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/593947 link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jconrs:v:35:y:2009:i:6:p:952-966

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/order1.html

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly is edited by Dawn Iacobucci

More articles in Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly from University of Chicago Press
Address: The University of Chicago Press, Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005 Chicago, IL 60637
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().