Information Processing Cost & Consumers' Purchasing Decision

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K18551
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Economics, Business Administration, and related fields
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Ohno Yuka 北海道大学, 経済学研究院, 教授 (50598480)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-06-30 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: アイ・トラッカー / ブランド / シグナル理論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, we study the decision making mechanism of consumers when the information process cost exists. To do so, we conducted an investigative research on how to do an eye tracking analysis. In particular, in the field of brand research, we examined what consumers would pay attention to. Furthermore, we investigate which information job hunters were interested in detailed recruiting brochures of top brand companies. We find out that job hunters who were interested in the company were looking at the important details of the brochure, but those who were not interested in the company to begin with paid little attention to the details in the brochure. Hence, it can be seen that the name value of the firm first raises the interest of consumers and induces job seekers to collect information.　Such results indicate that contrary to what signal theory predicts, brands and observable information are not substitutes,
but complements.

Free Research Field

産業組織論、応用ミクロ経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ブランドの経済理論としてはシグナル理論が最も重要な理論である。消費者は観測される情報を収集し，残された製品の品質等の情報をブランドのシグナルから読み取る。シグナル理論では，観測される情報とブランドのシグナルは代替関係にある。アイ・トラッカーを用いて，就活生の情報収集活動をより詳細に調査した結果，観測される情報とブランドのシグナルは補完関係にあることが分かった。よって，それを説明するためには、消費者の情報収集コストを考慮に入れたシグナル理論の分析が重要であることが明らかになった。