The effects of presentation formats and task complexity on online consumers' product understanding

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jiang, Zhenhui (Jack); Benbasat, Izak
• 署名单位: National University of Singapore; University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: MIS QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0276-7783
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 475-500
• 关键词: cognitive effort; user acceptance; virtual-reality; DESIGN; TECHNOLOGY; performance; attention; systems; IMPACT; web

摘要

Two constructs used to measure product understanding performance are actual product knowledge and perceived website diagnosticity (i.e., the extent to which consumers believe a website is helpful for them to understand products). The experimental results show that (1) both videos and VPE lead to higher perceived website diagnosticity than static pictures; (2) under a moderate task complexity condition, VPE and videos lead to the same level of actual product knowledge, but all are more effective than static pictures; (3) under a high task complexity condition, all four presentation formats are equally effective in terms of actual product knowledge. Moreover, the results also indicate that it is perceived website diagnosticity, not actual product knowledge, that affects the perceived usefulness of websites, which further influences consumers' intentions to revisit the websites. This study assesses and compares four product presentation formats currently used online: static pictures, videos without narration, videos with narration, and virtual product experience (VPE), where consumers are able to virtually feel, touch, and try products. The effects of the four presentation formats on consumers' product understanding as well as the moderating role of the complexity of product understanding tasks were examined in a laboratory experiment.