Research On Option Framing Effect In The Context Of Online Customization Of Information Services

With the improvement of people’s material and spiritual life, their individual needs anddiversified demands are increasing. Customization has become a fashionable attitudetowards life and lifestyle, becoming more and more popular. Not only offline stores butalso online malls are trying to apply online customization services. Therefore, a majorissue thatconcerns researchers and practitioners is how to carry out online customizationstrategy in order to improve core competitiveness.Most of the previous studies used offline customization of products as experimentalsubject and their study found that two equivalent custom modes have a significantpositive impact on the results of the customizations. This phenomenon is known as theoption framing effects. However, this finding of option framing effect is obtained fromthe study of the offline product customization and intangible service customization.Compared with customized tangible products and offlinecustomizations, onlineinformation services facilitate stronger customized experience, autonomy anduncertainties. So, will consumer choice be showing the same results on the context ofonline customization of services? Therefore, this study, using online customization ofinformation services as an object, analyzes and discusses thoroughly the effect of theoption framing on consumers’ decision and the moderating mechanismsfor the optionframing effect: service importance, service type and the quantity of options.Based on Loss Aversion theory, this article analyzes and examines the effect of theoption framing on consumers’ decision and the boundary conditions for the optionframing effect: service importance, service type and the quantity of options. Threeexperiments in the context of information services produced the following findings:(1)Compared with consumers in the additive option framing, those in the subtractive optionframing will choose more service options as well as higher total sum price;(2) Onlinecustomization mode and service importance impose a significant interaction effect theinconsequential option in the subtractive option framing will be more selected and thevital ones are more likely to be chosen in the additive option framing;(3) the interactioneffect of online customization mode and service type is significant the negative optionin the subtractive option framing will be more selected and the positive ones are morelikely to bechosen in the additive option framing;(4) the quantity of options have a moderating effect on option framing effects, in the case of providing more options, theoption framing effects become more significant. Finally, we discuss the theoreticalcontributions and practical value of this study.