The Influence And Mechanism Of Signature Media On Consumer Fraud

In recent years,consumer fraud has been occurring with increasing frequency in diverse forms,which has led to serious violations of the legal rights of retailers and businesses.While many institutions and companies have examined the financial costs associated with consumer fraud,academic research on the behavior has been limited.Few research has been conducted involve the antecedents and underlying mechanisms of consumer fraud.For example,the question of whether consumer fraud is influenced by the signature medium previously used is currently unanswered,and the underlying mechanisms are unclear.In daily consumption situations,such as agreements for services and invoices,consumers are required to sign for them.In this process,consumers usually use two types of media: pen and paper or touch screen devices with stylus.If these two types of signature media affect the actual fraudulent behavior of consumers,marketers and related stakeholders can intervene and prevent consumer fraud by providing a signature medium.Therefore,this research explores the cross-situational impact of these two common types of signature media on consumer fraud,and the corresponding underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions.This research builds on previous research on signature medium,consumer fraud,perceived authenticity,and anonymity to develop a framework guided by the deindividualization theory for probing into the impact of signature medium on consumer fraud across contexts.The four proposed hypotheses are tested and alternative explanations are excluded by changing the signature context,replacing the fraudulent reward,and recording the actual fraudulent behavior of consumers in three studies(two laboratory experiments and one field experiment).In detail,Experiment 1 was a laboratory experiment with a one-factor(signature medium: paper-and-pen signature vs.touchscreen-and-stylus signature)between-subjects design,where the signature context was an accommodation deposit slip and the fraudulent reward was a notebook,and the subjects’ behavior of whether they misrepresented the number/took the luxury notebook was recorded.After controlling for noise,the results confirmed hypothesis 1 that subjects who signed on paper with a signature using a stylus were less fraudulent behavior in another subsequent unrelated context than those who signed on a touchscreen device using a stylus.Experiment 2 was a laboratory experiment designed to further uncover the mechanisms underlying the preliminary findings obtained in Experiment 1 and to rule out alternative explanations.The experiment used a one-factor(signature medium:paper-and-pen signature vs.touchscreen-and-stylus signature)between-subjects design with a cake order form as the signature context.In addition,the fraudulent reward was a signature pen,and recorded whether participants misrepresented the number/took the luxury signature pen.The results showed that Experiment 2replicated the findings of Experiment 1 again after changing the signature context and type of fraudulent reward,demonstrating the robustness of the findings.Also,Experiment 2 tested the mediation effect of perceived authenticity,excluding explanations of perceived importance and self-awareness,indicating that H2 held.Experiment 3,a field experiment conducted in collaboration with express delivery site on campus,explored the effect of signature medium on consumer fraud in a real consumer context and examined fraud against marketing organizations or marketers rather than researchers,enhancing the ecological validity of the research.The experiment used a 2(signature medium: paper-and-pen signature vs.touchscreen-and-stylus signature)× 2(signature anonymity: anonymity vs.real name)two-factor between-subjects design with a signature context of sending and receiving an express order and the fraudulent reward of a We Chat face-to-face red envelope.We recorded whether participants got a larger amount of red envelope to judge the fraudulent behavior.The results showed that signature anonymity effectively moderated the above effects,i.e.,the phenomenon that paper-and-pen signature reduce consumer fraud in subsequently unrelated contexts was present in the real-name signature context(and disappears in the anonymous signature context),because anonymity reduces individual’s perceived authenticity,thus verifying hypotheses 3 and 4.This research explored the influence of a common factor(signature medium)on consumer fraud across contexts,discovered the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of this effect through three experiments to testing the corresponding hypotheses.These findings have important theoretical contributions and practical implications.Theoretically,this research focuses on signature medium,a variable that has been neglected in marketing research,and builds a bridge between signature medium and consumer fraud,effectively contributing a new outcome variable to signature medium research and a new antecedent variable to consumer fraud research.At the same time,this research identifies a “The Better Effect of Signature on Paper and Pen”,which also extends and expands on the “The Good-on-Paper Effect”recently found by academics.In practice,this research answers the question of how to protect the legitimate rights of retailers or businesses by leveraging common consumer behaviors,paying attention to the application of pen-and-paper signatures and real names,as well as continuously improving the authenticity of electronic signatures.