Abstract: Multi-source procurement of parts and components is a common practice in the industry of consumer electronics. As the transparency of the supply chains for consumer products is enhanced partly thanks to the social media’s report and evaluation of the products, consumers’ knowledge of consumer electronics has improved greatly. Consumers not only are concerned about the whole product, but also know about the parts and components and even their suppliers. Though parts and components from different suppliers pass quality standards, they exhibit performance variation and sometimes result in adverse events. This paper aims to study how the knowledge of the multi-source procurement of parts and components will affect consumer’s purchasing psychology and intention.
Based on the Means-end Chain theory, the customer perceived value theory, and the theory of rational inattention, this paper proposes that multi-source procurement of parts and components will affect the three dimensions of customers’ perceived value, i.e., perceived risk, perceived social value, and perceived brand reputation, which in turn affect consumers’ intention to purchase the consumer electronics with such components. A 2 (whether the differences in key components are easy to perceive) by 2 (whether there is social media coverage) experimental design is used to construct five experimental groups. The laptop is selected as the manipulated product and a Likert-type scale is developed to measure the concerned constructs. Subjects are recruited to participate in the experiment and they are evenly and randomly assigned to the five groups. The subjects in each group are given a description of a manipulated laptop and then asked to fill a questionnaire. A total of 230 effective questionnaires are collected. The reliability and validity of the scale are established by Cronbach’s α and the factor analysis. A structural equation model is then established to verify the proposed model. A single-factor analysis of variance is used to test the difference of the concerned constructs between the multi-source and the single-source procurement situations.
Model fit indicators including CMIN/Df, CIF, NFI, TLI, and PCFI are well above their respective thresholds, indicating a good fit of the proposed model. The statistical analyses and tests generate the following findings. First, compared with single procurement of parts and components, consumers have higher perceived risks, lower perceived social value, and lower perceived brand reputation, which further reduce consumers’ intention to purchase the electronics with multi-source procured components. Second, multi-source procurement of the parts and components that can be easily perceived will increase consumers’ perceived risks, reduce perceived social value and perceived brand reputation. These negative effects on consumers’ psychological states will further weaken consumers’ willingness to purchase the products. Moreover, the social media coverage of differences in the multi-source procured parts and components can also negatively affect the three dimensions of customers’ perceived value, which further reduce consumers’ willingness to purchase such electronics. These results reveal the adverse effects of multi-source procurement of key components on consumers’ purchasing psychology and intention and give suggestions for consumer electronics manufacturers to make prudent multi-source procurement decisions. First, manufacturers should consider consumers’ responses to the multi-source procurement of components in addition to operations considerations. Second, when using multi-source procurement of components, manufacturers had better include the performance indicators of the components that affect consumers’ actual usage experience into the supplier’s evaluation system in addition to technical specifications. Moreover, it is beneficial for manufactures to actively publish the procurement sources of key components rather than wait for social media to report. Meanwhile, manufacturers had better timely and accurately express their commitment to the consistent usage experience for the products with multi-source procured components, reducing consumers’ concerns.
Consumers’ buying decisions are usually driven by complex psychological states. This research makes initial efforts in studying the effects of multi-source procurement of components on psychological states. Future research can investigate how this source practice will affect more consumers’ psychological states, such as emotion and trust. Moreover, future research can consider more moderators, such as consumers’ knowledge of the electronics and study how those moderators modulate the effects of the multi-source procurement of components.

Key words: multi-source procurement of components, perceived risk, perceived social value, perceived brand reputation, social media

摘要： 提出消费电子产品零部件多源采购会通过影响顾客感知价值的三个维度:感知风险、感知社会价值与感知品牌信誉,影响消费者对这类电子产品的购买意愿。采用2(关键零部件差异是否易于感知)×2(是否有社交媒体报道)实验设计构建5种实验情景,建立结构方程模型验证假设。研究发现:1)多源采购会增大感知风险、降低感知社会价值与感知品牌信誉,降低购买意愿;2)多源采购易于感知差异的零部件会进一步降低顾客感知价值,进而削弱购买意愿;3)社交媒体对多源采购零部件差异的报道也会削弱顾客感知价值,降低购买意愿。研究结论为消费电子产品制造商审慎做出关键零部件多源采购决策提供借鉴。

关键词: 零部件多源采购, 感知风险, 感知社会价值, 感知品牌信誉, 社交媒体