이 연구의 목적은 소매상황에서 고객이 느끼는 지각된 통제(perceived control)가 그 고객의 소매점에서의 소매행위와 관련된 여러 가지 반응들(감정적 반응, 재방문의도, 구전의도, 자신감)에 미치는 영향을 조사하는 것이다. 이 주제는 소비자/소매연구에서 활발히 연구되었으나, 대부분 서양인의 시각에서 서양 소비자들을 중심으로 이루어졌다. 그 결과, 고객들의 지각된 통제의 수준이 높으면 높을수록(고통제), 고객들이 느끼는 긍정적 반응의 크기가 커지고, 통제수준이 낮으면 낮을수록(저통제), 고객들의 반응은 부정적이 된다고 알려졌다. 이 연구에서는 동양인들의 통제에 대한 기존 연구결과들을 바탕으로 소매점에서 한국인들은 고통제 상황보다 저통제 상황에서 더 긍정적인 반응들을 보일 것이라는, 기존의 마케팅 연구결과들과는 상반된 가설들을 수립하고 실증하였다. 이 실험은 두 가지 다른 형태들로 이루어 졌는데, 하나는 MP3 매장에서 점원의 고객응대 과정에서 적극적인 정도를 다르게 하여 인지적 통제수준을 조작하는 방식이었고, 다른 하나는 중식당에서 선택메뉴를 일품요리와 세트메뉴로 구분하여 의사결정 통제수준을 조작하는 방식이었다. 이 두 실험 결과, 모두 예상과 같이, 한국인들은 저통제 상황에서 고통제 상황보다 감정적 반응, 재방문의도, 구전의도, 자신감에 모두 긍정적인 반응을 보였다.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of perceived control on customers` emotional response, re-patronage intention, positive word-of-mouth intention, and confidence level. This issue has been investigated extensively in consumer research. However, most of the research has been done by using only Westerners as research subjects. The results have been interpreted based on the Westerner`s point of view. The studies have continuously acknowledged that consumers who feel higher perceived control in a retail setting show more positive responses than do those who feel lower perceived control. Being different from the previous research on this issue, we employed Koreans as our research subjects. Based on the previous research on perceived control for Easterners, this study proposes that Koreans who feel lower perceived control will show more positive responses than do those who feel higher perceived control in a retail environment. In this study, along with the previous research, we define control as "an individual`s beliefs, at a given point in time, in his or her ability to effect a change, in a desired direction, on the environment" (Greenberger et al. 1989, p. 31). This study attempts to apply the concept to a retail environment by using Averill(1973)`s conceptualization of control that is able to be operationalized in three different dimensions: behavioral control, cognitive control, and decisional control. Then, this study conceptualizes high and low control in a retail setting. Based on the previous research on primary and secondary control, the study explains the high control as the situation in which an individual perceives that he or she acts as an agent explicitly to produce desired outcomes in a retail setting. This concept is similar to that of primary direct personal control. In this condition, an individual attempts to change the world so that it fits the self`s needs. Instead, the low control refers to an individual`s perceived belief that he or she does not act as an agent explicitly to produce desired outcomes in a retail setting. This concept is consistent with those of secondary, indirect, collective control. In this condition, an individual attempts to align oneself with existing realities leaving them changed but exerting control over their personal psychological impact. In the other cases, he or she tries to let other(s) to produce desired outcomes or to control the environment as a member of a group or collective, which serve as an agent of control. The previous research on this issue has evidenced that Westerners who put an emphasis on autonomy prefer high control over low control. Instead, Easterners prefer low control to high control because they value maintenance of harmony with others more than autonomy. Based on this previous research`s results, we propose several hypotheses that Koreans who feel lower perceived control will show more positive responses than do those who feel higher perceived control. Then, this study tested the hypotheses using two different experiments. The first experiment employed two purchase scenarios in a MP3 retail store and manipulated the level of perceived cognitive control by using the two different types of a salesperson`s interactions with a customer in the store. The second experiment, for manipulating the perceived decision-making control level, used two chinese restaurant scenarios that contain two different types of assortments which are item-by-item and set menus. For both of the experiments, we employed Korean college students as research subjects. For experiment 1, the ANOVA results indicated that the research subjects showed the higher level of emotional response, re-patronage intention, positive word-of-mouth intention, and confidence in the high control condition than in the low control condition. The results are consistent with our expectations before the experiment. In addition, the results are the exactly opposite direction of those of Soderlund (2007)’s experiment that is operationalized in the same manner of this study’s. In addition to the ANOVA analysis, we conducted an ANCOVA analysis in order to partial out the effect of product knowledge. The ANCOVA results showed the same trend as what we found in the ANOVA test. For experiment 2, we conducted the ANOVA and ANCOVA analysis in the same way of those of experiment 1. The both results showed the same trend as what we found in the experiment 1. Based on the results of both experiments, we conclude that Korean consumers prefer low control over high control in a retail setting. The results have several theoretical and managerial implications. The most important theoretical implication is that it is hard to generalize the previous research findings that have been obtained with Western consumers to Eastern consumers. As psychology research on Easterners' control preference showed, Eastern consumers seems to feel more comfortable in the low control condition than the high control condition when they are doing shopping. This theoretical position implies that active engagements in interactions with customers should be recommended more for Asian retailers than for American retailers. In reality, it is a common business practice that retailers actively solicit customers to visit their stores at major markets (e.g. Namdaemun Market) in Korea.