기존의 연구에 의하면 온라인 에이전트가 제품 간 가격경쟁을 유도하여 소비자의 가격민감도를 높인다고 한다. 반면에,Linch and Ariely(2000)에 의하면 온라인 에이전트가 제품 간 품질차이를 명확히 제공하여 소비자의 가격민감도를 오히려 낮춘다고 한다. 이에 대하여 본 연구자들은 상반된 두 연구결과에 대한 새로운 해석으로, 온라인 에이전트가 제시하는 제품정보의 응집성(cohesiveness) 정도가 소비자의 가격민감도에 영향을 줄 수 있음에 주목하였다.본 연구자들은 가설검증을 위해 3개의 실험을 실행하였다.실험 1 결과, 온라인 에이전트에 의해 제시된 정보의 응집성이 높은 경우 소비자는 제품의 가격속성 보다는 품질속성에 더욱 주목하여 가격민감도가 낮아졌다. 반면에 제시된 정보의 응집성이 낮은 경우 소비자는 제품 간 품질속성보다는 가격 속성에 더욱 주목하여 가격민감도는 높아졌다.실험 2에서는 제품군의 가격수준이 소비자의 가격민감도에 영향을 미칠 수 있음을 고려하였다. 연구결과, 저가격 제품에 서는 제시정보의 응집성 정도가 소비자의 가격민감도에 영향을 미쳤지만, 고가격 제품에서는 영향을 미치지 않았다. 실험 3은 실험 2 결과의 일반화 가능성을 증대시키기 위해 설계되었다. 즉, 제품군의 특성(가격중시 제품 vs. 품질중시 제품)이 응집성 효과에 영향을 미칠 수 있다는 대안적 설명에 대한 실험이다. 연구결과, 대안적 설명은 제거되었다.결론적으로 본 연구자들은 Ritov, Gati, and Tversky(1990)의 유사성 판단이론을 바탕으로 온라인 에이전트가 제시하는 정보의 제시유형이 소비자의 가격민감도에 영향을 미칠 수 있음을 보여주었다. 단, 그것은 저가격 제품군에만 해당되었다.
Prior research has found out that online agents derive higher price sensitivity on consumers from price competition. On the contrary, Linch and Ariely(2000) contend that online agents make price sensitivity lower by providing distinct product qualities intensely.With regard to these opposite opinions, we suggest that the cohesiveness of information provided by online agents may affect the price sensitivity of consumers. This is a creative point of view about online agents' effects on price sensitivity.We carried out 3 experiments in order to prove our hypotheses. In Experiment 1, we found out that if online agents provide product information more cohesively, consumers pay more attention to the quality of alternatives than price, and then their price sensitivity become blunt. On the other hand, when online agents provide information less cohesively, consumers take more notice of the price of the alternatives than their quality, and this makes their price sensitivity higher. That is, cohesiveness of information provided by online agents affected the price sensitivity of consumers. Attention of attributes information mediated price sensitivity of consumers.In Experiment 2, we included the possibility inferred by prior researches that the price level of product category may impact the cohesiveness of price sensitivity. According to the results, cohesiveness of information affected price sensitivity of low-priced product only, whereas, it does not in case of higher-priced product.On the other hand, we suggested an alternative explanation that cohesiveness of information might brings features of product category (attention to price vs. attention to quality) into largely and could influence price sensitivity in experiment 2. That is to say, when the attributes information of the price-attention product category is given cohesively, consumers tend to more pay attention to price information and price sensitivity grows much higher, while in case of cohesiveness of the attributes information of quality-attention product category,consumers more pay attention to quality information, so price sensitivity lowers. Specifically, experiment 2 has the experiment design of 2 (price level of product category:low price and attention to quality vs. high price and attention to price) × 2 (cohesiveness: more cohesiveness vs. less cohesiveness) Therefore, alternative explanation says that the results of Ex. 2 may be influenced by a confounding effect - price level and product category.For ruling out this explanation, we used between subjects design of 2 (price level of productcategory: low price and attention to price vs. high price and attention to quality) × 2 (cohesiveness: more cohesiveness vs. less cohesiveness). The experiment design was parsimonious.If cohesiveness effect shows in the product category of low price and price attention, we could prove that cohesiveness effect arises not by product category level but by price level.The result of Experiment 3 revealed that the alternative explanation was erase. Weenhanced the generalizability of Experiment 2.Conclusively, we have shown that the similarity of judgment theory developed by Ritov,Gati, and Tversky(1990) may play an important role in predicting the price sensitivity of consumers with the product information provided by online agents, only in low-priced product category.