Abstract

Purpose - In recent, a research finds that advanced selling can influence a consumer's choice(Kim et al., 2013). Advanced selling is defined as the new product launching strategy which company allows consumers to preorder new product before its release(Chu & Zhang, 2011). Prior researches have focused on the benefits of advanced selling(e.g., information gathering for demand prediction, an advantage for pricing strategy, and so on) for companies using this strategy(Chen, 2001; Chu & Zhang, 2011; Li & Zhang, 2013; Tang et al., 2004; Xie & Shugan, 2009). However, Kim et al.(2013) find it can also influence a consumer's choice. In detail, they suggest that when consumers use advanced selling, they are likely to prefer high-performance options rather than low-price options based on construal level theory(Trope & Liberman, 2003). In this paper, we tried to expand the prior researches for finding the mechanism of the influence of advanced selling on a consumer's choice. The purpose of this research is to test the mediating effect on the influence of advanced selling. Research design, data, and methodology - To find the mechanism of the influence of advanced selling, we designed an experiment for testing mediation effect. we recruited 93 students from a university. We assigned participants into one of two groups using randomization method. The participants with each group were given a scenario describing the sales strategy. Finally, they made a choice between high-performance option and low-price option. Sequentially, they also responded some questions for testing mediation effect. Results - First, we replicated prior research to test the influence of advanced selling. As a result, we could find that consumers prefer the high-performance option when they preorder it to purchase at the time of consumption. Thus, the replication result is the same as prior research. Second, we tested that advanced selling can influence the perception of temporal distance. The results confirmed that consumers perceived longer temporal distance in advanced selling condition(&#x03B2; = 1.575, SE = 0.272, p < 0.001). Third, we predicted that temporal distance can increase the importance of desirable attributes and decrease the importance of feasible attributes. The results suggested that temporal distance decreased significantly the importance of attributes related to feasibility(&#x03B2; = -0.19, SE = 0.07, p < 0.01), however, it had non-significant effect on increasing the importance of desirable attributes. Finally, we used Sobel-test for testing mediation effect, and it confirmed that the importance of feasible attributes had mediating role of the influence of advanced selling(Sobel test statistic = -2.110, SE = 0.111, p < 0.05). Conclusions - In this paper, we tried to find the mechanism of the influence on advanced selling from a consumer's choice. With an experiment, we confirmed that the importance of feasible attributes could mediate the effect on advanced selling. Therefore, we suggested some theoretical and practical contributions from this research. Finally, we discussed research limitations and suggested future research topics.