Hean Tat Keh and Jin Sun
Executive Summary
The marketing literature recognizes perceived risk as an important factor that influences consumer behavior. However, much previous research has been conducted in the context of tangible goods and primarily on prepurchase risk perceptions. Because credence services are highly intangible and difficult to evaluate, the risk remains even after purchase and consumption, and the cognitive process consumers use to judge postpurchase risk is likely to be different from the process to evaluate prepurchase risk.
Keh and Sun demonstrate the complexities of postpurchase perceived risk processing. They present a framework that includes both the cultural-level and individual-level antecedents, as well as the consequences, of postpurchase perceived risk for a credence service (i.e., insurance). To convey the varying types of perceived risk, they operationalize it as personal (i.e., social and psychological) and nonpersonal (i.e., financial and performance) risks.
Keh and Sun conducted surveys on health insurance customers in China and Singapore, and the results indicate that the effects of the cultural-level antecedents on perceived risk differ between the two countries. Specifically, resultant self-transcendence affects only postpurchase personal risk in China. Resultant conservation increases both personal and nonpersonal risks in China but decreases personal and nonpersonal risks in Singapore. At the individual level, the results show that, in general, involvement and face consciousness are important antecedents of postpurchase perceived risk in both countries, except for the link between involvement and personal risk.
Personal and nonpersonal risks exhibit different consequences. In China, personal risk positively affected perceived value and customer satisfaction, whereas nonpersonal risk negatively affected both outcomes. In Singapore, both personal and nonpersonal risks exerted a negative influence on only perceived value.
Because potential losses are the foremost concern in consumer decisions, marketing managers must understand the importance of postpurchase risk. These issues are magnified if the company operates internationally. On the one hand, multinational companies might choose to expand to countries where the cultural values are similar to their own. On the other hand, if a new credence service is introduced in countries where the culture emphasizes uncertainty avoidance, firms must find ways to reduce risk perception.
Overall, the results of this study enhance knowledge of how consumers from different cultural backgrounds evaluate postpurchase risk and also provide insight into the behavioral outcomes of perceived risk across countries.
Biography
Hean Tat Keh holds a PhD from University of Washington and is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. His research interests include services marketing, brand management, marketing strategy, and cross-cultural research. His articles have appeared in Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, Marketing Letters, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, among other journals.
Jin Sun is a PhD candidate in the Department of Marketing at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. Her research interests include services marketing, consumer behavior, and cross-cultural research.
Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 16, No. 1, March 2008
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