臺灣博碩士論文加值系統

一般消費者常常會有「一分錢一分貨」的想法，但是價格是否真的能夠準確的反應出品質？本研究用使用民國79年11月至民國94年4月份的「中華民國消費者報導」中102種產品的產品測試結果，用以探討台灣市場上價格與品質之間的關係。研究結果顯示，價格並不能準確的反應品質，台灣市場上的品質價格相關平均值為0.189，而且不同產品之間的品質價格相關性都有大幅的差異。本研究也發現價格品質相關性的變異原因之一為產品的特性 - 搜尋品的品質價格相關性高於經驗品的品質價格相關性。而本研究所提出的其他三項解釋原因 – 產品耐久程度、價格變異、以及價格高低並不能顯著的解釋產品品質價格相關性的變異。此研究的結果顯示價格並不能代表品質，因此消費者在購買產品之前必須有更多的資訊，不能單以價格做為購買衡量標準。

This paper uses 102 product category test results of the Chinese, Taipei Consumer Report from the period of November 1990 to April 2005 to examine the validity of price as a signal of quality in the Taiwan market. In other words, does price accurately reflect quality, and do consumers really get what they pay for? The findings of this study indicate that price is not a very good indication of quality in the Taiwan market, with an average correlation value of 0.189 and greatly varying levels of correlation across product categories. In terms of reasons for the varying correlation levels, product characteristic is a factor – search goods have a higher price-quality correlation than experience goods. Other factors proposed in this study including product durability and quality uncertainty (price range and price levels) do not significantly influence the correlation levels. The results of this study indicate that price is not a good indicator of quality and that consumers need to be informed on more than the price of products when making purchasing decisions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 4
2.1. Theoretical Grounds - Why Does Price Reflect Quality? 4
2.2. Empirical Studies - Does Price Reflect Quality? 5
3. Research Methodology 11
3.1. Research Framework 11
3.2. Hypotheses 11
3.2.1. Product Characteristics – Durable vs. Non-durable 11
3.2.2. Product Characteristics – Search vs. Experience Goods 12
3.2.3. Quality Uncertainty – Product Price Range 13
3.2.4. Quality Uncertainty – Price Levels 13
3.3. Chinese Taipei Consumer Report 13
3.4 Method 16
3.4.1. Data Selection and Classification 16
3.4.2. Data Rating Classification 19
3.4.3. Statistical Procedures 22
4. Analysis Results 24
4.1. Overall Taiwan Market Correlation 24
4.2. Hypothesis Testing 26
4.3. Post Hoc Analysis 27
5. Conclusions 30
5.1. Implications 32
5.2. Limitations 33
5.3. Suggestions for Future Studies 34
References 36
Appendices 39
Appendix 1 – Correlation and Price Information 39
Appendix 2– Rater Results (Durable vs. Non-Durable) 42
Appendix 3– Rater Results (Search vs. Experience) 45



TABLE OF CONTENTS – TABLES

Table 1 Comparison of Country GDP Growth Rates in the Past Decade 2
Table 2 Comparison of Previous Studies 10
Table 3 Conditions Required for Inclusion 18
Table 4 Criteria for Classifying Durable and Non-Durable Goods 20
Table 5 Criteria for Classifying Search and Experience Goods 20
Table 6 Inter-Rater Reliability Results – Percentage Agreement Method 22
Table 7 Inter-Rater Reliability Results – Cohen’s Kappa Method 22
Table 8 Taiwan Market Correlation Results 24
Table 9 Price-Quality Correlation By Country 25
Table 10 Price-Quality Correlation by Independent Variables 26
Table 11 Regression Results with Price-Quality Correlations as Dependent Variables 27
Table 12 Chi-Square Analysis for Price-Quality Correlation Sign and Product Durability 28
Table 13 Chi-Square Analysis for Price-Quality Correlation Sign and Product Search or Experience Attribute 28

TABLE OF CONTENTS – FIGURES
Figure 1 Graph of Real GDP Growth by Country in the Last Decade 3
Figure 2 Research Framework 11

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