Research Article
The Effect of Free Trial Restriction Methods and Payment Methods on Consumer Product Purchase
1 Chungnam National University, 2 Sogang University
Published: January 2017 · Vol. 46 No. 4 · pp. 1069-1095
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2017.46.4.1069
Full Text
Abstract
The importance of utilizing an effective marketing software program as convergence products becomes main trend in high-tech markets. A growing number of companies are planning to differentiate their promotion and payment methods based on free trials of marketing software in order to improve their marketing tactics. The purpose of this study is to find the moderating effect of restriction types (time and feature restrictions) on the relationship between payment types (license and pay-per use payments) and product purchase. In the time restriction condition, consumers can evaluate product features more extensively regardless of the payment types because they already have reviewed the products during the free trial. On the contrary, in the feature restriction condition, consumers prefer pay-per use payment due to the high uncertainty caused by the fact that they have only reviewed limited product features. The experiment results reveal an interaction effect between restriction and payment types as predicted. And restriction type has moderating effect on the relationship between payment unit (large/small) and product purchase under the pay-per use condition. Furthermore, the perceived uncertainty mediates the interaction effect, preference, and purchase intention. Lastly, the interaction effect between restriction and payment types is moderated by user satisfaction. We propose promotional strategies based on these results and these findings can be applied to any other industries.
