產品傷害機(product harm crises)在市場上是一種經常發生的狀況，一般對產品傷害危機的定義是指公司生產或代理的產品被發現有瑕疵或危險性，而這些有問題的商品除了會對公司聲譽、收益及市場佔有率產生不利的影響，也會導致代價高昂的產品回收及其對品牌權益的傷害，因此對類似的產品傷害危機進行有效的管理，已經成為現代企業危機管理最優先要面對的課題。 討論產品傷害危機對消費者購買意願的影響，許多與之相關的消費者行為的理解是由消費者學習理論(consumer learning theory)為基礎推論而來。消費者學習理論旨在探討消費者在產品傷害危機前、中、後，因為對產品的品質認知發生改變，進而影響消費者的購買行為。但是經由分析比較以往消費者學習理論的相關文獻，發現文獻中存在重大的歧義，文獻認為除非消費者所接受到的訊息和其原來的認知相反，否則其所認知的品質是一個常數；而另外有許多文獻則認為，所有的訊息來源，都會對消費者對品質的認知產生改變或一定程度的影響；前者，可歸類於原始型消費者學習理論(Original Consumer Learning Theory)的研究範疇；而後者則屬於改良型學習理論(Revised Consumer Learning Theory)的研究範圍。 本研究利用功能性磁振造影，針對不同的性別，研究在產品傷害危機發生後，消費者大腦皮質的腦活化反應。其目的是希望找出，在產品傷害危機後，如果對消費者施以負面的口碑效應刺激後，原始型消費者學習理論或改良型消費者學習理論，何者較符合人類的思考模式。這在以往的學術文獻中從來沒有類似的研究。實驗結果顯示，男性和女性在產品傷害危機後，如果對消費者施以負面的口碑效應刺激後，對產品知覺品質改變有很大的不同。男性不論施以何種刺激，其大腦皮質腦活化影像幾乎無改變；而女性則會受資訊類型及與訊息傳播者間的關係，而有顯著的變化，因此應可合理的推論，原始型學習理論較符合男性思考的慣性；而改良型學習理論較符合女性的思考模式。 ;The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of gender on the neural substrates of theories of consumer behavior (i.e., the original compared with the revised versions of the Consumer Learning Theory) and whether gender influences brain activation associated with word-of-mouth (WOM) communications (i.e., information specificity, source expertise, and tie strength) after a product harm crisis. This article also discusses the WOM effects of product quality perception, negative emotion, and purchase intentions by precise localizing brain activity. This study applied functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to measure the brain activity (i.e., the BOLD signals) during the negative WOM communication after a product harm crisis. The male participants treat the product quality as a constant and tend to support the Original Consumer Learning Theory. The female participants; however, showed differentiable brain activation across three factors, suggesting a dynamic representation for the product quality (i.e., not a constant), and appear to be more sensitive to the Revised Consumer Learning Theory. This paper concluded that the original Consumer Learning Theory applies to males and the revised version applies to females. Therefore, gender determines whether the original or the revised version of the Consumer Learning Theory works in consumers’ decision-making. And the extant of research has not focused on the information after the product harm crises, in terms of whether the information being communicated is specific or tensile through WOM communication.
