Dr. Laee Choi, Marketing
Perceived risk refers to the nature and amount of risk perceived by a consumer in contemplating a particular purchase decision. Cox and Rich (1964) suggest that the amount of risk perceived by the customer is a function of two factors: the amount at stake determined by the importance of the buying goals and the individual’s feeling of subjective certainty. Especially, when deciding the usage of innovative and new products such as CBD oil, risks customers perceive may be higher than the usage of general products because of the high amount at stake and low subjective certainty that results from lack of both direct and indirect experiences with CBD oil.
Researchers and marketers are paying attention to CBD oil due to the ground-breaking effectiveness of CBD oil and legalization of its usage, while there is no investigation pertaining to how customers’ perceived risk should be handled. Thus, this study first aims to examine what factors-based on product, brand/finn, and information sourcesinfluence perceived risks and how marketing strategies for each factor help to reduce perceived risks.
Second, when customers have high perceived risks, they are less likely to buy the product or brand (Aqueveque, 2006). However, some factors may moderate the negative relationship between perceived risks and the intention to buy. To answer these research questions, the data will be collected from U.S. customers. The survey based and experimental-based study will be developed to test the proposed hypotheses. As statistical techniques, this study will utilize structural equation modeling (SEM), PROCESS macro, and dominance analysis.