The impact of membership fees on consumer attitude and choice
通过模拟购物实验，研究了会员费如何影响消费者对商店的态度和购买选择，发现会员费与效用变化共同影响商店忠诚度，符合前景理论、承诺升级、认知失调和自我知觉理论的预测。
This study examined the impact of membership fees on consumer attitude and purchase behavior. Subjects participated in a computerized simulated shopping experiment, and chose between three competing videotape rental stores, receiving feedback about purchase utility on each occasion. Manipulations included the presence or absence of an initial membership-fee requirement at the dominant store and the timing of a lowering of that store's utility to the same level as that offered by a competing establishment. Store loyalty is shown to vary as a function of membership fees and utility changes in a manner consistent with hypotheses generated from prospect, escalation-of-commitment, cognitive-dissonance, and self-perception theories. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.