Mechanic Arms vs. Flexible Arms: The Impact of Production Methods on Perceived Product Quality

Abstract

Businesses often highlight production methods to showcase high quality and impress consumers. Existing research has focused on the different impacts of manual versus machine production methods on perceived quality, but the exploration of production methods of mechanic arms and flexible arms within machine production on quality perception remains insufficient. This study investigates the effects of production methods of mechanic arms and flexible arms on perceived product quality and examines the mediating roles of fineness, as well as the moderating roles of product fine production requirements, product types, and the country using the production method. Using a series of experimental studies, the results show that adopting production methods of flexible arms leads consumers to perceive the product as higher quality. Fineness acts as a mediator, the demand for fine production positively moderates the effect, and the country using the production method significantly moderates the impact on perceived product quality, but product type does not have a significant moderating effect. The findings enrich signal theory and implicit product quality theory. The results provide several managerial implications for enterprises about effectively using production methods of flexible arms as quality signals.

Keywords: Production methods, Mechanic arms, Flexible arms, Perceived product quality