Ambiguous product cues—cues with multiple interpretation options—may impact consumer decision making. One such ambiguous cue is the designation of a product as “regional” without specifying the exact origin of the product. Here, consumers typically equate “regional” with spatial proximity, yet legally the use of regional labels does not necessarily reflect such proximity. A potential mismatch can occur between consumers' interpretation of regionality and firms' use of regional communication claims, leading to potential consumer deception and harmed consumer welfare. Drawing upon the accessibility-diagnosticity-framework and Elaboration-Likelihood-Model, this paper examines consumers' responses to different regionality cues. Across two studies, we find that communicated regionality cues heighten consumers' product evaluations resulting from (mis)perceived spatial proximity. Informing consumers about the true product results in unfavorable evaluations if that origin is spatially distant. Our findings call for regulation of regional product labels and highlight the need for communication standards in consumer markets.

中文翻译：

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消费者使用模糊的产品线索：“地域性”主张案例

模糊的产品线索（具有多种解释选项的线索）可能会影响消费者的决策。其中一个模棱两可的线索就是将一种产品指定为“区域性”产品，但没有具体说明该产品的确切原产地。在这里，消费者通常将“区域”等同于空间邻近性，但在法律上，区域标签的使用并不一定反映这种邻近性。消费者对区域性的解释与企业对区域性沟通声明的使用之间可能会出现潜在的不匹配，从而导致潜在的消费者欺骗并损害消费者福利。本文利用可及性诊断框架和细化似然模型，研究了消费者对不同区域线索的反应。在两项研究中，我们发现，交流的区域性线索会提高消费者因（错误）感知的空间邻近性而产生的产品评价。如果原产地在空间上遥远，则向消费者告知真实产品会导致不利的评价。我们的研究结果呼吁对区域产品标签进行监管，并强调消费市场对通信标准的需求。