A salient characteristic of the current digital economy is the prevalence of digital products. It may be largely attributed to the rapid growth of digital media which grant users tremendous control over various digital content. However, a number of studies in consumer psychology reported that digital products may lead to reduced perceptions of control as the virtual format inhibits sense of ownership. Noticing this conflict in scholarship, this study examines to what extent consumers’ need for control influences their responses to digital versus physical products in a common E-Commerce situation—viewing product advertisements on social media. The results indicated that consumers with high need for control evaluated digital products more positively than physical products and also preferred the advertisements featuring digital products. Moreover, these consumers were also willing to pay more for digital rather than physical products. Such results provided some preliminary evidence to indicate that the experience of using digital products may satisfy online shoppers’ need for control. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

当前数字经济的显着特征是数字产品的普及。这在很大程度上可以归因于数字媒体的迅速发展，它使用户可以对各种数字内容进行大量控制。但是，许多消费者心理学研究报告称，由于虚拟格式抑制了所有权感，因此数字产品可能导致对控制的感知减少。注意到学术上的这种冲突，本研究调查了消费者在通用电子商务情况下对控制的需求在多大程度上影响了他们对数字产品与实物产品的反应-在社交媒体上查看了产品广告。结果表明，与实际产品相比，对控制有较高需求的消费者对数字产品的评价更高，并且他们更偏爱带有数字产品的广告。此外，这些消费者还愿意为数字产品而非实体产品支付更高的价格。这样的结果提供了一些初步证据，表明使用数字产品的体验可以满足在线购物者的控制需求。讨论了理论和实践意义。