Welcome to the InfoSci Platform
Reference Hub7
How Dependent Are Consumers on Others When Making Their Shopping Decisions?

How Dependent Are Consumers on Others When Making Their Shopping Decisions?

Makoto Nakayama, Yun Wan, Norma Sutcliffe
Copyright: © 2011 |Volume: 9 |Issue: 4 |Pages: 21
ISSN: 1539-2937|EISSN: 1539-2929|EISBN13: 9781613509982|DOI: 10.4018/jeco.2011100101
Cite Article Cite Article

MLA

Nakayama, Makoto, et al. "How Dependent Are Consumers on Others When Making Their Shopping Decisions?." JECO vol.9, no.4 2011: pp.1-21. http://doi.org/10.4018/jeco.2011100101

APA

Nakayama, M., Wan, Y., & Sutcliffe, N. (2011). How Dependent Are Consumers on Others When Making Their Shopping Decisions?. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), 9(4), 1-21. http://doi.org/10.4018/jeco.2011100101

Chicago

Nakayama, Makoto, Yun Wan, and Norma Sutcliffe. "How Dependent Are Consumers on Others When Making Their Shopping Decisions?," Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) 9, no.4: 1-21. http://doi.org/10.4018/jeco.2011100101

Export Reference

Mendeley
Favorite Full-Issue Download

Abstract

Consumers now have a variety of shopping information sources online and offline in making purchase decisions. How has the Web changed the perceptions of consumers regarding the relative importance of different shopping information sources? Applying the attribution principle and the least effort principle, the authors hypothesize the relative importance of self-evaluation and three types of recommendations from others (word-of-mouth or WOM, expert opinion, and electronic WOM or eWOM). The data collected from 549 consumers show that the perceived importance of WOM remains equal to or even higher than that of self-evaluation for credence goods (product quality unknown even after purchase and use) and the so-called digital goods without Web access. However, the importance of self-evaluation increases when consumers have both Web access and non-Web sources of shopping information. The Web appears to make self-evaluation by consumers more important than inputs from others.

Request Access

You do not own this content. Please login to recommend this title to your institution's librarian or purchase it from the IGI Global bookstore.