How Consumers Interpret the Meaning of Popularity Information Online
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Pai, Tzu-Yu
Abstract
Popularity information of products (e.g., sales volume), now readily available online, can be an important information consulted by consumers to decrease uncertainty of purchase decisions. Past research has assumed that popularity information is interpreted as an indicator of product quality such that an already high level of popularity can further boost sales volume. Besides the mechanism of quality evaluation, the information of popularity can also be processed with the mechanism of social comparison, where consumers compare themselves with other people to evaluate their decisions. Consumers might compare with similar others, i.e., lateral comparison, or with better-off others, i.e., upward comparison. This study examines the effects of these two possible information processing mechanisms of popularity information on consumers’ purchase intention: product quality evaluation and social comparison. The experiment was conducted with a 2 (popularity information: high vs. low) x 3 (processing mechanism: quality evaluation, upward comparison and lateral comparison) between-subjects factorial design. The empirical results show that consumers who used the mechanisms of quality evaluation or lateral comparison reported a greater purchase intention for popular products. In contrast, those employed the upward comparison mechanism reported a favorable purchase intention towards less popular products. The managerial implications of our study results on Internet market are further discussed.
Subjects
熱門訊息
社會比較
觀察學習
購買意圖
網路行銷
Type
thesis
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