Effects of product portfolios and recommendation timing in the efficiency of personalized recommendation

Personalized recommendation has important implications in raising online shopping efficiency and increasing product sales. There has been wide interest in finding ways to provide more efficient personalized recommendations. Most existing studies focus on how to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the recommendation algorithms or are more concerned on ways to reduce perceived risks and thus increase consumer satisfaction. Unlike these studies, our study begins from the decision‐making process of consumers, using consumers' two‐stage decision‐making system and preference inconsistency theory as a basis, to reveal the mechanisms involved in consumers' acceptance of recommendations. This paper analyzes the effect of personalized recommendations from two angles, recommendation timing and product portfolio, tries to point out differences in consumer preferences between similar products and related products, and verifies that consumers demand diversity in the recommended content. The study analyzes differences in the acceptance of personalized recommendations between practical products and hedonic products and discovers that recommendations of hedonic products are more effective than that of practical products. Based on the research earlier, the study provides suggestions on how to better plan and operate a personalized recommendation system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Confidence via correction: The effect of judgment correction on consumer confidence

At times, consumers are motivated to reduce the influence of a product recommendation on their judgments. Based on previous research, it is unclear whether this correction process will increase or decrease consumers' confidence in their judgments. We find that source credibility moderates the effect of correction on confidence: correction decreases confidence when a product recommendation comes from a high credibility source but increases confidence when the same message comes from a low credibility source. As a result, correction increases the effectiveness of recommendations from low credibility sources on purchase intentions. Notably, this “confidence via correction” effect is further moderated by elaboration, such that the effect is attenuated for high elaboration consumers. Our results have implications for understanding consumers' reactions to persuasive messages and for both marketing practitioners and consumer protection agencies using correction cues to influence message persuasiveness.     

Help or hinder? When recommendation signage expands consideration sets and heightens decision difficulty

This research examines whether recommendation signage helps or hinders the consumer when faced with choosing from large product assortments. In spite of frequent usage and retailer intuition suggesting that providing recommendation signs (e.g., “Best Seller,” “Award Winner”) should help consumers in the choice process, we propose that signs can hinder choice for consumers with more developed preferences by adding to the complexity and difficulty of the decision process. In three experiments using horizontally differentiated products in multiple categories, we provide evidence that recommendation signs create preference conflict for consumers with more developed preferences, leading these consumers to form larger consideration sets and ultimately experience more difficulty from the decision-making process. In addition, we show that these effects are mitigated for consumers with less developed preferences and when the choice is from a small assortment. The results suggest that recommendation signage may not be an effective tool for aiding choice from large assortments; instead signage can exacerbate the difficulties associated with having too many choices, with implications on purchase quantity.     

Understanding green purchase behavior through death anxiety and individual social responsibility: Mastery as a moderator

This research proposes a framework to explore green consumption behavior from the perspective of the anxiety of death and individual social responsibility. Research data are collected from a sample of 280 consumers in Taipei, Taiwan. The findings reveal that consumers' anxiety of death affects consumers' green purchase attitude and then ultimately green purchase intention through the mediating variables of environmental concern and pro‐environmental behavior. On a similar line, individual social responsibility is found to act as a precursor in increasing consumer's concern for the environment and, eventually, green purchase attitude and intention. Mastery is found to invigorate the effect of death anxiety on green concern and pro‐environmental behavior, while it enervates the relationship between individual social responsibility and environmental concern.     

Utility blindness: Why do we fall for deals?

Utility blindness occurs under limited information processing when consumers base their purchase decisions solely on transaction utility (gains from the deal) rather than on total utility. When the deal is attractive enough, consumers will buy a product even though the total utility is little or negative; on the other hand, an unattractive deal might decrease consumers' purchase likelihood even when the total utility is unaffected by the promotion. In this paper, three experiments provide evidence for the existence of utility blindness and demonstrate that information processing limitation is the underlying process. Transaction utility salience and cognitive load are identified as the moderating factors. Theoretical contributions, managerial implications, limitations, and future areas of the current research are also discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of targeted digital advertising on consumers' purchase intention: Comparative analysis based on the perspective of ads content source

Targeted digital advertising (TDA) is immensely popular among marketing practitioners; investigating its effects is increasingly becoming a subject of academic research. Brands can push advertisements of the same product from different sources to consumers in a targeted manner; however, the differences in the impact on consumers of TDA with different content sources are surprisingly understudied. Therefore, this study analyzes the consumers' purchase intentions in the context of TDA with different content sources (stars vs. bloggers vs. top e-commerce streamers), and the perceived differences between consumers with different thinking styles. Through two experimental studies, this study finds that TDA with top e-commerce streamers' recommendation source can better improve consumers' purchase intentions more than TDA with a star endorsement and TDA with a blogger evaluation. For consumers who prefer the rational thinking style, TDA with a star endorsement and TDA with top e-commerce streamers recommendation can be better; For consumers who prefer the empirical thinking style, TDA recommended by bloggers and TDA with top e-commerce streamers recommendation can be better. Furthermore, this study finds that consumers' mental simulation and perceived usefulness can mediate the relationships described above, and that the two play a chain mediation role. The findings contribute to the precision marketing literature by enriching the understanding of the psychological mechanism underlying consumers' perceptions of and decision factors toward the TDA.     

Consumer Search in High Technology Markets: Exploring the Use of Traditional Information Channels

Understanding the use of information channels during the purchase process for high technology durable goods is vital if marketing managers want to efficiently allocate their communication budgets. This article examines how the perceived quality of information, as well as demographic and other consumer characteristics, affects consumers’ information‐channel‐choice behavior. The results suggest that (a) information channels operate as substitutes as far as information quality is concerned; (b) during each segment of the search consumers tend to use multiple sources of information, and in that context information channels act as complements, which illustrates the synergistic effect of search between channels and the importance of jointly estimating consumers’ information channel choices; and (c) utility derived from information search changes as time passes, which indicates that empirical research should use panel data to capture the dynamics of the search process.     

Predicting the Personal Appeal of Marketing Images Using Computational Methods

Images play a central role in digital marketing. They attract attention, trigger emotions, and shape consumers’ first impressions of products and brands. We propose that the shift from one‐to‐many mass communication to highly personalized one‐to‐one communication requires an understanding of image appeal at a personal level. Instead of asking “How appealing is this image?” we ask “How appealing is this image to this particular consumer?” Using the well‐established five‐factor model of personality, we apply machine learning algorithms to predict an image's personality appeal—the personality of consumers to which the image appeals most—from a set of 89 automatically extracted image features (Study 1). We subsequently apply the same algorithm on new images to predict consequential outcomes from the fit between consumer and image personality. We show that image‐person fit adds incremental predictive power over the images’ general appeal when predicting (a) consumers’ liking of new images (Study 2) and (b) consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions (Study 3).     

Is no feedback perceived as a risk in online reviews?

Online reviews are critical in consumer decision-making regarding making online purchases. Given that reviews allow consumers to leave personal feedback about a product or service, it is unclear why some choose not to. This study is an examination of whether consumers tend to perceive no feedback as a sign of risk in online product listings along with the effects of no feedback on purchase intention. Regulatory focus theory is also applied to elucidate the differences in perceived risk between offerings with either high or low numbers of transactions accompanied by no feedback. Through online survey, data were gathered with 450 participants who had used any online marketplaces within 3 months. Consumers with a focus on both prevention and promotion perceive higher risk when there are many transactions with no feedback (high number of no-feedback condition), whereas consumers with a promotion focus perceive significantly lower risk when there are few transactions with no feedback (low number of no-feedback condition). From the analyses of regression and structural equation modeling, perceived risk negatively affected purchase intention in both the high and low number of no-feedback condition. Also in both the promotion and prevention focus groups, purchase intention is significantly higher in the low no feedback condition than the high no feedback. This study's findings confirm that consumers perceive offerings with high no feedback as high risk.     

An EEG-based neuro-recommendation system for improving consumer purchase experience

The aperture between the marketing domain and the electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) has been achieved with the inception of neuromarketing. This domain helps access the hidden information of the preferences and tastes of the consumers who intend to purchase. Research scholars have experimented with this emerging area in multiple aspects like designing pricing, promotions, predicting purchase-related activities, new product development, and so on. In this study, we have proposed an innovative use of neuromarketing to build a recommendation system. This recommendation system can potentially suggest suitable products to the consumer based on the past purchase behavior. This proposal carries huge potential in converting visitors to shoppers, increasing average order value, increasing the number of items per order, designing personalized promotions, and so on. The commonality of activated brain signals has been used to build this recommendation system. This neuromarketing-based recommendation system carries the advantage over the traditional recommendation system as this system suggests products based on the actual real-time state of the brain during the purchase. This system successfully initiated the starting point of building a neuromarketing-based recommendation system.     

Impact of material vs. experiential purchase types on happiness: The moderating role of self‐discrepancy

Most literature suggests that consumers are happier when they spend their money on experience, rather than material purchases, on the premise that consumers may evaluate material possessions largely on the basis of their functional utility and ability to fulfill basic human needs; experiential consumption reportedly fulfills mainly psychological needs. The present research addresses material purchases that fulfill not only functional but also psychological needs (e.g., status purchase). The results reveal that consumers with high self‐discrepancy are more apt to derive happiness from material status purchases than those with low self‐discrepancy (Experiments 1 and 2); this effect is mediated by the motives for goal pursuit (Experiment 3), as triggered by the desire to narrow the gap between the actual self and an ideal self. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why did I buy this? Consumers' post‐impulse‐consumption experience and its impact on the propensity for future impulse buying behaviour

This paper advances research into impulse buying by examining how this behaviour is reinforced/curtailed, highlighting the primary role of the post‐purchase experience in encouraging future impulse buying behaviour. Extant research emphasizes the role of the purchase experience, that is, psychological benefits attained from the impulse purchase experience itself, as a reinforcer of impulse buying. Conversely, this paper uses experiments to demonstrate that it is the post‐purchase experience, not the purchase experience, that reinforces or curtails future impulse buying. Indeed, irrespective of the valence of the purchase experience, a negative post‐purchase experience (whereby a product or service is found to have limited use/does not deliver expected benefits) results in post‐purchase regret, which in turn curtails future impulse buying. In contrast, a positive post‐purchase experience reinforces impulse buying. This research also demonstrates that consumers utilize three types of coping mechanisms to mitigate post‐purchase regret, that is, planful problem solving, positive reinterpretation, or mental disengagement. However, although the use of planful problem solving curtails future impulse buying, use of the other two mechanisms results in behaviour reinforcement. These findings have several important implications for both marketers and consumers, which the authors discuss in detail.     

Now or Never: Perceptions of Uniqueness Induce Acceptance of Price Increases for Experiences More Than for Objects

Seven studies test and support the prediction that consumers are more willing to accept a price increase for an experiential versus a material purchase; an effect explained by the greater uniqueness of experiences. Critically, the uniqueness model advanced here is found to be independent of the happiness consumers derive from the purchase. To gain a deeper understanding of the uniqueness mechanism, this investigation then advances and tests a four‐facet framework of uniqueness (unique opportunity, unique purchase, unique identity, and counterconformity). Together, the findings converge on the conclusion that consumers perceive the opportunity to have a particular experience (vs. object) as more unique, and this unique opportunity increases their willingness to accept a price increase. Overall, this work extends the experiential versus material purchases literature into a new domain—that of pricing; identifies the dimension—uniqueness—and its precise facet responsible for the effect—unique opportunity; and demonstrates that this model unfolds in a pattern distinct from the oft researched model centered on consumer happiness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Emotion control in collaborative learning situations: Do students regulate emotions evoked by social challenges/

Background During recent decades, self‐regulated learning (SRL) has become a major research field. SRL successfully integrates the cognitive and motivational components of learning. Self‐regulation is usually seen as an individual process, with the social aspects of regulation conceptualized as one aspect of the context. However, recent research has begun to investigate whether self‐regulation processes are complemented by socially shared regulation processes. Aims The presented study investigated what kind of socio‐emotional challenges students experience during collaborative learning and whether the students regulate the emotions evoked during these situations. The interplay of the emotion regulation processes between the individual and the group was also studied. Sample The sample for this study was 63 teacher education students who studied in groups of three to five during three collaborative learning tasks. Method Students' interpretations of experienced social challenges and their attempts to regulate emotions evoked by these challenges were collected following each task using the Adaptive Instrument for the Regulation of Emotions. Results The results indicated that students experienced a variety of social challenges. Students also reported the use of shared regulation in addition to self‐regulation. Finally, the results suggested that intrinsic group dynamics are derived from both individual and social elements of collaborative situations. Conclusion The findings of the study support the assumption that students can regulate emotions collaboratively as well as individually. The study contributes to our understanding of the social aspects of emotional regulation in collaborative learning contexts.     

When less is more: Consumer aversion to unused utility

A series of experiments demonstrates that consumers exhibit aversion to waste during forward-looking purchase. These experiments further reveal that such behavior is driven by distaste for unused utility, a reaction that is shown to be distinct from an aversion to squandering money. Waste aversion is especially pronounced when consumers anticipate future consequences and deprivation is salient. In addition to demonstrating robustness across consumers and marketing contexts, the results also demonstrate how waste aversion can lead to self-defeating behavior in which consumers forego desired utility. Finally, the present research demonstrates and discusses the implications of waste aversion for a variety of marketing issues, including buy-rent markets, bundling, and the fundamental distinction between goods and services.     

Establishing conventional communication systems: Is common knowledge necessary?

How do communities establish shared communication systems? The Common Knowledge view assumes that symbolic conventions develop through the accumulation of common knowledge regarding communication practices among the members of a community. In contrast with this view, it is proposed that coordinated communication emerges a by‐product of local interactions among dyads. A set of multi‐agent computer simulations show that a population of “egocentric” agents can establish and maintain symbolic conventions without common knowledge. In the simulations, convergence to a single conventional system was most likely and most efficient when agents updated their behavior on the basis of local rather than global, system‐level information. The massive feedback and parallelism present in the simulations gave rise to phenomena that are often assumed to result from complex strategic processing on the part of individual agents. The implications of these findings for the development of theories of language use are discussed.     

Instance‐based learning in dynamic decision making

This paper presents a learning theory pertinent to dynamic decision making (DDM) called instancebased learning theory (IBLT). IBLT proposes five learning mechanisms in the context of a decision‐making process: instance‐based knowledge, recognition‐based retrieval, adaptive strategies, necessity‐based choice, and feedback updates. IBLT suggests in DDM people learn with the accumulation and refinement of instances, containing the decision‐making situation, action, and utility of decisions. As decision makers interact with a dynamic task, they recognize a situation according to its similarity to past instances, adapt their judgment strategies from heuristic‐based to instance‐based, and refine the accumulated knowledge according to feedback on the result of their actions. The IBLT's learning mechanisms have been implemented in an ACT‐R cognitive model. Through a series of experiments, this paper shows how the IBLT's learning mechanisms closely approximate the relative trend magnitude and performance of human data. Although the cognitive model is bounded within the context of a dynamic task, the IBLT is a general theory of decision making applicable to other dynamic environments.     

The teacher's role in promoting collaborative dialogue in the classroom

Background Research on student‐led small‐group learning in schools going back nearly four decades has documented many types of student participation that promote learning. Less is known about how the teacher can foster effective groupwork behaviours. Aims This paper reviews research that explores the role of the teacher in promoting learning in small groups. The focus is on how students can learn from their peers during small‐group work, how teachers can prepare students for collaborative group work, and the role of teacher discourse and classroom norms in small‐group dialogue. Method Studies selected for review focused on student‐led small‐group contexts for learning in which students were expected to collaborate, reported data from systematic observations of group work, and linked observational data to teacher practices and student learning outcomes. Results and conclusions This review uncovered multiple dimensions of the teacher's role in fostering beneficial group dialogue, including preparing students for collaborative work, forming groups, structuring the group‐work task, and influencing student interaction through teachers' discourse with small groups and with the class. Common threads through the research are the importance of students explaining their thinking, and teacher strategies and practices that may promote student elaboration of ideas.     

Do consumers ever learn? Analysis of segment behavior in experimental markets

Economists argue that, despite cognitive limitations, economic agents arrive at optimal choice rules by learning. The assumption is that consumers, for example, are adaptively rational. Adaptive rationality raises a host of issues. We address three of these in the context of experimental markets: do consumers differ on the basis of learning; how do these differences, when aggregated, affect market efficiency; and how do consumers learn? Analysis of our experimental data reveals the following. First, multiple segments of consumers exist on the basis of learning. Second, the largest segment consists of subjects who do not learn despite timely feedback and motivation. Third, although some consumers do learn to make optimal choices, the effect of this segment on market efficiency is cancelled by an equal number of subjects who ‘learn' false relations. Finally, although subjects do not learn strict rationality even with experience, they are in the aggregate not so irrational as to allow highly suboptimal brands to survive. Further analysis of how consumers learn, specifically on the cues (signals) and the rules consumers employ in making choices over time leads to the following two conclusions. First, some signals make learning more easy than others: for example, providing market share information improves learning but not as much as providing quality information does. Second, people employ different rules depending upon the type of information they have. For example, consumers making decisions based only on price information are more likely to use a heuristic like ‘buy a medium‐priced product provided it has not failed in the past'. Consumers making decisions based on price and quality information may employ a heuristic such as ‘buy top quality products regardless of price'. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Keeping the Body in Mind: The Influence of Body Esteem and Body Boundary Aberration on Consumer Beliefs and Purchase Intentions

This research explores the influence of consumers’ body‐related information on beliefs and purchase intentions toward products for which the consumption experience is significantly and directly determined by body‐related information (e.g., feel, fit, sense of safety) when the products are bought in body‐absent purchase environments such as the Internet. We examine the effects of consumers’ body esteem (i.e., like or dislike of one's body) and body boundary aberration (variation in the perceived location of the edges of one's body) in the context of apparel purchases that are made on the Internet. Body esteem had a positive influence on involvement with apparel, and body boundary aberration had a negative influence on consumers’ overall concern with the fit of apparel. Involvement with apparel and overall concern with fit, in turn, significantly influenced consumers’ intentions to purchase apparel online. Consequently, consumers with high body esteem were less likely to buy on the Internet and those with high body boundary aberration were more likely to buy.