IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iik/wpaper/157.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Analysis Of The Impact Of Online Product Reviews On Temporal And Cognitive Search Costs: An Eye-Tracking Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Naveen C. Amblee

    (Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode)

Abstract

The literature on online product reviews examine the fundamental premise that reviews reduce search costs and also increase consumer confidence in their purchase decisions, whichhas not been proven in the previous literature. We conducted an experiment using an eye-tracking machine to measure the impact of online reviews on consumer information search costs and on decision confidence. We find that both editorial reviews and customer reviews when presented separately reduce the search time considerably, but not when present together. However, we find that the presence of both types of reviews increases decision confidence considerably, thereby, suggesting a trade-off between search time and decision confidence. When both types of reviews are presented together, the cognitive cost of processing non-review information is significantly reduced implying more efficient allocation of cognitive resources. We conclude with several managerial recommendations for ecommerce firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Naveen C. Amblee, 2014. "Analysis Of The Impact Of Online Product Reviews On Temporal And Cognitive Search Costs: An Eye-Tracking Approach," Working papers 157, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    • Handle: RePEc:iik:wpaper:157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://iimk.ac.in/websiteadmin/FacultyPublications/Working%20Papers/157abs.pdf?t=45
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    2. Bennett, Peter D & Harrell, Gilbert D, 1975. "The Role of Confidence in Understanding and Predicting Buyers' Attitudes and Purchase Intentions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 2(2), pages 110-117, Se.
    3. John G. Lynch , Jr. & Dan Ariely, 2000. "Wine Online: Search Costs Affect Competition on Price, Quality, and Distribution," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 83-103, April.
    4. Bettman, James R & Luce, Mary Frances & Payne, John W, 1998. "Constructive Consumer Choice Processes," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 25(3), pages 187-217, December.
    5. Robert Meyer & Eric J. Johnson, 1995. "Empirical Generalizations in the Modeling of Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 180-189.
    6. J. Yannis Bakos, 1997. "Reducing Buyer Search Costs: Implications for Electronic Marketplaces," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(12), pages 1676-1692, December.
    7. Gerald Häubl & Valerie Trifts, 2000. "Consumer Decision Making in Online Shopping Environments: The Effects of Interactive Decision Aids," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 4-21, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alan L. Montgomery & Kartik Hosanagar & Ramayya Krishnan & Karen B. Clay, 2004. "Designing a Better Shopbot," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 189-206, February.
    2. Nathan M. Fong, 2017. "How Targeting Affects Customer Search: A Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2353-2364, July.
    3. Spiekermann, Sarah & Strobel, Martin & Temme, Dirk, 2002. "Drivers and impediments of consumer online information search: Self-controlled versus agent-based search in a high involvement context," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2002,37, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    4. Xu, Yunjie (Calvin) & Kim, Hee-Woong, 2008. "Order Effect and Vendor Inspection in Online Comparison Shopping," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(4), pages 477-486.
    5. Shiri Melumad & Rhonda Hadi & Christian Hildebrand & Adrian F. Ward, 2020. "Technology-Augmented Choice: How Digital Innovations Are Transforming Consumer Decision Processes," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 7(3), pages 90-101, October.
    6. Yao, Jun & Oppewal, Harmen, 2016. "Unit Pricing Increases Price Sensitivity Even When Products are of Identical Size," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 109-121.
    7. Zhang, Xubing & Jiang, Bo, 2014. "Increasing Price Transparency: Implications of Consumer Price Posting for Consumers' Haggling Behavior and a Seller's Pricing Strategies," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 68-85.
    8. Dmitri Kuksov, 2004. "Buyer Search Costs and Endogenous Product Design," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 490-499, May.
    9. Choudhary, Vidyanand & Currim, Imran & Dewan, Sanjeev & Jeliazkov, Ivan & Mintz, Ofer & Turner, John, 2017. "Evaluation Set Size and Purchase: Evidence from a Product Search Engine," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 16-31.
    10. Matt Wimble & John Tripp & Brandis Phillips & Nash Milic, 2016. "On search cost and the long tail: the moderating role of search cost," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 507-531, August.
    11. Viswanath Venkatesh & Ritu Agarwal, 2006. "Turning Visitors into Customers: A Usability-Centric Perspective on Purchase Behavior in Electronic Channels," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(3), pages 367-382, March.
    12. Animesh Animesh & Siva Viswanathan & Ritu Agarwal, 2011. "Competing “Creatively” in Sponsored Search Markets: The Effect of Rank, Differentiation Strategy, and Competition on Performance," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 153-169, March.
    13. Gerald Häubl & Benedict G. C. Dellaert & Bas Donkers, 2010. "Tunnel Vision: Local Behavioral Influences on Consumer Decisions in Product Search," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 438-455, 05-06.
    14. Nelson Granados & Alok Gupta & Robert J. Kauffman, 2012. "Online and Offline Demand and Price Elasticities: Evidence from the Air Travel Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 164-181, March.
    15. Nelson Granados & Alok Gupta & Robert J. Kauffman, 2010. "Research Commentary---Information Transparency in Business-to-Consumer Markets: Concepts, Framework, and Research Agenda," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 207-226, June.
    16. Bin Gu & Jaehong Park & Prabhudev Konana, 2012. "Research Note ---The Impact of External Word-of-Mouth Sources on Retailer Sales of High-Involvement Products," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 182-196, March.
    17. Chen Liang & Zhan (Michael) Shi & T. S. Raghu, 2019. "The Spillover of Spotlight: Platform Recommendation in the Mobile App Market," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1296-1318, December.
    18. Oliver Hinz & Jochen Eckert, 2010. "The Impact of Search and Recommendation Systems on Sales in Electronic Commerce," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 2(2), pages 67-77, April.
    19. Nestor Duch-Brown & Bertin Martens, 2014. "Consumer benefits from the EU Digital Single Market: evidence from household appliances markets," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2014-03, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
    20. Quentin André & Ziv Carmon & Klaus Wertenbroch & Alia Crum & Douglas Frank & William Goldstein & Joel Huber & Leaf Boven & Bernd Weber & Haiyang Yang, 2018. "Consumer Choice and Autonomy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 5(1), pages 28-37, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iik:wpaper:157. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sudheesh Kumar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iikmmin.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.