Online consumer psychology

ONLINE CONSUMER

PSYCHOLOGY

Understanding and Influencing Consumer

Behavior in the Virtual World

Advertising and Consumer Psychology

A Series Sponsored by the Society for Consumer Psychology

Aaker/Biel: Brand Equity & Advertising: Advertising's Role in Building Strong

Brands (1993)

Clark/Brock/Stewart: Attention, Attitude, and Affect in Response Advertising

(1994)

Englis: Global and Multi-National Advertising (1994)

Goldberg/Fishbein/Middlestadt: Social Marketing: Theoretical and Practical

Perspectives (1997)

Haugtvedt/Machleit/Yalch: Online Consumer Psychology: Understanding and

Influencing Consumer Behavior in the Virtual World (2005)

Kahle/Chiagouris: Values, Lifestyles and Psychographics (1997)

Kahle/Riley: Sports Marketing and the Psychology of Marketing Communications

(2003)

Mitchell: Advertising Exposure, Memory, and Choice (1993)

Schumann/Thorson: Advertising and the World Wide Web (1999)

Scott/Batra: Persuasive Imagery: A Consumer Response Perspective (2003)

Shrum: The Psychology of Entertainment Media: Blurring the Lines Between

Entertainment and Persuasion (2004)

Thorson/Moore: Integrated Communication: Synergy of Persuasive Voices

(1996)

Wells: Measuring Advertising Effectiveness (1997)

Williams/Lee/Haugtvedt: Diversity in Advertising: Broadening the Scope of Re￾search Directions (2004)

For a complete list of LEA titles, please contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, at

www.erlbaum.com.

ONLINE CONSUMER

PSYCHOLOGY

Understanding and Influencing Consumer

Behavior in the Virtual World

LEA

Edited by

Curtis P. Haugtvedt

Ohio State University

Karen A. Machleit

University of Cincinnati

Richard F. Yalch

University of Washington

LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS

2005 Mahwah, New Jersey London

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Online consumer psychology : understanding and influencing consumer behavior in the virtual world /

Editors Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Karen A. Machleit, Richard Yalch.

p. cm.—(Advertising and consumer psychology)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8058-5154-2 (case : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8058-5155-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Consumer behavior. 2. Internet advertising. 3. Electronic commerce.

I. Haugtvedt, Curtis P., 1958- II. Machleit, Karen A. III. Yalch, Richard. IV. Series.

HF5415.32.O55 2005

659.14'4'019—dc22

2004027585

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on

acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and

durability.

Printed in the United States of America

1 0 98765432 1

Contents

About the Contributors ix

Introduction 1

Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Karen A. Machleit, and Richard F. Yalch

PARTI: COMMUNITY

1 Ritual Behavior and Community Change: Exploring the

Social-Psychological Roles of Net Rituals in the

Developmental Processes of Online Consumption Communities 7

Anat Toder-Alon, Frederick F. Brunei, and Wendy L. Schneier

Siegal

2 Published Word of Mouth: Referable, Consumer-Generated

Information on the Internet 35

Robert M. Schindler and Barbara Bickart

3 Understanding Pass-Along Emails: Motivations and Behaviors

of Viral Consumers 63

Regina Lewis, Lynne Mobilio, Joseph E. Phelps, and Niranjan

(Nick) Raman

4 What, and How, We Can Learn From Online Consumer

Discussion Groups 101

David M. Boush and Lynn Kahle

PART II: ADVERTISING

5 How Banner Ads Affect Brand Choice Without Click-Through 125

Andrew Mitchell and Ana Valenzuela

6 Factors Affecting Click-Through Rate 143

Jean-Louis Chandon and Mohamed Saber Chtourou

vi CONTENTS

7 Exploring Consumer Response to "Advergaming" 167

Michelle R. Nelson

8 Going Mobile: Marketing and Advertising on Wireless

Networks Around the World 195

Robert J. Kent, Patrick D. Lynch, and Srini S. Srinivasan

PART III: CUSTOMIZATION

9 Online Product Customization: Factors Investigating the

Product and Process 207

Janis J. Crow and James Shanteau

10 Marketing to Individual Consumers Online: The Influence

of Perceived Control 225

John Godek and J. Frank Yates

11 Smoother Surfing Across Cultures: Bilinguals on the Web 245

David Luna, Laura A. Peracchio, and Maria D. de Juan

12 Processes of Preference Construction in Agent-Assisted Online

Shopping 265

Kyle B. Murray and Gerald Haubl

PART IV: SITE DESIGN

13 Effects of Visual Consistency on Site Identity and Product

Attitude 287

Richard C. Omanson, June A. Cline, and Christie L. Nordhielm

14 Gendered Information Processing: Implication

for Web Site Design 303

Elizabeth Purinton and Deborah E. Rosen

15 The Effect of Site Design and Interattribute Correlations on

Interactive Web-Based Decisions 325

Barbara Fasolo, Gary H. McClelland, and Katharine A. Lange

CONTENTS vii

PART V: DECISION MAKING

16 Is the Internet Empowering Consumers to Make Better

Decisions, or Strengthening Marketers' Potential to Persuade? 345

Paul Henry

17 Rationality Unbounded: The Internet and Its Effect on

Consumer Decision Making 361

Saurabh Mishra and Richard W. Olshavsky

18 Consumer Relationships with an e-Brand: Implications

for e-Brand Extensions 379

JongWon Park, Hyan-Jung Lee, and Hyung-Il Lee

19 Finding the Best Ways to Combine Online and Offline

Shopping Features 401

Awn M. Levin, Irwin P. Levin, and C. Edward Heath

20 Consumer Behavior in Online Auctions: An Exploratory Study 419

Eugene Sivadas, Barbara Stern, Raj Mehta, and Melanie Jones

21 The Impact of Internet Use on Health Cognitions

and Health Behavior 433

Noel T. Brewer

PART VI: RESEARCH TOOLS AND APPROACHES

22 Experiential Ecommerce: A Summary of Research

Investigating the Impact of Virtual Experience on

Consumer Learning 457

Terry Daugherty, Hairong Li, and Frank Biocca

23 Web-Based Consumer Research 491

Basil G. Englis, Michael R. Solomon, and Paula Danskin

Author Index 511

Subject Index 527

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About the Contributors

Barbara Bickart (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is inter￾ested in context effects on judgment and decision-making processes, how people

retrieve and use information about others in answering survey questions, and devel￾oping methods for reducing measurement error in surveys via questionnaire de￾sign. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of

Consumer Research, and Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

Frank Biocca (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the SBC Chaired Pro￾fessor of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media and Director of the

Media Interface and Network Design (M.I.N.D.) Lab at Michigan State University.

The M.I.N.D. Lab is an international, multi-university human-computer interac￾tion and communication research lab with ten facilities spanning six countries

(www.mindlab.org). His research interests focus on the interaction of media and

mind, specifically how media form can be adapted to extend human cognition and

enhance human performance.

David M. Boush (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is Associate Professor of Mar￾keting at the University of Oregon. Topics of his research include brand equity,

response to advertising, and consumer trust. His articles have appeared in such

outlets as the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Re￾search. He is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Association

for Consumer Research, the Academy of Marketing Science, and the Society for

Consumer Psychology. He is also a former marketing research analyst for Hall￾mark Cards. His visiting appointments include a stint at ESSEC, and a series of

e-commerce classes for University of California-Berkeley extension. He currently

serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences.

Noel T. Brewer (Ph.D., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) conducts re￾search is the areas of health psychology and public health. His work examines how

health cognitions inform decision-making. One focus of the research examines the

relation of mental models of illness to health behaviors such as medication com￾pliance and physician utilization. Another focus examines the influence of Internet

use on health judgments and choices.

Frederic F. Brunei (Ph.D., University of Washington) is an Assistant Professor

of Marketing at Boston University School of Management. He holds an MBA

ix

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

from Illinois State University, and a BS from Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Com￾merciales d'Angers (ESSCA) Angers, France. He has lead professional education

programs in the USA, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. His primary research

interests include consumers' perceptions of product design and visual aesthetics,

consumers' attitude and emotions, and socio-cultural, gender, and relationship is￾sues in marketing. He has presented his research at numerous conferences. He has

been published in forums like: Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Adver￾tising, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing

Science, Journal of Advertising Research, Psychology and Marketing, Business

Strategy Review, Advances in Consumer Research, Developments in Marketing

Science, Cross-Cultural Consumer and Business Studies, Gender, Marketing and

Consumer Behavior and in several books. Professor Brunei has also won several

teaching, research, and service awards.

Jean Louis Chandon (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is Professor of Marketing

at IAE of Aix en Provence and Academic Director of the MBA E-Business pro￾gram. He worked as a media consultant for Nielsen, Emap, and Mediametrie. He

has written several papers in the area of audience measurement, media planning,

and service marketing.

Mohamed Saber Chtourou (Ph.D., University of Aix Marseille III) is a research

assistant in EDHEC Business School. He is also an associate researcher at CEROG -

IAE Aix en Provence, University of Aix Marseille III. His area of interest is Internet

advertising persuasion process; especially understanding what makes the Internet

a different media. In addition, he is interested in factors affecting ad effectiveness,

potential complementarily between online and offline media, and issues related to

Internet media planning. This paper is a part of a larger project he is conducting

at Wanadoo Regie, a leading French Internet ad agency. Other papers have been

presented to the French Marketing Association Congress, ESOMAR Conference,

IREP Conference.

June A. Cline works as a research consultant and statistician with doctoral students

at Wayne State University who are completing their dissertations. She also works

with school districts and nonprofit organizations, planning and completing program

evaluations on educational programs intended to improve student learning. Her

research interests are varied, including education, nursing, psychology, political

science, and sociology.

Janis J. Crow is a doctoral student completing her dissertation in consumer psy￾chology at Kansas State University and is an instructor in the Marketing Depart￾ment. Her research interests are in unstructured decision making where a clear

alternative does not exist such as in customizing a product. She is interested in

the use of technology to aid in making decisions. She has published in Behavior

Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers and the International Journal of

Internet Marketing and Advertising.

x

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS xi

Paula Danskin (Ph.D., The University of Memphis) is Assistant Professor of Man￾agement in the Campbell School of Business at Berry College. Her current research

interests include the validity of Internet-based approaches, knowledge manage￾ment, and international entrepreneurship. Her work has appeared in several jour￾nals, including Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Small Business

Management, Journal of World Business, and Academy of Management Review.

Terry M. Daugherty (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Assistant Professor

in the Department of Advertising at the University of Texas at Austin. His research

focuses on investigating consumer behavior and strategic media management, with

work appearing in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Psychology,

Journal of Interactive Advertising, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and in the im￾pending books Advances in Electronic Marketing and Marketing Communication:

Emerging Trends and Developments, among others. Before joining the Depart￾ment of Advertising at UT, he held a Post-Doctoral Fellowship with eLab in the

Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, and has worked

in advertising media.

Maria D. de Juan, Ph.D., is a Business Administration Professor at the Universi￾dad of Alicante (Spain), where she lectures since 1991. De Juan has been a lecturer

at the University of Florida (USA) and at the Southampton Institute (United King￾dom), as well as at several Spanish Business Schools, such as ESADE (Barcelona).

She is the author of the books Shopping Centre Attraction Toward Consumers, Sales

Promotions, and Commercial Distribution: Channels and Retailing. Her articles

about distribution and consumer behaviour have been published or are forthcom￾ing in several journals and edited books, including the Journal of the Academy of

Marketing Science and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Basil G. Englis (Ph.D., Dartmouth College) is the Richard Edgerton Professor of

Business Administration and Chair of the Department of Marketing in the Camp￾bell School of Business at Berry College. His current research interests include

lifestyle and product symbolism, consumer socialization, and online research is￾sues. His research has appeared in several journals and other publications, including

the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personality

and Social Psychology, and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Profes￾sor Englis has consulted with numerous organizations, including E. I. DuPont

de Nemours, eBay, and the Vanity Fair Corporation.

Barbara Fasolo (Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder) studies multi-attribute

choice processes across different domains, ranging from consumer and medical

decision making to food and mate choice. She is interested in the development of

aids to assist these difficult decisions, particularly on the Internet. She has investi￾gated how online consumer choices are affected by web-based decision aids (com￾pensatory or non-compensatory) and the correlation among the choice attributes

xii ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

(positive or negative). She co-authored an Annual Review of Psychology chapter

reviewing consumer web-based decision aids. After completing a post-doctoral

fellowship at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, she is now an Assistant Professor

in the Department of Operations Research at the London School of Economics.

John Godek (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is Assistant Professor of Marketing

at the University of Oregon. Professor Godek directs his research at identifying the

influence of firms' individual level marketing efforts (customization and personal￾ization) on consumers' decision processes and choices. His research has appeared

in the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Gerald Haubl (Ph.D., Wirtschaftsuniversitat Wien) is Canada Research Chair in

Behavioral Science, R. K. Banister Professor of Electronic Commerce, and Asso￾ciate Professor of Marketing at the University of Alberta's School of Business. His

primary research areas are consumer decision-making, human-computer interac￾tion, and consumer behavior in electronic shopping environments, the construction

of preference and value, consumer information search, bidding behavior in auc￾tions, and the automated creation of personalized customer interfaces. His research

has been published in Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, In￾ternational Journal of Research in Marketing, Communications of the Association

for Computing Machinery, and other journals. He serves on the editorial boards of

Computational Intelligence and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Curtis P. Haugtvedt (Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia) studies attitude

change and persuasion, personality variables in consumer behavior, and computer￾mediated behavioral research methodologies. Professor Haugtvedt teaches under￾graduate courses in Electronic Marketing, Consumer Behavior and Marketing

Management, MBA courses in Consumer Behavior and Electronic Marketing,

and Ph.D. seminars in Advanced Topics in Consumer Psychology. His research

has appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Con￾sumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Communication Monographs,

and numerous book chapters. He serves as a frequent reviewer for the major psy￾chology and marketing journals, and is a member of editorial boards of the Journal

of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Interactive

Advertising, and Quarterly Journal of Electronic Commerce. He is former As￾sociate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology and was President of the

Society for Consumer Psychology (1999-2000).

C. Edward Heath is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Xavier University. He is

currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. His work has been

published in Advances in Consumer Research.

Paul Henry (Ph.D., University of New South Wales) is Senior Lecturer at The

University of Sydney. He was previously Strategic Planning Director at Ogilvy &

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS xiii

Mather in New York City where he worked on numerous internet-related projects.

This included interactive strategy development within a broader communication

setting, evaluation of content and functionality needs, and site realization.

Melanie Jones (Ph.D., University of Cincinnati) is a law student at Loyola Uni￾versity, New Orleans. Her primary research interests include data protection issues

on the Internet and international strategy as it pertains to consumer behavior. She

has presented two papers at the Academy of International Business. She has an

article in the International Journal of Technology Transfer, and has an upcoming

publication in the Loyola Law Review.

Lynn R. Kahle (Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln) is the James Warsaw

Professor of Marketing at the University of Oregon. Topics of his research include

social adaptation, values, and sports marketing. His articles have appeared in such

outlets as the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Sport Market￾ing Quarterly, and Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, and Child Development. His books include A ttitudes and Social Adap￾tation, Social Values and Social Change, Marketing Management, Cross-National

Consumer Psychographics, and Values, Lifestyles, and Psychographics. He has

served as President of the Society for Consumer Psychology, President of the City

of Eugene Human Rights program, and Chair of the Department of Marketing at

the University of Oregon.

Robert J. Kent (Ph.D., University of Cincinnati) is an Associate Professor of

Marketing at the University of Delaware. His work looks at issues in advertising

media, promotions, and memory for ads. This work has appeared in Journal of

Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of

Advertising Research, and other outlets.

Katharine A. Lange (BA, University of Colorado at Boulder) contributed to

studies about everyday decisions made on the Web, in order to help users make

better choices online, and to further understand decision processes in general. She

is currently working in Marketing and Public Relations at a ski resort and is in

charge of the resort's web page development and organization.

Hyung-Il Lee (MS in Marketing, Korea University) is currently a research asso￾ciate at Kookmin University, Seoul, Korea. Previously, he worked as a marketing

specialist at a major telecommunication company in Korea (SK Telecom) where

he developed the Ring Back Tone Service and Color-Ring. His work has appeared

in journals such as Korean Journal of Consumer Studies.

Hyun-Jung Lee is a doctoral candidate in marketing, Korea University, Seoul,

Korea. She is currently working on her dissertation research, which investigates

xiv ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

psychological processes underlying consumer investment decisions in online stock

trading contexts. Her research area includes brand extensions, advertising effects,

and consumer investment decision making, and her work has appeared in journals

such as Korean Journal of Consumer Studies.

Aron M. Levin is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Northern Kentucky Univer￾sity. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. His research interests

are in brand alliances and the impact of sport sponsorships on consumers. His work

has been published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Business

and Psychology, and Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising.

Irwin P. Levin is a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of

Iowa. His research interests are consumer decision-making, information framing

effects, and individual differences and risky decision-making. His work has ap￾peared in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research,

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Behavioral

Decision Making, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He is past

president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.

Regina Lewis holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel

Hill and an MBA from Columbia University. Since cofounding Lewis, Mobilio

& Associates, her internet-related communications research has spanned segmen￾tation, usability, and brand health analyses. She also has successfully pioneered

sampling research and consumer-modeling work to help large Internet advertisers

make spending and targeting decisions.

Hairong Li (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor of Ad￾vertising and Research Fellow at the M.I.N.D. Lab at Michigan State University.

His research interests include consumer behavior in electronic commerce, with

emphasis on consumer learning from virtual experience.

David Luna (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) is an Associate Profes￾sor of Marketing at Baruch College. He conducts research focusing on the effect

of language on consumer information processing and marketing communications.

His work has appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Con￾sumer Psychology, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal

of Advertising, and Psychology and Marketing.

Patrick D. Lynch (Ph.D., University of Delaware) is a Principal with North Star

Leadership Group. A former Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for Strate￾gic Change, he specializes in research and consulting on organizational and con￾sumer behavior. His work on customer relationships, leadership, and business

strategy issues has been featured in the books The Ultimate CRM Handbook;