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Zu viel des Guten? Eine Analyse der Wirkung von Verbraucherschutzinformation

Zusammenfassungunternehmen in unterschiedlichen Branchen wurden vom gesetzgeber dazu verpflichtet, in Kaufentscheidungssituationen information zum schutz von Konsumenten bereitzustellen. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht, ob diese informationspflichten tatsächlich zu besser fundierten Kaufentscheidungen führen. Die ergebnisse mehrerer experimenteller studien zeigen, dass mit steigendem informationsumfang eine zunehmende informationsüberlastung, schlechtere informationsangebotsbewertung und geringere intention zur informationsnutzung einhergehen. Dabei wird die stärke dieser effekte durch das wahrgenommene risiko, die informationskomplexität und das vertrauen gegenüber dem anbieter moderiert. auf Basis dieser erkenntnisse werden implikationen für verbraucherpolitik und unternehmenspraxis abgeleitet.AbstractInformation disclosure requirements are a widespread regulatory instrument to protect customers in diverse business areas (e.g., food production, telecommunication services, and financial services). However, these disclosure regulations often remain ineffective. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to generate a better understanding of the effects of information disclosure requirements. Experimental findings reveal that an increasing amount of provided information results in a stronger information overload, a more negative evaluation of information, and, subsequently, a decreasing intention of information usage. Moreover, the strength of these effects depends on perceived risk, information complexity, and trust toward the company. Based on these findings implications for customer protection institutions and business practices are discussed.

Information Search at the Point of Sale: How Information Source Influences Customers’ Purchase Channel Switching Intention: An Abstract

Understanding the influence of customers’ mobile device usage at the point of sale is a fundamental insight for brick-and-mortar retailers to compete with online stores. Prior research has extensively studied diverse facets of mobile marketing communication (e.g., Bues et al., 2017; Goldfarb & Tucker, 2011; Luo et al., 2014). However, customers’ mobile search behavior at the point of sale and its influence on their shopping behavior have not been sufficiently investigated (Daurer et al., 2015). Therefore, we developed a model centered toward the effect of the source of information (mobile internet search vs. frontline-employee interaction vs. product description) on customers’ channel switching intentions (from the physical retailer to a competitive online store) during the purchase process.

The Bright and Dark Sides of Product Certification: Exploring Side Effects on Consumers’ Perceptions of Non-Certified Products: An Abstract

Product certifications are of increasing relevance in consumer decision-making due to a growing consciousness for quality and ecological issues (Cho, 2015). While there is mutual consent of extant research about certifications’ positive effects on labeled products, knowledge about potential side effects on uncertified products remains scarce. With regard to extensive costs that employing a quality label can entail, portfolio-related considerations should also be considered when deciding about a brand’s overall certification strategy. Therefore, we look beyond the straightforward positive effects of product certifications by focusing on how certifying merely selected products (i.e., a partial certification strategy) affects consumers’ perceptions of unlabeled products of the same brand (i.e., bystander products).

Is Two Really Better than One? The Effects of Dual Language Labelling on Consumer Perceptions and Purchase Intention: An Abstract

In quite a number of countries, companies do not only use the local language in order to describe their products but additionally use at least one second language (Krishna & Ahluwalia, 2008). Not in all cases, companies make a well-researched decision with regard to the choice of that second language but follow a strategy of cost reduction and standardization. Our research was conducted in the context of a food company that started to operate internationally and describes its food products in two languages to save costs. However, the company is without knowledge about the consequences of its dual language labelling approach on consumers’ perceptions of the product in the home market.

New Hidden Persuaders: An Investigation of Anchoring Effects of Recommender Systems on Consumer Choice (An Abstract)

Today, websites try to suggest us everything, ranging from our next sweatshirts to our next holiday destinations and even our next friends. Based on past behavior or preference statements, recommender systems implemented on marketers’ webpages generate personalized predictions about the products, countries, or people we presumably like and preselect a small subset comprising only potentially relevant choice options from the large number of available alternatives (e.g., Ansari et al. 2000; Bodapati 2008; Resnick and Varian 1997). This preselection is intended to reduce decision efforts and uncertainty (e.g., Ansari et al. 2000; Herlocker et al. 2000; Tam and Ho 2005) and, thereby, to increase sales, customer satisfaction, as well as loyalty (e.g., Fleder and Hosanagar 2009; Jannach and Hegelich 2009; Senecal and Nantel 2004; Pathak et al. 2010; Pu et al. 2011). While extant studies are typically based on the assumption that a recommender system’s effectiveness depends on its ability to identify consumers’ preferences and, therefore, is measurable by the number of individuals who follow the generated suggestions, the present study, in contrast, focuses on the impact of recommendations on the construction of preferences. In line with the large body of research on behavioral decision-making, preference structures are often not well defined or stable (e.g., Bettman et al. 1998; Slovic 1995) such that preferences are frequently formed during decision-making rather than before and, thus, might be sensitive to recommended items.

The Influence of Customer Product Ratings on Purchase Decisions: An Abstract

The way people buy things has fundamentally changed. While purchase behavior in traditional bricks-and-mortar stores is constricted by, for instance, limited retail spaces and finite opening hours, the Internet enables customers to buy whatever, whenever, from wherever they want to. In addition, while in the past, customers—when seeking for additional information beyond product descriptions and attributes such as brand, functional aspects, or price—were reliant on sales people’s advice or recommendations from friends, nowadays, most online retailers provide access to hundreds of product evaluations written by previous customers with only a few clicks. As a consequence, when making purchase decisions people increasingly rely on these customer product ratings as a credible information source for decision making. Previous research suggests that these product ratings may even serve as a substitute for traditional information sources rather than as a complement by, for example, curtailing the relevance of brands in purchase decision making (Chen et al. 2008; Luca 2011; Zhu and Zhang 2009); traditionally one of the key criteria when assessing the quality of a specific product or service (e.g., Jacoby et al. 1971). Although a large body of literature has focused on the impact of online product reviews and ratings on consumer decision making (see Cheung and Thadani 2012 for an extensive review), insights into the effects of the mere presence of online customer ratings on the formation of purchase decisions are still rare.

Face-to-Face vs. Digital Communication: The Effect of Communication Channels at the Point of Sale—An Abstract

Mobile devices provide retailers the opportunity to communicate and interact with their customers via a new channel, regardless of the customer’s current whereabouts. Generally, mobile devices are used for a variety of reasons at the point of sale (Cliquet et al. 2014). Especially with regard to reduced search costs, customers can search the mobile web or use smartphone applications to quickly gather external information about various products before making a purchase decision (Daurer et al. 2015).

Knocking Opportunities: The Impact of Damage Values on Opportunistic Customer Claiming Behavior After Service Failure

Many firms feel obliged to reply to customer complaints and even knowingly unjustified high claims after service failures with generous compensations in order to keep customer satisfaction on a maximum level. An expanding body of literature has focused on opportunistic customer behavior reflected in customers who intentionally engage in cheating or fraudulent actions to take monetary advantages after a company’s service failure during service recovery (e.g., Wirtz and Kum 2004; Berry and Seiders 2008). However, the majority of this work is related to knowingly and incorrect reported failures which did not occur such that customers’ cheating on firms is not necessarily triggered by dissatisfaction or service failures at all (Ro and Wong 2012). Although several factors driving opportunistic customer claiming behavior have been identified (see also Baker et al. 2012)—i.e., customer-centric (e.g., customer financial greed, customer personality traits, and customer oppositional cultural model; Reynolds and Harris 2005; Andreasen 1988; Ringberg et al. 2007), firm-centric (e.g., generous redress practices and firm size; Harris and Reynolds 2003; Wirtz and McColl-Kennedy 2010), and relationship-centric drivers (e.g., low justice perceptions and one-time transactions; Wirtz and McColl-Kennedy 2010)—the impact of damage values on opportunistic claims still remains unexplored. Thus, the purpose of this research is to improve our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of customer claiming behavior triggered by the value of damage caused by service failures.

The Recommendation Bias: The Effects of Social Influence on Individual Rating Behavior

In recent years the internet has rapidly evolved from being a platform for companies to simply market their products or services into a platform where users can discuss the products or services among themselves. This increase in user-generated content has led to the creation of review websites, providing consumers with an opportunity to share their opinions on products or services and engage in electronic word-of-mouth (Henning-Thurau et al., 2004). Our modern society relies more and more on digital opinions (Muchnik et al., 2013) and consumers consult such online review websites frequently before making purchase decisions (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006). Thus, from a marketer’s perspective, online rating websites have become increasingly important based on their influence on product sales. However, reliability and accuracy of these reviews are often questioned, such that consumers are frequently unsure whether the overall rating of a product or service has not been influenced by fake reviews, written by employees of a company (Malbon, 2013). As a consequence, online rating websites may not always exactly reflect the product performance (Moe & Trusov, 2011). Hence, as online reviews play an important role in consumer decision making processes, it is also interesting to shed light on the accuracy of the reviews written by customers themselves. Before formulating their own experience and opinion of a product or service, customers are exposed to the opinions of other customers who have already written a review. Since it is not uncommon for humans to allow themselves to be influenced by others, former reviews may cause the writer of a new review to alter his opinion, possibly to adapt to or to stand out from previous opinions. This research offers an initial examination of the effects of social influence on individual rating behavior.

When 3 Price Components Are Fairer Than 2 or 4: Consumers’ Reactions to Price Increases in Tariff Schemes

Companies in diverse business fields struggle with the impact of regulatory interferences with serious consequences on cost and pricing structures. For instance, branch specific minimum wages, tax increases (e.g., alcoholic drinks, cigarettes, and gasoline), or defining new production rules (e.g., statutes regarding the proportion of conventional and renewable energy production) constitute only a small sample of political options to intervene in economic systems. As a result, price increases are often inevitable and concerned companies’ pricing structure is no longer determined by their pricing strategy solely. However, although companies become externally restrained regarding costs and prices, they are typically still free to decide on the type of communication and presentation of price increases.