The Agency of Consumer Value and Behavioral Reasoning Patterns in Shaping Webrooming Behaviors in Omnichannel Retail Environments

Abstract

With tremendous technological advancements, traditional retailing has progressively been transformed into an omnichannel retail environment. While making an appeal to the behavioral reasoning theory, this paper explicates consumers’ (hedonic and utilitarian) value expectations and behavioral reasoning patterns as key antecedents of the maturing of their webrooming intentions in omnichannel environments. Performing PLS-based structural equation modeling on survey data obtained from 470 consumers, it has been found that both the (perceived) value and behavioral reasoning patterns of the consumers exhibit significant direct and indirect effects on building favorable attitudes toward webrooming that eventually lead to the culmination of pro-webrooming intentions. Besides expanding our understanding of the phenomena of interest, this study offers useful insights to marketers/retailers on how to boost pro-webrooming attitudes, intentions, and behaviors by ensuring a superior alignment with (utilitarian and hedonic) value perceptions and pro- and counter-webrooming reasoning patterns of the consumers.