Capturing heterogeneous decision making processes: the case with the E-book reader market

Abstract

Consumer decision-making within a specific product category can take many forms. This study investigates the individual-specific transferal processes in new product adoption through cognitive, affective, and conative stages. We propose a general and flexible Bayesian multivariate regression model and fit the model to survey data on dedicated E-book reader adoption. The results show that—among six possible transition paths—all paths are feasible for the decision-making process, except for the conative → cognitive → affective path. In terms of market share, those who follow the hierarchy of effect process describing the cognitive → affective → conative process has the biggest market share and those following affective → conative → cognitive path has the smallest share. The contribution of this research is twofold. From a theoretical perspective, this study developed an estimable model for capturing heterogeneity in consumers’ decision-making process. Practically, the study empirically shows that a variety of decision-making paths exist, using survey data on the Korean E-book reader market. In the substantive domain, capturing the heterogeneity of consumer decision-making could provide marketers with insights to help profile consumers and with a basis for customer segmentation.