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The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how consumers cope with confusion caused by overload in information and/or choice. The paper investigates whether consumers who face different degrees of confusion use different coping strategies depending upon their decision‐making styles.

The Dutch mobile phone market is a typical example of a turbulent market, overloaded with information and/or choice, which creates consumer confusion. A survey was conducted among 203 mobile phone users, using valid and reliable multi‐item scales to measure consumer confusion, decision‐making styles and coping strategies. Cluster analysis and Mancova were used to provide insight into the results.

The paper finds that consumers of mobile phones can be characterized by combinations of decision‐making styles and find three clusters based on decision‐making styles: “price conscious and cautious” consumers, “brand‐loyal and quality‐driven” consumers, and “functionalist” consumers. Results show significant main effects of the degree of confusion and the decision‐making styles on the use of coping strategies as well as a significant interaction effect of these two. Higher levels of consumer confusion lead to an increased use of seven coping strategies: downsizing the consideration set; keeping status quo; reduced information search; search deferral; buying what others have bought; disengagement from decision; and decision delegation. “Price conscious and cautious” consumers engage less in downsizing the consideration set than the two other clusters, and are less inclined to keep the status quo as compared to “functionalist” consumers.

Because of the intangible and heterogeneous nature of services, knowledge about coping with confusion due to an overload in information and choice is especially important for service providers in their efforts to build and sustain strong relationships with consumers. Practical implications in terms of different approaches on how to cope with confused consumers are provided.

This paper aims to find out what product features become salient when consumers are exposed to many market offerings, demonstrating how choice set size influences construal mindset, which then affects the type of product consumers choose.

Experiment 1 provides preliminary evidence that being exposed to a large (vs small) choice set may drive people to focus more on the feasibility (i.e. a secondary feature) of a product and less on the desirability (i.e. a primary feature) when making a choice. Experiment 2 unveils the serial mediating roles of construal level and importance of price/design.

Consumers are more likely to select feasible (i.e. affordable) market offerings and not desirable (i.e. well-designed) ones when choosing from a large (vs small) choice set. This effect is serially mediated by mental construals and by the importance of price or design. Choosing from a large (vs small) choice set leads to low-level mental construals, which increase the importance of price (a feasibility attribute) while decreasing the importance of design (a desirability attribute), resulting in choice of feasible (affordable) market offerings over well-designed ones.

Although consumers generally focus on the desirability of a choice or an action, choosing from large choice sets makes them focus more on the feasibility of market offerings because of low-level mental construals.

In today’s era of e-commerce, as consumers are exposed to too many product offerings, retailers should emphasize the feasibility of their market offerings (e.g. affordability) to increase the chance that consumers purchase their products. This research shows that people rely very much on product price to make selections when provided with a large choice set.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to show that large choice sets make consumers choose affordable products over well-designed ones and introduces the serial mediation effect of construal level and importance of price/design. Accordingly, this research establishes that large choice sets activate low-level mental construals, which associate with a feasibility mindset that ultimately makes consumers choose an affordable product instead of a well-designed one. It adds to the literature on choice overload by showing that the importance of price overshadows the importance of design (aesthetics) when people are exposed to large choice sets.

The choice overload (CO) phenomenon, whereby having many options leads to negative consequences, has been studied widely in psychology and marketing. However, empirical evidence of CO in the tourism context is limited, even though people often encounter numerous choices (e.g., vacation destinations, airfares, hotels, tours) at different stages when planning their holidays. Investigating CO in tourism and hospitality is important because (online) travel advisors are providing tourists with numerous choices, yet they do not know whether or not these decision makers are content after choosing from these large choice sets. This chapter proposes to review and apply insights garnered from the CO literature to tourism research. Accordingly, the chapter proposes five groups of solutions for tourists and travel advisors to avoid CO effects: reducing decision task difficulty, reducing choice-set complexity, reducing preference uncertainty, focusing on decision goals rather than the means to achieve those goals, and adopting appropriate decision-making styles.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the tendency of some consumers to use the purchase behavior of unknown other consumers as a purchase decision heuristic, by first developing a measure of the consumer propensity to observe. The effects of likely individual consumer factors are then tested.

A total of 356 consumers participated in the study by completing a questionnaire containing items measuring the constructs of interest. The modeled relationships of variables were tested using structural equation modeling with interaction terms.

The specified model was found to explain 43 per cent and 44 per cent of consumers' propensity to directly and indirectly observe, respectively. Key antecedents identified as significant influencers of propensity to observe are consumer risk aversion, brand choice overload, self‐confidence, and propensity to conform to group norms. Additionally, moderating effects are identified, indicating that propensity to observe is higher when certain contingencies interact.

The results of this research suggest that: observation is an important heuristic in choice decision for many consumers; specific consumer characteristics define observational consumers for targeting purposes; and retailers should consider observational tendencies of consumers when marketing and merchandising products.

This study is designed to fill this void in the literature by creating and validating a measure of the tendency to be observational; and by examining influencing factors of the one particular heuristic where consumers look to the purchase behavior of other consumers to resolve their own product choice dilemmas.

The study aims to examine fast fashion consumers' negative in-store experiences focusing on the effect of the two store environment factors, product overload and store ambiance, on their confusion and consequent shopping avoidance behavior.

A research model of fast fashion consumers' confusion and store avoidance behavior is proposed using the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework. A pretest and the main online survey with 281 samples are analyzed, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) is conducted to test the proposed model.

The SEM results support the proposed paths statistically. Consumers' confusion, measured with the two dimensions, inefficiency and helplessness, is significantly influenced by their perceived product overload and negative perception of store ambiance in the fast fashion shopping environment. Subsequently, fast fashion consumers' confusion results in less time spent in the store.

The study sheds light on utilitarian shopping value in the fast fashion shopping environment by focusing on the fast fashion consumers' confusion in association with overloaded information caused by too many products and store ambiance.

The study implies that improving fast fashion stores' inherent issues with too many products and store ambiance might help consumers mitigate their confusion and prevent customer attrition. However, the study includes only two factors. Future studies may include other various fast fashion store factors. Additionally, one of the dimensions of confusion, irritation, did not emerge in this study. More work is needed to investigate fast fashion consumers' confusion, such as using a multigroup analysis by age.

Because of the increasing volume of information spread in physical and online environments, a consumer intending to purchase a product or service must choose not only what to buy but also which sources to consult when searching for information that may aid decision-making. This study aims to understand how consumers choose their sources of information in pre-purchase external searches, given the information overproduction scenario.

Using a qualitative approach, data collected through interviews with consumers were analyzed under the technique of content analysis, and the results were synthesized into a framework.

Consumers tend to consider few sources of information, based on a previously built perception of which sources are more or less appropriate for consultation. Choice tends to be based on pre-established evaluation criteria involving the use of heuristics in the form of socialized images regarding those sources.

Despite the study’s exploratory nature, the proposed framework sheds light into how consumers respond to information overproduction when choosing their sources, providing interesting venues for future investigations.

The study identified the possible occurrence of consumer confusion associated with information sources, extending the theoretical understanding of such a concept. Moreover, it revealed the need for managers to consider specific aspects related to the sources to be included in marketing communications.

This is the first study to address choice of information sources associated with consumer confusion focusing the offline/online scenario.

This study aims to examine the relationships among the dimensions of consumption values (functional, social and emotional), co-creation, information overload, satisfaction and continuance intention derived from the use of the Airbnb platform.

A Web-based survey was conducted among Italians, and a valid sample of 259 persons was obtained for data analysis.

The survey results indicated that only functional value and social value are strong predictors of satisfaction in the use of the Airbnb website for accommodation booking. Co-creation and absence of information overload also contribute to satisfaction with using the Airbnb website for accommodation booking, which in turn affects continuance intention.

The findings of this study are highly destination-specific, given that the authors collected the data only from Italian residents. The sample was based on a snowball sampling technique; thus, the study findings could be misrepresented because of sampling selection bias. Moreover, the study was limited to the use of three dimensions of consumption values, co-creation, information overload and satisfaction to predict continuance intention. Furthermore, the present study adopted a Web-based survey questionnaire.

Managerial implications include recommendations for hosts to emphasise their prices when listing accommodations on the Airbnb website and to focus on active interaction with potential guests. Information on the website should also be organised to avoid information overload.

This study allows a deeper understanding of users’ continuance intention with regards to the Airbnb website by exploring the possible determinants.

本研究考察了消费价值（功能、社会和情感方面）、共同创造、信息超载、满意度与Airbnb平台持续参与使用之间的关系。

研究对意大利人进行了网上调查, 得到了259份有效的抽样数据并进行分析。

调查结果显示, 只有功能价值和社会价值才能强烈预测Airbnb网站住宿预订的满意度。共同创造和信息不超载也有助于使用Airbnb网站进行住宿预订的满意度, 这又会影响网站的持续参与使用。

这项研究的结果受地域限制, 因为我们只收集了意大利居民的数据。该样本基于滚雪球采样技术, 因此, 由于抽样选择偏差, 研究结果可能被歪曲。该研究还仅限于使用消费价值、共同创造、信息超载和满意度三个维度来预测持续参与使用。此外, 网上调查问卷的发放也可能会影响问卷的质量。

本研究的管理意义包括建议房东在Airbnb网站上列出住宿时强调价格, 并专注于与潜在客人的积极互动。房东还应组织网站上的信息, 以避免信息超载。

这项研究通过探索可能的决定因素, 更深入地了解用户对Airbnb网站的持续参与使用。

Este estudio examina las relaciones entre las dimensiones de los valores de consumo (funcional, social y emocional), co-creación, sobrecarga de información, satisfacción e intención de continuidad, derivada del uso de la plataforma Airbnb.

Se realizó una encuesta “en línea”, entre italianos, y se obtuvo para el análisis de datos, una muestra válida de 259 personas.

Los resultados de la encuesta indicaron, que solo el valor funcional y el valor social, son fuertes predictores de la satisfacción en el uso del sitio web de Airbnb a la hora de hacer reservas de alojamiento. La creación conjunta y la ausencia de sobrecarga de información, también contribuyen a la satisfacción de usar el sitio web de Airbnb, para reservar alojamiento, lo que a su vez afecta la intención de continuidad.

Los resultados de este estudio son específicos para un destino, dado que la recolección de los los datos solo se efectúo sobre residentes italianos. La muestra final, se obtuvo con una técnica de muestreo de bolas de nieve; por lo tanto, los resultados del estudio podrían tergiversarse debido al sesgo de selección de muestreo. Además, el estudio se limitó al uso de tres dimensiones de valores de consumo, co-creación, sobrecarga de información y satisfacción para predecir la intención de continuidad. Además, el presente estudio adoptó un cuestionario de encuesta basado en la web.

Las implicaciones gerenciales incluyen recomendaciones para que los anfitriones resalten sus precios, al enumerar alojamientos de Airbnb y centrarse en la interacción activa con posibles huéspedes. La información en el sitio web también debe organizarse para evitar la sobrecarga de información.

Este estudio permite una comprensión más profunda sobre la intención de continuidad de los usuarios con respecto al sitio web de Airbnb, al explorar los posibles determinantes que la afectan.

While prior studies have explored the relationship between visual appeal and purchasing decisions, the role of bookmarking has largely been underemphasized. This research aims to address this gap by focusing on the impact of bookmarking on consumer behavior, guided by the cognitive load theory and dual-system theory.

The authors executed a controlled experiment and analyzed the results using a two-stage regression method that linked visual appeal, bookmarking and purchase intent. Further empirical analysis was conducted to authenticate the authors' proposed model, utilizing real-world mobile commerce data from a clothing company.

This study's findings suggest that visual appeal influences purchase intent primarily through the full mediation of bookmarking, rather than exerting a direct influence. Furthermore, an increase in colorfulness corresponds positively with visual appeal, while visual complexity exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with it.

This study provides novel insights into the choice-set formation process through the theoretical lens of dual-system theory. Additionally, the authors employed an image processing technique to quantify a product's visual appeal as depicted in a photograph. This study also incorporates a comprehensive econometric analysis to connect the objective aspects of visual appeal with subjective responses.

This study aims to examine how the number of choices consumers have influences provider satisfaction, plan satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) in the health insurance industry.

Partial least squares (PLS) and structural equation modeling (SmartPLS) was used to conduct multi-group analysis to analyze the structural models. Data were collected online using Amazon mechanical turk, resulting in 425 respondents.

This study finds that the number of choices consumers have impacts the strength of provider and plan satisfaction and positive WOM. Also, this study finds that provider satisfaction is generally more impactful than plan satisfaction when generating positive WOM.

This study extends reactance theory, satisfaction and WOM based on choice options to the health insurance industry where credence attributes are prevalent and the analysis includes two satisfaction constructs in the structural model, whereas multiple satisfaction constructs are often overlooked.