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This research reviews numerous studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external search in conventional marketing channels to investigate differences among these studies that have produced conflicting results. The findings provide a benchmark for future researchers and practitioners seeking to gain insight into consumer information search processes unfolding in the new environment of online, mobile, and social networking channels.

A meta-analysis of an extensive array of empirical studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external information search was conducted. Regression analysis was used to test whether certain characteristics in the studies can explain variability in the effect sizes in which effect sizes are entered as dependent variables and moderators as independent variables.

Objective and subjective knowledge tend to increase search, while direct experience tends to reduce search. Consumers with higher objective knowledge search more when pursuing credence products. However, they search relatively less when pursuing search products. Consumers with higher subjective knowledge are much more likely to search in the context of experience products, but as is the case for objective knowledge having little effect on search for experience products, subjective knowledge has no significant effect on information seeking for search products. In addition, objective knowledge facilitates more information search in a complex decision-making context while higher subjective knowledge fosters more external information search in a simple decision-marketing context. Finally, the findings indicate that the knowledge search relationship reflects strong linkage in the pre-Internet era.

Relatively little is known about how the relationship between knowledge and information search varies across different types of products in simple or complex decision-making contexts. This study begins to fill this gap by providing insight into the relative importance of objective knowledge, subjective knowledge, and direct experience in influencing consumer information search activities for search, experience, and credence products in simple or complex decision-making contexts.

The aim of this chapter is to delineate a product framework concerning managed visitor attractions (MVA), which highlights the supply-chain aspects of destinations. It first touches on the rationales for developing such a framework and then constructs a framework composed of a set of product components deriving from the extant literature. Consequently, an version of a product component framework, fastening on an accumulated sample of attraction cases, is presented through three illustrative cases. In the conclusion section, this study elaborates on the study limitation while connoting how the resultant data could shed light on the role of the components of the MVA product in the creation of visitor experiences.

In the growing information systems (IS) literature on metaverse, augmented reality (AR) technology is regarded as a cornerstone of the metaverse which enables interaction services. Interaction has been identified as a core technology characteristic of metaverse shopping environments. Based on previous human–technology interaction research, the authors further explicate interaction to be multimodal sensory. The purpose of this study is thus to better understand the unique nature of interaction in AR technology and highlight the technology's benefits for shopping in metaverse spaces.

An experiment has been conducted to empirically examine the authors' research model. The authors use the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to analyze the collected data.

This study conceptualizes image, motion and touchscreen interactions as the three dimensions of multimodal sensory interaction, which can reflect visual-, kinesthetic- and haptic-based sensation stimulation. The authors' findings show that multimodal sensory interaction of AR activates consumers' intention to purchase via a psychological process. To delineate this psychological process, the authors use feelings-as-information theory to posit that experiential factors can influence cognitive factors. More specifically, multimodal sensory interaction is shown to increase multisensory experience and spatial presence, which can effectively reduce product uncertainty and information overload. The two outcomes have been considered to be key issues in online shopping environments.

This study is one of the first ones that shed light on the multimodal sensory peculiarity of AR interactions in the extant IS literature. The authors further highlight the benefits of AR in addressing major online shopping concerns about product uncertainty and information overload, which are largely overlooked by prior research. This study uses feelings-as-information theory to explain the impacts of AR interactions, which reveal the essential role of the experiential process in sensory-enabling technologies. This study enriches the existing theoretical frameworks that mostly focus on the cognitive process. The authors' findings about AR interactions provide noteworthy guidelines for the design of metaverse environments and extend the authors' understanding of how the metaverse may bring benefits beyond traditional online shopping settings.

This paper aims to present a case study of virtual-reality-based product demonstrations featuring items of furniture. The results will be of use in further design and development of virtual-reality-based product demonstration systems and could also support effective student learning.

A new method was introduced to guide the experiment by confirming orthogonal arrays. User interactions were then planned, and a furniture demonstration system was implemented. The experiment comprised two stages. In the evaluation stage, participants were invited to experience the virtual-reality (VR)-based furniture demonstration system and complete a user experience (UX) survey. Taguchi-style robust design methods were used to design orthogonal table experiments and planning and design operation methods were used to implement an experimental display system in order to obtain optimized combinations of control factors and levels. The second stage involved a confirmatory test for the optimized combinations. A pilot questionnaire was first applied to survey demonstration scenarios that are important to customers.

The author found in terms of furniture products, product interactive display through VR can achieve good user satisfaction through quality design planning. VR can better grasp the characteristics of products than paper catalogs and website catalogs. And VR can better grasp the characteristics of products than online videos. For “interactive inspection”, “function simulation”, “style customization” and “set-out customization” were the most valuable demonstration scenarios for customers. The results of the experiment confirmed that the “overall rating”, “hedonic appeal” and “practical quality” were the three most important optimized operating methods, constituting a benchmark of user satisfaction.

The author found that it is possible to design and build a VR-based furniture demonstration system with a good level of usability when a suitable quality design method is applied. The optimized user interaction indicators and implementation experience for the VR-based product demonstration presented in this study will be of use in further design and development of similar systems.

The usage of augmented reality (AR) in online shopping websites provides a “try-on” experience for consumers. AR technology combines the virtual and real world. Previous studies have addressed AR usage’s benefits to consumers’ online shopping experience. However, this study aims to explore the dark side of AR usage in consumers’ online purchasing process.

The authors conduct six experiments to examine whether AR usage leads to adverse effects on consumers’ purchase intention and explain the mechanism of its dark side.

The result shows that AR usage in online shopping websites reduces consumers’ purchase intention. The authors further reveal that the usage of AR leads to more vital psychological ownership of the product, and psychological ownership positively relates to cognitive conflict. Cognitive conflict explains the negative influence of AR usage on purchase intention.

First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of embedded AR function of websites on consumers’ decision-making process. Also, it is the first study on the application of AR in a real shopping scene, which makes the study of AR close to reality. Second, psychological ownership is introduced in this study. Although there are many types of research on psychological ownership, few scholars have explored it in AR research. Third, most studies stress the advantages of using AR during purchase; this research demonstrates that embedding AR function in a shopping website may negatively affect purchase intention.

In the light of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, it is imperative for firms to adopt green practices. Green marketing is currently attracting the attention of people all over the world due to the growing awareness of the link between environmental catastrophes and unsustainable human activities. However, some aspects of green marketing, including green product experience, trust, satisfaction and loyalty, remain underexplored. This study aims to assess how green product experience and trust in green labelling influence perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty towards green products.

Partial least squares-structural equation modelling was used to analyse data collected from a survey of 578 consumers in Ghana.

The results indicate that consumers’ green product experience influences their green product satisfaction, perceived value and loyalty; and that consumers’ trust in green labelling influenced their green product satisfaction and perceived value.

This study contributes to the literature by providing useful insights into green product experience, trust in green labelling, green satisfaction and loyalty. The findings can assist brand and marketing managers in devising communication strategies that will generate the most beneficial perceived values of green products among targeted customers.

The study is among a few to examine the influence of green product experience and trust on perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty towards green products, particularly in the context of a developing economy.

The acceleration of globalization is causing global trade transactions to become increasingly frequent, which leads to the internationalized design of consumer products. However, due to cultural differences, the user experience in different parts of the world with the same product may be different. In addition, the user experience is not static, but changes over the different usage stages for a product since the role of our senses may vary and different emotions may be elicited. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the interaction between the user and the product influences cross-cultural sensory modalities and emotional responses to products.

Due to the fact that drinking tea can provide dynamic feedback of users’ sensory experiences including all five senses, two kinds of tea products from two considerably different cultures (China and the Netherlands) were chosen for the study. The experiment was conducted in five stages corresponding to different levels of interaction with two tea products. Measurements for both Chinese and Dutch participants were conducted by means of collecting subjective data for sensory modalities and emotions related to product experiences throughout the five stages.

Results showed that tea experience tends to be dynamic between the two different countries over different usage periods, including sensory modalities and the emotional responses.

The findings and design & market implications can be applied to optimize the design or market of international tea products or consumer products in other categories. They will be helpful for the international marketing of tea, especially for those who are interested in breaking into the Chinese tea market and those who are interested in promoting Chinese tea in new markets. In addition, the authors’ methods to evaluate the dynamics of the importance of sensory modalities and emotions could be used to test the user experience in the product lifecycle to help develop a successful international product.

The findings and the linked design implications could be important not only for a theoretical understanding of cross-cultural sensory and emotional feedback from a product experience, but also for the optimization of product design for the international market.

This study aims to draw a more nuanced picture of the impact of co-creation experience shedding light on the moderating role of consumers’ personal features. Virtual co-creation is considered a viable strategy to develop consumer-centered products in the digital era. As an additional effect, this research highlighted that co-creation experiences may establish beneficial consumer–brand relationships.

Using survey data stemming from 727 consumers who virtually engaged in new product development projects, the authors test the hypotheses, applying structural equation modeling.

The results of this study show that consumers’ personal features such as novelty seeking and dissatisfaction with existing products moderate the impact of an enjoyable experience on aspects of the consumer–company relationship. Consumers’ dissatisfaction with current product solutions is also found to moderate the relationship between an enjoyable co-creation experience and evoked product interest as well as between product involvement and evoked product interest. The study further substantiates previous findings on the relationship-effects of co-creation and particularly highlight the potential of co-creation experiences for nurturing “imaginary” relationships with the product being co-created significantly prior to market launch.

Participants in virtual co-creation approaches are widely heterogeneous individuals ranging from customers and Facebook fans to brand community members and innovative users. The study contributes to a better understanding of how the diversity of the crowd can be handled in virtual co-creation and advances the theory of value co-creation as a new marketing paradigm.

By adopting retrospective evaluation theories, this study aims to explain how innovations provided by separate suppliers in the tourism value chain influence tourist’s perceived value of the overall experience and further uncover which innovative product attributes are more effective in improving tourist perceptions of the overall value.

A survey yielded 584 valid responses from tourists who had experienced specific tourist product innovations during their travels. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed theoretical model.

The results reveal that tourists evaluate overall travelling experience value either by recalling an intense, impressive moment (i.e. a heuristic approach) or through an evaluation of the overall utility gained from the whole trip (i.e. a normative approach). Furthermore, innovations that are perceived as increasing convenience and enabling learning contribute to tourists’ overall value perception through both normative and heuristic approaches, while immersion resulting from innovation only contributes to overall perceived value through the heuristic approach.

Given the complex service ecosystem of tourism destinations, each tourism service provider should consider how innovations contribute to the experience of the whole trip and which attributes of innovations increase tourists’ overall perceived experience value.

This study complements existing knowledge by revealing the relationship between product innovation in tourism sectors and tourists’ perceived value of the whole trip. Moreover, it offers a theoretical framework for further investigation into service product innovation in hospitality and tourism industry.

This paper aims to verify the hypothetical relationships between antecedent and consequence variables of consumer's shopping experiences based on an experiential typology advocated by Schmitt.

First, the study takes a holistic view of shopping experiences by adopting three experiential components (sensory, affective, and rational) with a view to uncovering the roles of antecedent (shopping motives) and consequence (impulse buying) of shopping experiences. Specifically, the study seeks to affirm the effects of shopping motives on shopping experiences for three types of retail store (department store, discount store, and internet store) and two product types (perfume and detergent). Second, the study confirms whether store type and product type influence the kind of experience preferred by shoppers and verifies whether types of product and store moderate the relationship between shopping motives and shopping experiences. Thirdly, the study investigates the effects of shopping experiences on impulse buying, with special attention given to the role of store atmospherics.

The study found that shopping motives had significant effects on shopping experiences. Product‐based shopping motive exerted greater significant influence on shopping experiences than experience‐based motive. The result showed that product type (detergent) was a significant moderator between experience‐based shopping motive and sensory experience. And, both department store and discount store were found to significantly moderate between experience‐based motive and affective experience. It also found that affective shopping experience boosted impulse buying and rational experience decreased it significantly at department store. However, no consistent pattern of influence was detected for the effects of atmospherics on impulse buying when examined by store type.

The study results will offer important retailing implications which accommodate customers' experiential needs that are not only consumer‐centric, but also context specific. The study reflects the growing recognition of the role of sensory stimuli, as they were found to influence advertisement and brand effectiveness. Also, antecedents of experiential shopping in relation to its impact on impulse buying have not been fully explored in the past.