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The influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) information, such as online reviews, on consumers’ decision making is well documented, but it is unclear if online reviews still matter in post-purchase evaluation and behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which online reviews (aggregate rating (AR) and individual reviews (IR)) influence consumers’ evaluation and post-purchase behaviour by considering the valence congruence of online reviews and consumption experience (CE).

Following social comparison theory and relevant literature, the authors conduct an online experiment (pre-test: n=180; main study: n=347). The authors rely on a 2 (CE valence) ×2 (AR valence) ×2 (IR valence) between-subjects design.

Congruence/incongruence between the valences of CE, AR and IR affects consumers’ post-purchase evaluation at the emotional, brand and media levels and review-writing behaviour. In comparison to aggregated rating, IR are more important in the post-purchase stage. Similarly, consumers have a higher eWOM-writing intention when there is congruence between the valences of CE, AR and IR.

The authors demonstrate the importance of service providers continually monitoring their business profiles on review sites to ensure consistency of review information, as these influence consumers’ post-purchase evaluation and behaviours. For this reason, the authors illustrate the utility of why media owners of review sites should support the monitoring process to facilitate the engagement of both businesses and customers.

The authors break new ground by empirically testing the impact of online review information post-purchase seen through the theoretical lens of social comparison. The approach is novel in breaking down and testing the dimensions of post-purchase evaluation and behavioural intentions in understanding the social comparison elicited by online reviews in the post-purchase phase.

By acknowledging the importance of micro-influencers and all decision-making process stages, this study aims to explore the impact of perceived influencer’s credibility, impacted by the sponsorship absenteeism, on problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase and post-purchase. Additionally, the authors investigate the moderating role of trust level on the researched relationships.

This study focuses on 111 young Croatian consumers of cosmetic products. The authors analysed data with confirmatory factor and regression analyses.

This study reveals positive relationships between micro-influencers’ perceived credibility and all decision-making phases. The research results also show that the lack of sponsorship positively influences perceived credibility. Furthermore, results indicate that the trust level is an essential moderator for the relationships between perceived credibility and sponsorship and information search and buying stages.

Limitations include the convenience sampling method and data collection at one point while also focusing on consumers from one country.

This study provides practical implications for companies outlining the marketing activities that should be considered in all stages of the decision-making process while recognising the attractiveness of micro-influencers for the buying experience.

This study fills gaps in the literature on micro-influencers credibility in general and particularly in the cosmetics industry. In addition, the study fills the gaps in the literature considering the impact of perceived micro-influencer credibility on all five decision-making process stages.

Unlike point of purchase behavior, not much is known about how payment method impacts post-purchase behavior, especially for durable goods where user experience can last over long periods. The purpose of this paper is to link two strands of literature for the first time by uncovering systematic linkages between the payment method (upfront cash vs loan) used for purchase of durable goods and the replacement timings for the same.

The authors predict that cash purchases are more likely to have shorter replacement horizons compared to loan purchases and propose a psychological mechanism that accounts for the same. Their arguments are based on how the strength of coupling, which is the degree of psychological association between payment and consumption, depends on the payment method and differentially influences the consumption experience and consequently leads to different replacement horizons. They conduct a field study to test their predictions and find support for their model.

The authors find that individuals who financed their durable goods purchases using loan, expressed their intentions to replace the goods after longer period than those who financed their durable goods with cash down payment. As loan installments remind people of painful thoughts of payment, they tend to reduce the dissonance by positively evaluating both retrospective and anticipated usage experiences. This dissonance reduction mechanism eventually leads to reduced willingness to let go of the durable.

Marketers are faced with a tradeoff between increasing purchase likelihood versus ensuring long-term post-purchase satisfaction. In this paper, the authors uncover the psychological mechanisms that can explain how payment method chosen to pay for a durable can have direct effect on post-purchase consumption experiences and subsequently in the replacement intentions. This finding is crucial for marketers who are interested in planning the product line launches and other post-purchase engagement strategies such as buy-back scheme and upgrades.

Understanding the psychological mechanisms that explain individual’s likelihood to replace their durable goods allows policymakers to design appropriate interventions to induce more sustainable and efficient use of durable goods in the market. While on one hand, marketers might be interested in increasing sales of their product line by inducing faster replacement of older product versions, environmentalists nudge towards the opposite. This paper provides a possible way to achieve the dual objectives.

While past research on downstream effects of payment methods on behavioral outcomes focused only on consumables, the authors focus on durable goods. Further, they identify the effect of payment method on both psychological and behavioral outcomes.

There has been an explosion in the number of retail Web sites since 1995, e‐retail offering shares a few common elements specifically a product search facility (often augmented by a product evaluation facility), an on‐line purchase function and a product delivery capability. There is a body of theory and empirical research in the study of customer loyalty drivers in the services sector, which demonstrates that customers evaluate services on the basis of tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, reliability and control. These service qualities depend on the customer’s perception of the overall service experience. The most influential element in the service experience is the relationship between the service provider and the customer. The Internet is a poor service delivery medium, it lacks the capacity for direct personal interaction enjoyed by non‐Internet based services. Sets out a number of marketing and Website design implications for e‐retailers and suggests means by which e‐retailers can manage customer perceptions to increase sales and develop greater customer loyalty.

Service products being intangible and experiential in nature are different to evaluate prior to purchase and consumption. Consumers perceive risk while purchasing services and rely on various information sources to make a purchase decision. In services, personal sources of information are considered more than non‐personal sources of information. The present study focuses on understanding the significance of supplementary services as nonpersonal source of information to consumers for pre‐purchase evaluation of credit card services. In other words, whether information regarding supplementary services can help consumers make pre‐purchase evaluation of credit cards. In addition to pre‐purchase evaluation, the impact of supplementary services is studied towards post‐purchase evaluation of credit card services. Supplementary services being a part of full service product offer by marketers can be utilised as a beneficial tool to create interest and developing awareness among consumers.

The purpose of this study is to understand the pre‐purchase alternative evaluation for prestige and imitation fashion products. The Engel et al. pre‐purchase alternative evaluation process served as the basis for the model.

A convenience sample of 158 undergraduate female students completed surveys. The final questionnaire consisted of four scales that measured shopping motivation, reference group influence, perceived product risk, and perceived transaction risk.

When compared with the imitation product, consumers' pre‐purchase evaluation of the prestige fashion product was characterized by higher shopping motivation, higher reference group influence, and lower perceived product and transaction risks. When compared with the prestige product, consumers' pre‐purchase evaluation of the imitation fashion product was characterized by lower shopping motivation, lower reference group influence, and higher perceived product and transaction risks. However, not all variables were significant predictors for both the prestige and imitation fashion product.

Since college students were used, results cannot be generalized to the entire population. Further, respondents' answers were self‐reported, and may not represent actual behaviour. Suggestions for future research include additional studies to determine the validity of the model, and replication of the study using different populations.

No studies have examined the pre‐purchase alternative evaluation process for prestige and imitation products. Most research has focused on counterfeit fashion products. Findings from this study can be used by educators, manufacturers, and retailers to help understand, and explain consumer preferences, and pre‐purchase alternative evaluations of fashion products.

The purpose of this study is to explore the hospitality franchise purchase decision-making process undertaken by franchisees in Macau as an emerging tourism destination and the role of national culture on purchasing a franchise brand and selecting a potential franchisor.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 18 franchisees in Macau, who purchased international and domestic hospitality franchise brands, were conducted to understand the feelings, attitudes and motivation of franchisees toward purchasing a hospitality franchise.

The study reveals that national culture can play an important role in franchisees’ decision-making process. Personal networks of friends and family (guanxi) are very influential in introducing and steering aspiring entrepreneurs toward franchising as an option to realize their ambitions, although there may be some limitations to franchisees with this approach. Guanxi was also found to be particularly relevant during negotiations and franchisees’ post-purchase reviews.

International franchisors should understand the importance of guanxi at different stages of the franchisees’ decision-making process. Franchisees should realize how a reliance on guanxi might negatively affect their efforts to undertake sufficient research to thoroughly evaluate the franchisor offer before contract signature.

A comprehensive hospitality franchisee decision-making purchase framework is developed, which includes the cultural context and cultural values. Guanxi, in particular, affects the franchisee decision-making process.

Points out that since consumers are seldom familiar with all the competing brands or the attributes of these brands, brand uncertainty exists in every market. Presents theoretical and empirical evidence from several disciplines to demonstrate that brand uncertainty affects brand attitudes and preferences, and consequently affects brand performance. Demonstrates the importance of actively managing brand uncertainty. Identifies and discusses marketing tools that can be used to reduce brand uncertainty at different stages in the consumer decision process. Discusses how managers can modify these tools to deal with high‐involvement versus low‐involvement products, how these tools should be scheduled for maximum impact, and the amount of control managers have over each tool.

Service businesses face a unique challenge: how to effectively communicate the necessarily intangible benefits of their service offering. Their attempts to tangibilize the service are often ill‐designed, making service benefits more rather than less obscure. This article presents a scheme that identifies the communication task at various stages of consumer decision making and then matches appropriate communication strategies. Rather than embracing misguided tangibilization, the recommended strategies handle the intangibility challenge without necessarily using any tangible props.