Consumer Types, Social Influence, Information Search and Choice.

摘要: This paper reports an exploratory field study of the relationships between consumer types, normative social influence, information search using personal sources, and eventual choice. Using the fashion purchases of a sample of 324 female consumers it was found that some consumers perceived clear signals from their peers which obviated the need for external information search. In contrast, some required active reinforcement of their normatively derived preferences during product evaluation, and some made product choices without peer guidance. These complex interactions between normative and informational influence were related to the individual sociodemographic characteristics of the consumers.