Ulku Yuksel

Although consumers are commonly exposed to numerous choices and the opportunity to touch products when they shop, the literature remains unclear on how both factors simultaneously affect choice. With the growth of online shopping, touch literature has studied the effects of mere touch (i.e., nondiagnostic tactile contact) or vicarious touch (e.g., observing a hand in physical contact with a product or imagining touching a product) to demonstrate that these nondiagnostic haptic inputs can comparably influence consumer attitude, just like diagnostic touch. By investigating the moderating effects of different haptic inputs on choice overload, this research reveals certain conditions in which nondiagnostic haptic inputs operate differently than those of diagnostic touch. We find that both mere touch (Study 1) and vicarious touch (Study 2) help reduce choice overload effects by eliminating the effect of choice set size on choice uncertainty, which is typically observed in the no touch (i.e., control) condition. As haptic cues have been increasingly employed to aid the online shopping experience for consumers, we also find that the choice overload effect is eliminated when an autotelic haptic cue is presented but amplified when an instrumental haptic cue is provided (Study 3). Besides, this research demonstrates that, while the moderating effects of the nondiagnostic haptic inputs are driven by increased personal control, instrumental touch can amplify choice overload effects due to the increased choice difficulty when choosing from large (vs. small) choice sets. These findings help retailers know what type of haptic cues to apply or avoid, as consumers have already been overloaded with abundant choices when they shop online.

The Internet and social media have increased the number of organizations and individuals asking consumers to sign petitions against transgressing brands. This raises a question as to whether such increases in requests to sign a petition to support a boycott positively or negatively impact on consumer willingness to enact anti‐consumption. Via experiments, this study investigates the effect that choice overload has on consumers signing a petition in support of a boycott call. The findings establish that individuals who need to make a choice from numerous boycott calls (i.e., large choice‐sets) are less likely to sign a petition to support a boycott than individuals making a similar choice from a small number of boycott calls (i.e., small choice‐sets). The study further introduces a mediator that explains this effect. Compared with individuals facing a small choice‐set, those facing numerous options are more likely to experience the small‐agent rationalization, and thus, are less likely to sign the petition to support a boycott. The small‐agent rationalization (SAR) relates to one's acceptance of inequity in the world as well as perceptions of their own powerlessness. The study establishes the role of choice overload in boycott literature and empirically tests SAR as the process mechanism. Theoretical, practical, and policy implications are discussed.

Purpose: This research aims to investigates whether and why choice overload (CO) occurs when people select a vacation destination. Design/methodology/approach: This is a two-group (large choice-set vs small choice-set) between-subject factorial design. Dependent variables representing CO-effects are post-choice satisfaction and regret. Choice confusion and choice uncertainty are mediators. Findings: Relative to people choosing from a small destination portfolio, people who choose from a large portfolio are less satisfied and more regretful about their choice. Choosing from a large choice-set confuses people, which then makes them less certain about their choice, and subsequently, have less satisfaction and more regret about their decision. Practical implications: A critical consideration is essential when providing a number of destination choices to tourists. A few destinations should be offered in a travel portfolio. If the number of destination offers must remain large, travel agents should cluster these offers based on a market segmentation analysis to ease the decision-making process for travellers. Originality/value: The findings add to evidence of CO-effects to the current literature of travel destination choice, and contribute to CO literature by showing evidence of CO-effects in complex service contexts, especially in holiday destination choices. This study is the first to provide evidence of CO-effects at the early stages of the travel destination decision-making process; it uses hypothetical destinations to avoid potential confounds associated with real destinations; and it measures CO-effects via post-choice satisfaction and regret. In addition, while the only available study on CO in tourism (Park and Jang, 2013) does not explain why CO-effects occur, this research provides and explains the psychological underlying process of the CO phenomenon in destination choice-making.

Although the importance of customer orientation has been well addressed in strategic marketing, these ideas generally focus on managing business-to-customer interactions. Strategic importance of understanding customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) has received very little attention. Word of mouth (WOM) research has recently been broadened in the context of CCI. Research that addresses during-the-experience word of mouth (WOM_de) in the actual service setting is scant. Thus, we empirically distinguish WOM_de and post-consumption experience (WOM_pe) and investigate their interconnected relationships within a nomological network. We use a mixed-methods approach to generate and code a collection of WOM_de events and a survey to capture further variables of interest including WOM_pe. Our exploratory study demonstrates that WOM_de has a positive impact both on customers’ emotional reaction in the service context and on brand perceptions. Subsequently, the magnified brand perceptions act as a significant driver of customer trust and WOM_pe. We also distinguish between brand-related and brand-unrelated WOM_de and offer insight into the effect of both types of conversation on customer perceptions and attitudes.

How society affects public welfare and businesses via boycotts has become increasingly important in a connected world. Yet, research on the topic remains scant and focuses mostly on why consumers boycott. This study moves beyond motivations of why consumers participate in boycotts, and examines instead, why individuals are not willing to boycott. This is important because the accounts for non-participation may not be the exact opposite of the reasons to participate. Informants’ reasons for not boycotting were classified into three broad themes: “out of sight, out of mind,” “urge for freedom and self-defence,” and “counterarguments – scepticism or accounts.” The hermeneutic analysis provides a framework for understanding boycott failures.