A study on customer confusion with respect to select 111gh and low involvement products and services

Abstract

Abstract newlineConsumer confusion is a prevalent issue across various industries, often resulting from similar products, overwhelming options, and ambiguous information. Despite existing research on the conceptual and empirical aspects of consumer confusion, there is a dearth of literature specifically addressing the emotional and behavioural effects of this phenomenon in an online shopping environment. To fill this gap, the extended Stimulus Organism Response (SOR) theory is employed to evaluate consumer confusion. This theory takes into account the impact of ineffective marketplace stimulus, cognitive states leading to confusion, resulting in negative emotions, and subsequent behaviours such as postponing decisions and negative electronic word of mouth. Further, the present research examines the combined influence of demographic factors such as age, gender, and education on consumer confusion, which has not been addressed in the literature. It also delves into the moderating impact of self-efficacy on decision-making. The study recommends, for the first time, the use of AI-powered solutions to address consumer confusion. The proposed consumer confusion conceptual framework is analysed for select high and low-involvement products and service categories (High-involvement product Online Purchase of Mobile Phones, High-involvement service Online Purchase of Tourism services, Low-involvement product Online Purchase of Organic Food and Low-involvement service Online Purchase of Internet Service Providers Packages). For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques in AMOS 20.0 and three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) method using SPSS 20.0 have been employed. The study s results unveil the direct influence of ineffective marketplace stimulus on different confusions for all four categories. The results reveal the critical difference in the persistence of confusion for four select categories. The interaction impact of age, gender and education on different conf