Choice and the Internet: From Clickstream to Research Stream

The authors discuss research progress and future opportunities for modeling consumer choice on the Internet using clickstream data (the electronic records of Internet usage recorded by company web servers and syndicated data services). The authors compare the nature of Internet choice (as captured by clickstream data) with supermarket choice (as captured by UPC scanner panel data), highlighting the differences relevant to choice modelers. Though the application of choice models to clickstream data is relatively new, the authors review existing early work and provide a two-by-two categorization of the applications studied to date (delineating search versus purchase on the one hand and within-site versus across-site choices on the other). The paper offers directions for further research in these areas and discusses additional opportunities afforded by clickstream information, including personalization, data mining, automation, and customer valuation. Notwithstanding the numerous challenges associated with clickstream data research, the authors conclude that the detailed nature of the information tracked about Internet usage and e-commerce transactions presents an enormous opportunity for empirical modelers to enhance the understanding and prediction of choice behavior.     

Effects of knowledge types on choice quality and perceptions of choice performance

Two types of knowledge used in making choices are examined: knowledge of product-specific information and knowledge of a choice strategy. Product-specific information comprises information about available alternatives, including features and their importance. Strategy information includes knowing an appropriate strategy for integrating and evaluating information about alternatives, as well as knowing how to implement the strategy. The effects of these knowledge types, both singly and jointly, upon choice quality and perceptions of choice quality are examined in two studies. The results of the first study indicate that the knowledge types are differentially beneficial, and that subjects tend to be more overconfident about the perceived quality of their choices when they have product-specific information than when they have choice strategy information. The hypothesis that this difference is due to subjects' greater awareness of produce-specific information, rather than strategy information, is examined and supported in the second study. Implications for marketing and public policy are discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Forming and updating of product category perceptions: The influence of goals and discrepancy

Consumers categorize products to facilitate storage and retrieval of product information. Product categories are flexible in structure and may be altered to enable efficient processing, storage, and retrieval of information. The joint effect of two factors, learning goal and discrepancy, on the differential formation of category structures is examined. The learning goal influences the formation of initial category perceptions and is proposed to affect tendencies to subtype a new brand at different levels of discrepancy. Study results indicate that subjects who must make judgments about a new, strongly discrepant brand are influenced more by learning goal than are subjects presented with a moderately discrepant brand. Implications for marketing strategy are discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.