The Impact of the Prechoice Process on Product Returns
Published 8/1/2005
Author: Nada Nasr Bechwati and Wendy Schneier Siegal
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Executive Summary
This article aims to develop a framework for improved understanding of the mechanisms that underlie consumer choice reversibility and thus the likelihood that customers will return products. The authors propose a link between consumers’ likelihood of returning a product when they are exposed to disconfirming information and what occurs before the choice is made. This link is contingent on the accessibility and diagnosticity of prechoice thoughts at the time of the return decision. Three factors primarily determine the accessibility and diagnosticity of prechoice thoughts: (1) the number of favorable thoughts initially generated, (2) the nature of those thoughts, and (3) the nature of disconfirming information. The first factor is derived from the accessibility or, more precisely, the availability principle. The other two factors determine the relevance of the prechoice thoughts (i.e., their diagnosticity).
The authors designed two studies to test the proposed link between the prechoice process and product returns. In both studies, they manipulate the way in which information is presented to decision makers, thus influencing the number and/or nature of the thoughts generated before subject make their choices.
In Study 1, the author manipulate the presentation of information about choice alternatives (simultaneous versus sequential) to study the impact of the nature of prechoice thoughts (comparative versus noncomparative) on product returns. They find that the generation of responses of a different nature while choosing directly affects the likelihood of choice reversal. The comparative versus noncomparative nature of thoughts generated influence their diagnosticity and, accordingly, their impact on product returns when consumers are exposed to disconfirming information.
In Study 2, the authors draw on the inoculation theory to manipulate the number of prechoice thoughts. They find that when faced with disconfirming information favoring a new brand, inoculated consumers who are presented with choice alternatives sequentially are less likely to return a brand than consumers who are exposed solely to positive information about the chosen brand at a prepurchase stage.
Biography
Nada Nasr Bechwati has a BBA and an MBA from the American University of Beirut. She also has a doctoral degree in Marketing from Boston University. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bentley College. Before joining Bentley, she was Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is an international fellow of the American Association for University Women (AAUW). Her research focuses on consumer behavior in the postpurchase stage, such as product returns and consumer vengeance. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Consumer Psychology and Journal of Interactive Marketing.
Wendy Schneier Siegal received her doctoral degree in marketing from Ohio State University. She was formerly on the faculty at the Boston University School of Management, where her research focused on managerial learning and the impact of situational and dispositional factors on information search, information use, and decision-making processes. In addition to her research on managerial decision making, Siegal has published in the areas of attitude formation and change and has collaborated on several field projects investigating organizational knowledge adoption. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Product Innovation Management.
J Marketing Research, Volume 42, Number 3, August 2005
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