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Research Article

The Effect of Information Cohesion Degree Presented by Online Agents on Consumer Price Sensitivity

Lee, Duhui, Kim, Gyeongjin, Na, Junhui



Published: January 2006 · Vol. 35, No. 1 · pp. 131-154
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Abstract

Prior research suggests that online agents induce price competition among products, thereby increasing consumers' price sensitivity. In contrast, Lynch and Ariely (2000) argue that online agents clearly present quality differences among products, thereby actually reducing consumers' price sensitivity. In response to these contradictory findings, the present researchers propose a new interpretation, noting that the degree of cohesiveness of product information presented by online agents can influence consumers' price sensitivity. Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results of Experiment 1 showed that when the cohesiveness of information presented by the online agent was high, consumers focused more on quality attributes than on price attributes, resulting in lower price sensitivity. Conversely, when the cohesiveness of presented information was low, consumers focused more on price attributes than on quality attributes, resulting in higher price sensitivity. Experiment 2 considered that the price level of the product category could influence consumers' price sensitivity. The results showed that for low-priced products, the degree of information cohesiveness affected consumers' price sensitivity, but for high-priced products, it did not. Experiment 3 was designed to enhance the generalizability of the Experiment 2 results—specifically, it tested the alternative explanation that product category characteristics (price-oriented products vs. quality-oriented products) might influence the cohesiveness effect. The results eliminated this alternative explanation. In conclusion, based on the similarity judgment theory of Ritov, Gati, and Tversky (1990), the researchers demonstrated that the presentation format of information provided by online agents can influence consumers' price sensitivity. However, this effect was limited to low-priced product categories.
Keywords: CohesivenessOnline AgentsPrice SensitivitySimilarity of Judgment Theory