Awareness, Interest, and Final Decision: The Effects of User- and Marketer-Generated Content on Consumers’ Purchase Decisions

Presenter Information

Michael Scholz, University of Passau, Passau, Germany.Follow
Verena Dorner, Chair of Business Computing II, University of Passau, Passau, Germany.Follow
Andrea Landherr, FIM Research Center, Augsburg, Germany.Follow
Florian Probst, Department of Information Systems Engineering and Financial Management, FIM Research Center, Augsburg, Germany.Follow

Start Date

12-17-2013

Description

Companies use Facebook fan pages to promote their products or services. Recent research shows that user- (UGC) and marketer-generated content (MGC) created on fan pages affect online sales. But it is still unclear how exactly they affect consumers during their purchase process. We analyze field data from a large German e-tailer to investigate the effects of UGC and MGC in a multi-stage model of purchase decision processes: awareness creation, interest stimulation, and final purchase decision. We find that MGC and UGC create awareness by attracting users to the fan page. Increased numbers of active users stimulate user interest, and more users visit the e-tailer’s online shop. Neutral UGC increase the conversion rate of online shop visitors. Comparisons between one-, two- and three-stage modes show that neglecting one or two stages hides several important effects of MGC and UGC on consumers and ultimately leads to inaccurate predictions of key business figures.

Recommended Citation

Scholz, Michael; Dorner, Verena; Landherr, Andrea; and Probst, Florian, "Awareness, Interest, and Final Decision: The Effects of User- and Marketer-Generated Content on Consumers’ Purchase Decisions" (2013). ICIS 2013 Proceedings. 23.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2013/proceedings/HumanBehavior/23