Consumer confusion proneness: insights from a developing economy

Abstract

Purpose-The present study aims to examine young consumers' general tendency to become confused and its effect on the word of mouth, trust, and consumer satisfaction in Indonesiathe largest smartphone market in Southeast Asia. Design/ methodology/ approach-A combination of convenience and purposive sampling were used to select the sample of young adults in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY), Indonesia. Findings-The results confirm that consumer confusion proneness comprises three dimensions; similarity confusion, overload confusion, and ambiguity confusion among young consumers in the smartphone market. Furthermore, each dimension has different consumer behavioural implications. Practical implications-In the context of Indonesia and when targeting young consumers, companies should focus on defining unique product features instead of simply imitating competitor offerings, because similarity confusion negatively affects consumer trust Moreover, managers should consistently emphasise unique and value-adding features to overload the product. This will lead to increased positive word of mouth, especially with the growing trend of social media usage among youg consumers in Indonesia. Originality/ value-This paper represents a replication of Walsh and Mitchell's (2010) study. It is unique in that it is set in the context of the Indonesian smartphone market-the largest smartphone market in Southeast Asia, and concentrates specifically on the young consumer market. It provides valuable insights into the impact of consumer confusion proneness on the word of mouth, trust, and consumer across this age group and in this market.

Determinant of Difficulty in Purchasing Decisions for Local Coffee Brands: Testing Knowledge of Product Class as Moderator

“…This indicates that the many choices of brands actually make it difficult for consumers to choose so as not to cause positive feelings of consumers (Misuraca et al, 2019). The difficulty of consumers in differentiating between brands can also have an impact on consumer confusion which in turn will make it difficult to make decisions (Tjiptono et al, 2014).…”

“…The availability of products with excessive brand variations may also be counterproductive, or actually reduce consumer interest in choosing (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). High similarity between brands will make it difficult for consumers to identify, which in turn leads to confusion (Tjiptono et al, 2014). Confusion is a negative emotional condition that makes it difficult for consumers to compare and evaluate between various choices.…”

“…The selection of the dependent variable was also based on the opinion of several Focus group discussion participants who emphasized the difficulty of consumers in choosing a coffee brand if there were no differences between these brands. Various studies have found that the determinant of decision-making difficulties is perceived product similarity (Tjiptono et al, 2014;, choice overload (Chernev et al, 2012;Scheibehenne et al, 2010;Thai & Yuksel, 2017), and knowledge. This study aimed to examine whether: 1) perceived product similarity positively influence decision making difficulty; 2) perceived product similarity positively influence product choices overload in the market ; 3) product choices overload in the market positively influence decision making difficulties; 4) knowledge of product class moderate the effect of perceived product similarity on decision making difficulty.…”

Experiment Replication: A Proposed Solution for Developing Psychological Research in Indonesia

“…There were articles indicated that the studies replicated only the findings of previous studies (particularly, a survey), but they did not replicate the methods, for example, Paez et al (2008). There were also articles reported studies that replicated a theoretical model and used a correlational survey design, such as the studies by Astuti and Dharmmesta (2011) and Tjiptono et al (2014). The two studies tested whether a previous theoretical model was relevant or not to be used with different samples.…”

Investigating consumer confusion proneness cross-culturally: empirical evidence from the USA, Germany, and Thailand

“…While incidences of consumer confusion have been predominately reported in western societies, such as the U.S. (e.g., Foxman, Muehling, and Berger 1990), the Netherlands (Kasper et al 2010;Poiesz and Verhallen 1989), Germany (Walsh, Hennig-Thurau and Mitchell 2007;Wobker et al 2015), France (Kapferer 1995), the UK (e.g., Mitchell and Bates 1998;Wang and Shukla 2013), increasingly research is being conducted in non-western, eastern collectivist countries such as China (Leek and Kun 2006), Indonesia (Tjiptono et al 2014), and Thailand (Leek and Chansawatkit 2006). However, comparability of findings is are limited due to different methodological approaches.…”