Influence of consumers' online decision-making style on comparison shopping proneness and perceived usefulness of comparison shopping tools

Applications to support online comparison shopping are expected to become increasingly available to consumers. However, not all consumers equally engage in online comparison shopping and, thus, would not necessarily benefit from such tools. The study proposes that the perceived usefulness of comparison shopping tools depends on consumers‟ comparison shopping proneness, which in turn is influenced by consumers‟ online decision-making styles. An online survey using a consumer research panel was conducted to test the hypotheses in the context of travel comparison shopping tools. The results suggest that some consumer decision-making style dimensions influence comparison shopping proneness while others have no influence. Perceived usefulness of comparison shopping tools is influenced by comparison shopping proneness as well as directly by some of the online decision-making style dimensions. Implications for online marketing and directions for future research are provided.