The Role of Product Recommendation Agents in Collaborative Online Shopping

Over the last decade, a wealth of research has examined the potential benefits of product recommendation agents (PRAs) for improving outcomes for e-commerce consumers and vendors. To date, however, this research has largely overlooked the fundamentally social nature of shopping. In particular, people often shop collaboratively (together) and for hedonic reasons (for enjoyment), but researchers have focused almost exclusively on isolated individuals using a PRA for utilitarian reasons. This study aims to extend past research by examining the effect of PRAs on both utilitarian and hedonic value in the context of collaborative online shopping (COS). Because communication is an inherent part of any collaborative activity, our model examines both the indirect effect of PRA use on shopping value through its effect on communication among shoppers, and the direct effect of PRA use on shopping value. We propose a moderated mediation model that predicts that: task-oriented communication (TOC) positively affects utilitarian shopping value, and social-emotional communication (SEC) positively affects hedonic shopping value; (2) PRA use reduces the amount of SECs, (3) PRA use reduces the importance of TOC; and (4) PRA use directly increases utilitarian value and directly reduces hedonic value. We describe an experiment where we are planning to test the proposed model, and its intended contributions for theory and practice.