Network Information Environmental Factors And Their Impacts On Online Shopping Decision Peformance

The plentiful information in the network environment creats more choices for customers, but a large amount of information will lead customers to the exhausted state and cause higher costs of dec is ion-making. The decision support tools provided by shopping websites can customize product information based on individual demand, assisting customers to make decisions efficiently, but sometimes they may not work. Existing studies concerning the two phenomena were conducted, while few studies examined about how the two factors together worked on consumer decision-making behavior, especially in the investigations on the operation mechanism.This study attempts to clarify the influence of information environmental factors. The relationships between variables were predicted by the introduction of cognitive cost theory, and a research model was proposed. Then a2X2group experimental design was conducted,four different websites were manipulated to test the model. According to the statistical results, conclusions are drawn as follows:1. Two important network information environmental factors, information load and information control, were treated as independent variable, and perceived cognitive effort was introduced as an intermediate variable. Experimental results suggest that information load has a positive effect on cognitive effort, whereas information control has a negative impact on cognitive effort.Futhermore, if information control is high, the relationship between information load and perceived cognitive effort is less positive.2. The perceived cognitive effort with completing the task woked as the intermediary role between information load, information control and decision-making performance.