Observational Learning Vs Word Of Mouth:Research On Influence Of Social Learning To Consumer Online Purchasing Behavior

With the rapid development of the Internet and even mobile Internet, the online shopping concepts and habits of consumers have been formatted, and the overall e-commerce market has gradually matured. Faced with a wide variety of goods or services, it is more difficult for consumers to make an efficient and effective decision. Many previous studies suggest that as there is an asymmetry in the information provided by business and E-commerce platform, consumers are more inclined to get information from others and do social learning to reduce the purchase effectiveness uncertainty.Social learning is a process in which consumer experience spread to other potential customers. That is, the course of consumers taking and processing social information. Social learning includes two forms:1. Observational learning, which means people observe what others choose to buy.2. Word of mouth, which means people obtain direct advice from experienced buyers. Today, the major online stores have taken advantage of a wide range of social information to enlighten consumers to do social learning. Then, which kind of social learning plays a more significant role in different stages of consumer purchasing decision-making? For different types of goods, does the result vary? Both the questions worth further exploring.This paper focused on the impact of social learning to consumer decision-making. First, we summarized the concepts, features and manifestations of the two forms of social learning-observational learning and word of mouth (WOM) learning, which deepened the theoretical basis of the social learning. Secondly, we divided the consumer purchasing decision-making process into three phases:"1.Search-2. Selection and Evaluation-3. Decision ", and established a theoretical model of the impact of social learning to consumer online purchase decision-making. Third, we verified the theoretical model through an experiment, and we further explored the findings in different product involvement.Through empirical analysis, we put forward the following conclusions:1. Whether for high or low involvement product, social learning has a significant influence on consumer decision-making at all stages. That is, observational learning and WOM learning both have a significant influence on product search, product selection and evaluation, as well as the final purchase decision of consumers’online purchasing decision-making.2. For high-involvement products, the impact of WOM learning is greater than observational learning in selection and evaluation efficiency of consumer online purchasing decision-making. There is no significant difference in the influence of observational learning and WOM on product search efficiency and decision-making efficiency.3. For low-involvement products, the impact of observational learning is greater than WOM in search efficiency of consumer online purchasing decision-making. There is no significant difference in the influence of observational learning and WOM to selection and evaluation efficiency and decision-making efficiency.4. The impact of observational learning study to product selection and evaluation efficiency is greater for low-involvement products than high-involvement products. There is no difference in the impact of observational learning to search efficiency and decision-making efficiency at difference product involvement.5. There is no significant difference in the impact of WOM to consumer search efficiency, selection and evaluation efficiency and decision-making efficiency.