How thinking style influences online consumers’ responses to compromise-based service attributes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Prior studies on online shopping behavior have been silent about global consumers’ compromise choices in online service attributes. Three studies investigate how and when consumers’ thinking styles affect their service responses toward online retail websites offering compromise options. The priming findings demonstrate that consumers in two cultural groups (Korea and France) are more satisfied with and more likely to repurchase from compromise-based websites in the holistic-thinking than analytic-thinking condition. This research contributes to extant literature on consumer online behavior and provides managerial insights on the practical uses of compromise tendencies for online service strategies in global retail markets.