Influences of gender, need for affect, and tolerance for risk-taking on use of information sources

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine gender, need for affect and tolerance for risk-taking as influences on consumers’ use of information sources. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted using a convenience sample of 171 male and 180 female US college students. Data were analyzed using PASW Statistics 18 and Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) 18. Findings – Results showed that consumers may be characterized by their use of information sources. First, consumers who use internal information sources are women. Second, consumers who use personal external information sources are women and individuals who enjoy processing feelings. Third, consumers who use impersonal external information sources are women, feeling processors, and risk-takers. Consumers in the third group may find the market-dominant information more useful than the personal opinions of reference groups, indicating that they may tend to be pro-active in exploring and getting what they want rather than allowing their reference groups to suggest ideas to them. Research limitations/implications – Results of the current study cannot be generalized to the larger population of other consumer groups. This research affirms and extends the Consumer Decision Process Model (Blackwell et al., 2005) regarding individual difference variables (e.g. gender, need for affect, tolerance for risk-taking) related to consumers’ use of information sources in apparel shopping. Practical implications – Results of the study suggest that apparel marketers who provide information through impersonal sources pay special attention to women and risk-takers because they are more likely to be the group of consumers on the other side of the communication link. Marketers may want to focus on promotional strategies that stimulate consumers’ emotions and valence toward products, brands, and/or stores thereby responding to customers’ need for affect. It is also recommended that marketers consider which categories of impersonal sources best fit their target customers. Originality/value – This study is the first to investigate the effects of consumers’ gender, need for affect, and tolerance for risk-taking on their preference of using information sources in clothing shopping.