The Effect of Personality Traits and Gender Roles on Consumer Channel Choices

Abstract

With the rise of new technologies, consumers have gained new ways of purchasing goods and services through digital channels. A variety of determinants of channel choices have been assessed in previous studies. Still, the role of the individual consumer characteristics (i.e. personality traits and gender roles) in channel choices remains particularly unclear. Yet, better understanding their role would be beneficial to increase the use of digital channels. In this study, we extend an existing decision-making model by adding individual consumer characteristics as antecedents of the model. We test the proposed hypothesis by analyzing data collected in a lab experiment. We find that certain personality traits and gender roles have a significant effect in the extended model of channel choices. Practitioners can use this knowledge to adapt digital channels to their target groups by addressing personality-specific concerns or motivators.