Exploring the consumer decision journey and online shoping experience through an emotional prespective: an interpretive phemenological analysis

• Author(s): Passanisi, Joseph
• Date: 2016
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/17300
• Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
• Subject(s): Emotions; Decisions; Online; Experience; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão
• Document Type: Master thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Martinez, Luís Fructuoso
• Contributor(s): RUN

Description

Traditional consumer decision-making models have long used quantitative research to address a link between emotional and rational behavior. However, little qualitative research has been conducted in the area of online shopping as an end-to-end experience. This study aims to provide a detailed phenomenological account of consumers’ online shopping experience and extend Mckinsey & Companys’s consumer decision journey model from an emotional perspective. Six semi-structured interviews and a focus group of nine people are analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis and five superordinate themes emerged from the results: emotional experience, empathy and encouragement, in relation to brand preference, emotional encounters in relation to consumer satisfaction and emotional exchange and relationship with a company or brand. A model interrelating these themes is then introduced to visually represent the emotional essence of a large online purchase. This study promises to be applicable as a descriptive, and perhaps, better predictive report for understanding the complex consumer decision-making process as it relates to online consumer behavior. Future research topics are also identified.