More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/

article

Understanding the impact of web personalization on user information processing and decision outcomes

Authors:

Shuk Ying HoAuthors Info & Claims

MIS Quarterly, Volume 30, Issue 4

Pages 865 - 890

Published: 01 December 2006 Publication History

Abstract

Personalized information technology services have become a ubiquitous phenomenon. Companies worldwide are using the web to provide personalized offerings and unique experiences to their customers. While there is a lot of hype about delivering personalized services over the web, little is known about the effectiveness of web personalization and the link between the IT artifact (the personalization agent) and the effects it exerts on a user's information processing and decision making. To address the impact of personalized content, this article theoretically develops and empirically tests a model of web personalization. The model is grounded on social cognition and consumer research theories adapted to the peculiar features of web personalization. The influence of a personalization agent is mediated by two variables: content relevance and self reference. Hypotheses generated from the model are empirically tested in a laboratory experiment and a field study. The findings indicate that content relevance, self reference, and goal specificity affect the attention, cognitive processes, and decisions of web users in various ways. Also, users are found to be receptive to personalized content and find it useful as a decision aid. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

References

[1]

Ahluwalia, R. "Examination of Psychological Processes Underlying Resistance to Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research (27:2), 2000, pp. 217-232.

[2]

Albarracin, D., and Wyer, R. S. "The Cognitive Impact of Past Behavior: Influences on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Future Behavioral Decisions," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (79:1), 2000, pp. 5-22.

[3]

Ardissono, L., Goy, A., Petrone, G. and Segnan, M. "The Adaptive Web: Personalization in Business-to-Customer Interaction," Communications of the ACM (45:5), 2002, pp. 52-53.

Digital Library

[4]

Areni, C. S., Ferrell, M. E., and Wilcox, J. B. "The Persuasive Impact of Reported Group Opinions on Individuals Low vs. High in Need for Cognition: Rationalization versus Biased Elaboration?" Psychology and Marketing (17:10), 2000, pp. 855-875.

[5]

Bargh, J. A. "Attention and Automaticity in the Processing of Self-Relevant Information," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (43:3), 1982, pp. 425-436.

[6]

Bettman, J. R., Luce, M. F., and Payne, J. W. "Constructive Consumer Choice Processes," Journal of Consumer Research (25:3), 1998, pp. 187-217.

[7]

Burnkrant, R. E., and Unnava, H. R. "Effects of Self-Referencing on Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research (22:1), 1995, pp. 17-26.

[8]

Cacioppo, J. T., and Petty, R. E. "Effects of Message Repetition and Position on Cognitive Response, Recall and Persuasion," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (37:1), 1979, pp. 91-109.

[9]

Chen, H., Wigand, R., and Nilan, M. S. "Optimal Experience of Web Activities," Computers in Human Behavior (15:5), 1999, pp. 585-608.

[10]

Chimera, R., and Shneiderman, B. "An Exploratory Evaluation of Three Interfaces for Browsing Large Hierarchical Tables of Contents," ACM Transactions of Information Systems (12:4), 1994, pp. 383-406.

Digital Library

[11]

Chu, P. C., and Spires, E. E. "The Joint Effects of Effort and Quality on Decision Strategy Choice with Computerized Decision Aids," Decision Sciences (31:2), pp. 259-292.

[12]

Craik, F. I. M., and Tulving, E. "Depth of Processing and the Retention of Words in Episodic Memory," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (104), 1975, pp. 268-294.

[13]

Davis, F. D. "Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology," MIS Quarterly (13:3), 1989, pp. 318-339.

Digital Library

[14]

Davison, A. C., and Hinkley, D. V. Bootstrap Methods and Their Application, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1997.

[15]

Debevec, K., and Romeo, J. B. "Self-Referent Processing in Perceptions of Verbal and Visual Commercial Information," Journal of Consumer Psychology (1:1), 1992, pp. 83-102.

[16]

Folk, C. L., Remington, L. W., and Johnston, J. C. "Involuntary Covert Orienting is Contingent on Attentional Control Settings," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance (18), 1992, pp. 1030-1044.

[17]

Geissler, G., Zinkhan, G., and Watson, R. T. "Web Home Page Complexity and Communication Effectiveness," Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2), 2001, Article 2.

[18]

Goodhue, D., and Thompson, R. "Task-Technology Fit and Individual Performance," MIS Quarterly (19:2), 1995, pp. 213-236.

Digital Library

[19]

Haugtvedt, C. P, and Wegener, D. T. "Message Order Effects in Persuasion: An Attitude Strength Perspective," Journal of Consumer Research (21:1), 1994, pp. 205-218.

[20]

Hogarth, R. M. Judgement and Choice, Wiley, New York, 1987.

[21]

Hong, J. W., and Zinkhan, G. M. "Self-Concept and Advertising Effectiveness: The Influence of Congruency, Conspicuousness, and Response Mode," Psychology and Marketing (12:1), 1995, pp. 53-77.

[22]

Hong, S. T., and Wyer, R. S. "Determinants of Product Evaluation: Effects of the Time Interval between Knowledge of a Product's Country of Origin and Information about Its Specific Attributes," Journal of Consumer Research (17:3), 1990, pp. 277-288.

[23]

Hong, W. Y., Thong, J. Y. L., and Tam, K. Y. "Does Animation Attract Online Users' Attention? The Effects of Flash on Information Search Performance and Perceptions," Information Systems Research (15:1), 2004, pp. 60-86.

Digital Library

[24]

Huber, O., and Seiser, G. "Accounting and Convincing: The Effect of Two Types of Justification on the Decision Process," Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (14:1), 2001, pp. 69-85.

[25]

Hunt, R. R., and McDaniel, M. A. "The Enigma of Organization and Distinctiveness," Journal of Memory and Language (32), 1993, pp. 421-445.

[26]

Iyengar, S. S., and Lepper, M. R. "When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (76:6), 2000, pp. 995-1006.

[27]

Janiszewski, C. "The Influence of Display Characteristics on Visual Exploratory Search Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research (25:3), 1998, pp. 290-301.

[28]

Kelley, W. M., Macrae, C. N., Wyland, C. L., Caglar, S., Inati, S., and Heatherton, T. F. "Finding the Self? An Event-Related fMRI Study," Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (14:5), 2002, pp. 785-794.

Digital Library

[29]

Kim, J., Lee, J., Han, K. and Lee, M. "Businesses as Buildings: Metrics for the Architectural Quality of Internet Businesses," Information Systems Research (13:3), 2002, pp. 239-254.

Digital Library

[30]

Kircher, T. T. J., Senior, C., Phillips, M. L., Benson, P. J., Bullmore, E. T., Brammer, M., Simmons A., Williams S. C., Bartels, M., and David, A. S. "Towards a Functional Neuroanatomy of Self Processing: Effects of Faces and Words," Cognitive Brain Research (10:1/2), 2000, pp. 133-144.

[31]

Klein, S. B., and Kihlstrom, J. F. "Elaboration, Organization, and the Self-Reference Effect in Memory," Journal of Experimental Psychology (115:1), 1986, pp. 26-38.

[32]

Klein, S. B., and Loftus, J. "The Nature of Self-Referent Encoding: The Contributions of Elaborative and Organizational Processes," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (55:1), 1988, pp. 5-11.

[33]

Kleinmuntz, D. N., and Schkade, D. A. "Information Displays and Decision Processes," Psychological Science (4:4), 1993, pp. 221-227.

[34]

Korper, S. and Ellis, J. "Thinking Ahead in E-Commerce," Executive Excellence (18:7), 2001, p. 19.

[35]

Koufaris, M. "Applying the Technology Acceptance Model and Flow Theory to Online Consumer Behavior," Information Systems Research (13:2), 2002, pp. 205-223.

Digital Library

[36]

Koufaris, M., Kambil, A., and LaBarbera P. A. "Consumer Behavior in Web-Based Commerce: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Electronic Commerce (6:2), 2001, pp. 115-138.

Digital Library

[37]

Kuiper, N. A., and Rogers, T. B. "Encoding of Personal Information: Self-Other Differences," Journal of Personality and Psychology (37), 1979, pp. 499-514.

[38]

Levin, I. P. and Gaeth, G. J. "How Consumers are Affected by the Framing of Attribute Information Before and After Consuming the Product," Journal of Consumer Research (15:3), 1988, pp. 374-378.

[39]

Lim, K. H., and Benbasat, I. "The Effect of Multimedia on Perceived Equivocality and Perceived Usefulness of Information Systems," MIS Quarterly (24:3), 2000, pp. 449-471.

[40]

Lim, K. H., and Benbasat, I. "The Influence of Multimedia in Improving the Comprehension of Organizational Information," Journal of Management Information Systems (19:1), 2002, pp. 99-127.

Digital Library

[41]

Limayem, M., and DeSanctis, G. "Providing Decisional Guidance for Multicriteria Decision Making in Groups," Information Systems Research (11:4), 2000, pp. 386-401.

Digital Library

[42]

Lord, C. G., Ross, L. R., and Lepper, M. R. "Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (37:11), 1979, pp. 2098-2109.

[43]

Lynch, J. G., and Srull, T. K. "Memory and Attentional Factors in Consumer Choice: Concepts and Research Methods," Journal of Consumer Research (9:1), 1982, pp. 18-37.

[44]

Mandel, N. "When Web Pages Influence Choice: Effects of Visual Primes on Experts and Novices," Journal of Consumer Research (29:2), 2002, pp. 235-245.

[45]

Meyers-Levy, J., and Peracchio, L. A. "Moderators of the Impact of Self-Reference or Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research (22:4), 1996, pp. 408-423.

[46]

Mick, D. G. "Level of Subjective Comprehension in Advertising Processing and Their Relations to Ad Perceptions, Attitudes, and Memory," Journal of Consumer Research (18:4), 1992, pp. 411-424.

[47]

Mobasher, B., Cooley, R., and Srivastava, J. "Automatic Personalization Based on Web Usage Mining," Communications of the ACM (43:8), 2000, pp. 142-151.

Digital Library

[48]

Moe, W. W. "Buying, Searching, or Browsing: Differentiating Between Online Shoppers Using In-Store Navigational Clickstream," Journal of Consumer Psychology (13:1/2), 2003, pp. 29-39.

[49]

Moon, Y. "Personalization and Personality," Journal of Consumer Psychology (12:4), 2002, pp. 313-325.

[50]

Nielsen, J. Designing Web Usability, New Riders, Indianapolis, IN, 2000.

[51]

Novak, T. P., Hoffman, D. L., and Yung, Y. F. "Measuring the Flow Construct in Online Environments: A Structural Modeling Approach," Marketing Science (19:1), 2000, pp. 22-44.

Digital Library

[52]

Parikh, M., Fazlollahi, B., and Verma, S. "The Effectiveness of Decisional Guidance: An Empirical Evaluation," Decision Sciences (32:2), 2001, pp. 303-331.

[53]

Payne, J. W., Bettman, J. R., and Johnson, E. J. The Adaptive Decision Maker, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1993.

[54]

Perkowitz, M., and Etzioni, O. "Adaptive Web Sites," Communications of the ACM (43:8), 2000, pp. 152-158.

Digital Library

[55]

Petty, R. E., and Cacioppo, J. T. Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1986.

[56]

Porter, M. E. Strategy and the Internet, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2001.

[57]

Ray, C. A., and Reingold, E. M. "Long-Term Perceptual Specificity Effects in Recognition Memory: The Transformed Pictures Paradigm," Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology (57:2), 2003, pp. 131-137.

[58]

Rayport, J. F., and Jaworski, B. J. Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces with Customers, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2005.

[59]

Reimers, B. D. "Getting Personal," InformationWeek (767), 2000, pp. 51-54.

[60]

Rogers, T. B., Kuiper, N. A., and Kirker, W. S. "Self-Reference and the Encoding of Personal Information," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (35), 1977, pp. 677-688.

[61]

Schkade, D. A., and Kleinmuntz, D. N. "Information Displays and Choice Processes: Differential Effects of Organization, Form, and Sequence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (57:3), 1994, pp. 319-337.

[62]

Schiaffino, S., and Amandi, A. "User-Interface Agent Interaction: Personalization Issues," International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (60:1), pp. 129-148.

Digital Library

[63]

Shim, J. P., Shin, Y. B., and Nottingham, L. "Retailer Web Site Influence On Customer Shopping: Exploratory Study on Key Factors of Customers Satisfaction," Journal of the Association for Information Systems (3), 2002, Article 3.

[64]

Silver, M. S. "Decisional Guidance for Computer-Based Decision Support," MIS Quarterly (15:1), 1991, pp. 105-122.

Digital Library

[65]

Silver, M. S. "Decision Support Systems: Directed and Nondirected Change" Information Systems Research (1:1), 1990, pp. 47-70.

Digital Library

[66]

Simonson, I., "Determinants of Customers' Responses to Customized Offers: Conceptual Framework and Research Propositions," Journal of Marketing (69), 2005, pp. 32-45.

[67]

Slovic, P. "The Construction of Preferences," American Psychologist, (50:5), 1995, pp. 364-371.

[68]

Speier, C., Valacich, J. S., and Vessey, I. "The Influence of Task Interruption on Individual Decision Making: An Information Overload Perspective," Decision Sciences (30:2), 1999, pp. 337-360.

[69]

Sujan, M., Bettman, J. R., and Baumgartner, H. "Influencing Consumer Judgments Using Autobiographical Memories: A Self-Referencing Perspective," Journal of Marketing Research (30:4), 1993, pp. 422-436.

[70]

Symons, C. S., and Johnson, B. T. "The Self-Reference Effect in Memory: A Meta-Analysis" Psychological Bulletin (121:3), 1997, pp. 371-394.

[71]

Te'eni, D., and Feldman, R. "Performance and Satisfaction in Adaptive Websites: An Experiment on Searches within a Task-Adapted Website," Journal of Association for Information Systems (2), 2001, Article 3.

[72]

Todd, P., and Benbasat, I. "Inducing Compensatory Information Processing through Decision Aids that Facilitate Effort Reduction: An Experimental Assessment," Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (13:1), 2000, pp. 91-106.

[73]

Tullis, T. S. "The Formatting of Alphanumeric Displays: A Review and Analysis," Human Factors (25:6), 1983, pp. 657-682.

[74]

Turk, D. J., Heatherton, T. F., Kelley, W. M., Funnell, M. G., Gazzaniga, M. S., and Macrae, C. N. "Mike or Me? Self Recognition in a Split-Brain Patient," Nature Neuroscience (5), 2002, pp. 841-841.

[75]

Vessey, I. "Cognitive Fit: A Theory-Based Analysis of the Graph Versus Tables Literature," Decision Sciences (22:2), 1991, pp. 219-240.

[76]

Wang, W., and Benbasat, I. "Trust In and Adoption of Online Recommendation Agents," Journal of the Association for Information Systems (6:3), 2005, Article 4.

[77]

Webster, J., and Hayes H. "Audience Engagement in Multimedia Presentations," The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems (28:2), 1997, pp. 63-77.

Digital Library

[78]

Webster, J., and Martocchio, J. J. "Microcomputer Playfulness: Development of a Measure with Workplace Implications," MIS Quarterly (16:2), 1992, pp. 201-226.

Digital Library

[79]

Wyer, R. S. "Language and Advertising Effectiveness: Mediating Influences of Comprehension and Cognitive Elaboration," Psychology and Marketing (19:7/8), 2002, pp. 693-712.

[80]

Wyer, R. S., and Srull, T. K. Memory and Cognition in its Social Context, Lawrence Erlbaum Association, Mahwah, NJ, 1989.

[81]

Wyer, R. S., Swan, S., and Gruenfeld, D. H. "Impression Formation in Informal Conversations," Social Cognition (13:3), 1995, pp. 243-272.

[82]

Yaniv, I. "Receiving Other People's Advice: Influence and Benefit," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (93:1), 2004, pp. 1-13.

[83]

Yantis, S., and Egeth, H. E. "On the Distinction Between Visual Salience and Stimulus Driven Attentional Capture," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance (25), 1999, pp. 661-676.

[84]

Zhang, P. "The Effects of Animation on Information Seeking Performance on the World Wide Web: Securing Attention or Interfering with Primary Tasks," Journal of the Association for Information Systems (1), 2000, Article 1.

Cited By

Lakier MVogel D(2024)Digital Knick-Knacks: Standalone Audiovisual Digital Possessions or Embellishments in Digital EnvironmentsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642695(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642695
Li XGrahl JHinz O(2022)How Do Recommender Systems Lead to Consumer Purchases? A Causal Mediation Analysis of a Field ExperimentInformation Systems Research10.1287/isre.2021.107433:2(620-637)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1287/isre.2021.1074
Frik AHaviland AAcquisti ACapkun SRoesner F(2020)The impact of ad-blockers on product search and purchase behaviorProceedings of the 29th USENIX Conference on Security Symposium10.5555/3489212.3489222(163-179)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3489212.3489222
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Understanding the impact of web personalization on user information processing and decision outcomes

Recommendations

Web personalization and recommender systems: an overview
COMAD '12: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Management of Data

Information overload is the major problem of today's Internet use. User frequently gets much more information than needed. Also much of the information which the user gets is less relevant and very few links, items, or contents are really useful. To get ...
Web mining for web personalization

Web personalization is the process of customizing a Web site to the needs of specific users, taking advantage of the knowledge acquired from the analysis of the user's navigational behavior (usage data) in correlation with other information collected in ...
Generating semantically enriched user profiles for Web personalization

Traditional collaborative filtering generates recommendations for the active user based solely on ratings of items by other users. However, most businesses today have item ontologies that provide a useful source of content descriptors that can be used ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image MIS Quarterly

MIS Quarterly Volume 30, Issue 4

December 2006

222 pages

ISSN:0276-7783

Issue’s Table of Contents

Publisher

Society for Information Management and The Management Information Systems Research Center

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 December 2006

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

62
Total Citations
View Citations
109
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 06 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Lakier MVogel D(2024)Digital Knick-Knacks: Standalone Audiovisual Digital Possessions or Embellishments in Digital EnvironmentsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642695(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642695
Li XGrahl JHinz O(2022)How Do Recommender Systems Lead to Consumer Purchases? A Causal Mediation Analysis of a Field ExperimentInformation Systems Research10.1287/isre.2021.107433:2(620-637)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1287/isre.2021.1074
Frik AHaviland AAcquisti ACapkun SRoesner F(2020)The impact of ad-blockers on product search and purchase behaviorProceedings of the 29th USENIX Conference on Security Symposium10.5555/3489212.3489222(163-179)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3489212.3489222
Todri VGhose ASingh P(2019)Trade-Offs in Online AdvertisingInformation Systems Research10.1287/isre.2019.087731:1(102-125)Online publication date: 27-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1287/isre.2019.0877
Kilian MAzzopardi LHalvey MRuthven IJoho HMurdock VQvarfordt P(2019)Where to Go and What to DoProceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3295750.3298972(413-416)Online publication date: 8-Mar-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3295750.3298972
Liu QZhang XZhang LZhao Y(2019)The interaction effects of information cascades, word of mouth and recommendation systems on online reading behavior: an empirical investigationElectronic Commerce Research10.1007/s10660-018-9312-019:3(521-547)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10660-018-9312-0
Ho SLim K(2018)Nudging moods to induce unplanned purchases in imperfect mobile personalization contextsMIS Quarterly10.25300/MISQ/2018/1408342:3(757-778)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.25300/MISQ/2018/14083
Oinas-Kukkonen H(2018)Personalization MyopiaProceedings of the 22nd International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/3275116.3275121(88-91)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3275116.3275121
Shah SPetluru SSingh RSrivastava S(2018)gAR-ageProceedings of the 10th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications10.1145/3239060.3239075(268-277)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3239060.3239075
Zhang HZhao LGupta S(2018)The role of online product recommendations on customer decision making and loyalty in social shopping communitiesInternational Journal of Information Management: The Journal for Information Professionals10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.07.00638:1(150-166)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.07.006
Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents