Herding behavior refers to the imitation of the behavior of the masses. The primary purpose of this study is to determine how herding affects digital purchases. It is an under-researched area in the marketing and consumer behavior context. First, one needs to understand the circumstances under which one is likely to herd. Second, it is yet to be understood how the effect of observing others' buying behavior transmits into herding. Third, there needs to be a better understanding of the role of price in one's tendency to herd. An online experiment with 541 participants was conducted using a 3 (consumer ratings/sales volume/control) × 2 (high involvement product/low involvement product) between-subjects design. LED TV was selected as a high-involvement product and ball pen pack was selected as a low-involvement product. This research study combined three theories to propose a holistic herding model. It used the social impact theory to capture its persuasive impact, the information adoption model to analyze the acceptance of herding information, and the cue utilization theory to assess the inference from herding information in consumer decision-making. Results indicated significant negative moderating effects of perceived price and product knowledge and the positive moderating effect of perceived uncertainty between the relationship of herding cues (star rating and the number of products sold) and herding behavior. In addition, the mediating results of perceived information usefulness and perceived quality were also significant. This herding model provides a holistic view of the herding process beyond limiting it to an attempt to follow others blindly. Therefore, this study has both theoretical as well as managerial implications.

中文翻译：

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了解在线购买中的消费者羊群行为及其对在线零售商和营销人员的影响

羊群行为是指模仿大众的行为。这项研究的主要目的是确定羊群效应如何影响数字购买。这是营销和消费者行为背景下研究不足的领域。首先，我们需要了解在什么情况下人们可能会从众。其次，尚不清楚观察他人购买行为的效果如何影响羊群效应。第三，需要更好地理解价格在羊群倾向中的作用。采用 3（消费者评分/销量/对照）× 2（高参与度产品/低参与度产品）受试者间设计对 541 名参与者进行了在线实验。 LED电视被选为高涉及度产品，圆珠笔包被选为低涉及度产品。这项研究结合了三种理论，提出了整体羊群模型。它使用社会影响理论来捕捉其说服力影响，使用信息采纳模型来分析羊群信息的接受程度，并使用线索利用理论来评估羊群信息在消费者决策中的推论。结果表明，感知价格和产品知识具有显着的负调节作用，感知不确定性对羊群线索（星级和销售产品数量）与羊群行为之间的关系具有显着的正调节作用。此外，感知信息有用性和感知质量的中介结果也显着。这种羊群模型提供了羊群过程的整体视图，而不仅仅是盲目跟随他人。因此，本研究具有理论意义和管理意义。