Title: Consumer confusion and its consequential outcome towards online review: the mediated role of emotional ambivalence and cognitive dissonance

Authors: P. Sridevi; N. Manoraj; Lakshmi Narasimhan Vedanthachari

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli,620015, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli,620015, Tamil Nadu, India ' Management Learning and Organizations Department, Middlesex University, London

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to improve our understanding of consumer confusion and its consequences on individual information adoption. Besides giving an idea about various triggers of consumer confusion, this study aims to explore the relationship between different consumer confusions and their reliance on online reviews. The research uses a structural equation modelling approach with 402 valid responses to examine how confusion could lead to pre-purchase cognitive dissonance and emotional ambivalence. Additionally, the study focuses on the mediating role of both pre-purchase cognitive dissonance and emotional ambivalence towards reliance on reviews. The finding shows that price confusion dominates reliance on reviews. In addition, both product and price confusion are positively related to emotional ambivalence. Under mediation, emotional ambivalence dominates both the price and product-related confusion towards reliance on reviews. Overall, the framework designed could help digital marketers understand the confusion of online shoppers and their susceptibility towards online reviews.

Keywords: consumer confusion; price and product confusion; pre-purchase cognitive dissonance; emotional ambivalence; online reviews.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2025.148502

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2025 Vol.50 No.1, pp.87 - 112

Received: 01 Sep 2021
Accepted: 23 Nov 2021
Published online: 09 Sep 2025 *

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