The interaction effects of information cascades, system recommendations and recommendations on software downloads
| Pages | 728-742 |
| Date | 09 September 2019 |
| Published date | 09 September 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-03-2018-0089 |
| Author | JiHye Park,JaeHong Park,Ho-Jung Yoon |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
The interaction effects
of information cascades,
system recommendations
and recommendations on
software downloads
JiHye Park and JaeHong Park
Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea, and
Ho-Jung Yoon
Sejong University, Seoul, Korea
Abstract
Purpose –When purchasing digita l content (DC), consumers are typically influenc ed by various
information sources o n the website. Prior resea rch has mostly focused on the individual effect of the
information sources on the D Cch oice. To fill the gap in the previous studies, this research in cludes three
main effects: inform ation cascades, recommendation s and word of mouth. In particular, th e purpose of this
paper is to focus on the i nteraction effect of information ca scades and recommendations on the numb er of
software downloads.
Design/methodology/approach –The authors use the panel generalized least squares estimation to test
the hypotheses by using a panel data set of 2,000 pieces of software at download.cnet.com over a month-long
period. Product ranking and recommendation status are used as key independent variables to capture the
effects of information cascades and recommendations, respectively.
Findings –One of this study’sfindings is that informationcascades positively interactwith recommendations
to influencethe number of software downloads.The authors also show that the impact of informationcascades
on the number of software downloads is greaterthan one of the recommendations from a distributor does.
Originality/value –Information cascades and recommendations have been considered as the primary
effects for online product choices. However, these two effects typically are not considered together in one
research. As previous studies have mainly focused on each effect, respectively, the authors believe that this
study may fill the gap by examining how these effects are interacted to one other to influence customers’
choices. The authors also show that the impact of information cascades on the number of software downloads
is greater than one of the recommendations from a system does.
Keywords Recommendations, Information cascades, GLS, Digital contents, Online product choice,
Software downloads
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the past, consumers and sellers had to meet in person to purchase products. Today,
consumers can purchase goods without any physical contact with sellers through e-mail
catalogs and online. Consumers and sellers have now conducted transactions with physical
products and digital contents (DC) at electronic commerce (e-commerce) websites. DC is a
popular online product. DC is a particular form of product sold online, which combines the
concepts of “digital”and “content”to include any digital text, audio, video or image
products available to distribute and download on electronic media (Mullan, 2011).
The value of theDC market is fast growing, as userscan purchase and use contentquickly
and easily (OECD,2012). According to a recent report fromJuniper Research, the value of the
global DC market is expected to reach $154bn by 2019. Consequently, many studies have
Online Information Review
Vol. 43 No. 5, 2019
pp. 728-742
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-03-2018-0089
Received 15 March 2018
Revised 19 August 2018
Accepted 9 November 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
This work was supported by a grant from Kyung Hee University in 2016 (KHU-20160697).
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