Information Overload and its Influence on Customer's Decision. How does information overload affect customer`s decisions towards smartphones?

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1, Management Center Innsbruck, course: Management, Communication and IT, language: English, abstract: In today's society, consumers have too many products and brands to choose from. With the support of technology we receive more and more information from companies and this information overload brings consequences with it. Consumers suffer from confusion and frustration because they cannot consider every information in their decision process. Therefore, the present thesis analyses the influence of information overload on decisions towards smartphones. A broad literature review is conducted in order to get a better understanding of the consumer decision process, the influencing factors, the concept of information overload and brand behavior. In order to answer the research question, a quantitative online survey is performed. An experimental task of either one of two tables with different level of information load is implemented. The two groups can be compared in order to reveal significant differences. Furthermore, the moderator effect of perceived information overload on satisfaction of a decision is analyzed. First, the participants were asked about their satisfaction of the decision, based on what choice criteria they evaluated and the information overload is measured. Additionally, the participants assess their information search, brand and evaluation behavior in the questionnaire. The results show that information overload has a moderating effect on decisions. Moreover, technical, economical and personal criteria have a negative influence on decisions, whereby social criteria increase the satisfaction of a decision within an information overloaded environment. Additionally, a difference of experiencing information overload between women and men is discovered. The study discloses the impact of consumer's information overload on decisions. Thus, information overload leads to a change of satisfaction on a decision.