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product quality. Since a broad-appeal product with a higher sales volume suggests that it
has a wider potential customer base and a higher actual sales volume than a narrow-appeal
product, this means that the two types of popularity information consistently show that
this product is the majority’s choice by two potential reference groups in the condition of
congruence. Given that the mechanism of social comparison is to compare their purchase
decision with the reference group and own what their reference group owns (Iyengar et al.,
2011; Wu and Lee, 2008a, 2008b), it is logical to infer that consumers with the dominent
inference of social comparison have a higher probability of purchasing a broad-appeal
over a narrow-appeal product in the condition of congruence. Therefore, we hypothesize
as shown below:
H1: When a product’s breadth of appeal and sales volume are congruent in
e-commerce, consumers have a higher probability of purchasing a broad-appeal
product over a narrow-appeal product.
Based on the foundation of hypothesis 1, we continue to examine consumers’ online
purchase decisions for narrow-appeal products in the condition of incongruence. When a
narrow-appeal product obtains a higher sales volume than a broad-appeal product, it is
considered as an incongruent condition since it is rare to see a narrow-appeal product with
a smaller customer base to outweigh a broad-appeal product in sales. Consumers may thus
infer this as a signal of higher quality and have a higher probability of purchasing a
narrow-appeal than a broad-appeal product. This also suggests that the probability of
purchasing a narrow-appeal product should be significantly increased in the condition of
incongruence than that of congruence where most purchase decisions focus on a broad-
appeal product.
On the other hand, when the inference of social comparison is dominant, consumers
may view the condition of incongruence as an inconsistent response from two reference
groups. Since the mechanism of social comparison is to follow the majority’s decision,
consumers may choose to treat the higher sales of the narrow-appeal product or the broad-
appeal product that suits mainstream customers, yet with less sales volume, as their main
reference group. Since the two reference groups suggest purchasing different product
choices, consumers’ purchase decision may thus be scattered between the two choices,
which is very different from the condition of congruence where only few decisions
allocate on the narrow-appeal product. Therefore, as for consumers with the social
inference, the probability of purchasing a narrow-appeal product should be significantly