Chien, Y. W., Hsiao, C. C., and Chiu, Y. Y. 2013. The Majority/Minority Effect on Product Judgment: Moderation of Involvement and Source Relevance. NTU Management Review, 23 (2): 233-262. https://doi.org/10.6226/NTURM2013.NOV.R10001
Yi-Wen Chien, Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, National Taiwan University
Chung-Chiang Hsiao, Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Management, National Taiwan Normal University
Yu-Yeh Chiu, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing and Distribution Management, Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology
Abstract
This study investigates the majority/minority effects on product attitudes with involvement and source relevance as moderators. We posit that the majority/minority source can play different roles affecting product judgments at different involvement levels. It can serve as a peripheral cue directly influencing product attitudes under low involvement; it can alter the processing amount under moderate involvement; finally, it can serve as a central argument and bias processing if it is perceived as relevant to judging the true quality of the target product under high involvement. The current study is the first to provide an integrated framework to explain the different mechanisms by which the majority/minority may influence product judgments under three involvement levels (low, moderate, and high).
Keywords
majority/minority effectsource relevanceinvolvement