Third-Party Recommendation in Online Recommendation Agents : The Think Aloud Method and Verbal Protocol Analysis

Online product recommendation is viewed as an important way to facilitate online shoppers' decision-making. A recommendation is deemed to be successful if it persuades a consumer to accept the suggested product. To this end, it is of great importance to understand a consumer's cognitive process during online shopping in the presence of product recommendation agent. This study employs think-aloud method and performs verbal protocol analysis to examine the impact of third-party (other consumers and/or domain experts) recommendations on consumer decision-making process. The findings of the impact of third-party recommendation on this cognitive process contribute to both recommendation agent literature and practice.