Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Aurilla Aurelie Bechina and Eli Hustad
Hence, Web2.0 has enabled interacting people to form a dynamic social network seen sometimes as
<strong>the</strong> intelligence <strong>of</strong> connection where knowledge is flowing. Thus, <strong>the</strong> concept <strong>of</strong> collective intelligence
is emerging and could be defined as a wealth <strong>of</strong> insights, experiences shared among people.
The concept <strong>of</strong> collective intelligence has been around for long time; however <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> collective
Intelligence (CI) as a tool facilitating <strong>the</strong> decision making is being fur<strong>the</strong>r investigated as new
marketing or communication approach by organisations (Eric Bonabeau, 2009).
In order, to understand how social media tools and <strong>the</strong> collective intelligence could contribute to
influence <strong>the</strong> purchasing decision, we have adopted a qualitative approach by conducting interviews
with several people. In addition, we have analysed various websites providing some means allowing
<strong>the</strong> consumers to interact with each o<strong>the</strong>rs or with <strong>the</strong> vendors. This is an ongoing study; <strong>the</strong> initial
data analysis should contribute to design a survey instrument that will be sent to customers <strong>of</strong> several
companies selling online. The paper is still at <strong>the</strong> conceptual level and presents only preliminary
results that would need to be validated for a larger sample.
In <strong>the</strong> domain <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> consumers buying behaviour, it is important to understand how <strong>the</strong> consumer
makes a purchasing decision in an online shopping environment.
The next section <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> paper outlines <strong>the</strong> basic concepts <strong>of</strong> decision making processes and Web2.0.
The third part discusses <strong>the</strong> implication <strong>of</strong> using social network on purchasing decision making
2. Decision and social network tools
1.1 Decision making process
Thanks to Internet and new information communication technologies, consumers have access to all
kind <strong>of</strong> information or data about products and services. Today <strong>the</strong> main concerns is not anymore to
find information about for instance <strong>the</strong> availability, <strong>the</strong> price or technical details about a product but
ra<strong>the</strong>r to be able to take a purchasing decisions while being confronted to large varieties <strong>of</strong> a product.
Decision is defined as a position or opinion reached after consideration. The decision making process
is defined as a cognitive process including a high level <strong>of</strong> mental activity in choosing between several
options. Though, <strong>the</strong> way people are finally making decision is still not fully understood as quite <strong>of</strong>ten
emotional or irrational feelings play a role in <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong> making decision (Zeelenberg, Nelissen,
Breugelmans, & Pieters, 2008)
Several studies have described <strong>the</strong> various phases involved in a decision making process (Huitt,
1992) that are delineated as such:
Step 1: Identification <strong>of</strong> a problem and preliminary understanding <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> problem context and
possible related solution
Step 2: analysis and processing phase in which various options or alternatives are investigated.
After evaluation, a solution to <strong>the</strong> stated problem is selected
Step 3: as an output <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> step 1 includes <strong>the</strong> planning and <strong>the</strong> implementation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> selected
solution.
Step 4: <strong>the</strong> solution is evaluated and if needed some modifications are made.
Decision making <strong>of</strong> customers is a cognitive process <strong>of</strong> selecting a course <strong>of</strong> action from among a set
<strong>of</strong> multiple product or service alternatives (Thompson & Yon Ding, 2003)
In <strong>the</strong> domain <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> consumers buying behaviour, it is important to understand how <strong>the</strong> consumer
makes a purchase decision. The consumers’ decision making is characterised by several phases
such as: 1) need recognition and problem awareness, 2) information search, 3) evaluation <strong>of</strong>
alternatives, 4) purchase, and 5) post-purchase evaluation.
There is a clear evidence that <strong>the</strong> decision making process regarding a purchase or not, is closely
linked to <strong>the</strong> relevance and <strong>the</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> information found. The level <strong>of</strong> information needed by
<strong>the</strong> consumer to make his purchasing decision depends not only to <strong>the</strong> scope and <strong>the</strong> need but at as
well to financial element.
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