ABSTRACT Online shopping platforms create an ideal environment for information cascades to occur. Utilizing real‐world consumer online shopping data from Tmall, we employ panel regression analysis, instrumental variable estimation, and panel quantile regression to empirically examine information cascades in consumer decision‐making and the moderating effects of product type and gender differences. Our results indicate that consumers' purchasing choices are significantly influenced by product sales rankings after controlling for network and word‐of‐mouth effects, as predicted by information cascade theory. Information cascades are more pronounced for experience goods than search goods, and they are more significant for female than male consumers in online product purchases. Our findings further suggest that gender differences exert a stronger moderating effect than product type on the impact of information cascades in online shopping. Specifically, information cascades are most pronounced for women purchasing experience goods online, followed by women purchasing search goods, men purchasing experience goods, and are least pronounced for men purchasing search goods.
Jiang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.