The interaction effects of consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence and type of word-of-mouth on Chinese consumers’ restaurant choices

This study contributes to the understanding of how the interpersonal influence impacts on consumer behaviors. By leveraging the dual-process theory, the current study demonstrates the interaction effects between individual levels of Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence (CSII) and different types of WOM on Chinese consumers’ restaurant consumption choices. Specifically, facing the informational cue of online ratings by anonymous reviewers, Chinese consumers show similar level of consumption intention regardless of their individual levels of CSII. On the other hand, when the WOM comes from the normative cue of friend referrals, high CSII Chinese consumers show significantly higher levels of consumption intention than their low CSII counterparts. Furthermore, preferred identification induced by the normative cue leads to the high CSII Chinese consumers’ restaurant choices. The theoretical and managerial implicates are discussed.