Choice as a Constraint to Decision Efficiency: The Social Media Perspective

Abstract

Social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube have become important sources of information. However, the dynamics between the volume of information on social media and the quality of choices consumers make remain unclear in literature. While some social media users complain of choice overload affecting the quality of choices and post purchase dissonance, others believe that information on social media is of quality and sufficient for effective decision making. Therefore, this study formulated four objectives to investigate and understand this phenomenon. The first objective sought to explore how consumers use social media tools in decision making. Objective two seek to explain whether there is information overload on social media. Objective three sought to assess whether social media information support consumers in decision making. The last objective investigated the impact of choice overload on quality of choice leading to post purchase dissonance. The study employed interpretivist research paradigm and exploratory design to understand how and why consumers employ social media tools and information in decision making. Six (6) respondents were sampled for qualitative interview and two hundred and forty-nine respondents for quantitative analysis using structural equation modelling. After analysis of field data, the result showed that social media tools are used to create content to help consumer decision. The study also found that there is no information overload on social media and the content is based on what the user wants. Based on the third objective the result showed that social media information is very supportive in decision making even though some users post information that are irrelevant. The last objective found that information (choice) overload influence quality of choice, thus affecting post purchase dissonance. The study therefore concludes that social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook are used to create quality information to support consumer decision making. The study recommends that social media users explore social media tools as alternative source for quality information and also provide quality and relevant information on social media platforms to help other users. Again, marketing managers must ensure that they create quality content about their brand and also protect their brand content on social media. Sales and marketing managers must improve their client interactivity and engagement on Twitter and Facebook in order to help consumers make quality choice.