Consumers’ decision-making self-efficacy for service purchases: construct conceptualization and scale

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a scale to determine the consumer’s level of decision-making self-efficacy for a high-involved service purchase, specifically the purchase of medical insurance. One question to ask is how service providers can help consumers purchase the services that best meet their needs? Before interventions can occur, it is necessary to benchmark consumers’ perceptions of their own decision-making control and abilities. Design/methodology/approach A scale that measures consumers’ service decision-making self-efficacy was developed using the principles established for scale development validation. A four-study approach was used to reach the research objective. Findings The research consisted of four studies designed to: generate items to measure consumer service decision-making self-efficacy (CSDMSE); purify the scale and assess its dimensionality (second-order structure); establish the reliability and validity of the scale; and establish norms to provide details on its usefulness for aiding consumers with service purchases. The scale was found to be a higher-order construct, comprising three lower-order constructs. Originality/value Research suggests that consumer self-efficacy may affect their decision-making. The greater the consumer’s self-efficacy for decision-making tasks, the more efficient the decision-making process strategies are expected to be. This is the purpose for which the CSDMSE scale measure was created: to understand how, where and when service professionals can assist consumers with making appropriate service-related decisions and purchases.

Health-driven mechanism of organic food consumption: A structural equation modelling approach

“…This inconsistency in findings may be explained by the unstable predictive ability of self-efficiency in different contexts. Some scholars argue that self-efficiency varies across other activity domains due to differences in required abilities and skills, This result supports Jiao and Hale, which holds a similar conclusion [ 73 , 74 ]. Organic food, which relies on government certification and corporate production regulation, tends to establish its position in consumers' minds through certification and information disclosure [ 75 ], while consumers’ self-efficiency represents their confidence in purchasing.…”

Learning self-efficacies influence on e-servicescapes: rethinking post-pandemic pedagogy

“…Firstly, the theory supports satisfaction with online learning outcomes (Van Dinther et al , 2011). Secondly, when considered as a specific construct within an area, it can be used for predicting behavioural outcomes (Hale et al , 2021). Other researchers use self-efficacy as a precursor to computer competence that is likely to influence satisfaction (Shih, 2006) or self-efficacy with ease of use (Chau and Ngai, 2010).…”

“…The survey used self-reports on measures that were single-item, and though self-reported outcomes can be highly correlated with actual outcomes (Hattie, 2009), alternative constructs that are more multi-dimensional need to be investigated. Because education is a high-involvement service purchase, future studies can adopt the decision-making self-efficacy scale to test the model on which hybrid models would best suit their education (Hale et al, 2021).…”

Exploring the role of AI algorithmic agents: The impact of algorithmic decision autonomy on consumer purchase decisions

“…Self-efficacy plays a key role in how humans perform because it directly influences factors such as motivations and goals, affective tendencies, perceptions of opportunities, and outcome expectations in social environments. Research suggests that consumer self-efficacy may affect their decision-making, the greater the consumer’s self-efficacy for decision-making tasks, the more efficient the decision-making process strategies are expected to be ( Hale et al, 2021 ). When self-efficacy is considered in terms of people’s online behavior, the higher the online self-efficacy, the more confident people are in using the algorithm ( Araujo et al, 2020 ).…”