Does Customization Benefit Brand Evaluation When Consumers Experience Psychological Uncertainty?

Abstract

The online environment is filled with uncertain situations. Although digital interface plays an important role in online information processing, limited research has explored whether digital interface could influence how consumers deal with the psychological state of uncertainty in the online environment. The present study focuses on customization as an important feature of digital interface. A lab experiment was conducted to analyze the interplay between psychological uncertainty, interface customization, and the individual trait of uncertainty avoidance on consumers’ online brand evaluation. The results indicated that participants with a strong tendency of uncertainty avoidance evaluated a brand on a customized website more favorably than a non-customized website when they experienced psychological uncertainty. Such effects were not observed among participants with a weak tendency of uncertainty avoidance.