Conceptual Study on The Effect of Herd Behavior on Source Credibility in The Online Purchasing Process

Abstract

Source credibility theory, which explains how reliable and persuasive the sender source is by the receivers in the communication process, is frequently used in marketing.
Businesses make agreements with well-known people or celebrities and use these people as reliable sources in their advertisement and promotion activities. Especially in online platforms, which are used more with the development of technology, messages coming from a reliable source about goods and services can play an essential role in consumers; decision-making processes as a factor in reducing uncertainty. Despite these technological changes, consumers; tendency to be influenced by others in their decision-making processes has remained the same. Being influenced by other peoples decisions with motivations such as uncertainty or reducing risk during the decision-making process is defined as herd behaviour. This study aims to conceptually consider the effect of herd behaviour on source credibility in the online purchasing process. In this context, the study explains source credibility in the online purchasing process and then examines the concept of herd behaviour from a marketing perspective. In addition, the study includes a literature review of studies measuring the effect of herd behaviour on resource reliability in the online purchasing process.