Consumer decision-making within a specific product category can take many forms. This study investigates the individual-specific transferal processes in new product adoption through cognitive, affective, and conative stages. We propose a general and flexible Bayesian multivariate regression model and fit the model to survey data on dedicated E-book reader adoption. The results show that—among six possible transition paths—all paths are feasible for the decision-making process, except for the conative → cognitive → affective path. In terms of market share, those who follow the hierarchy of effect process describing the cognitive → affective → conative process has the biggest market share and those following affective → conative → cognitive path has the smallest share. The contribution of this research is twofold. From a theoretical perspective, this study developed an estimable model for capturing heterogeneity in consumers’ decision-making process. Practically, the study empirically shows that a variety of decision-making paths exist, using survey data on the Korean E-book reader market. In the substantive domain, capturing the heterogeneity of consumer decision-making could provide marketers with insights to help profile consumers and with a basis for customer segmentation.

特定产品类别中的消费者决策可以采用多种形式。这项研究调查了新产品采用过程中通过认知，情感和交往阶段的个体特定转移过程。我们提出了一个通用且灵活的贝叶斯多元回归模型，并对该模型进行了拟合，以调查采用专用电子书阅读器的数据。结果表明，在六个可能的过渡路径中，除了顺从→认知→情感路径外，所有路径对于决策过程都是可行的。就市场份额而言，遵循描述认知→情感→交往过程的效果过程层次的人具有最大的市场份额，而遵循情感→交往→认知路径的人则具有最小的市场份额。这项研究的贡献是双重的。从理论上讲 这项研究建立了一个可估计的模型来捕捉消费者决策过程中的异质性。实际上，该研究从经验上表明，利用韩国电子书阅读器市场上的调查数据，存在各种决策途径。在实质性领域，捕获消费者决策的异质性可以为营销人员提供洞察力，以帮助他们了解消费者并为客户细分奠定基础。