Wake up and Search for Coffee: Considering the Circadian Rhythm in Product Variety-Seeking
Zhouyang Liang, Spyros Angelopoulos, Meihua Zuo, and Carol Xiaojuan Ou
Consumers’ variety-seeking behavior on online marketplaces has received considerable attention in marketing research. We contribute to this line of work by further exploring the relationship between variety-seeking behavior and consumers’ circadian rhythm heterogeneity, using transaction data from one of the biggest online marketplaces. We find that, in general, the degree of consumers’ variety-seeking behavior is higher in the evenings than in the mornings. Meanwhile, consumers who make purchases in the mornings seek for relatively more variety than those purchasing in the afternoons. For each heterogeneous group, younger consumers opt for more variety than others in the evenings, while the degree of variety-seeking behavior in the afternoons is positively correlated with the age of consumers. Our findings suggest that online marketplaces can boost the effectiveness of personalized recommendations by considering the heterogeneity of consumer circadian rhythms.
Suggested Citation: Liang, Z. Angelopoulos, S., Zuo, M., and Ou, C.X. “Wake up and Search for Coffee: Considering the Circadian Rhythm in Product Variety-Seeking”, Available at SSRN.