2004/06/01 by Tülin Erdem, Joffre Swait, Joffre Swait́ · 1,316 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Advertising #Business #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification #Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing #Credibility #Digital Marketing and Social Media #Law #Political science #Psychology
paper · doi:10.1086/383434
published in Journal of Consumer Research 31(1), 191-198 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2004/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We examine the role of brand credibility (trustworthiness and expertise) on brand choice and consideration across multiple product categories that vary in regard to potential uncertainty about attributes and associated information acquisition costs and perceived risks of consumption. We find that brand credibility increases probability of inclusion of a brand in the consideration set, as well as brand choice conditional on consideration. We also find that although credibility impacts brand choice and consideration set formation more and through more constructs in contexts with high uncertainty and sensitivity to such uncertainty, credibility effects are present in all categories. Finally, our results indicate that trustworthiness, rather than expertise, affects consumer choices and brand consideration more.