Emotions in Motion: The Combined Effect of Positive and Negative Emotions on Personalised E-Commerce

Abstract

This research examines the combined effect of positive and negative emotions on online shopping behaviour when customers use personalised services. Data from 421 customers, experiences with personalised online shopping, were used to empirically validate the effect of the level of emotions of different valence and intensity on their intention to purchase online. The findings suggest that as the intensity of positive emotions increases, shoppers are more willing to purchase from the online store. Nevertheless, this association is statistically significant only in those cases that the sample exhibits low intensity of negative emotions. Moreover, an increase on the intensity of negative emotions tends to reduce shoppers’ intentions to purchase. Results show that online vendors should aim to induce positive emotions since they are more important that negative ones. This paper offers a first step in evaluating the multidimensional role of emotions in personalised e-commerce.