Searching, Scrolling, and Deciding: How Product Research and Social Media Shape Consumer Behaviour | RISE Research

This paper investigates two questions about e-commerce consumer behavior: whether spending more time researching products before purchase leads to greater customer satisfaction, and whether social media influence reduces the time consumers take to reach a purchasing decision. Using a dataset of 957 observations, the author runs OLS regression analyses to test both hypotheses, then cross-checks the results with a Monte Carlo simulation. Contrary to the author's expectations, neither hypothesis is supported: research time shows no statistically significant relationship with customer satisfaction, and social media influence shows no statistically significant relationship with decision-making time. The Monte Carlo simulation confirms this null result is robust rather than an artifact of the specific regression specification used. The paper situates these findings against a literature review covering crowd-based ratings (which have outsized influence on purchasing relative to professional reviews), consumers' documented preference for positively-skewed information (which social media content often supplies through influencer marketing), and research on 'product market traps,' where consumers remain active social media users out of social obligation rather than genuine preference, potentially complicating any clean relationship between social media exposure and decision time. The paper concludes that within this dataset, research time and social media influence are not reliable predictors of either customer satisfaction or purchase decision speed, suggesting that other unmeasured factors, such as product category, price sensitivity, or individual consumer traits, may better explain variation in these outcomes. The author frames this null result as a clear direction for future research, rather than a dead end, since it narrows the space of variables that meaningfully drive these consumer behavior outcomes.