A Conceptual Representation of Consumer’s Group Knowledge and the Possible Role of New Technologies

The purpose of this article is to encourage research on the aspects of consumer behaviour, particularly as found in groups of consumers. For both researchers and practitioners, consumer knowledge is a critical factor in creating competitive success over time. But there is a gap in the knowledge management literature, which has recognized the importance of the customer as a source of knowledge, but has not recognized the importance of a group of consumers as well. Scholars, in fact, have not generally included a group of customers as a level of analysis. We present in this paper a conceptual representation of consumer’s group knowledge and we question about the possible role of new technologies in this representation. We have explored as much detail as possible if and how a group might be conditioned by intra-group dynamics in purchase decision making. The model’s theoretical base comes from group’s dynamics and organizational behaviour literature