Information services at the prelaunch stage of information technology products

As the development of information technologies (IT) influences consumer behavior, consumers now search for information and establish their purchase intention earlier in the process. Nonetheless, little research to date has examined how consumers make a decision to purchase a product early in the process, that is, at the prelaunch stage of the product. Delivering the right information at the right time would be important for consumers to evaluate and decide to purchase the products as well as for firms to increase preorder and subsequent sales. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the consumer decision making at the prelaunch stage of IT products, particularly in terms of product-related information and consumers' decision timing. We propose that the interaction between product-related information and decision timing plays a salient role in affecting consumer decisions (i.e., consumer attraction and preorder purchase intention). Contributions of this paper include (1) a suggested framework extending the timeline of consumer decision making process which have traditionally concerned the decision timing at the initial post-launch stage or repurchase stage, and (2) an understanding of effective product information management for firms to manipulate potential consumers' purchase decisions in earlier timing.