Abstract:

Herding effect can be broadly defined as the alignment of thoughts or behaviours of individuals in a group (herd) through local interactions rather than centralized coordination. Herding effect in online shopping context can be divided into eight patterns, and it can also take two forms: from word of mouth effect to the following effect. The herding effect could be influenced by the electricity suppliers’ factors, consumer factors, product factors and marketing factors. Its mechanism includes psychological mechanism and neural mechanism. Finally, the paper pointed out the future research direction.

Key words: herding effect, word of mouth effect, following effect, psychological mechanism, neural mechanism