Knowledge Sourcing and Knowledge Consumption in Computer-Mediated Complex Decision Making

Individuals are turning increasingly toward web-based information sources as input for complex decisions. Gathering and evaluating decision criteria in an online context is enticing because of information availability and increased control over the process, but how do these factors impact performance? This study shows how an interaction effect between Social Comparison and Social Facilitation predicts and explains how decision making performance is influenced differently by an information consumption-only approach versus a consume-and-contribute approach. Results from an empirical evaluation indicate that publishing decision criteria and reasoning (e.g. in a forum, blog, or knowledge base) plays an important role in improving complex decision making performance.