Information Searches and Consumer Behavior:How Are Consumers Using Internet Information?
No.130
April 2002
Research Fellow Naoki Nagashima
Research Fellow Seiji Shindo
ABSTRACT
This paper addresses how consumers use the Internet with a specific emphasis on information searches and the decision-making process. The findings based on the survey are as follows:
A) Because of search costs, time limits exist on information searches, including those via the Internet. B) The higher a consumer's involvement with a product or brand, the more hours he/she spends on information searches. C) However, it is contradictory that information obtained via the Internet becomes less important in the decision-making process as the consumer's involvement gets higher.
These findings imply the following.
- The proliferation of the Internet has a limited effect in improving market efficiency.
- Consumers are likely to spend more time on high-involvement products as the Internet gets flooded with more information, resulting in a decrease in information searches on low-involvement products.
- In purchasing high-involvement products, Internet information will be more important in the decision-making processes if and only if the obtained information serves as a substitute for actual experience with the product. For the low-involvement products, Internet information will be more important in the decision-making process if and only if the displayed data is strictly limited to core information, e.g. price and function, and the data is both easily accessible and easily recognizable.
More Informations
- Japanese
- PDF Information Searches and Consumer Behavior:How Are Consumers Using Internet Information? [1.41 MB]