A multi-method investigation of consumer browsing behaviors and unintended information acquisition: Three essays

This dissertation examines consumer browsing behaviors and the influence of unintended information acquisition on consumer memory and choice behaviors. Browsing is a common consumer activity that is under researched. Essay one reviewed literature in marketing, library science, and information systems. The review showed that research on consumer information acquisition has focused on direct information search while neglecting consumers' everyday casual information browsing. Essay one proposes that browsing should be an integral part of consumer information acquisition framework. Browsing and searching may form a continuum of consumer information acquisition. This continuum may vary along various dimensions including motivation, behavior, information processing, and influence on consumers' memory.; A field study was conducted in essay two. Browsing processes, functions, and patterns across various retail outlets were examined through a combination of non-participant observations, in-depth interviews, and shopping trips with consumers. Results showed that browsing differs from searching in terms of motivation, behaviors, information processing, and influences on memory. Browsing can influence subsequent purchases by accumulating knowledge, recognizing the need for purchase, refining a purchasing goal, and inducing an impulsive purchase. In addition, two different browsing patterns, functional and recreational browsing, were identified. Consumers exhibit different browsing patterns across different retail environments such as grocery stores versus department stores versus online stores. Consumer shopping goals and various task characteristics influence their browsing patterns in a retail environment.; In essay three, a set of three experiments were conducted to examine what information consumers may acquire through unintended information acquisition and how this information is retrieved and used in consumers' subsequent activities. Psychology literature on implicit and explicit memory was used as the theoretical background for designing and conducting the experiments. Results showed that information acquired without intention could be perceptual or conceptual depending on the information exposure and encoding conditions. Perceptual information is more likely to be revealed in perceptual memory tests and retrieved automatically. On the other hand, conceptual information is more likely to be revealed in conceptual memory tests and retrieved intentionally. In the context of consumer choice tasks, perceptual information influence memory-based choice tasks while conceptual information influence stimulus-based choice tasks.