Consumers Using The Network Information Source To Search For Information Efforts Influencing Factors

With the rapid development of the Internet in the past decade, it has become a major information source of consumers. Previous research in the consumer behavior concentrates on information search in traditional shopping environments. And Internet and system focused research is predominantly descriptive and exploratory.This study focuses on the pre-purchase external information search behavior of consumers. First, a conceptual model of consumer external information search on the Internet that combines factors from the fields of consumer and information behavior is developed. The significance of this dissertation is the synthesis of the literature from the fields of consumer information search, information science and information behavior. And second, an empirical test of the model is conducted.The model includes perceived accessibility of information, perceived quality of information, on-line search skills, involvement, subjective knowledge, perceived benefits of search and cost of search. These factors help explain the amount of online search effort. The test results suggest that:(1) Unexpectedly, perceived accessibility of information has a significant negative effect on the amount of online search effort.(2) On-line search skills have a significant positive effect on the amount of online search effort. It is contrary to our expectation.(3) The influence of involvement on the amount of online search effort is not strongly positive. And there is not any significant association between cost of search and the amount of online search effort.(4) Perceived quality of information and perceived benefits of search appear to have strongly positive effect on the amount of online search effort as hypothesized. Also as hypothesized, on-line search skills, involvement and subjective knowledge appear to have significant positive effect on the amount of online search effort.