Consumers' Online Information Search: Gen Yers' Finding Needles in the Internet Haystack

Abstract

There exists a paucity of research attention afforded to understanding consumer information search behavior on the Internet, vis-a-vis existing information search models such as an interactive, consumer experience in the offline realm. Thus, the present study investigates whether the factors inculcated within traditional cognitive processing models remain significant in the online information setting. Grounded in the contributions of Punj and Staelin (1983) and Srinivasan and Ratchford (1991) in the context of offline information search, this study proffers an empirical model of consumer online information. The empirical findings reveal that Perceived Risk and Perceived Cost do not significantly contribute to the consumer online information Search Effort. Rather, both of these conventional antecedents and Enjoyment significantly impact the satisfaction of young consumers' online information search endeavors. We recommend further studies to examine consumer information search behavior in other contexts (e.g., mobile phones) across countries. to a great extent due to the Internet's role as a powerful information search vehicle (e.g., Rowley, 2000) and its information-intensive nature (Bakos, 1997;Ward & Ostrom, 2003). Although consumer information search has been investigated over the past decades, consumers' experiential factors affecting information search in the online context, especially with respect to its comparability to offline attempts, calls for greater research attention. In fact, Cheung, Chan, and Limayem (2005) suggest that further conceptual understanding on the significant differences between offline and online consumer behaviors is needed. The majority of recent online consumer behavior studies investigate issues that include website-specific factors that affect consumer information search and e-

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