IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v63yi9-10p979-985.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relative importance of online versus offline information for Internet purchases: Product category and Internet experience effects

Author

Listed:
  • Cheema, Amar
  • Papatla, Purushottam

Abstract

Across three studies we examine the relative importance of online versus offline information for Internet purchases. Study 1 reveals that the relative importance of online information is higher for utilitarian products (computer hardware and software) than for hedonic products (books, music, and movies). Study 2 shows that, in the case of online purchases, the relative importance of online information decreases with increasing consumer Internet experience. Consequently, offline information becomes relatively more important for consumers with high levels of Internet experience. In addition, the relative importance of online information is higher for utilitarian products than for hedonic products, supporting Study 1 results. Study 3 suggests a possible mechanism for the effect of Internet experience on decreasing importance of online information, showing that consumers' trust of online search engine information decreases with increasing Internet experience. We conclude with implications of our results for firms that sell products on the Internet.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheema, Amar & Papatla, Purushottam, 2010. "Relative importance of online versus offline information for Internet purchases: Product category and Internet experience effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 979-985, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:63:y::i:9-10:p:979-985
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148-2963(09)00218-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tsang, Alex S.L. & Zhou, Nan, 2005. "Newsgroup participants as opinion leaders and seekers in online and offline communication environments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(9), pages 1186-1193, September.
    2. Punj, Girish N & Staelin, Richard, 1983. "A Model of Consumer Information Search Behavior for New Automobiles," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(4), pages 366-380, March.
    3. Richard, Marie-Odile, 2005. "Modeling the impact of internet atmospherics on surfer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(12), pages 1632-1642, December.
    4. Ratchford, Brian T, 2001. "The Economics of Consumer Knowledge," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 397-411, March.
    5. Keller, Kevin Lane & Staelin, Richard, 1987. "Effects of Quality and Quantity of Information on Decision Effectiveness," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(2), pages 200-213, September.
    6. Brucks, Merrie, 1985. "The Effects of Product Class Knowledge on Information Search Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Rohm, Andrew J. & Swaminathan, Vanitha, 2004. "A typology of online shoppers based on shopping motivations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 748-757, July.
    8. Beatty, Sharon E & Smith, Scott M, 1987. "External Search Effort: An Investigation across Several Product Categories," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(1), pages 83-95, June.
    9. Thomas P. Novak & Donna L. Hoffman & Yiu-Fai Yung, 2000. "Measuring the Customer Experience in Online Environments: A Structural Modeling Approach," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 22-42, May.
    10. Amar Cheema, 2008. "Surcharges and Seller Reputation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(1), pages 167-177, February.
    11. Urban, Glen L., 2003. "The Trust Imperative," Working papers 4302-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    12. Richard, Marie-Odile & Chandra, Ramdas, 2005. "A model of consumer web navigational behavior: conceptual development and application," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1019-1029, August.
    13. Biswas, Dipayan, 2004. "Economics of information in the Web economy: Towards a new theory?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 724-733, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tajdini, Saeed, 2021. "The effects of the subjective-experiential knowledge gap on consumers’ information search behavior and perceptions of consumption risk," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 66-77.
    2. Bonifield, Carolyn & Cole, Catherine & Schultz, Randall L., 2010. "Product returns on the Internet: A case of mixed signals?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1058-1065, September.
    3. Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Martin J. Dijst & Carolina Castaldi, 2009. "Involvement and use of multiple search channels in the automobile purchase process," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 09-06, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Apr 2009.
    4. Newton, Joshua D. & Tsarenko, Yelena & Ferraro, Carla & Sands, Sean, 2015. "Environmental concern and environmental purchase intentions: The mediating role of learning strategy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1974-1981.
    5. DeSarbo, Wayne S. & Choi, Jungwhan, 1998. "A latent structure double hurdle regression model for exploring heterogeneity in consumer search patterns," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1-2), pages 423-455, November.
    6. Gaia Rubera & Andrea Ordanini & David Mazursky, 2010. "Toward a contingency view of new product creativity: Assessing the interactive effects of consumers," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 191-206, June.
    7. Wirawan Dony Dahana & HeeJae Shin & Sotaro Katsumata, 2018. "Influence of individual characteristics on whether and how much consumers engage in showrooming behavior," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 665-692, December.
    8. Suhail Ahmad Bhat & Mushtaq Ahmad Darzi, 2019. "Exploring the Influence of Consumer Demographics on Online Purchase Benefits," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 8(4), pages 303-316, December.
    9. van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & Castaldi, Carolina & Dijst, Martin J., 2012. "In what sequence are information sources consulted by involved consumers? The case of automobile pre-purchase search," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 343-352.
    10. Smith, Gerald E. & Venkatraman, Meera P. & Dholakia, Ruby Roy, 1999. "Diagnosing the search cost effect: Waiting time and the moderating impact of prior category knowledge," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 285-314, June.
    11. Punj, Girish, 2012. "Income effects on relative importance of two online purchase goals: Saving time versus saving money?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 634-640.
    12. Fedoseeva, Svetlana & Herrmann, Roland & Nickolaus, Katharina, 2017. "Was the economics of information approach wrong all the way? Evidence from German grocery r(E)tailing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 63-72.
    13. Bartschat, Maria & Cziehso, Gerrit & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2022. "Searching for word of mouth in the digital age: Determinants of consumers’ uses of face-to-face information, internet opinion sites, and social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 393-409.
    14. Sharlene He & Derek D. Rucker, 2023. "How uncertainty affects information search among consumers: a curvilinear perspective," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 415-428, September.
    15. Maity, Moutusy & Dass, Mayukh & Malhotra, Naresh K., 2014. "The Antecedents and Moderators of Offline Information Search: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 233-254.
    16. Gounaris, Spiros & Koritos, Christos & Vassilikopoulou, Katerina, 2010. "Person-place congruency in the Internet Banking context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 943-949, September.
    17. Wang, Liz C. & Hsiao, Daniel Fujen, 2012. "Antecedents of flow in retail store shopping," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 381-389.
    18. Peng Cheng & Zhe Ouyang & Yang Liu, 0. "The effect of information overload on the intention of consumers to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    19. Gaurav Khatwani & Gopal Das, 2016. "Evaluating combination of individual pre-purchase internet information channels using hybrid fuzzy MCDM technique: demographics as moderators," International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 12(1), pages 28-49.
    20. Mäenpää, Katariina & Kale, Sudhir H. & Kuusela, Hannu & Mesiranta, Nina, 2008. "Consumer perceptions of Internet banking in Finland: The moderating role of familiarity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 266-276.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:63:y::i:9-10:p:979-985. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.