What motivates people to search online? Antecedences and comparisons among different buyers

Abstract

Human factors affect information -seeking behavior in online shopping. However, there are few studies that
investigate the differences in product-selections on information seeking. This study adopts Baker’s theory with
respect to consumer decision style (1999) to identify influential antecedents and contextual factors in web pages
best explain consumer information-seeking behavior in the pre-purchase stage. Four cases of different buys that
generalize high versus low level of product involvements are selected for investigations. Results identify three types
of shopping styles. In addition, product involvement is revealed as a significant factor in affecting shoppers’
information search. Information with respect to store reputation, product functions and payment methods are
perceived as the most important for web store search. Shoppers’ age, occupations, income and online shopping
expenses are also influential. This study generalizes human factors in adopting information seeking in the prepurchase stage and suggests web information system designs to facilitate online shopping