An Empirical Model of Information Search and Social Capital

Abstract

The empirical outcome of this study will colossally benefit the advertising and consumer research professionals of marketing realms. The proposed model of consumer pre-purchase information search reposes on three mainstays, i.e. economics cost framework, psychology, and social capital theory. The cost-benefit framework is used as the starting block. The literature posits that as long as the perceived marginal benefit exceeds the expected marginal cost, the search for information will continue. Search can also continue until a threshold level of utility is achieved. Perceived risk of product purchase positively influences the perceived benefits of search and size of the evoked set. The Perceived Benefits of search, influence the search process positively, with economic principles such as costs acting as the constraints. The amount of search is also influenced directly by the size of the evoked set. Social cohesion and networking influences the search benefits and external search, in turn it effects the cost of search negatively due to its price effectiveness and information accessibility. Consumer s process the information collected from both internal and external (termed search ) sources. The amount of external information search is also directly influenced by the available evoked set in the market. Web based (Internet) contemporary information sources effect the urban consumer search due to its price diffusion and search efficiency. It is assumed that contemporary sources influence the views of traditional Economics of Information theory on the facets of cost antecedents and relationship between cost and amount of search. This model analyzes its effects on the overall external search process and its cost benefits. We also draw on the literature on social capital and social connectedness to enhance the model of consumer information search for durables. Consumers who do not have access to readily available information (as in rural areas), or the ability to process the information (for the relatively uneducated)