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Article information:
To cite this document: Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Richard E. Fetter, Jr, (2001),"An empirical examination of the involvement to
external search relationship in services marketing", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 15 Iss: 2 pp. 82 - 98
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08876040110381337
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Richard E. Fetter, Jr
The importance of
consumers' external search
activities
Introduction
Academic researchers and management practitioners acknowledge the
importance of consumers' external search activities in the consumer decision
making process (Engel et al., 1978; Howard and Sheth, 1969; Perdue, 1993),
because external search is a primary means of increasing knowledge,
reducing perceptions of risk and uncertainty, and increasing post-purchase
satisfaction. Moreover, the amount of external search in which a person
engages can influence the size of his/her consideration set and whether he/she
remains brand loyal or engages in brand switching (Newman, 1977). Thus,
there is a great incentive for marketing managers to understand what causes
consumers to seek external information when faced with a purchase decision.
Among the antecedents of external search which have been studied to date
are product class knowledge (Brucks, 1985), recreational and hedonistic
motives (Bloch et al., 1986), involvement (Houston and Rothschild, 1978),
and various situational factors such as price, time pressure, and store
distribution (Beatty and Smith, 1987). While prior research on the causes and
consequences of consumers' external search activities certainly provides a
substantial knowledge base, almost all of this prior research on external
search has been conducted in product contexts, rather than service contexts.
This is especially noteworthy, given the evidence that consumers generally
view procuring services as more risky than products and that, indeed,
consumers tend to search more extensively for services than for products
(Murray, 1991).
The research register for this journal is available at
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82
JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001, pp. 82-98, # MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0887-6045
83
Revised personal
involvement inventory
Bloch et al., 1986; Brucks, 1985). Second, search was generally measured as
prepurchase search activities, not ongoing search (Bloch et al., 1986). Finally,
while external search is an often-measured variable in empirical studies, little
effort has been directed to date at validating an external search scale. Indeed,
only a few studies reported both a scale's psychometric properties and factor
structure (Beatty and Smith, 1987; Bloch et al., 1986; Kiel and Layton, 1981;
McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1997; McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1999;
Urbany et al., 1989), while quite a number of studies measured search with
single-item measures (Newman and Lockeman, 1975). McColl-Kennedy and
Fetter (1999) appears to be the first study to comprehensively assess the
psychometric properties of external search for services. They administered
the seven-item scale and extracted a two-factor solution across each of the
services included in their study. Based on inspection of individual items'
factor loadings, they identified the underlying common factors of search as
source and effort.
Credence versus
experiential services
Credence experiential
categorization
85
A comparison of the
demographic
characteristics
Method
Sample and procedures
A convenience sample of 331 residents from a major midwestern city served
as the sample for the study. A comparison of the demographic characteristics
of the achieved sample was nearly identical to the demographic profile of the
city from which the sample was drawn. About 52 percent of the respondents
were male (48 percent female), and the average age of respondents was
approximately 46 years with a standard deviation of 16.7. Ages of
respondents ranged from 19 to 81 years. Sixty percent of the respondents
indicated they earn between $25,000 and $80,000 per year. The group was
rather well-educated, with 60 percent indicating they had obtained at least
some college education.
A self-administered mail survey was used to obtain the data from 1,500
randomly selected names from the purchased mailing. The self-administered
questionnaire with cover letter explaining the purpose of the study and
assuring respondent anonymity was mailed out. Each participant was asked
to respond to a series of questions using several different response formats
(e.g. open-ended, semantic-differential scales, Likert rating scale, etc.). On
completion of the self-administered survey, respondents were instructed to
return completed surveys in the stamped self-addressed envelopes. This
resulted in a 22 percent response rate. Only respondents who had used the
services were included in the study.
Revised personal
involvement inventory
Measures
The involvement items used in our study were obtained from Zaichkowsky
(1985), McQuarrie and Munson (1992), and McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995).
McColl-Kennedy and her colleagues (1995) empirically examined the
construct validity of Zaichkowsky's (1985) personal involvement inventory
(PII) and McQuarrie and Munson's (1992) revised personal involvement
inventory (RPII) and found a nine-item version of the RPII decomposed into
two aspects of involvement, importance and interest. Importance was
measured with five semantic differential scales:
(1) important/unimportant;
(2) irrelevant/relevant;
(3) means a lot/means nothing;
86
Analytical procedures
There were two components to the data analysis. First, we examined the
factor structures and internal consistencies of the multi-item scales used in
the current study. In the second phase of the analysis, we investigated the
effect of each aspect of involvement (importance and interest) on each aspect
of external search (source and effort) across both experiential and credence
service encounters.
Results
Factor analysis and psychometric properties of involvement
Table I reports the factor structures, percent-of-variance accounted, interfactor correlations, and Cronbach alpha for each of the services employed in
the current study. The results reported in Table I suggest that the nine-item
involvement scale used in the current study does indeed measure both
aspects of involvement, importance and interest, previously discussed in this
text. Generally, items loaded strongly on their intended factors, with crossloadings (i.e. the tendency of an item to load on its unintended factor) almost
non-existent. Variance explained by the two-factor solutions was generally
in the 55-65 per cent range. For purposes of clarity and ease of interpretation,
only factor loadings equal to or greater than 0.35 are reported. Each of the
87
88
Item
Life insurance
Importance
Interest
Important/unimportant
Irrelevant/relevant
Means a lot/means nothing
Matters/doesn't matter
Of no concern
Dull/neat
Boring/interesting
Unexciting/exciting
Appealing/unappealing
0.86
0.57
0.86
0.91
0.77
Eigenvalue
Percent of variance (two-factors)
Inter-factor correlation
Cronbach Alpha
3.34
0.87
0.86
0.85
0.65
0.73
74
0.34
Furnace overhaul
Importance
Interest
0.82
0.83
0.62
0.76
0.85
2.58
3.25
0.81
0.85
0.74
0.85
0.51
0.81
70
0.22
Exercise club
Importance
Interest
0.89
0.67
0.85
0.77
0.80
2.30
3.51
0.73
0.87
0.78
0.89
0.90
0.67
0.84
84
0.51
Vacation in Caribbean
Importance
Interest
0.91
0.90
0.90
0.86
3.18
3.92
0.81
0.93
0.85
0.90
0.85
0.89
89
0.31
3.19
0.90
Multiple regression
analyses
Item
I would be interested in reading information
about how this service is performed
I would be interested in reading a Consumer
Report's article about this service
I have compared service characteristics among
firms that provide this service
I usually talk about this service with other people
I usually seek advice from other people prior to
purchasing this service
I usually take many factors into account before
purchasing this service
I usually spend a lot of time choosing what kind
to buy
Eigenvalue
Percent of variance (two-factors)
Inter-factor correlation
Cronbach Alpha
0.87
0.79
0.66
0.54
3.10
0.70
0.63
55
0.19
0.60
0.65
0.47
0.48
0.71
0.86
0.82
0.80
0.85
1.32
3.27
0.71
0.65
60
0.21
1.51
0.76
Table II. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for credence service
encounters
JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001
89
Item
I would be interested in reading information
about how this service is performed
I would be interested in reading a Consumer
Report's article about this service
I have compared service characteristics among
firms that provide this service
I usually talk about this service with other
people
I usually seek advice from other people prior to
purchasing this service
I usually take many factors into account before
purchasing this service
I usually spend a lot of time choosing what kind
to buy
Eigenvalue
Percent of variance (two-factors)
Inter-factor correlation
Cronbach Alpha
0.74
0.82
0.89
0.87
0.60
0.66
4.22
0.80
77
0.32
0.81
0.79
0.80
0.82
0.83
0.84
0.84
0.72
1.98
3.52
0.89
0.75
59
0.21
1.20
0.84
Table III. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for experiential service
encounters
.
4.27
5.78
5.74
5.66
Independent variable
Importance
Interest
Adjusted R2
0.09
0.12
0.03
0.34a
0.31a
0.24a
0.36a
0.11
0.16a
0.29a
0.30a
0.29a
4.73
5.50
5.99
5.81
Independent variable
Importance
Interest
Adjusted R2
0.24a
0.34a
0.34a
0.34a
0.05
0.08b
0.47a
0.13
0.32a
0.08
0.30a
0.19a
Notes:
reported in Table IV had small p-values (i.e. observed p-value less than
0.05), suggesting the regression models were helpful in explaining at least
some of the variance in our dependent measures of external search. However,
further inspection of Table IV suggests quite a number of differences across
the various regression models. For example, the variance explained by the
regression models ranged from 3 percent (source of search for life insurance)
to 34 percent (search effort for life insurance). In the remainder of this
section, each regression model will be briefly discussed. A more general
discussion of the study's findings will then be presented in the discussion
section of the paper.
Contemplating the
purchase of life insurance
Search source for life insurance. Neither importance, nor interest had
significant effects on search source for life insurance. The adjusted Rsquared was only 0.03. Thus, the evidence reported in this study suggests
that one's level of involvement is not related to external source of search
when contemplating the purchase of life insurance. That is, whether or not
one considers life insurance important to oneself or the degree to which one
is interested in life insurance does not influence the degree to which one
seeks external sources of information for life insurance.
Search effort for life insurance. Both importance and interest had rather
strong effects on one's tendency to put effort into seeking information about
life insurance. The effect of interest on effort was somewhat stronger than
the effect of importance on effort (std beta coefficients 0.34 and 0.24
respectively). Combining importance and interest explained a hefty 34
percent of the variance in effort with search activities for life insurance.
Thus, the findings reported in this regression model suggest that the more
involved in life insurance a person becomes, the more likely he/she is to put
effort into search.
Involvement
91
coefficient, it was not surprising the adjusted R-squared (32 percent) was
also rather sizeable.
Search source for vacation in Caribbean. Involvement had quite a large
impact on one's tendency to search for external information regarding a
Caribbean vacation. Indeed, both importance and interest had very strong
positive standardized beta coefficients (0.29 and 0.30 respectively), and the
adjusted R-squared (29 percent) further supported the notion that
involvement is strongly related to external sources of search activities in this
context.
Search effort for vacation in Caribbean. Only one aspect of involvement,
interest, was related to effort put into obtaining external information
pertaining to a Caribbean vacation. The effect of interest on effort put into
this external search in this context, however, was quite strong. The
standardized beta coefficient for interest was 0.30, and the adjusted R-square
was a moderate 19 percent.
Complex structural
relationship
92
Discussion
Purpose of the study and summary of the findings
The general purpose of this study was to investigate whether involvement
has an effect on external search across various service settings. We examined
the effects of a two-dimensional measure of involvement, importance and
interest, on external search. Search, too, was measured as a two-dimensional
construct, search source and effort. After an investigation of the scales'
psychometric properties and factor structures (generally supportive of the a
priori structure of the scales employed in this study), regression analysis was
used to examine the structural relationships between involvement and search.
Moreover, these structural relationships were tested across a variety of
service encounters. Two of the service encounters, life insurance and furnace
overhaul, are considered credence services. That is, with life insurance and
furnace overhaul, the mere acquisition of the service is not sufficient for
consumers to ascertain the adequacy of the service. The other two services
used in this study, exercise club and Caribbean vacation, are considered
experiential services. That is, one can ascertain how one feels about the
experience by going to an exercise club or on a Caribbean vacation.
Based on the empirical results reported in this study, it appears that
involvement does indeed impact search. However, it should be noted that the
structural relationship between involvement and search appears to be more
complex than suggested by prior research. Much of the theoretical research
on the involvement-to-search linkage has suggested that the two variables
should be positively related (Brisoux and Cheron, 1990). External search has
most prominently been viewed as a means to reduce perceived risk, but many
empirical studies have shown that, at least in product settings, consumers
engage in little-to-no external search. Moreover, Bloch et al. (1986) have
recognized that people may simply engage in external search for personal
enjoyment as a leisure activity. The current study, though, empirically
demonstrates that consumers are prone to engage in search, both in terms of
search source and effort, especially when they are involved in the purchase
occasion. The current study did provide some initial insights, though, as to
the limits of when consumers are prone and not prone to engage in specific
types of external search activities. For example, when engaged in
experiential services, consumers tended not to be influenced so much by how
interested they were in the service, but by the degree to which they perceived
the service as important. Indeed, this was strongly, positively related to the
JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001
Research implications
This initial investigation of the effects of involvement on external search in
services marketing provides empirical insight into this important area, but
much remains to be done. For example, at a minimum, the items discussed in
the limitations section need to be addressed. Moreover, there may be aspects
of search not wholly captured by the seven-item scale used in this study. For
example, Beatty and Smith (1987) suggest that ongoing search and
prepurchase search are conceptually distinct. Since most prior measures of
external search tended to tap only the prepurchase aspect of search,
additional research is needed to further develop a multiple-item measure of
search which explicitly captures both ongoing and prepurchase external
search activities. Moreover, the search measure employed in the current
study did not address the specific types of information to which one attends
(e.g. price, availability, guarantee, etc.) while searching for external
information.
While the current study provides insight as to the antecedents of search
across both credence and experiential services, it provides no guidance as to
the consequences of search. Therefore, future research should attend to
important consequences of search, such as size of the consideration set,
93
satisfaction with the service encounter, and service loyalty. Moreover, there
may be important variables which mediate and/or moderate the causes and
consequences of search, matters which were simply beyond the scope of the
current study.
Understanding consumers'
behaviors in service
settings
However, there are occasions where managers may not want consumers to
actively seek additional information through external search activities (e.g.
when they are the in-supplier, that is the supplier who is currently being used
by the customer). In these instances, they may not want their
communications with current customers to too heavily emphasize the
importance of the service, or it may induce the consumer to actively search
for more information, which may result in the customers comparing the
service with others they have identified through their external search process.
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