Influence of Price Level and Perceived Price Dispersion on Consumer Information Search Behaviour: Moderating Effect of Durables and Consumables

Weiqing Li, Qianyi Dan, Maomao Chi and Weijun Wang
Additional contact information
Weiqing Li: School of Information Management, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Qianyi Dan: School of Computer, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Maomao Chi: School of Information Management, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Weijun Wang: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: The methods consumers use to reduce their perceived risk and make reasonable purchase decisions can be synthesized under the umbrella term “consumer information search behavior” (CISB). As one key factor that conveys a product’s value and quality, price has a significant impact on CISB. There are few studies that comprehensively consider the impact of price level (PL) and perceived price dispersion (PPD) on CISB, and there is a certain disagreement about the impact of PPD specific to the online shopping environment. To address this research gap, we construct a model using the data from 5515 consumers’ purchasing and browsing behavior on a B2C e-commerce website, selecting six products as our research objects. We use a hierarchical regression analysis method to study the influence of product PL and PPD on CISB, and to explore the moderating effect of product categories (durables and consumables) on the relationship between PL, PPD and CISB. The results show that PL significantly affects CISB, and that product categories have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between PL and CISB. For durable goods, when the PL is high, consumers tend to increase their search behavior, both in depth and in breadth, and for consumables with low PL but higher purchase frequency, consumers likewise tend to increase their search behavior. In the B2C online shopping environment, PPD has a significant positive effect on CISB, and product category has a moderating effect on the relationship between PPD and CISB. When consumers purchase consumables, the higher the PPD, the higher the depth of CISB. The findings have several implications for marketing practitioners and enterprises advertising, also can help customers save time and energy in their search behaviors.

Keywords: consumer information search behavior; price level; perceived price dispersion; durables and consumables; moderating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/2105/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/2105/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:2105-:d:500212

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().