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

Amar Cheema and Purushottam Papatla

Journal of Business Research, 2010, vol. 63, issue 9-10, 979-985

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.

Keywords: Online; purchases; Online; behavior; Information; importance; Internet; experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148-2963(09)00218-5
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:jbrese:v:63:y::i:9-10:p:979-985

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().