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How uncertainty affects information search among consumers: a curvilinear perspective
1John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal, QC Canada.
Marketing Letters
|December 6, 2022
Summary
Consumer uncertainty has an inverted-U relationship with information search. Moderate uncertainty levels encourage more information seeking than low or high levels, challenging traditional views.
Area of Science:
- Consumer Behavior
- Marketing Science
- Psychology
Background:
- Traditional marketing research posits a linear positive relationship between consumer uncertainty and information search.
- Increased uncertainty typically leads to greater information seeking about brands, products, or services.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and empirically demonstrate a curvilinear (inverted-U) relationship between consumer uncertainty and information search.
- To investigate the theoretical underpinnings of this inverted-U relationship, focusing on accuracy and efficiency trade-offs.
Main Methods:
- Three experimental studies were conducted to test the proposed inverted-U relationship.
- Data analysis focused on identifying the pattern of information search behavior across varying levels of consumer uncertainty.
Main Results:
- An inverted-U relationship between uncertainty and information search was consistently observed across all experiments.
- Findings indicate that moderate levels of uncertainty are associated with the highest levels of information search.
Conclusions:
- The conventional linear model of uncertainty and information search is incomplete.
- Consumer information search behavior is more nuanced, influenced by a trade-off between accuracy and efficiency considerations at different uncertainty levels.
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