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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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An executive summary for
managers and executive An empirical examination of the
readers can be found at the
end of this article involvement to external search
relationship in services
marketing
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Management, University of
Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Richard E. Fetter, Jr
Associate Professor, College of Business, Butler University,
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Introduction
The importance of Academic researchers and management practitioners acknowledge the
consumers' external search importance of consumers' external search activities in the consumer decision
activities 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).
82 JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001, pp. 82-98, # MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0887-6045
Overlooked aspect of the Therefore, the current study was undertaken to address this overlooked
marketing literature aspect of the marketing literature. Primarily, the objective of this paper is to
add to our limited understanding of what influences consumers to seek
external information when procuring services by empirically investigating
the effects of involvement on consumers' external search activities.
Moreover, for purposes of generalizability, this study tests the effect of
involvement-on-external search across several different types of services.
After a brief review of the literature for both involvement and external
search, the results of an empirical study are reported. Finally, a discussion of
the study's limitations, future research opportunities, and managerial
implications are provided.
Conceptual framework
Involvement
The construct of involvement has received considerable attention by
academic researchers (Engel et al., 1978; Rothschild, 1984; Brisoux and
Cheron, 1990) over the past two decades. During this time various types of
involvement have been described and attempts made at measurement. For
example, Beatty et al. (1988) define ego involvement as ``the importance of
the product to the individual and to the individual's self-concept and ego.''
This is similar to enduring involvement, which has been defined as ``an
ongoing concern for a product class, that is, it is independent of purchase
situations and is motivated by the degree to which the product relates to the
self and/or hedonic pleasure received from the product'' (Richins and Bloch,
1986). Whereas ego involvement and enduring involvement are
conceptualized as independent of a particular purchase occasion, purchase
involvement and situational involvement are defined as those occasions
where one is aroused and attentive because of some specific occasion, such
as a pending purchase (Beatty et al., 1988). Laurent and Kapferer (1985)
define involvement as a four-dimensional construct comprising:
(1) importance;
(2) risk;
(3) pleasure; and
(4) sign.
The ability to provide ``Importance'' is the perceived importance (its personal meaning) of the
pleasure and affect product/service to the respondent; ``risk'' is the perceived importance of
negative consequences such as loss of face or money; ``pleasure'' is the
hedonic value the ability to provide pleasure and affect, and finally, ``sign''
is the symbolic value associated with the product, such as brand names like
``BMW'' and ``Christian Dior''. Zaichkowsky (1985) defines involvement
as, ``a person's perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs,
values, and interests.'' She asserts that this incorporates the earlier-discussed
aspects of involvement and is generalizable across personal (e.g. interests
and values), physical (e.g. characteristics of the object), and situational (e.g.
temporary matters) differences. Zaichkowsky (1985) developed a 20-item
semantic differential scale to operationalize involvement and following the
recommendations of Churchill (1979) assessed the construct validity of her
20-item scale, the personal involvement inventory (PII). Although the results
of her factor analyses generally suggested her 20-item scale was multi-
dimensional (Brisoux and Cheron, 1990), she concluded the scale should be
treated as unidimensional.
External search
Information search is an important part of consumer decision making (Moore
and Lehmann, 1980; Newman, 1977). Most theories addressing the role of
search activities in the consumer decision making process assert that search
is a means by which consumers reduce uncertainty and perceived risk (Engel
et al., 1978; Howard and Sheth, 1969). Beales et al. (1981) provide a general
framework of search which categorizes search as either internal or external.
Internal search, according to Beales and his colleagues (1981), entails the act
of retrieving previously acquired information from memory. That is, internal
search does not require any outside source. In contrast, external search
entails the acquisition of information from outside sources, such as print
advertisements, television or radio advertisements, salespeople, or personal
acquaintances. While internal search is, no doubt, an important aspect of
consumer behavior, the current study is concerned with only external search.
Information from sources External search defined. As earlier noted, external search is generally
other than one's memory defined as the acquisition of information from sources other than one's
memory, such as advertisements, friends, point-of-purchase displays,
magazine articles, etc. McColl-Kennedy and Fetter (1999) summarize the
external search literature as follows:
(1) sources (including such things as
. reseller information e.g. catalogs, consultants;
. third party e.g. Consumer Report;
. interpersonal sources e.g. friends or acquaintances;
. direct inspection of the good by the consumer e.g. comparison,
inference) (Beatty and Smith, 1987; Olshavsky and Wymer, 1995);
(2) search effort (Newman and Lockeman, 1975); and
(3) assessing physical aspects of a consumer good's search (such as price,
size) (Brucks, 1985; Newman and Staelin, 1971).
Prior measures of external search. Several points should first be made about
prior measures of external search. First, all (except Dawes et al., 1991;
Murray, 1991; McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1997; McColl-Kennedy and
Fetter, 1999) of the search studies we identified in our literature review
measured search activities for products, not services (Beatty and Smith, 1987;
Hypotheses
The purpose of our study was to empirically assess whether the previously-
discussed dimensions of involvement, i.e. importance and interest, influence
one's propensity to search via both source and effort in service encounters.
Method
Sample and procedures
A comparison of the A convenience sample of 331 residents from a major midwestern city served
demographic as the sample for the study. A comparison of the demographic characteristics
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.
Measures
Revised personal The involvement items used in our study were obtained from Zaichkowsky
involvement inventory (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;
Analytical procedures
Factor structures and There were two components to the data analysis. First, we examined the
internal consistencies 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, inter-
factor 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 cross-
loadings (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
Table II. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for credence service
encounters
Table III. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for experiential service
encounters
Discussion
Purpose of the study and summary of the findings
Effects on external search 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.
Complex structural Based on the empirical results reported in this study, it appears that
relationship 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
Research implications
Need for additional This initial investigation of the effects of involvement on external search in
research 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,
Managerial implications
The findings reported in this study also have a number of managerial
implications. First, the study suggests that different factors motivate
consumers to engage in external search across service settings. The varying
level of explained variance (adjusted R-squared) and standardized parameter
estimates suggests that managers must be sensitive to the fact that consumers
are variable in what motivates them to search for additional external
information. Also, the fact that managers can encourage consumers to
increase or decrease their level of external search based on perceived levels
of importance and interest suggests that managers must be attentive to the
content of their communications with consumers and how their messages
influence consumers' propensity to search. For example, an out-supplier (a
supplier who is not currently being used by a customer) in the exercise club
business may find it better to promote the importance of exercise in
communicating with potential customers, rather than focusing on the ``fun
aspects'' of the club where they are going if the managers feel the source of
external search is important in vendor selection. Finally, the generally strong
positive results of the effect of importance on both search source and effort,
suggest that managers need not be too concerned about potential service
customers ``shutting down'' in terms of information search. Other empirical
studies in product marketing contexts have indicated that consumers may
become so overwhelmed with a sense of risk that they simply quit processing
and seeking additional information. Yet this initial study, suggests that a
marketing manager may benefit by emphasizing the importance of his/her
service by motivating consumers to seek additional external information.
Comparing the service 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.
References
Beales, H., Mazis, M.C. and Staelin, R. (1981), ``Consumer search and public policy'', Journal
of Consumer Research, Vol. 8, June, pp. 11-22.
Beatty, S.E. and Smith, S.M. (1987), ``External search effort: an investigation across several
product categories'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14, June, pp. 83-95.
Beatty, S.E., Kahle, L.R. and Homer, P. (1988), ``The involvement-commitment model: theory
and implications'', Journal of Business Research, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 149-67.