Bloch, P. H., Sherrell, D. L., & Ridgway, N. M. (1986). Consumer search: an extended framework. Journal of consumer research, 119-126.

Abstract

Bloch, Sherrell and Ridgway investigate the concept of ongoing search by consumers, which they define as “search activities that are independent of specific purchase needs or decisions.” This is distinct from the more commonly researched prepurchase search which is directed and has a clear objective. Under their framework, the determinants, motives and outcomes under the two situations are different, though there are some overlapping factors. They are most distinct in terms of motives where the aim of prepurchase search is “enhance the quality of the purchase outcome” but for ongoing search it is information acquisition and/or pleasure or recreation from the search itself.

Participants from three different groups, a general population sample plus mailing lists from clothing and computer stores, were surveyed about two product categories, clothing and personal computers. The survey consisted of questions about the participants’ ongoing search behavior and how informative and enjoyable they consider different ongoing search activities. Regression analyses revealed that simply using how informative an activity is only very weakly predicts how often people engage in that activity, but adding enjoyment to the model significantly increases the explained variance in activity frequency. From this the authors conclude that “the traditional orientation that considers search to be determined solely by the practical information it provides is deficient.” They also found that high searchers within a product category tend to spend more, follow new product developments more closely and are larger sources of word-of-mouth information for other consumers.