Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
Published in: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 5/2022

28-05-2022 | Original Empirical Research

Information search behavior at the post-purchase stage of the customer journey

Authors: Cristiane Pizzutti, Renata Gonçalves, Maura Ferreira

Published in: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science | Issue 5/2022

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

Customer journey models consider information search behavior only at the pre-purchase stage, yet consumers search for information after purchasing. This paper updates customer journey models by integrating two different streams of research—customer journey and post-decision information search (PDIS)—and examining information search as a valuable consumer response and managerial element of the journey. Findings from a multimethod approach, in-depth interviews and a longitudinal survey, reveal that consumers can engage in PDIS in the pre- and post-consumption phases for different reasons such as to maximize the utility of a purchase, reduce choice uncertainty or regret, and/or satisfy curiosity about a purchase and pre-purchase information search behavior. The findings also indicate that consumers prefer customer-initiated touchpoints for PDIS behavior. The importance of PDIS is reinforced by its positive relationships with customer engagement, word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions. This article provides important managerial insights for dealing with PDIS in the customer journey.
previous article A model of online shopping cart abandonment: evidence from e-tail clickstream data
next article Economic policy uncertainty and shareholder wealth: the role of marketing, operations, and R&D capabilities

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
Note in Figure 2 that in the first wave we measured previous knowledge and purchase involvement. We do not clearly identify these variables in our exploratory study, yet they are important determinants of information search behavior (Schmidt & Spreng, 1996) and represent the idea that variables from one stage might influence the journey’s subsequent stages. We also measured personality traits that may influence information search behavior in the second wave: maximizing tendencies, need for closure, and need for cognition (Teodorescu et al., 2018). Higher levels of maximizing tendencies and need for cognition could lead to more information search (e.g., Dar-Nimrod et al., 2009; Verplanken et al., 1992). Higher levels of need for closure could decrease information search (Roets & Van Hiel, 2011; Webster & Kruglanski, 1994).
 
2
We also tested involvement and personality traits as antecedents of PDIS. Involvement (βprecon = −.12; p = .10; βpostcon = −.02; p = .59), maximizing tendencies (βprecon = .06; p = .28; βpostcon = .07; p = .15), need for closure (βprecon = −.08; p = .41; βpostcon = .10; p = .11), and need for cognition (βprecon = −.00; p = .99; βpostcon = −.09; p = .12) had no significant correlation with PDIS. Demographic variables (i.e., age, education and income) and characteristics of the purchase (i.e., price and hedonic value) had no correlation with PDIS in any phase, either.
 
Literature
Akaka, M. A., & Schau, H. J. (2019). Value creation in consumption journeys: Recursive reflexivity and practice continuity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47, 499–515.CrossRef
Alba, J. W., & Hutchinson, J. W. (1987). Dimensions of consumer expertise. Journal of Consumer Research, 13(4), 411–454.CrossRef
Alba, J. W., & Hutchinson, J. W. (2000). Knowledge calibration: What consumers know and what they think they know. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(2), 123–156.CrossRef
Anderl, E., Schumann, J. H., & Kunz, W. (2016). Helping firms reduce complexity in multichannel online data: A new taxonomy-based approach for customer journeys. Journal of Retailing, 92(2), 185–203.CrossRef
Baxendale, S., Macdonald, E. K., & Wilson, H. N. (2015). The impact of different touchpoints on brand consideration. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), 235–253.
Becker, L., & Jaakkola, E. (2020). Customer experience: fundamental premises and implications for research. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(4), 630–648.
Becker, L., Jaakkola, E., & Halinen, A. (2020). Toward a goal-oriented view of customer journeys. Journal of Service Management, 31(4), 767–790.CrossRef
Bettman, J. R., Luce, M. F., & Payne, J. W. (1998). Constructive consumer choice processes. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(3), 187–217.CrossRef
Bevan, M. T. (2014). A method of phenomenological interviewing. Qualitative Health Research, 4(1), 136–144.CrossRef
Bowden, J. (2009). Customer engagement: A framework for assessing customer-brand relationships: The case of the restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 18, 574–596.CrossRef
Bowen, G. A. (2008). Naturalistic inquiry and the saturation concept: A research note. Qualitative Research, 8, 137–152.CrossRef
Brodie, R. J., Hollebeek, L. D., Jurić, B., & Ilić, A. (2011). Customer engagement: Conceptual domain, fundamental propositions, and implications for research. Journal of Service Research, 14(3), 252–271.CrossRef
Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., & Hollebeek, L. (2013). Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), 105–114.CrossRef
Brucks, M. (1985). The effects of product class knowledge on information search behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 12(1), 1–16.CrossRef
Bryant, F. B. (1989). A four-factor model of perceived control: Avoiding, coping, obtaining, and savoring. Journal of Personality, 57(4), 773–797.CrossRef
Chun, H. H., Diehl, K., & MacInnis, D. J. (2017). Savoring an upcoming experience affects ongoing and remembered consumption enjoyment. Journal of Marketing, 81(3), 96–110.CrossRef
Connolly, T., & Zeelenberg, M. (2002). Regret in decision making. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(6), 212–216.CrossRef
Cooke, A. D., Meyvis, T., & Schwartz, A. (2001). Avoiding future regret in purchase-timing decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(4), 447–459.CrossRef
Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., & Vetvik, O. J. (2009). The consumer decision journey. The McKinsey Quarterly, 3(3), 96–107.
Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. Sage.
Cui, T. H., Ghose, A., Halaburda, H., Iyengar, R., Pauwels, K., Sriram, S., Tucker, C., & Venkataraman, S. (2021). Informational challenges in Omnichannel marketing: Remedies and future Research. Journal of Marketing, 85(1), 103–120.CrossRef
Dar-Nimrod, I., Rawn, C. D., Lehman, D. R., & Schwartz, B. (2009). The maximization paradox: The costs of seeking alternatives. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(5–6), 631–635.CrossRef
Dellaert, B. G. (2019). The consumer production journey: Marketing to consumers as co-producers in the sharing economy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(2), 238–254.CrossRef
Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C., & Morgan-Thomas, A. (2016). Capturing consumer engagement: duality, dimensionality and measurement. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(5-6), 399-426.
Donnelly, J. H., & Ivancevich, J. M. (1970). Post purchase reinforcement and back-out behavior. Journal of Marketing Research, 7(3), 399–400.CrossRef
Doorn, J. V. (2011). Comment: Customer engagement: Essence, dimensionality, and boundaries. Journal of Service Research, 14(3), 280–282.CrossRef
Ehrlich, D., Guttman, I., Schönbach, P., & Mills, J. (1957). Post decision exposure to relevant information. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 54(1), 98–102.CrossRef
Flynn, L. R., & Goldsmith, R. E. (1999). A short, reliable measure of subjective knowledge. Journal of business research, 46(1), 57-66.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.CrossRef
Gilovich, T., & Gallo, I. (2020). Consumers’ pursuit of material and experiential purchases: A review. Consumer Psychology Review, 3(1), 20–33.CrossRef
Goldsmith, K., & Lee, A. Y. (2021). A view from inside: Insights on consumer behavior during a global pandemic. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 6(1), 142–148.CrossRef
Grewal, R., Cote, J. A., & Baumgartner, H. (2004). Multicollinearity and measurement error in structural equation models: Implications for theory testing. Marketing Science, 23(4), 519–529.CrossRef
Guo, C. (2001). A review on consumer external search: Amount and Determinants. Journal of Business and Psychology, 15, 505–519.CrossRef
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2009). Multivariate Data Analysis (7th ed.). Prentice Hall.
Hair, J. F., Ringle, C., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-sem: Indeed a silver bullet. The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19, 139–151.CrossRef
Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24.CrossRef
Hamilton, R., Ferraro, R., Haws, K. L., & Mukhopadhyay, A. (2021). Traveling with companions: The social customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 85(1), 68–92.CrossRef
Hamilton, R., & Price, L. L. (2019). Consumer journeys: Developing consumer-based strategy. Journal of Academy of Market Science, 47, 187–191.CrossRef
Hanson, S., Jiang, L., & Dahl, D. (2019). Enhancing consumer engagement in an online brand community via user reputation signals: A multi-method analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(2), 349–367.CrossRef
Howard, J.A., & Sheth, J.N. (1969). The Theory of Buyer Behavior. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hsu, C. L., & Chen, M. C. (2018). How gamification marketing activities motivate desirable consumer behaviors: Focusing on the role of brand love. Computers in Human Behavior, 88, 121–133.CrossRef
Huang, P., Lurie, N. H., & Mitra, S. (2009). Searching for experience on the web: An empirical examination of consumer behavior for search and experience goods. Journal of Marketing, 73(2), 55–69.CrossRef
Hulland, J., Baumgartner, H., & Smith, K. M. (2018). Marketing survey research best practices: Evidence and recommendations from a review of JAMS articles. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46(1), 92–108.CrossRef
Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B. L., Schreiber, C. A., & Redelmeier, D. A. (1993). When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end. Psychological Science, 4(6), 401–405.CrossRef
Kranzbühler, A. M., Kleijnen, M. H. P., & Verlegh, P. W. J. (2019). Outsourcing the pain, keeping the pleasure: Effects of outsourced touchpoints in the customer journey. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(2), 308–327.CrossRef
Kuehnl, C., Jozic, D., & Homburg, C. (2019). Effective customer journey design: Consumers’ conception, measurement, and consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(3), 1–18.CrossRef
Kumar, A., Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilovich, T. (2014). Waiting for merlot: Anticipatory consumption of experiential and material purchases. Psychological Science, 25(10), 1924–1931.CrossRef
Lee, L., Inman, J. J., Argo, J. J., Böttger, T., Dholakia, U., & Gilbride, T. (2018). From browsing to buying and beyond: The needs-based shopper journey model. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 3(3), 277–293.CrossRef
Lee, S. H., & Cotte, J. (2009). Post-purchase consumer regret: Conceptualization and development of the PPCR scale. ACR North American Advances, 36, 456–462.
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69–96.CrossRef
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage, Naturalistic inquiry.CrossRef
Litman, J. (2005). Curiosity and the pleasures of learning: Wanting and liking new information. Cognition & Emotion, 19(6), 793–814.CrossRef
MacInnis, D. J., Morwitz, V. G., Botti, S., Hoffman, D. L., Kozinets, R. V., Lehmann, D. R., Lynch Jr., J. G., & Pechmann, C. (2020). Creating boundary-breaking, marketing-relevant consumer research. Journal of Marketing, 84(2), 1–23.CrossRef
Malhotra, N.K., Peterson, M., & Kleiser, S.B. (1999). Marketing research: A state-of-the-art review and directions for the twenty-first century. Academy of Marketing Science, 27(2), 160–183.
Mason, C. H., & Perreault Jr., W. D. (1991). Collinearity, power, and interpretation of multiple regression analysis. Journal of Marketing Research, 28(3), 268–280.CrossRef
Menard S. (1995). Applied Logistic Regression Analysis. Sage.
Montgomery, C., & Barnes, J. H. (1993). POSTDIS: A short rating scale for measuring post purchase dissonance. The Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 6, 204-216.
Moorthy, S., Ratchford, B., & Talukdar, D. (1997). Consumer information search revisited: Theory and empirical analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 23(4), 263–277.CrossRef
Nenkov, G. Y., Morrin, M., Schwartz, B., Ward, A., & Hulland, J. (2008). A short form of the Maximization Scale: Factor structure, reliability and validity studies. Judgment and Decision Making, 3(5), 371-388.
Nowlis, S. M., Mandel, N., & McCabe, D. (2004). The effect of a post-choice delay on consumption enjoyment. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 502–510.CrossRef
O’brien, R. M. (2007). A caution regarding rules of thumb for variance inflation factors. Quality & Quantity, 41(5), 673–690.CrossRef
Perkins, B., & Fenech, C. (2014). Deloitte consumer review: The growing power of consumers. Deloitte LLP.
Peter, J. P., & Tarpey, L. X. (1975). A comparative analysis of three consumer decision strategies. Journal of Consumer Research, 2(1), 29–37.CrossRef
Puccinelli, N. M., Goodstein, R. C., Grewal, D., Price, R., Raghubir, P., & Stewart, D. (2009). Customer experience management in retailing: Understanding the buying process. Journal of Retailing, 85(1), 15–30.CrossRef
Punj, G. N., & Staelin, R. (1983). A model of consumer information search behavior for new automobiles. Journal of Consumer Research, 9(4), 366–380.CrossRef
Quoidbach, J., Dunn, E. W., Hansenne, M., & Bustin, G. (2015). The price of abundance: How a wealth of experiences impoverishes savoring. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(3), 393–404.CrossRef
Rawson, A., Duncan, E., & Jones, C. (2013). Touchpoints matter, but it's the full journey that really counts. Harvard Business Review, 91(9), 90−+.
Redelmeier, D. A., & Kahneman, D. (1996). Patients' memories of painful medical treatments: Real-time and retrospective evaluations of two minimally invasive procedures. Pain, 66(1), 3–8.CrossRef
Rindfleisch, A., Malter, A. J., Ganesan, S., & Moorman, C. (2008). Cross-sectional versus longitudinal survey research: Concepts, findings, and guidelines. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(3), 261–279.CrossRef
Roets, A., & Van Hiel, A. (2011). Item selection and validation of a brief, 15-item version of the Need for Closure Scale. Personality and individual differences, 50(1), 90-94.
Rosario, A. B., de Valck, K., & Sotgiu, F. (2020). Conceptualizing the electronic word-of-mouth process: What we know and need to know about eWOM creation, exposure, and evaluation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(3), 422–448.CrossRef
Rust, R. T., & Cooil, B. (1994). Reliability measures for qualitative data: Theory and implications. Journal of Marketing Research, 31(1), 1–14.CrossRef
Santana, S., Thomas, M., & Morwitz, V. G. (2020). The role of numbers in the customer journey. Journal of Retailing, 96(1), 138–154.CrossRef
Santini, F., Ladeira, W. J., Pinto, D. C., Herter, M. M., Sampaio, C. H., & Babin, B. J. (2020). Customer engagement in social media: A framework and meta-analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 1211–1228.CrossRef
Schamp, C., Heitmann, M., & Katzenstein, R. (2019). Consideration of ethical attributes along the consumer decision-making journey. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(2), 328–348.CrossRef
Schmidt, J. B., & Spreng, R. A. (1996). A proposed model of external consumer information search. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 24(3), 246–256.CrossRef
Shani, Y., & Zeelenberg, M. (2007). When and why do we want to know? How experienced regret promotes post-decision information search. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20(3), 207–222.CrossRef
Siebert, A., Gopaldas, A., Lindridge, A., & Simoes, C. (2020). Customer experience journeys: Loyalty loops versus involvement spirals. Journal of Marketing, 84(4), 45–66.CrossRef
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques. Sage publications.
Swaminathan, V., Sorescu, A., Steenkamp, J.-B. E. M., O’Guinn, T. C. G., & Schmitt, B. (2020). Branding in a hyperconnected world: Refocusing theories and rethinking boundaries. Journal of Marketing, 84(2), 24–46.CrossRef
Teodorescu, K., Sang, K., & Todd, P. M. (2018). Post-decision search in repeated and variable environments. Judgement and Decision Making, 13(5), 484–500.
Thompson, C. J., & Haytko, D. L. (1997). Speaking of fashion: consumers' uses of fashion discourses and the appropriation of countervailing cultural meanings. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(1), 15–42.CrossRef
Thompson, C. J., Locander, W. B., & Pollio, H. R. (1989). Putting consumer experience back into consumer research: The philosophy and method of existential-phenomenology. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(2), 133–146.CrossRef
Urbany, J. E., Dickson, P. R., & Wilkie, W. L. (1989). Buyer uncertainty and information search. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(2), 208–215.CrossRef
Van Dijk, E., & Zeelenberg, M. (2007). When curiosity killed regret: Avoiding or seeking the unknown in decision-making under uncertainty. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 656–662.CrossRef
Verplanken, B., Hazenberg, P. T., & Palenewen, G. R. (1992). Need for cognition and external information search effort. Journal of Research in Personality, 26(2), 128–136.CrossRef
Voss, K. E., Spangenberg, E. R., & Grohmann, B. (2003). Measuring the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions of consumer attitude. Journal of marketing research, 40(3), 310-320.
Webster, D. M., & Kruglanski, A. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(6), 1049–1062.CrossRef
Westbrook, R. A., & Oliver, R. L. (1981). Developing better measures of consumer satisfaction: some preliminary results. ACR North American Advances, 94-99.
Wood, J. V., Heimpel, S. A., & Michela, J. L. (2003). Savoring versus dampening: self-esteem differences in regulating positive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 566-580.
Wood, S. L., & Swait, J. (2002). Psychological indicators of innovation adoption: Cross-classification based on need for cognition and need for change. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12(1), 1-13.
Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1994). The personal involvement inventory: Reduction, revision, and application to advertising. Journal of Advertising, 23(4), 59-70.
Zeelenberg, M., Van Dijk, W. W., Van der Pligt, J., Manstead, A. S., Van Empelen, P., & Reinderman, D. (1998). Emotional reactions to the outcomes of decisions: The role of counterfactual thought in the experience of regret and disappointment. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 75(2), 117–141.CrossRef
Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1996). The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 60(2), 31–46.CrossRef
Metadata
Title
Information search behavior at the post-purchase stage of the customer journey
Authors
Cristiane Pizzutti
Renata Gonçalves
Maura Ferreira
Publication date
28-05-2022
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science / Issue 5/2022
Print ISSN: 0092-0703
Electronic ISSN: 1552-7824
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-022-00864-9

Other articles of this Issue 5/2022

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 5/2022 Go to the issue

Original Empirical Research

A model of online shopping cart abandonment: evidence from e-tail clickstream data

Original Empirical Research

The effect of incentive structure on referral: the determining role of self-construal

Original Empirical Research

Economic policy uncertainty and shareholder wealth: the role of marketing, operations, and R&D capabilities

Original Empirical Research

Possessive brand names in brand preferences and choice: the role of inferred control

Original Empirical Research

Not the relationship type? Loyalty propensity as a reason to maintain marketing relationships

Original Empirical Research

Consumer preference for pay-per-use service tariffs: the roles of mental accounting