An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article

An empirical examination of the involvement to external search relationship in services marketing

Janet R. McColl-Kennedy Richard E. Fetter, Jr
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Associate Professor, College of Business, Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Keywords Service industries, Services marketing, Consumer behaviour, Involvement Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of involvement on consumers' external search activities across several service settings. Two of the services were credence services (life insurance and furnace overhaul) and two services were experiential services (exercise club and Caribbean vacation). Involvement was measured with a two-dimensional nine-item scale, the dimensions being importance and involvement. External search was assessed using a seven-item two-dimensional scale, source and effort in search. Self-administered surveys were completed by 331 residents of a major Midwestern US city. The results indicate that, across all four services, involvement does indeed influence consumers' propensity to search externally. Finally, the implications of the findings for marketing managers are discussed.

The importance of consumers' external search activities

Introduction Academic researchers and management practitioners acknowledge the importance of consumers' external search activities in the consumer decision 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).
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Overlooked aspect of the marketing literature

Therefore, the current study was undertaken to address this overlooked 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 pleasure and affect

``Importance'' is the perceived importance (its personal meaning) of the 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 multidimensional (Brisoux and Cheron, 1990), she concluded the scale should be treated as unidimensional.
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Revised personal involvement inventory

McQuarrie and Munson (1992) developed a ten-item scale, which they termed RPII, revised personal involvement inventory based on the original Zaichkowsky PII. The RPII loaded on two factors and had adequately high measures of internal consistency (McQuarrie and Munson, 1992). While the RPII extended Zaichkowsky's (1985) work on the involvement construct, it (i.e. RPII), too, was limited given that McQuarrie and Munson's (1992) tenitem RPII scale was validated solely with products, not services. McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995) in an effort to rectify the limitation, empirically assessed the construct validity of the RPII across a variety of services. Employing an empirical procedure recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981) using the confirmatory factor analysis model to assess the RPII's construct validity, McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995) reported that the RPII is indeed two dimensional, with the factors clearly identifying two aspects of involvement, importance and interest. Thus, there is evidence that a refinement of Zaichkowsky's original PII scale is appropriate to assess a consumer's involvement across both product and service settings. 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 other than one's memory

External search defined. As earlier noted, external search is generally 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;
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Bloch et al., 1986; Brucks, 1985). Second, search was generally measured as prepurchase search activities, not ongoing search (Bloch et al., 1986). Finally, while external search is an often-measured variable in empirical studies, little effort has been directed to date at validating an external search scale. Indeed, only a few studies reported both a scale's psychometric properties and factor structure (Beatty and Smith, 1987; Bloch et al., 1986; Kiel and Layton, 1981; McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1997; McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1999; Urbany et al., 1989), while quite a number of studies measured search with single-item measures (Newman and Lockeman, 1975). McColl-Kennedy and Fetter (1999) appears to be the first study to comprehensively assess the psychometric properties of external search for services. They administered the seven-item scale and extracted a two-factor solution across each of the services included in their study. Based on inspection of individual items' factor loadings, they identified the underlying common factors of search as source and effort. Credence versus experiential services Typology of service activities and selection of services Credence versus experiential services. Recall that the involvement-toexternal search link has been attributed to both perceived risk (Engel et al., 1978; Howard and Sheth, 1969) and pleasure/entertainment (Bloch et al., 1986). Moreover, others (Brown et al., 1994; Zeithaml et al., 1985) have suggested that research in services marketing should encompass multiple settings and/or industries. Therefore, this study used two ``credence services'' (life insurance and furnace overhaul) and two ``experiential services'' (exercise club and vacation in Caribbean). Employing services which cross over the credence vs experiential typology should test the generalizability of the multiple-item scale developed and tested in the current study. An experiential service is defined as a service which can be evaluated after some purchase consumption (Ostrom and Iacobucci, 1995), largely by ``experiencing'' the service itself, e.g., a haircut or dinner at a restaurant. Consumers have confidence in their ability to judge the adequacy of an experiential service encounter. A credence service is defined as a service which is difficult to evaluate even after some trial has occurred (Zeithaml, 1981). For example (borrowing from Iacobucci, 1992), many professional service encounters are considered credence services, because even after obtaining the service, consumers are uncertain as to its goodness-or-badness (e.g. tax and legal advice). Not surprisingly, therefore, credence services are considered more risky than experiential services (Iacobucci, 1992), because of consumers' inabilities to evaluate the service occasions. Services selected for the current study. A pool of already-used services from prior research was generated based on a review of the literature. The items were then categorized as either credence or experiential based on prior classification from the literature, and review by a panel of experts. Any items for which there was uncertainty or disagreement were discarded. The remaining pool of services was then screened based on the likelihood that respondents would have at least some familiarity with the service, even if they had not procured/experienced the service. Based on this method of service selection, the credence services selected for the current study were life insurance and furnace overhaul. The experiential services selected for the current study were exercise club and vacation in the Caribbean. Hypotheses The purpose of our study was to empirically assess whether the previouslydiscussed dimensions of involvement, i.e. importance and interest, influence one's propensity to search via both source and effort in service encounters.
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Credence experiential categorization

More specifically, we are interested in whether there is a positive relationship between involvement and external search. While there is considerable theoretical support (Bloch et al., 1986; Engel et al., 1978; Howard and Sheth, 1969) based on the view that search is a means to reduce perceived risk or search as a source of pleasure/enjoyment, empirical evidence is mixed (Bloch et al., 1986). Indeed, Newman and Staelin (1971) suggest many purchases, even risky and highly involving decisions, are often made in a state of ignorance with little or no search on the part of the consumer. Among the plausible explanations for the equivocal results on the relationship between involvement and search are:
. .

search may be costly (Punj and Staelin, 1983); and consumers may be able to adequately search internally, i.e. retrieve information from memory, rather than rely on external sources (Claxton et al., 1974; Punj and Staelin, 1983), and prior satisfaction/positive experience (Bennett and Mandell, 1969).

A comparison of the demographic characteristics

Method Sample and procedures A convenience sample of 331 residents from a major midwestern city served as the sample for the study. A comparison of the demographic 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.

Revised personal involvement inventory

Measures The involvement items used in our study were obtained from Zaichkowsky (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;

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(4) matters/doesn't matter; and (5) of concern/of no concern. Interest, the second aspect of involvement identified by McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995) was measured with a four-item scale semantic differential scale: (1) dull/neat; (2) boring/interesting; (3) exciting/unexciting; and (4) appealing/unappealing. Construct validity Although a full discussion of the procedures employed by McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995) to assess the construct validity of their measures of importance and interest is beyond the scope of this paper, suffice it to say they used an empirical procedure recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981) in which the confirmatory factor analysis model is used to assess multi-item scales' convergent and discriminant validity. External search was measured with McColl-Kennedy and Fetter's (1999) seven-item scale as they were able to provide considerable empirical evidence as to the scale's construct validity across several services. Source of search was measured with three items: (1) interested in reading information; (2) interested in reading Consumer Reports; and (3) have compared service characteristics. Search effort was measured with four items: (1) usually talk with other people; (2) usually seek advice from other people; (3) usually take many factors into account; and (4) usually spend a lot of time. Factor structures and internal consistencies Analytical procedures There were two components to the data analysis. First, we examined the 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, interfactor 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 crossloadings (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
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88

Item Important/unimportant Irrelevant/relevant Means a lot/means nothing Matters/doesn't matter Of no concern Dull/neat Boring/interesting Unexciting/exciting Appealing/unappealing
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Life insurance Importance Interest 0.86 0.57 0.86 0.91 0.77

Furnace overhaul Importance Interest 0.82 0.83 0.62 0.76 0.85

Exercise club Importance Interest 0.89 0.67 0.85 0.77 0.80 0.78

Vacation in Caribbean Importance Interest 0.91 0.90 0.90 0.86

0.86 0.85 0.65 0.73 74 0.34 2.58 0.81

0.74 0.85 0.51 0.81 70 0.22 2.30 0.73

0.89 0.90 0.67 0.84 84 0.51 3.18 0.81

0.85 0.90 0.85 0.89 89 0.31 3.19 0.90

Eigenvalue Percent of variance (two-factors) Inter-factor correlation Cronbach Alpha

3.34 0.87

3.25 0.85

3.51 0.87

3.92 0.93

Table I. Summary of exploratory factor analyses on nine-item involvement scale

scales' measure of internal consistency was also good, with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.73 to 0.90, well above Nunnally's (1978) recommended level of 0.70. The inter-factor correlations, as expected, were also rather low, ranging from 0.10 to 0.50. Given the low inter-factor correlations reported in Table I, multicollinearity is likely not to be a matter to which we need to attend when interpreting regression results. Strong factor loadings Factor analysis and psychometric properties of external search Tables II and III report the factor structures, percent-of-variance accounted, inter-factor correlations, and Cronbach alpha for each of the services employed in the current study. Table II provides the results for the credence services, life insurance and furnace overhaul, while Table III provides the results for the experiential services, exercise club and vacation in the Caribbean. The results reported in Table II are generally supportive of the notion that search was measured as a two-factor variable, source and effort. Most of the items had strong factor loadings on their intended factors, with very small cross-loadings. Inter-correlations amongst the factors were generally quite small, with correlations ranging from 0.19 to 0.32. In most cases, the unidimensional scales satisfied Nunnally's (1978) prescribed minimum of 0.70 for measures of internal consistency for scales under development. Regression analysis of involvement-to-search Given that these results suggest that the scales used in our study adequately represent the intended underlying constructs, we proceeded to conduct a series of multiple regression analyses to assess the structural relationships between involvement and external search across the services used in our study. The procedure used for this portion of the analysis involved inspection of:
.

Multiple regression analyses

the p-value which indicated whether or not the regression model explained a significant portion of the variance in our dependent variable; p-values to assess whether individual parameter estimates were significantly different from zero;
Life insurance Furnace overhaul Source Effort Source Effort 0.84 0.79 0.54 0.63 0.48 0.86 0.80 3.10 0.70 55 0.19 1.32 0.71 3.27 0.65 60 0.21 0.87 0.66 0.60 0.65 0.47 0.71 0.82 0.85 1.51 0.76

Item I would be interested in reading information about how this service is performed I would be interested in reading a Consumer Report's article about this service I have compared service characteristics among firms that provide this service I usually talk about this service with other people I usually seek advice from other people prior to purchasing this service I usually take many factors into account before purchasing this service I usually spend a lot of time choosing what kind to buy Eigenvalue Percent of variance (two-factors) Inter-factor correlation Cronbach Alpha

Table II. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for credence service encounters
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Item I would be interested in reading information about how this service is performed I would be interested in reading a Consumer Report's article about this service I have compared service characteristics among firms that provide this service I usually talk about this service with other people I usually seek advice from other people prior to purchasing this service I usually take many factors into account before purchasing this service I usually spend a lot of time choosing what kind to buy Eigenvalue Percent of variance (two-factors) Inter-factor correlation Cronbach Alpha

Exercise club Caribbean vacation Source Effort Source Effort 0.74 0.89 0.60 0.81 0.80 0.83 0.84 4.22 0.80 77 0.32 1.98 0.89 3.52 0.75 59 0.21 0.82 0.87 0.66 0.79 0.82 0.84 0.72 1.20 0.84

Table III. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for experiential service encounters
.

standardized regression coefficients to assess the relative impact of importance and interest on each dimension of search; and the amount of variance explained by the regression model for each of our dependent variables.

In addition to the aforementioned procedures, we also assessed whether the regression results were invariant across all four service settings. The results of the regression analyses are reported in Table IV. Inspection of Table IV suggests a number of interesting findings. First, it appears that involvement does indeed significantly influence external search across both experiential and credence services. In fact, six of the eight regression models
Credence services Experiential services Life Furnace Exercise Vacation in insurance overhaul club Caribbean Dependent variable: search source Intercept Independent variable Importance Interest Adjusted R2 Dependent variable: search effort Intercept Independent variable Importance Interest Adjusted R2 Notes:
a

4.27 0.09 0.12 0.03 4.73 0.24a 0.34a 0.34a

5.78 0.34a 0.31a 0.24a 5.50 0.34a 0.05 0.08b

5.74 0.36a 0.11 0.16a 5.99 0.47a 0.13 0.32a

5.66 0.29a 0.30a 0.29a 5.81 0.08 0.30a 0.19a

significant at 0.01 level;

significant at 0.05 level

Table IV. The effect of involvement on external search

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reported in Table IV had small p-values (i.e. observed p-value less than 0.05), suggesting the regression models were helpful in explaining at least some of the variance in our dependent measures of external search. However, further inspection of Table IV suggests quite a number of differences across the various regression models. For example, the variance explained by the regression models ranged from 3 percent (source of search for life insurance) to 34 percent (search effort for life insurance). In the remainder of this section, each regression model will be briefly discussed. A more general discussion of the study's findings will then be presented in the discussion section of the paper. Contemplating the purchase of life insurance Search source for life insurance. Neither importance, nor interest had significant effects on search source for life insurance. The adjusted Rsquared was only 0.03. Thus, the evidence reported in this study suggests that one's level of involvement is not related to external source of search when contemplating the purchase of life insurance. That is, whether or not one considers life insurance important to oneself or the degree to which one is interested in life insurance does not influence the degree to which one seeks external sources of information for life insurance. Search effort for life insurance. Both importance and interest had rather strong effects on one's tendency to put effort into seeking information about life insurance. The effect of interest on effort was somewhat stronger than the effect of importance on effort (std beta coefficients 0.34 and 0.24 respectively). Combining importance and interest explained a hefty 34 percent of the variance in effort with search activities for life insurance. Thus, the findings reported in this regression model suggest that the more involved in life insurance a person becomes, the more likely he/she is to put effort into search. Involvement Search source for furnace overhaul. Inspection of the regression model in Table IV of the effects of involvement on source indicate that the more involved a person is, the more likely he/she is to obtain information from various sources. Indeed, the regression model explained over 30 percent of the variance in external source of search for furnace overhaul. Moreover, both aspects of involvement and importance, had quite large effects on source of search for furnace overhaul (standardized betas weights 0.34 and 0.31, respectively). Search effort for furnace overhaul. Although the overall regression model helps predict the dependent variable, the adjusted R-squared value was only 0.08. Thus, while better than no regression model at all, involvement is not particularly helpful in explaining one's propensity to put effort into external search for furnace overhaul information. Moreover, only importance had a significant effect on the dependent variable (std beta 0.34). Search source for exercise club. The effect of involvement on external source of search is significant, but only the importance aspect of involvement affects one's propensity to search for external sources for information when it comes to exercise clubs. However, the effect of importance on external sources for information on exercise clubs is quite strong (std beta = 0.36). Search effort for exercise club. The effects of involvement on search effort for exercise club information was fairly similar to the effect of involvement on external sources of search for exercise club information. That is, importance had quite a strong, positive effect on one's propensity to put effort into searching for external information (std beta = 0.47), but interest did not have an effect on effort put into search. Given the large standardized
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coefficient, it was not surprising the adjusted R-squared (32 percent) was also rather sizeable. Search source for vacation in Caribbean. Involvement had quite a large impact on one's tendency to search for external information regarding a Caribbean vacation. Indeed, both importance and interest had very strong positive standardized beta coefficients (0.29 and 0.30 respectively), and the adjusted R-squared (29 percent) further supported the notion that involvement is strongly related to external sources of search activities in this context. Search effort for vacation in Caribbean. Only one aspect of involvement, interest, was related to effort put into obtaining external information pertaining to a Caribbean vacation. The effect of interest on effort put into this external search in this context, however, was quite strong. The standardized beta coefficient for interest was 0.30, and the adjusted R-square was a moderate 19 percent. Discussion Purpose of the study and summary of the findings 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. Based on the empirical results reported in this study, it appears that 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
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Effects on external search

Complex structural relationship

92

degree to which they searched (both in terms of source and effort). Understanding the effect of involvement on consumers' search for credence service was somewhat more ambiguous. In the case of life insurance, involvement had no effect at all on consumers' sources of external search activities, but involvement was quite important when influencing consumers' propensity to put effort into the search activities for a furnace overhaul. Initial insight Contributions and limitations of the study Although external search has received considerable attention in the product marketing literature to date, external search has received only scant attention in services contexts. Clearly, this study provides some initial insight as to what motivates people to engage in external search activities for services, both experiential and credence services. Quite simply, in the settings employed in this study, the more important and interesting a service is perceived as being the more likely one is to engage in external search, both in terms of source and effort. Moreover, this study corroborates the findings reported by Murray (1991) who reported a positive link between perceived risk and consumers' search activities in services contexts. Given that consumers are likely to perceive credence services as risky occasions (Zeithaml, 1981), it appears consumers may actually become more involved in the situation and seek additional information to deal with potentially risky situations. Although this study certainly adds to our understanding of the involvementto-search relationship in services marketing, the study has a number of limitations. First, while causal conclusions were drawn about the involvement-to-external search relationship, it should be noted that we used a cross-sectional descriptive study design in which perceptual data were obtained from single sources at a single point in time. Thus, there may be other factors which could account for the empirical relationships which we observed. Finally, the amount of variance explained across the eight regression models reported in this study suggest that we should consider other variables. While an adjusted R-squared of 30-35 percent is encouraging, it suggests that the regression model still leaves 70 percent of the variance in our dependent variables unexplained. Need for additional research Research implications This initial investigation of the effects of involvement on external search in 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,
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satisfaction with the service encounter, and service loyalty. Moreover, there may be important variables which mediate and/or moderate the causes and consequences of search, matters which were simply beyond the scope of the current study. Understanding consumers' behaviors in service settings Finally, given that we have demonstrated that consumers can be induced to engage in external search suggests that, over time, people may be able to build a knowledge base of service-related information. Thus, future research which investigates the causes and consequences of internal search (i.e. retrieving service-related information from memory, rather than from some external source) should prove fruitful in better understanding consumers' behaviors in service settings. 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.
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Bennett, P.D. and Mandell, R.M. (1969), ``Prepurchase information seeking behavior of new car purchases: the learning hypothesis'', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 6, November, pp. 430-3. Bloch, P.H., Sherrell, D.L. and Ridgway, N.M. (1986), ``Consumer search: an extended framework'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 13, June, pp. 119-28. Brisoux, J.E. and Cheron, E.J. (1990), ``Brand categorization and product involvement'', Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 17, pp. 101-9. Brown, S.W., Fisk, R.P. and Bitner, M.J. (1994), ``The development and emergence of services marketing thought'', International Journal of Services Industry Management, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 21-48. Brucks, M. (1985), ``The effects of product class knowledge on information search behavior'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 12, June, pp. 1-16. Churchill, G.A. (1979), ``A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs'', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 16, pp. 64-73. Claxton, J.O., Fry, J.N. and Portis, B. (1974), ``A taxonomy of prepurchase information gathering patterns'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 1, December, pp. 35-42. Dawes, P.L., Dowling, G.R. and Patterson, P.G. (1991), ``Information sources used to select different types of management consultancy services'', Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Vol. 8 No. 2, October, pp. 185-99. Engel, J.F., Kollat, D.T. and Blackwell, R.D. (1978), Consumer Behavior, Dryden Press, New York, NY. Fornell, C. and Larcker, D.F. (1981), ``Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error'', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 18, February, pp. 39-50. Houston, M.J. and Rothschild, M.L. (1978), ``Conceptual and methodological perspectives on involvement'', in Jain, S.C. (Ed.), Proceedings, 1978 American Marketing Educators Conference, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 184-7. Howard, J.A. and Sheth, J.N. (1969), The Theory of Buyer Behavior, John Wiley, New York, NY. Iacobucci, D. (1992), ``An empirical examination of some basic tenets in services'', Advances in Services Marketing and Management, Vol. 1, pp. 23-52. Kiel, G.C. and Layton, R.A. (1981), ``Dimensions of consumer search information seeking'', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 18, May, pp. 233-9. Laurent, G. and Kapferer, J. (1985), ``Measuring consumer involvement profiles'', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 22, February, pp. 349-56. McColl-Kennedy, J.R. and Fetter, R.E. (1997), ``A psychometric investigation of the construct validity of external search for services'', Proceedings, Academy of Marketing Science, Norfolk, VA. McColl-Kennedy, J.R. and Fetter, R.E. (1999), ``Dimensions of consumer search behavior in services'', Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 242-63. McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Fetter, R.E. and Dahringer, (1995), ``Revised personal involvement inventory for services'', Proceedings, World Marketing Congress, Melbourne. McQuarrie, E.F. and Munson, J.M. (1992), ``A revised product involvement inventory: improved useability and validity'', Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 19, pp. 108-15. Moore, W.L. and Lehmann, D.R. (1980), ``Individual differences in search behavior for a nondurable'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 7, December, pp. 296-307. Murray, K.B. (1991), ``A test of services marketing theory: consumer information acquisition activities'', Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55, January, pp. 10-25. Newman, J.W. (1977), ``Consumer external search: amount and determinants'', in Woodside, A., Sheth, J. and Bennett, P. (Eds), Consumer and Industrial Buying Behavior, NorthHolland, New York, NY. Newman, J.W. and Lockeman, B.D. (1975), ``Measuring prepurchase information seeking'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 2, December, pp. 216-22. Newman, J.W. and Staelin, R. (1971), ``Prepurchase information seeking for new cars and major household appliances'', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 9, August, pp. 249-57. Nunnally, J. (1978), Psychometric Theory, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Olshavsky, R.W. and Wymer, W. (1995), ``The desire for new information from external sources'', Proceedings of the Society for Consumer Psychology, pp. 17-27.
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Ostrom, A. and Iacobucci, D. (1995), ``Consumer trade-offs and the evaluation of services'', Journal of Marketing, Vol. 59, January, pp. 17-28. Perdue, R.R. (1993), ``External information search in marine recreational fishing'', Leisure Sciences, Vol. 15, pp. 169-87. Punj, G.N. and Staelin, R. (1983), ``A model of consumer information search behavior for new automobiles'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9, March, pp. 366-80. Richins, M.L. and Bloch, P.H. (1986), ``After the new wears off: the temporal context of product involvement'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 13, September, pp. 280-5. Rothschild, M. (1984), ``Perspectives on involvement: current problems and future directions'', in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 11, Kinnear, T.C. (Ed.), Association for Consumer Research, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA, pp. 216-17. Urbany, J.E., Dickson, P.R. and Wilkie, W.L. (1989), ``Buyer uncertainty and information search'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 16, September, pp. 208-15. Zaichkowsky, J.L. (1985), ``Measuring the involvement construct'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 12, pp. 341-52. Zeithaml, V. (1981), ``How consumer evaluation processes differ between goods and services'', in Donnelly, J.H. and George, W.R. (Eds), Marketing of Services, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 33-46. Zeithaml, V.A., Parasuraman, A. and Berry, L.L. (1985), ``Problems and strategies in services marketing'', Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, pp. 33-46.

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This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives a rapid appreciation of the content of this article. Those with a particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the research undertaken and its results to get the full benefit of the material present

Executive summary and implications for managers and executives

Customers reduce uncertainty and perceived risk through search ``Search'' is the means by which customers reduce uncertainty and perceived risk when buying a product or service. Customers generally view buying services as riskier than buying products. This may help to explain why customers tend to search more extensively for services than for products. Internal search involves the customer retrieving previously acquired information from memory. External search entails acquiring information from such outside sources as advertisements, point-of-purchase displays, salespeople or personal acquaintances. External searches increase the customer's knowledge of the product or service, and can also raise the amount of satisfaction he or she gets after buying the product or service. The underlying common factors of search are source and effort. ``Involvement'' is affected by the importance, or personal meaning, of the product or service to the customer, and his or her interest in it. Experiential and credence services McColl-Kennedy and Fetter investigate the effect of involvement on customers' external search activities in four service settings. With two of the services exercise club and Caribbean holiday customers know how they feel about the service they receive simply by experiencing it. These are ``experiential'' services. With the other two life insurance and furnace (central heating boiler) overhaul merely acquiring the service is not enough for customers to ascertain how adequate it is. These are ``credence'' services, and are generally considered riskier than experiential services. The survey results Self-administered surveys were completed by 331 residents of a major midwestern US city. The results indicate that, across all four services, involvement influences the likelihood that customer will search externally. Customers engaged in experiential services 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 to be important. This was strongly related to the degree to which they searched, both in terms of source and effort. Understanding the effect of involvement on customers' search for credence service was more ambiguous. In the case of life insurance, involvement had no effect on consumers' sources of external search activities, but involvement was quite important when influencing the likelihood that customers would put effort into the search activities for a furnace overhaul. The more important and interesting a service is perceived as being, the more likely the customer is to engage in external search, both in terms of source and effort. The study also supports the view that there is a positive link between perceived risk and consumers' search activities in service contexts. Given that customers are likely to perceive credence services as risky, it appears that consumers may actually become more involved in the situation and seek additional information to deal with potentially risky situations. When customers should be encouraged to seek more information Customers therefore vary in what motivates them to search for additional external information. Managers can encourage customers to increase or decrease their level of external search, based on perceived levels of

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importance and interest. Generally, the study suggests that marketing managers may succeed in emphasizing the importance of their service by motivating customers to seek additional information, and that marketing managers need not be too concerned about potential service customers becoming so overwhelmed with a sense of risk that they simply quit processing and seeking additional information. When customers should be discouraged from seeking more information However, suppliers may not want their communications with current customers to emphasize too heavily the importance of the service. This may induce the customers to search for more information, and then to compare the service with others they have identified only through their external search. (A pre cis of the article ``An empirical examination of the involvement to external search relationship in services marketing''. Supplied by Marketing Consultants for MCB University Press.)

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