Research on website usage behavior through information search perspective: A comparison of experiential and goal-directed behaviors

Abstract

Along with the rapid growth of the Internet, online information search has become a prevalent Internet activity. However, little research has addressed the factors and website features that influence website information search behavior. Prior studies investigate factors that affect consumer preferences in online shopping websites. And, seldom distinguish between pre-purchase and post-purchase experiences and tend to focus on post-purchase assessment only. Therefore, this study aimed at the Internet users' searching behavior, and further probed into users' willingness of continuous websites use. But when purchasing tourism products, Information search is even more important than information search before buying manufactured goods. Tourism products and services are seldom routine purchases (Swarbrooke & Horner, 1999). Choices of tourism products usually involve considerable emotional significance and perceived and actual risk for the individual(Xie, Bao, & Morais, 2006). Based on the prior literatures (Lee, 2005; Lin & Chen, 2009) a model was proposed and empirically tested to gain a better understanding on Internet users' search behavior. The results showed that Internet user's willingness to revisit was mainly influenced by his/her involvement and satisfaction toward the website, and these two factors were affected by website information quality, website interactivity, and hedonic value. Also, the research model was moderated by goal-directed and experiential behavior. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.