The Influence of Flow Experience on Online Consumers' Information Searching Behavior: An Empirical Study of Chinese College Students

Abstract

With the rapid development of the online shopping market in recent years, flow theory has become one of the main theories used to explore online consumers' shopping behaviors. Although flow experience may influence information searching behavior, little is known about this topic. This study explored the impacts of flow experience on online consumers' information searching behavior in festival shopping. The questionnaire survey was conducted in several universities in China. The data, collected from 154 college students, were analyzed quantitatively. As the three key components of flow experience, perceived pleasure has negative effect on information searching frequency, whereas concentration has positive effect on information searching frequency. Perceived control does not have a significant impact on information searching frequency. It also revealed consumers' information searching behavior positively affecting their purchase intentions in this special shopping context. We found that flow experience is an important psychological factor influencing online consumers' information searching behavior. The study enriches the emotional dimension of information behavior model and provides insight into the relationships between positive psychological variables with flow experience as the representation and information searching behavior in shopping context.