Internal psychological versus external market-driven determinants of the amount of consumer information search amongst online shoppers

Household penetration of the Internet continues to rise alongside increases in retail websites. A significant body of literature now explores online consumer behaviour including information search. This study extends the existing understanding of information search into the online environment and focuses upon the factors that drive the amount of Online Consumer Information Search (OCIS). A theoretical model is presented and validated via an empirical investigation amongst experienced online shoppers. Findings of the study indicate that internal cognitive processing and motivational factors may have a greater impact upon the amount of online search than external market-driven factors such as cost of search.