An exploratory investigation of consumers' evaluations of external information sources in prepurchase search

Limited by opportunity, ability, and motivation, consumers who want to conduct prepurchase external information search to help make a product decision must first choose among types of information sources. An adaptive decision-making perspective using a cost-benefit framework is applied to explain the process of deciding which information sources to consult. An exploratory study using depth interviews, focus groups, and a preliminary written survey investigates the attributes or choice criteria consumers use to evaluate types of external information sources in making a source decision, the enduring images consumers possess about specific types of information sources, and how the application of these evaluative criteria differs under situational contingencies.