Title
Marketspace or Marketplace? Online Information Search and Channel Outcomes in Auto Retailing
Abstract
The growth of the Internet has spawned an increasing number of online information sources (OISs). The effect of OISs on consumer information search processes has been particularly striking in sectors such as auto retailing, where the typical consumer has conventionally been confronted with an unpleasant and inefficient purchase process. However, the relationships between the information found in the online “marketspace,” consumer search in the offline “marketplace,” and other aspects of the multichannel shopping process are not well understood. This study examines the differential impact of price and product information found in the marketspace, relating consumers' information needs and information retrieval from OISs to three shopping-related outcomes---purchase based on online infomediary referral (i.e., referred purchase), intensity of search in the marketplace, and online search satisfaction. We draw on a large data set of more than 16,000 new vehicle purchasers who reported using the Web for search related to their new vehicle purchase. We find that OISs offer different levels of price and product information and consumers are differentiated in their ability to retrieve this information. Further, the retrieval of price versus product information online has important implications for whether consumers consummate their online search through referred purchase or extend their search into the physical marketplace. Our results suggest different business models for infomediaries providing price and product information and underscore the need for designing information provisioning systems of OISs to facilitate transition between the marketspace and the marketplace.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1287/isre.1070.0146
Information Systems Research
Keywords
Field
DocType
online infomediary referral,online information source,channel outcomes,online information search,consumer information search process,online search satisfaction,information retrieval,product information,information need,online search,auto retailing,consumer search,product information online,value chain
Economics,Information needs,Advertising,Communication channel,Provisioning,Business model,Marketing,The Internet,Online search
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
19
2
1047-7047
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
13
1.06
13
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jason Kuruzovich1475.23
Siva Viswanathan232729.10
Ritu Agarwal35700318.22
Sanjay Gosain4131.06
Scott Weitzman5131.06