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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Relative Values And Complementarity Of Online And Offline Interactions In Consumer Buying Behaviour: A Proposed Research Plan To Study Purchasing Of A Consumer Service Product Bundle, Robert G. Grant
Robert Grant
Current research into online consumer behaviour seems to be limited in two respects, firstly it treats online interaction as a stand-alone phenomenon and secondly it focuses on discrete steps in consumer processes, neglecting links between the steps. This paper proposes a research method to investigate relative values and complementarity between online and offline interactions in a consumer's buying process, examining differences within and between steps. A range of information source types and functional resource options will be researched for both effectiveness and efficiency benefits as well as emotional preferences for both online and offline interactions. The research will focus on …
Process Flow Mapping Of Consumers In A High Involvement Service Purchase Process: An Exploratory Study, Robert G. Grant, Elias Kyriazis
Process Flow Mapping Of Consumers In A High Involvement Service Purchase Process: An Exploratory Study, Robert G. Grant, Elias Kyriazis
Robert Grant
This paper reports on an exploratory study undertaken to deal with the intricacy of consumer behaviour in a buying process for a complex high involvement service bundle spanning both offline and online channels. A key finding is that consumers switch repeatedly between online and offline channels and between different types of information source to satisfy their search needs. This offers a challenge for communications management if organisations wish to add customer value by minimising their customer time and effort search costs. Prior online channel research has not acknowledged off-line information complementarity for complex high involvement search. Travel agents and principal …