Determinants of the Consumer's Search for Information -Focusing on durables Goods Purchases by American Consumers-

소비자 정보탐색의 결정요인-미국소비자들의 내구재구매행동을 중심으로-

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting the consumer's search for information and the relationship between the amount of search and the final price paid. The model indicates the demand for search is affected by the market price of each durable good purchased, the tim available for search, family income, direct cost of search, the initial stock of information, effectiveness of search, and shopping attitudes. The final price savings are a function of search, price of dispersion in the market, the initial stock of information, and effectiveness of search. Data from the Pane Study on Consumer Decisions and Asset Management were used for the empirical testing of the theoretical model. The amount of information search as dependent variable is represented by two different measures, the level of discussion with others and the number of stores visited. The amount of discussion with others depends mainly on the respondent's shopping attitude. The higher the wife's desire to search, the higher the degree of husband's comparison shopping, the less the husband's perception of price-quality relationship, the higher the level of discussions with others. The number of stores visited depends on the average market price of product purchased and the level of family income. The higher the average market price and he higher the level of family income, the greater the number of stores visited. The final savings depend upon the level of information search. The greater the number of store visited, but the less the purchase is discussed with stores, the higher the final savings are.