Controlling information flow in online information seeking: The moderating effects of utilitarian and hedonic consumers

• Information control assists consumer’s information seeking process.
• Information control works better for utilitarians than for hedonic consumers.
• Physical control and perceived control have the similar effects.

Information control has been deemed one of the most prominent features of the Internet for online consumers searching product information. This study examined how information control affects the online information seeking processes of consumers and how the effects are moderated by shopping purposes (utilitarian vs. hedonic). This study recruited 292 respondents to participate in our experiment. The empirical results reveal that information control significantly increases consumer involvement in information seeking, enhances attitudes toward products, and elevates the degree of satisfaction toward commercial websites. Furthermore, the effects of information control on consumer involvement and product attitudes are moderated by their shopping purposes. The results support most of the proposed hypotheses, suggesting that information control works more effectively for utilitarian consumers than for hedonic consumers. The findings of this study offer online practitioners useful recommendations regarding personalization strategies of website design.