What drives consumers' online information search behavior? Evidence from England

This paper examines the factors determining consumers' online information search behavior in the context of buying laptop and mobile phone. We measure, how search behavior is perceived in terms of total search, number of search and cognitive ability. Using survey data on 643 respondents from London and Birmingham we test several hypotheses. The result of both OLS and generalized estimating equation portray that search efforts are directly related with education and internet experience and inversely related with income and internet cost. Moreover, analysis of the proportion of online search to total search signifies the substitution of online for offline information sources. The obtained result provides an improved understanding of the determinants of search behavior and important implications for seller of laptop and mobile phone who are seeking to expand their online customer base.