Consumer Behavior

Social Media Information Search Behavior in Consumption Decisions: Consumer Segmentation and Discriminant Factors

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Abstract

Given the ever-increasing importance of social media in today’s consumption decisions, this study identified consumer segments with distinctive social media information search behavior (SMISB) across four information search stages (ISSs) throughout the consumption decision-making process and profiled the segments’ demographic and psychographic characteristics using data from an online survey with 501U.S. consumers. We found that consumers’ SMISB was most intensively done in ISS1(the non-purposeful ISS prior to purchase need recognitions) with decreasing trends as they progressed through more purposeful search stages for alternative evaluation (ISS2), purchase decisions (ISS3), and post-purchase evaluation(ISS4). Further, hierarchical cluster analysis results revealed four consumer segments, Maximizers, Diggers, Slackers, and the Disinterested, with varying SMISB intensity levels across the four ISSs, and demonstrated their differences in age, gender, innovativeness, and impulse buying tendencies. Academic and managerial implications are discussed.

Keywords: Consumer segmentation, Information search, Social media

How to Cite:

Chang, J. & Kwon, W., (2020) “Social Media Information Search Behavior in Consumption Decisions: Consumer Segmentation and Discriminant Factors”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 77(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.11978