Enduring Involvement

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Another variable found to affect consumer information search is that of enduring involvement. Krugman (1965) proposed the concept of involvement to characterize differences in the intensity of interest with which consumers approach their dealings with the marketplace (Lawson, Tidwell, Rainbird, Loudon, and Della Bitta, 1996). However, its dimensionality and measurement has been contentious (e.g., Laurent and Kapferer, 1985; Mittal, 1989, 1995; Zaichkowsky, 1985).

Involvement is characterized as having three elements (Lawson et al., 1996). Involvement: (1) relates to the consumers' values and self-concept, (2) varies between individuals and situations, and (3) relates to some form of arousal. However, one type of involvement that is well accepted is that of Enduring Involvement (Bloch, 1981). Enduring involvement is characterized as an ongoing interest in a particular product or product class that goes beyond the involvement felt during a purchase occasion. Thus, particular goods and services (McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1999) may hold a specific personal relevance for an individual. As a concept, enduring involvement implies the acquisition and retention of information. Bloch and Bruce (1984) extended the concept of enduring involvement by suggesting that the acquisition of information relating to the product or product class could be regarded as a form of leisure behavior. Thus, consumers who possess an enduring involvement with a particular topic may search for information more diligently than they otherwise would on other topics. By contrast, in other cases, enduringly involved consumers may need to search very little because of their extensive body of relevant knowledge (Brucks, 1985). In relation to product knowledge, the work of Houston and Rothschild (1978), and Bettman (1979) suggests that enduring involvement with a specific product class is a good indicator of a level of prior knowledge that could significantly affect information search behavior. Some models of external information search behavior have included enduring involvement directly, for example, Schmidt and Spreng (1996). Others have indirectly included the concept in their models via a 'prior knowledge' variable, for example Punj and Staelin, (1983) and Srinivasan and Ratchford, (1991). Given the potential effect of enduring involvement on information search behavior, it will be included in the proposed model of Web search behavior. It is suggested that the Slama and Taschian (1987) scale is appropriate to operationalize the enduring involvement variable.

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