Limitations and Future Research

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Limitations associated with this study should be noted. First, the data utilized to test the relationships was not collected specifically for this study. Proxy measures were identified from an existing data set in order to measure the constructs of interest. Furthermore, when dealing with issues relative to e-commerce, changes in end user attitudes and behaviors as well as the failure of many new start-up firms can occur overnight. Therefore, the data (dated from the summer of 2000) could be considered old. However, the findings hold strong external validity given the focus of our model on information search behavior in the decision-making process as well as the plethora of health related information sites that are online.

Future studies should be undertaken which again look at what people are doing (especially those that use chat rooms), how these individuals discuss health information obtained via the Internet with their physicians (including treatment options, etc.), and how this information might influence health care decision making. Future studies should also test the proposed general model relative to other information search applications evaluating other contextually unique situations to operationalize the model constructs. Additionally, future studies should consider the provider side to see how patient use of the Internet is affecting their practice. Finally, consideration should be given to the role of web atmospherics (Bental & Cawsey, 2002) in facilitating patient knowledge retention and ease in obtaining health information.

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