Detrimants of Pre-Purchase Information Search Effort for Management Consulting Services

Abstract

The authors develop and test a model of external information search for professional business services. The model is based on the premise that the amount of external search carried out by an organization is primarily contingent upon the type of purchase situation. Other factors such as the structure of the buying center and the product class knowledge of the key information searcher are also examined. The findings show that the purchase situational variables as a group have the highest explanatory power. Moreover, the buying center structure variable of vertical involvement (number of management levels) was found to be an important explanatory variable. Implications for providers of business professional services in general, and management consultants in particular, are presented.