How much is too much? The impact of technology-facilitated information search effort on service experience

Abstract

ABSTRACT GuIded by equity theory, expectation-confirmation paradigm and savoring literature, this research investigates how pre-experience information search effort influences consumers’ actual experience. The research finds that consumers expending a high (vs. low) amount of information search effort prior to the experience show lower post-experience evaluations, and this effect is particularly salient when the consumption experience does not conform to consumers’ expectation. A serial-mediation analysis further reveals that this effect is mediated by experience serendipity and subsequent enjoyment. This research bears implications as to how the changing information search practices facilitated by the emerging mobile technology may impact consumers’ actual experiences.