Impact of Information Technology on Information Search Channel Selection for Consumers

Abstract

As information technology has evolved, digital media has become increasingly fragmented and has started to proliferate multiple information channels. In order to optimize on the various digital channels that are available, organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of gaining solid insights into consumer behavior and preferences that can be translated into marketing strategies. Specifically, they are keen to identify which information channels they can use to effectively reach and communicate with their target market. In this regard, this paper describes how multi criteria decision making can be used to develop a new method of decision making that will enable an effective and systematic decision process of fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS. Further, these techniques can be used for the developing framework for identifying consumer preferences. This paper provides a demonstration of the underpinning working methodology of the proposed model by examining an real case that is based on the decision process Internet users employ during their online search for information.