Abstract

This study examines the effect of some potential influencers on consumers' preference for interpersonal information search. A model offering individual and situational predictors of consumer preference was tested using structural equation modeling. The individual variables included people's susceptibility to social influence, their need for cognition, and their self-confidence. The situational variables included respondents' product knowledge, and their perceived risk. A self-administered survey was distributed in English and French to a sample of respondents in the greater Montreal area. All three individual variables influenced significantly consumers' preference for interpersonal information search. As for the situational variables, only product knowledge had a significant effect on the dependent variable. The moderating effect of culture was also tested and yielded non-significant results suggesting that consumers' collectivistic orientation does not moderate the impact of the predictor variables on the dependent variable. The results also suggested that women have a higher preference for interpersonal sources than men and that income is negatively related to consumer preference for interpersonal information search.