Journal of Services Marketing

Emerald Article: An empirical examination of the involvement to external

search relationship in services marketing
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Richard E. Fetter, Jr

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To cite this document: Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Richard E. Fetter, Jr, (2001),"An empirical examination of the involvement to
external search relationship in services marketing", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 15 Iss: 2 pp. 82 - 98
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An executive summary for

managers and executive
readers can be found at the
end of this article

An empirical examination of the

involvement to external search
relationship in services
marketing
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy

Associate Professor, Graduate School of Management, University of

Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Richard E. Fetter, Jr

Associate Professor, College of Business, Butler University,

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Keywords Service industries, Services marketing, Consumer behaviour, Involvement
Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of involvement on
consumers' external search activities across several service settings. Two of the services
were credence services (life insurance and furnace overhaul) and two services were
experiential services (exercise club and Caribbean vacation). Involvement was measured
with a two-dimensional nine-item scale, the dimensions being importance and
involvement. External search was assessed using a seven-item two-dimensional scale,
source and effort in search. Self-administered surveys were completed by 331 residents of
a major Midwestern US city. The results indicate that, across all four services,
involvement does indeed influence consumers' propensity to search externally. Finally,
the implications of the findings for marketing managers are discussed.

The importance of
consumers' external search
activities

Introduction
Academic researchers and management practitioners acknowledge the
importance of consumers' external search activities in the consumer decision
making process (Engel et al., 1978; Howard and Sheth, 1969; Perdue, 1993),
because external search is a primary means of increasing knowledge,
reducing perceptions of risk and uncertainty, and increasing post-purchase
satisfaction. Moreover, the amount of external search in which a person
engages can influence the size of his/her consideration set and whether he/she
remains brand loyal or engages in brand switching (Newman, 1977). Thus,
there is a great incentive for marketing managers to understand what causes
consumers to seek external information when faced with a purchase decision.
Among the antecedents of external search which have been studied to date
are product class knowledge (Brucks, 1985), recreational and hedonistic
motives (Bloch et al., 1986), involvement (Houston and Rothschild, 1978),
and various situational factors such as price, time pressure, and store
distribution (Beatty and Smith, 1987). While prior research on the causes and
consequences of consumers' external search activities certainly provides a
substantial knowledge base, almost all of this prior research on external
search has been conducted in product contexts, rather than service contexts.
This is especially noteworthy, given the evidence that consumers generally
view procuring services as more risky than products and that, indeed,
consumers tend to search more extensively for services than for products
(Murray, 1991).
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JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001, pp. 82-98, # MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0887-6045

Overlooked aspect of the

marketing literature

Therefore, the current study was undertaken to address this overlooked

aspect of the marketing literature. Primarily, the objective of this paper is to
add to our limited understanding of what influences consumers to seek
external information when procuring services by empirically investigating
the effects of involvement on consumers' external search activities.
Moreover, for purposes of generalizability, this study tests the effect of
involvement-on-external search across several different types of services.
After a brief review of the literature for both involvement and external
search, the results of an empirical study are reported. Finally, a discussion of
the study's limitations, future research opportunities, and managerial
implications are provided.
Conceptual framework
Involvement
The construct of involvement has received considerable attention by
academic researchers (Engel et al., 1978; Rothschild, 1984; Brisoux and
Cheron, 1990) over the past two decades. During this time various types of
involvement have been described and attempts made at measurement. For
example, Beatty et al. (1988) define ego involvement as ``the importance of
the product to the individual and to the individual's self-concept and ego.''
This is similar to enduring involvement, which has been defined as ``an
ongoing concern for a product class, that is, it is independent of purchase
situations and is motivated by the degree to which the product relates to the
self and/or hedonic pleasure received from the product'' (Richins and Bloch,
1986). Whereas ego involvement and enduring involvement are
conceptualized as independent of a particular purchase occasion, purchase
involvement and situational involvement are defined as those occasions
where one is aroused and attentive because of some specific occasion, such
as a pending purchase (Beatty et al., 1988). Laurent and Kapferer (1985)
define involvement as a four-dimensional construct comprising:
(1) importance;
(2) risk;
(3) pleasure; and
(4) sign.

The ability to provide

pleasure and affect

``Importance'' is the perceived importance (its personal meaning) of the

product/service to the respondent; ``risk'' is the perceived importance of
negative consequences such as loss of face or money; ``pleasure'' is the
hedonic value the ability to provide pleasure and affect, and finally, ``sign''
is the symbolic value associated with the product, such as brand names like
``BMW'' and ``Christian Dior''. Zaichkowsky (1985) defines involvement
as, ``a person's perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs,
values, and interests.'' She asserts that this incorporates the earlier-discussed
aspects of involvement and is generalizable across personal (e.g. interests
and values), physical (e.g. characteristics of the object), and situational (e.g.
temporary matters) differences. Zaichkowsky (1985) developed a 20-item
semantic differential scale to operationalize involvement and following the
recommendations of Churchill (1979) assessed the construct validity of her
20-item scale, the personal involvement inventory (PII). Although the results
of her factor analyses generally suggested her 20-item scale was multidimensional (Brisoux and Cheron, 1990), she concluded the scale should be
treated as unidimensional.

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

83

Revised personal
involvement inventory

McQuarrie and Munson (1992) developed a ten-item scale, which they

termed RPII, revised personal involvement inventory based on the original
Zaichkowsky PII. The RPII loaded on two factors and had adequately high
measures of internal consistency (McQuarrie and Munson, 1992). While the
RPII extended Zaichkowsky's (1985) work on the involvement construct, it
(i.e. RPII), too, was limited given that McQuarrie and Munson's (1992) tenitem RPII scale was validated solely with products, not services.
McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995) in an effort to rectify the limitation,
empirically assessed the construct validity of the RPII across a variety of
services. Employing an empirical procedure recommended by Fornell and
Larcker (1981) using the confirmatory factor analysis model to assess the
RPII's construct validity, McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995) reported that the
RPII is indeed two dimensional, with the factors clearly identifying two
aspects of involvement, importance and interest. Thus, there is evidence that
a refinement of Zaichkowsky's original PII scale is appropriate to assess a
consumer's involvement across both product and service settings.
External search
Information search is an important part of consumer decision making (Moore
and Lehmann, 1980; Newman, 1977). Most theories addressing the role of
search activities in the consumer decision making process assert that search
is a means by which consumers reduce uncertainty and perceived risk (Engel
et al., 1978; Howard and Sheth, 1969). Beales et al. (1981) provide a general
framework of search which categorizes search as either internal or external.
Internal search, according to Beales and his colleagues (1981), entails the act
of retrieving previously acquired information from memory. That is, internal
search does not require any outside source. In contrast, external search
entails the acquisition of information from outside sources, such as print
advertisements, television or radio advertisements, salespeople, or personal
acquaintances. While internal search is, no doubt, an important aspect of
consumer behavior, the current study is concerned with only external search.

Information from sources

other than one's memory

External search defined. As earlier noted, external search is generally

defined as the acquisition of information from sources other than one's
memory, such as advertisements, friends, point-of-purchase displays,
magazine articles, etc. McColl-Kennedy and Fetter (1999) summarize the
external search literature as follows:
(1) sources (including such things as
.

reseller information e.g. catalogs, consultants;

third party e.g. Consumer Report;

interpersonal sources e.g. friends or acquaintances;

direct inspection of the good by the consumer e.g. comparison,

inference) (Beatty and Smith, 1987; Olshavsky and Wymer, 1995);

(2) search effort (Newman and Lockeman, 1975); and

(3) assessing physical aspects of a consumer good's search (such as price,
size) (Brucks, 1985; Newman and Staelin, 1971).
Prior measures of external search. Several points should first be made about
prior measures of external search. First, all (except Dawes et al., 1991;
Murray, 1991; McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1997; McColl-Kennedy and
Fetter, 1999) of the search studies we identified in our literature review
measured search activities for products, not services (Beatty and Smith, 1987;
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JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

Bloch et al., 1986; Brucks, 1985). Second, search was generally measured as
prepurchase search activities, not ongoing search (Bloch et al., 1986). Finally,
while external search is an often-measured variable in empirical studies, little
effort has been directed to date at validating an external search scale. Indeed,
only a few studies reported both a scale's psychometric properties and factor
structure (Beatty and Smith, 1987; Bloch et al., 1986; Kiel and Layton, 1981;
McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1997; McColl-Kennedy and Fetter, 1999;
Urbany et al., 1989), while quite a number of studies measured search with
single-item measures (Newman and Lockeman, 1975). McColl-Kennedy and
Fetter (1999) appears to be the first study to comprehensively assess the
psychometric properties of external search for services. They administered
the seven-item scale and extracted a two-factor solution across each of the
services included in their study. Based on inspection of individual items'
factor loadings, they identified the underlying common factors of search as
source and effort.
Credence versus
experiential services

Credence experiential
categorization

Typology of service activities and selection of services

Credence versus experiential services. Recall that the involvement-toexternal search link has been attributed to both perceived risk (Engel et al.,
1978; Howard and Sheth, 1969) and pleasure/entertainment (Bloch et al.,
1986). Moreover, others (Brown et al., 1994; Zeithaml et al., 1985) have
suggested that research in services marketing should encompass multiple
settings and/or industries. Therefore, this study used two ``credence
services'' (life insurance and furnace overhaul) and two ``experiential
services'' (exercise club and vacation in Caribbean). Employing services
which cross over the credence vs experiential typology should test the
generalizability of the multiple-item scale developed and tested in the current
study. An experiential service is defined as a service which can be evaluated
after some purchase consumption (Ostrom and Iacobucci, 1995), largely by
``experiencing'' the service itself, e.g., a haircut or dinner at a restaurant.
Consumers have confidence in their ability to judge the adequacy of an
experiential service encounter. A credence service is defined as a service
which is difficult to evaluate even after some trial has occurred (Zeithaml,
1981). For example (borrowing from Iacobucci, 1992), many professional
service encounters are considered credence services, because even after
obtaining the service, consumers are uncertain as to its goodness-or-badness
(e.g. tax and legal advice). Not surprisingly, therefore, credence services are
considered more risky than experiential services (Iacobucci, 1992), because
of consumers' inabilities to evaluate the service occasions.
Services selected for the current study. A pool of already-used services from
prior research was generated based on a review of the literature. The items
were then categorized as either credence or experiential based on prior
classification from the literature, and review by a panel of experts. Any items
for which there was uncertainty or disagreement were discarded. The
remaining pool of services was then screened based on the likelihood that
respondents would have at least some familiarity with the service, even if
they had not procured/experienced the service. Based on this method of
service selection, the credence services selected for the current study were
life insurance and furnace overhaul. The experiential services selected for the
current study were exercise club and vacation in the Caribbean.
Hypotheses
The purpose of our study was to empirically assess whether the previouslydiscussed dimensions of involvement, i.e. importance and interest, influence
one's propensity to search via both source and effort in service encounters.

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

85

More specifically, we are interested in whether there is a positive

relationship between involvement and external search. While there is
considerable theoretical support (Bloch et al., 1986; Engel et al., 1978;
Howard and Sheth, 1969) based on the view that search is a means to reduce
perceived risk or search as a source of pleasure/enjoyment, empirical
evidence is mixed (Bloch et al., 1986). Indeed, Newman and Staelin (1971)
suggest many purchases, even risky and highly involving decisions, are often
made in a state of ignorance with little or no search on the part of the
consumer. Among the plausible explanations for the equivocal results on the
relationship between involvement and search are:
.
.

A comparison of the
demographic
characteristics

search may be costly (Punj and Staelin, 1983); and

consumers may be able to adequately search internally, i.e. retrieve
information from memory, rather than rely on external sources (Claxton
et al., 1974; Punj and Staelin, 1983), and prior satisfaction/positive
experience (Bennett and Mandell, 1969).

Method
Sample and procedures
A convenience sample of 331 residents from a major midwestern city served
as the sample for the study. A comparison of the demographic characteristics
of the achieved sample was nearly identical to the demographic profile of the
city from which the sample was drawn. About 52 percent of the respondents
were male (48 percent female), and the average age of respondents was
approximately 46 years with a standard deviation of 16.7. Ages of
respondents ranged from 19 to 81 years. Sixty percent of the respondents
indicated they earn between $25,000 and $80,000 per year. The group was
rather well-educated, with 60 percent indicating they had obtained at least
some college education.
A self-administered mail survey was used to obtain the data from 1,500
randomly selected names from the purchased mailing. The self-administered
questionnaire with cover letter explaining the purpose of the study and
assuring respondent anonymity was mailed out. Each participant was asked
to respond to a series of questions using several different response formats
(e.g. open-ended, semantic-differential scales, Likert rating scale, etc.). On
completion of the self-administered survey, respondents were instructed to
return completed surveys in the stamped self-addressed envelopes. This
resulted in a 22 percent response rate. Only respondents who had used the
services were included in the study.

Revised personal
involvement inventory

Measures
The involvement items used in our study were obtained from Zaichkowsky
(1985), McQuarrie and Munson (1992), and McColl-Kennedy et al. (1995).
McColl-Kennedy and her colleagues (1995) empirically examined the
construct validity of Zaichkowsky's (1985) personal involvement inventory
(PII) and McQuarrie and Munson's (1992) revised personal involvement
inventory (RPII) and found a nine-item version of the RPII decomposed into
two aspects of involvement, importance and interest. Importance was
measured with five semantic differential scales:
(1) important/unimportant;
(2) irrelevant/relevant;
(3) means a lot/means nothing;

86

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

(4) matters/doesn't matter; and

(5) of concern/of no concern.
Interest, the second aspect of involvement identified by McColl-Kennedy et
al. (1995) was measured with a four-item scale semantic differential scale:
(1) dull/neat;
(2) boring/interesting;
(3) exciting/unexciting; and
(4) appealing/unappealing.
Construct validity

Although a full discussion of the procedures employed by McColl-Kennedy

et al. (1995) to assess the construct validity of their measures of importance
and interest is beyond the scope of this paper, suffice it to say they used an
empirical procedure recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981) in which
the confirmatory factor analysis model is used to assess multi-item scales'
convergent and discriminant validity.
External search was measured with McColl-Kennedy and Fetter's (1999)
seven-item scale as they were able to provide considerable empirical
evidence as to the scale's construct validity across several services. Source of
search was measured with three items:
(1) interested in reading information;
(2) interested in reading Consumer Reports; and
(3) have compared service characteristics.
Search effort was measured with four items:
(1) usually talk with other people;
(2) usually seek advice from other people;
(3) usually take many factors into account; and
(4) usually spend a lot of time.

Factor structures and

internal consistencies

Analytical procedures
There were two components to the data analysis. First, we examined the
factor structures and internal consistencies of the multi-item scales used in
the current study. In the second phase of the analysis, we investigated the
effect of each aspect of involvement (importance and interest) on each aspect
of external search (source and effort) across both experiential and credence
service encounters.
Results
Factor analysis and psychometric properties of involvement
Table I reports the factor structures, percent-of-variance accounted, interfactor correlations, and Cronbach alpha for each of the services employed in
the current study. The results reported in Table I suggest that the nine-item
involvement scale used in the current study does indeed measure both
aspects of involvement, importance and interest, previously discussed in this
text. Generally, items loaded strongly on their intended factors, with crossloadings (i.e. the tendency of an item to load on its unintended factor) almost
non-existent. Variance explained by the two-factor solutions was generally
in the 55-65 per cent range. For purposes of clarity and ease of interpretation,
only factor loadings equal to or greater than 0.35 are reported. Each of the

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

87

88

Item

Life insurance
Importance
Interest

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

Important/unimportant
Irrelevant/relevant
Means a lot/means nothing
Matters/doesn't matter
Of no concern
Dull/neat
Boring/interesting
Unexciting/exciting
Appealing/unappealing

0.86
0.57
0.86
0.91
0.77

Eigenvalue
Percent of variance (two-factors)
Inter-factor correlation
Cronbach Alpha

3.34
0.87

0.86
0.85
0.65
0.73
74
0.34

Furnace overhaul
Importance
Interest
0.82
0.83
0.62
0.76
0.85

2.58

3.25

0.81

0.85

Table I. Summary of exploratory factor analyses on nine-item involvement scale

0.74
0.85
0.51
0.81
70
0.22

Exercise club
Importance
Interest
0.89
0.67
0.85
0.77
0.80

2.30

3.51

0.73

0.87

0.78

0.89
0.90
0.67
0.84
84
0.51

Vacation in Caribbean
Importance
Interest
0.91
0.90
0.90
0.86

3.18

3.92

0.81

0.93

0.85
0.90
0.85
0.89
89
0.31

3.19
0.90

scales' measure of internal consistency was also good, with Cronbach's

alpha ranging from 0.73 to 0.90, well above Nunnally's (1978)
recommended level of 0.70. The inter-factor correlations, as expected, were
also rather low, ranging from 0.10 to 0.50. Given the low inter-factor
correlations reported in Table I, multicollinearity is likely not to be a matter
to which we need to attend when interpreting regression results.
Strong factor loadings

Multiple regression
analyses

Factor analysis and psychometric properties of external search

Tables II and III report the factor structures, percent-of-variance accounted,
inter-factor correlations, and Cronbach alpha for each of the services employed
in the current study. Table II provides the results for the credence services, life
insurance and furnace overhaul, while Table III provides the results for the
experiential services, exercise club and vacation in the Caribbean. The results
reported in Table II are generally supportive of the notion that search was
measured as a two-factor variable, source and effort. Most of the items had
strong factor loadings on their intended factors, with very small cross-loadings.
Inter-correlations amongst the factors were generally quite small, with
correlations ranging from 0.19 to 0.32. In most cases, the unidimensional
scales satisfied Nunnally's (1978) prescribed minimum of 0.70 for measures of
internal consistency for scales under development.
Regression analysis of involvement-to-search
Given that these results suggest that the scales used in our study adequately
represent the intended underlying constructs, we proceeded to conduct a series
of multiple regression analyses to assess the structural relationships between
involvement and external search across the services used in our study. The
procedure used for this portion of the analysis involved inspection of:
.

the p-value which indicated whether or not the regression model

explained a significant portion of the variance in our dependent variable;
p-values to assess whether individual parameter estimates were
significantly different from zero;

Item
I would be interested in reading information
about how this service is performed
I would be interested in reading a Consumer
Report's article about this service
I have compared service characteristics among
firms that provide this service
I usually talk about this service with other people
I usually seek advice from other people prior to
purchasing this service
I usually take many factors into account before
purchasing this service
I usually spend a lot of time choosing what kind
to buy
Eigenvalue
Percent of variance (two-factors)
Inter-factor correlation
Cronbach Alpha

Life insurance Furnace overhaul

Source Effort Source Effort
0.84

0.87

0.79

0.66

0.54

3.10
0.70

0.63

55
0.19

0.60
0.65

0.47

0.48

0.71

0.86

0.82

0.80

0.85

1.32

3.27

0.71

0.65

60
0.21

1.51
0.76

Table II. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for credence service
encounters
JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

89

Exercise club Caribbean vacation

Source Effort Source
Effort

Item
I would be interested in reading information
about how this service is performed
I would be interested in reading a Consumer
Report's article about this service
I have compared service characteristics among
firms that provide this service
I usually talk about this service with other
people
I usually seek advice from other people prior to
purchasing this service
I usually take many factors into account before
purchasing this service
I usually spend a lot of time choosing what kind
to buy
Eigenvalue
Percent of variance (two-factors)
Inter-factor correlation
Cronbach Alpha

0.74

0.82

0.89

0.87

0.60

0.66

4.22
0.80

77
0.32

0.81

0.79

0.80

0.82

0.83

0.84

0.84

0.72

1.98

3.52

0.89

0.75

59
0.21

1.20
0.84

Table III. Exploratory factor analysis of search items for experiential service
encounters
.

standardized regression coefficients to assess the relative impact of

importance and interest on each dimension of search; and
the amount of variance explained by the regression model for each of our
dependent variables.

In addition to the aforementioned procedures, we also assessed whether the

regression results were invariant across all four service settings.
The results of the regression analyses are reported in Table IV. Inspection of
Table IV suggests a number of interesting findings. First, it appears that
involvement does indeed significantly influence external search across both
experiential and credence services. In fact, six of the eight regression models
Credence services Experiential services
Life
Furnace Exercise Vacation in
insurance overhaul club
Caribbean
Dependent variable: search source
Intercept

4.27

5.78

5.74

5.66

Independent variable
Importance
Interest
Adjusted R2

0.09
0.12
0.03

0.34a
0.31a
0.24a

0.36a
0.11
0.16a

0.29a
0.30a
0.29a

Dependent variable: search effort

Intercept

4.73

5.50

5.99

5.81

Independent variable
Importance
Interest
Adjusted R2

0.24a
0.34a
0.34a

0.34a
0.05
0.08b

0.47a
0.13
0.32a

0.08
0.30a
0.19a

Notes:

significant at 0.01 level;

significant at 0.05 level

Table IV. The effect of involvement on external search

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JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

reported in Table IV had small p-values (i.e. observed p-value less than
0.05), suggesting the regression models were helpful in explaining at least
some of the variance in our dependent measures of external search. However,
further inspection of Table IV suggests quite a number of differences across
the various regression models. For example, the variance explained by the
regression models ranged from 3 percent (source of search for life insurance)
to 34 percent (search effort for life insurance). In the remainder of this
section, each regression model will be briefly discussed. A more general
discussion of the study's findings will then be presented in the discussion
section of the paper.
Contemplating the
purchase of life insurance

Search source for life insurance. Neither importance, nor interest had
significant effects on search source for life insurance. The adjusted Rsquared was only 0.03. Thus, the evidence reported in this study suggests
that one's level of involvement is not related to external source of search
when contemplating the purchase of life insurance. That is, whether or not
one considers life insurance important to oneself or the degree to which one
is interested in life insurance does not influence the degree to which one
seeks external sources of information for life insurance.
Search effort for life insurance. Both importance and interest had rather
strong effects on one's tendency to put effort into seeking information about
life insurance. The effect of interest on effort was somewhat stronger than
the effect of importance on effort (std beta coefficients 0.34 and 0.24
respectively). Combining importance and interest explained a hefty 34
percent of the variance in effort with search activities for life insurance.
Thus, the findings reported in this regression model suggest that the more
involved in life insurance a person becomes, the more likely he/she is to put
effort into search.

Involvement

Search source for furnace overhaul. Inspection of the regression model in

Table IV of the effects of involvement on source indicate that the more
involved a person is, the more likely he/she is to obtain information from
various sources. Indeed, the regression model explained over 30 percent of
the variance in external source of search for furnace overhaul. Moreover,
both aspects of involvement and importance, had quite large effects on
source of search for furnace overhaul (standardized betas weights 0.34 and
0.31, respectively).
Search effort for furnace overhaul. Although the overall regression model
helps predict the dependent variable, the adjusted R-squared value was only
0.08. Thus, while better than no regression model at all, involvement is not
particularly helpful in explaining one's propensity to put effort into external
search for furnace overhaul information. Moreover, only importance had a
significant effect on the dependent variable (std beta 0.34).
Search source for exercise club. The effect of involvement on external
source of search is significant, but only the importance aspect of involvement
affects one's propensity to search for external sources for information when
it comes to exercise clubs. However, the effect of importance on external
sources for information on exercise clubs is quite strong (std beta = 0.36).
Search effort for exercise club. The effects of involvement on search effort
for exercise club information was fairly similar to the effect of involvement
on external sources of search for exercise club information. That is,
importance had quite a strong, positive effect on one's propensity to put
effort into searching for external information (std beta = 0.47), but interest
did not have an effect on effort put into search. Given the large standardized

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91

coefficient, it was not surprising the adjusted R-squared (32 percent) was
also rather sizeable.
Search source for vacation in Caribbean. Involvement had quite a large
impact on one's tendency to search for external information regarding a
Caribbean vacation. Indeed, both importance and interest had very strong
positive standardized beta coefficients (0.29 and 0.30 respectively), and the
adjusted R-squared (29 percent) further supported the notion that
involvement is strongly related to external sources of search activities in this
context.
Search effort for vacation in Caribbean. Only one aspect of involvement,
interest, was related to effort put into obtaining external information
pertaining to a Caribbean vacation. The effect of interest on effort put into
this external search in this context, however, was quite strong. The
standardized beta coefficient for interest was 0.30, and the adjusted R-square
was a moderate 19 percent.

Effects on external search

Complex structural
relationship

92

Discussion
Purpose of the study and summary of the findings
The general purpose of this study was to investigate whether involvement
has an effect on external search across various service settings. We examined
the effects of a two-dimensional measure of involvement, importance and
interest, on external search. Search, too, was measured as a two-dimensional
construct, search source and effort. After an investigation of the scales'
psychometric properties and factor structures (generally supportive of the a
priori structure of the scales employed in this study), regression analysis was
used to examine the structural relationships between involvement and search.
Moreover, these structural relationships were tested across a variety of
service encounters. Two of the service encounters, life insurance and furnace
overhaul, are considered credence services. That is, with life insurance and
furnace overhaul, the mere acquisition of the service is not sufficient for
consumers to ascertain the adequacy of the service. The other two services
used in this study, exercise club and Caribbean vacation, are considered
experiential services. That is, one can ascertain how one feels about the
experience by going to an exercise club or on a Caribbean vacation.
Based on the empirical results reported in this study, it appears that
involvement does indeed impact search. However, it should be noted that the
structural relationship between involvement and search appears to be more
complex than suggested by prior research. Much of the theoretical research
on the involvement-to-search linkage has suggested that the two variables
should be positively related (Brisoux and Cheron, 1990). External search has
most prominently been viewed as a means to reduce perceived risk, but many
empirical studies have shown that, at least in product settings, consumers
engage in little-to-no external search. Moreover, Bloch et al. (1986) have
recognized that people may simply engage in external search for personal
enjoyment as a leisure activity. The current study, though, empirically
demonstrates that consumers are prone to engage in search, both in terms of
search source and effort, especially when they are involved in the purchase
occasion. The current study did provide some initial insights, though, as to
the limits of when consumers are prone and not prone to engage in specific
types of external search activities. For example, when engaged in
experiential services, consumers tended not to be influenced so much by how
interested they were in the service, but by the degree to which they perceived
the service as important. Indeed, this was strongly, positively related to the
JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

degree to which they searched (both in terms of source and effort).

Understanding the effect of involvement on consumers' search for credence
service was somewhat more ambiguous. In the case of life insurance,
involvement had no effect at all on consumers' sources of external search
activities, but involvement was quite important when influencing consumers'
propensity to put effort into the search activities for a furnace overhaul.
Initial insight

Contributions and limitations of the study

Although external search has received considerable attention in the product
marketing literature to date, external search has received only scant attention
in services contexts. Clearly, this study provides some initial insight as to
what motivates people to engage in external search activities for services,
both experiential and credence services. Quite simply, in the settings
employed in this study, the more important and interesting a service is
perceived as being the more likely one is to engage in external search, both
in terms of source and effort. Moreover, this study corroborates the findings
reported by Murray (1991) who reported a positive link between perceived
risk and consumers' search activities in services contexts. Given that
consumers are likely to perceive credence services as risky occasions
(Zeithaml, 1981), it appears consumers may actually become more involved
in the situation and seek additional information to deal with potentially risky
situations.
Although this study certainly adds to our understanding of the involvementto-search relationship in services marketing, the study has a number of
limitations. First, while causal conclusions were drawn about the
involvement-to-external search relationship, it should be noted that we used
a cross-sectional descriptive study design in which perceptual data were
obtained from single sources at a single point in time. Thus, there may be
other factors which could account for the empirical relationships which we
observed. Finally, the amount of variance explained across the eight
regression models reported in this study suggest that we should consider
other variables. While an adjusted R-squared of 30-35 percent is
encouraging, it suggests that the regression model still leaves 70 percent of
the variance in our dependent variables unexplained.

Need for additional

research

Research implications
This initial investigation of the effects of involvement on external search in
services marketing provides empirical insight into this important area, but
much remains to be done. For example, at a minimum, the items discussed in
the limitations section need to be addressed. Moreover, there may be aspects
of search not wholly captured by the seven-item scale used in this study. For
example, Beatty and Smith (1987) suggest that ongoing search and
prepurchase search are conceptually distinct. Since most prior measures of
external search tended to tap only the prepurchase aspect of search,
additional research is needed to further develop a multiple-item measure of
search which explicitly captures both ongoing and prepurchase external
search activities. Moreover, the search measure employed in the current
study did not address the specific types of information to which one attends
(e.g. price, availability, guarantee, etc.) while searching for external
information.
While the current study provides insight as to the antecedents of search
across both credence and experiential services, it provides no guidance as to
the consequences of search. Therefore, future research should attend to
important consequences of search, such as size of the consideration set,

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

93

satisfaction with the service encounter, and service loyalty. Moreover, there
may be important variables which mediate and/or moderate the causes and
consequences of search, matters which were simply beyond the scope of the
current study.
Understanding consumers'
behaviors in service
settings

Finally, given that we have demonstrated that consumers can be induced to

engage in external search suggests that, over time, people may be able to
build a knowledge base of service-related information. Thus, future research
which investigates the causes and consequences of internal search (i.e.
retrieving service-related information from memory, rather than from some
external source) should prove fruitful in better understanding consumers'
behaviors in service settings.
Managerial implications
The findings reported in this study also have a number of managerial
implications. First, the study suggests that different factors motivate
consumers to engage in external search across service settings. The varying
level of explained variance (adjusted R-squared) and standardized parameter
estimates suggests that managers must be sensitive to the fact that consumers
are variable in what motivates them to search for additional external
information. Also, the fact that managers can encourage consumers to
increase or decrease their level of external search based on perceived levels
of importance and interest suggests that managers must be attentive to the
content of their communications with consumers and how their messages
influence consumers' propensity to search. For example, an out-supplier (a
supplier who is not currently being used by a customer) in the exercise club
business may find it better to promote the importance of exercise in
communicating with potential customers, rather than focusing on the ``fun
aspects'' of the club where they are going if the managers feel the source of
external search is important in vendor selection. Finally, the generally strong
positive results of the effect of importance on both search source and effort,
suggest that managers need not be too concerned about potential service
customers ``shutting down'' in terms of information search. Other empirical
studies in product marketing contexts have indicated that consumers may
become so overwhelmed with a sense of risk that they simply quit processing
and seeking additional information. Yet this initial study, suggests that a
marketing manager may benefit by emphasizing the importance of his/her
service by motivating consumers to seek additional external information.

Comparing the service

However, there are occasions where managers may not want consumers to
actively seek additional information through external search activities (e.g.
when they are the in-supplier, that is the supplier who is currently being used
by the customer). In these instances, they may not want their
communications with current customers to too heavily emphasize the
importance of the service, or it may induce the consumer to actively search
for more information, which may result in the customers comparing the
service with others they have identified through their external search process.
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This summary has been

provided to allow managers
and executives a rapid
appreciation of the content
of this article. Those with a
particular interest in the
topic covered may then read
the article in toto to take
advantage of the more
comprehensive description
of the research undertaken
and its results to get the full
benefit of the material
present

Executive summary and implications for managers and

executives
Customers reduce uncertainty and perceived risk through search
``Search'' is the means by which customers reduce uncertainty and perceived
risk when buying a product or service. Customers generally view buying
services as riskier than buying products. This may help to explain why
customers tend to search more extensively for services than for products.
Internal search involves the customer retrieving previously acquired
information from memory. External search entails acquiring information
from such outside sources as advertisements, point-of-purchase displays,
salespeople or personal acquaintances. External searches increase the
customer's knowledge of the product or service, and can also raise the
amount of satisfaction he or she gets after buying the product or service. The
underlying common factors of search are source and effort.
``Involvement'' is affected by the importance, or personal meaning, of the
product or service to the customer, and his or her interest in it.
Experiential and credence services
McColl-Kennedy and Fetter investigate the effect of involvement on
customers' external search activities in four service settings. With two of the
services exercise club and Caribbean holiday customers know how they
feel about the service they receive simply by experiencing it. These are
``experiential'' services. With the other two life insurance and furnace
(central heating boiler) overhaul merely acquiring the service is not
enough for customers to ascertain how adequate it is. These are ``credence''
services, and are generally considered riskier than experiential services.
The survey results
Self-administered surveys were completed by 331 residents of a major midwestern US city. The results indicate that, across all four services,
involvement influences the likelihood that customer will search externally.
Customers engaged in experiential services tended not to be influenced so
much by how interested they were in the service, but by the degree to which
they perceived the service to be important. This was strongly related to the
degree to which they searched, both in terms of source and effort.
Understanding the effect of involvement on customers' search for credence
service was more ambiguous. In the case of life insurance, involvement had
no effect on consumers' sources of external search activities, but
involvement was quite important when influencing the likelihood that
customers would put effort into the search activities for a furnace overhaul.
The more important and interesting a service is perceived as being, the more
likely the customer is to engage in external search, both in terms of source
and effort. The study also supports the view that there is a positive link
between perceived risk and consumers' search activities in service contexts.
Given that customers are likely to perceive credence services as risky, it
appears that consumers may actually become more involved in the situation
and seek additional information to deal with potentially risky situations.
When customers should be encouraged to seek more information
Customers therefore vary in what motivates them to search for additional
external information. Managers can encourage customers to increase or
decrease their level of external search, based on perceived levels of

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 15 NO. 2 2001

97

importance and interest. Generally, the study suggests that marketing

managers may succeed in emphasizing the importance of their service by
motivating customers to seek additional information, and that marketing
managers need not be too concerned about potential service customers
becoming so overwhelmed with a sense of risk that they simply quit
processing and seeking additional information.
When customers should be discouraged from seeking more information
However, suppliers may not want their communications with current
customers to emphasize too heavily the importance of the service. This may
induce the customers to search for more information, and then to compare
the service with others they have identified only through their external
search.
(A precis of the article ``An empirical examination of the involvement to
external search relationship in services marketing''. Supplied by Marketing
Consultants for MCB University Press.)

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