Changing consumer behavior in the digital age: perceived risk in information search process

The digitalization of the marketing environment is changing the manner in which consumers take purchase decisions. Moreover, perceived risk has a determinant role on consumers’ purchase decision-making. However, although emerging literature suggests that consumers’ use of digital information generates new search and product evaluation processes different from those in traditional purchase setting, theorizing about the pattern and nature of these differences has been limited. More specifically, contradictory findings on the relationship between perceived risk and information search of experience-type products in digital environments have been identified in current literature. While some studies assert that perceived risk increases information search because one way of reducing risk is to obtain more information, other streams of literature point out that further engaging in information search might actually result in increased risk perception and purchase deterrence. Therefore, in order to clarify this gap and understand better the phenomenon of perceived risk during digital purchase decision-making process, this research advances with a finer-grained approach and with a longitudinal perspective in order to understand how the digitalization of the marketing environment affects consumers’ perceived risks during the process of information search. By conducting a qualitative multi-method research, this study discloses five stages in the process of risk processing during digital information search. The stages are: preparing for information search; initial information search; advanced information search, preparing for purchase and purchase decision-making and post purchase behavior. Based on these findings, the present study proposes that in the current digital context, perceived risk is a dynamic process consisting of stages in which the different types of risk are perceived by consumers as they progress in the search stage of the purchase decision-making process. Moreover, the perception of these dimensions of risk fluctuates as consumers search for information. Thus, these findings highlight that the search stage is a dynamic process and suggest that this is one of the reasons why the new customer journey is understood as a cyclic and dynamic process. Ultimately, this research contributes to the theorizing process of perceived risk in digital information search by providing new insights that suggest that in the current digital context perceived risk is a multidimensional construct that develops, changes and adapts to the information collected in the purchase decision-making process. Thus, this research proposes to understand and theorize perceived risk from a process-driven perspective in order to fully understand its behavior and suggests that the process of perceived risk processing and information search is dynamic and aligned with the cyclic nature of the new customer journey. Finally, this research contributes to the marketing practice by shedding light on where to act and how to mitigate the different types of risk in order to increase customer satisfaction and engagement during information search.