Value‐driven consumer e‐health information search behavior

Purpose – The search for online health‐related information has become increasingly popular. This study examines online health information quality (relevance and clarity) and the perceived value of online health information search (social, utilitarian and epistemic) and how they relate to consumers' satisfaction with their online health information search experience. The resulting intention to repeat a health information search over the internet is also included in a conceptual model to illustrate what drives the process.Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling was utilized to simultaneously assess the proposed relationships among the constructs. Data from 263 online respondents were used to test the measurement and structural model.Findings – Results show that information relevance is strongly related to the utilitarian value consumers receive from information seeking, whereas information clarity is strongly related to epistemic value. Moreover, it is the utilitarian value of the informa...

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