The Influence of Involvement on Consumer Choice Process for Financial Institutions

This article empirically supports the conceptual notion that level of involvement influences the decision process. A population sample is partitioned a priori into high and low involvement segments based on their responses in the presearch, search/acquisition and postdecision stages of Houston and Rothschild's response involvement paradigm. Empirical results indicate that high involvement decision makers make choices by considering all attributes in a simultaneous compensatory manner. Conversely, low involvement decision makers make choices by considering the attributes in a sequential (one-at-a-time) manner. Diagnostic information is provided to help the researcher identify the attributes that most influence an individual's choice of primary financial institution.