Research is required in two principal areas: first, to identify behavioural typologies
and the underlying motivation behind adherence to an established pattern and the
meaning of deviations from established patterns; and second, an understanding of the
roles of information source types, formats online and offline, and the characteristics
of information that collectively meets a consumer’s purchase process needs is
required. This may be done for a specific product through a phenomenological study
of consumers that monitors their click behaviour and language use while probing
for reasons or motivation that underlies the behaviour. The protocol analysis used
for identifying the basis of language use would have to address communicative,
functional, semantic, and contextual aspects of consumer purchase activity (Grant,
Clarke, & Kyriazis, 2010).
The analysis could be based on Halliday’s (1978) communication theory, which
has been adapted by management researchers (Clarke, 2006; Hasan, 1985; Martin,
1992) to analyse processes within organisations. Such analysis offers insights into
process needs and likely sequencing of activities that follow to satisfy both emotional
needs and functional needs. Functional aspects draw on social semiotics to examine
the relationship between communication form and pattern and the environment
or society in which it is used to develop understanding of meaning within a
community. Semantic aspects offer the prospect of identifying situations based on
specific language (register) and the use of vocabulary as an indicator of product
knowledge levels. Such semantics also offer the potential for developing typologies
of behaviour to extend the clickstream data offering a basis for triangulation to
specify consumer needs. Finally, context has to be addressed in terms of situation
to determine social actions and activities and cultural patterns of activity within a
given community of interest. The detail of this methodology is, however, beyond the
scope of this paper.