Source preference criteria in the context of everyday projects : Relevance judgments made by prospective home buyers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elaborate how source preference criteria are defined in the context of everyday projects that require the seeking of problem‐specific information. More specifically, to find out how information seekers explain their preference criteria by characterizing the perceived strengths and weaknesses of diverse sources. Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of qualitative content analysis of empirical data gathered by semi‐structured interviews with 16 prospective home buyers in 2008. The source preference criteria were elicited by making use of the construct of information source horizon. Findings – Networked sources were favoured most strongly, followed by printed media, human sources and organizational sources. Content of information was the primary source preference criterion. Availability of information was a fairly important criterion, while user characteristics, usability of information and situational factors were fairly marginal in this regard. In the definition of the preference criteria, more emphasis was placed on the perceived strengths than weaknesses of sources. Positive qualities such as “provides updated information” were referred to particularly while judging the relevance of the networked sources. Negative qualities like “outdated information” were primarily associated with printed media and organizational sources. Research limitations/implications – The study is exploratory, drawing on a relatively small sample recruited through a web‐based service. Thus, the findings cannot be generalized to prospective home buyers. Practical implications – Prospective home buyers tend to favour web‐based information sources and services. They should provide the customers with detailed information about the property, including photos. Originality/value – The paper specifies the picture of user‐defined relevance judgment in the context of everyday life information seeking.