JAGDISH N. SHETH AND M. VENKATESAN* This experimental study of consumer decision making over time explored risk- reduction processes of information seeking, prepurchase deliberation, and brand loyalty. Perceived risk was manipulated by creating low-risk and high-risk groups. The task was to choose among brands of hair spray. Results showed that informa- tion seeking and prepurchase deliberation declined over time and brand loyalty increased over time. Risk-Reduction Processes in Repetitive Consumer Behavior In the last two decades, interdisciplinary approaches have been used to study consumer behavior [14]. In this tradition, Bauer proposed that consumer behavior be seen in the theoretical framework of risk taking [2]. Valu- able empirical research findings [1, 3-9] are now availa- ble to consider risk-taking theory one of the major ap- proaches in consumer behavior. Risk-taking theory suggests that most consumers de- cide to buy a product under some degree of uncertainty about a given brand. Knowing the perceived risk, the consumer may take steps to reduce it that mostly reflect reliance on some idea or person. For example, he may rely on the brand image of a product or on an opinion leader and seek information from him. Generally, the consumer cannot change the conse- quences of using a brand. He can, however, change his uncertainty about these consequences and thereby avoid an alternative considered to have aversive consequences. There appear to be three major ways to reduce uncer- tainty or learn about the consequences from various brands in a product class: (1) information seeking par- ticularly from informal, personal, and buyer-oriented sources such as friends, reference groups, and family; (2) prepurchase deliberation enabling the buyer to digest * Jagdish N. Sheth is assistant professor of business, Colum- bia University. M. Venkatesan is associate professor, University of Massachusetts. Partial financial support from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hamp- shire is acknowledged. The authors thank research assistants Marcia Dorsey and Priscilla Gauthier for conducting the study. They are grateful to Professors Francesco Nicosia and John Myers, University of California, Berkeley, and to Professor Richard Cardozo, University of Minnesota, for useful comments. 307 information and structure his cognitions related to alter- native brands; and (3) reliance on brand image-if one exists-which may create brand loyalty. If brand image does not exist, he may reduce uncertainty by actual pur- chase experiences. Most existing research based on risk-taking theory has not answered two important aspects of these three risk- reduction processes in decision making under uncer- tainty. First, are all processes used simultaneously, or is there an ordering among them because of the degree of uncertainty or the magnitude of aversive consequences? Do consumers, for example, seek less information and rely more on brand image in very uncertain or high-risk situations such as purchasing a car for the first time? Second, all the existing research is based on one-time surveys. Only once are consumers questioned about their behavior in a risky buying situation. That is, the magni- tude of risk-reduction processes is determined from their existence at one point in time. It would appear, however, that much consumer buying is recursive. This means that the intensity of risk-reduction processes such as informa- tion seeking, prepurchase deliberation, and brand loyalty changes over time. Because risk-reduction processes gen- erate decision rules or heuristics for the buyer, repetitive decisions in the same situation become extremely impor- tant [10, 11, 13]. By placing risk-taking theory in a dynamic framework, several significant implications emerge, for example: (a) information seeking from informal sources should dimin- ish as buyer gains experience, (b) brand loyalty should emerge over time if brand image exists, (c) prepurchase deliberation should reach a minimal level, and (d) deci- sion making should be programmed or routinized. Each of these implications provides ideas about the timing of Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. V (August 1968), 307-10