Search & evaluation costs
What are Search & evaluation costs?
Evaluating alternatives consumes time and entails uncertainty.
How Search & evaluation costs work
Compare unfamiliar suppliers with trusted ones before migration begins. Validation burden can explain the shortlist; implementation work belongs in the separate estimate of switching costs.
Case studies tagged with Search & evaluation costs
Each link opens the passage tagged with this concept.
The question to ask of a company
What must buyers verify before purchase, and would independent certification or a credible trial remove that burden?
Examples
- Illustrative scenario: A payroll buyer spends months validating an unfamiliar supplier’s reliability before considering migration.
Who names it
| Author | What they call it / where it appears |
|---|---|
| Neumann | A Taxonomy of Moats — Search & evaluation costs |
Note. The diagnostic and scenario are Strategy Canon’s analytical application. Test the firm’s benefit and exclusion mechanism separately; this category alone does not establish Power.