Online Consumer Behavior Research Paper

FACTORS AFFECTING ONLINE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Today online consumers have more control and bargaining power than consumers of physical stores because the Internet provides a lot of activities to build connections between consumers and producers and also the availability and credibility of information about products and services being offered. According to Geissler and Zinkhan (1998) they claimed that the Internet changed the balance of power in favor of consumers and became easy for them to have a shopping comparisons and evaluation without being pressured by vendors or sellers. Online shops lessen the cost of transaction to benefit both consumers and vendors. However, online businesses also have disadvantages compare to physical stores. In online

Perceived behavioral control refers to consumers’ perceptions of their ability to perform a given behavior. TPB allows the prediction of behaviors over which people do not have complete volitional control. Perceived behavioral control reflects perceptions of internal constraints (self-efficacy) as well as external constraints on behavior, like availability of resources. It has been found that the Planned Behavioral Control (PBC) directly affects online shopping behavior (George, 2004) and has a strong relationship with actual Internet purchasing (Khalifa and Limayem,

27). For the most part, people like continuity in their daily lives, including in their shopping routine. While the Internet and online shopping offers consumers a wide breadth and depth of product offerings, it also requires them to go outside their normal shopping routine. Online shoppers need to learn new technology skills in order to search, evaluate and acquire products. Consumers who prefer brick-and-mortar shopping over other retail channels do not perceive the online shopping as a convenience (Kaufman-Scarborough and Lindquist, 2002). Research has revealed that online shopping innovativeness is a function of attitude towards the online environment and individual personal characteristics (Midgley and Dowling, 1978; Eastlick, 1993; Sylke, Belanger, and Comunale, 2004; Lassar et al., 2005). Innovative consumers are more inclined to try new activities (Robinson, Marshall and Stamps, 2004; Rogers, 1995). Adoption of online shopping is depiction of individual‘s innovative characteristic (Eastlick, 1993). Adopting a new technology is a function of one‘s attitude towards it (Moore and Benbasat, 1991). It is expected that person‘s domain specific innovativeness has a propensity to shop