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In this study, we consider the online consumer as both a shopper and a computer user. We test constructs from information systems (Technology Acceptance Model), marketing (Con
sumer Behavior), and psychology (Flow and Environmental Psychology) in an integrated theoretical framework of online consumer behavior. Specifically, we examine how emotional and cognitive responses to visiting a Web-based store for the first time can influence online consumers' intention to return and their likelihood to make unplanned purchases. The instrumentation shows reasonably good measurement properties and the constructs are validated as a nomological network.
A questionnaire-based empirical study is used to test this nomological network. Results confirm the double identity of the online consumer as a shopper and a computer user because both shopping enjoyment and perceived usefulness of the site strongly predict intention to return. Our results on unplanned purchases are not conclusive. We also test some individual and Web site factors that can affect the consumer's emotional and cognitive responses. Product involvement, Web skills, challenges, and use of value-added search mechanisms all have a significant impact on the Web consumer. The study provides a more rounded, albeit partial, view of the online consumer and is a significant step towards a better understanding of consumer behavior on the Web. The validated metrics should be of use to researchers and practitioners alike.
(TAM; Flow Theory; Nomological Validity; Web Skills; Value-Added Search Mechanisms; Online Consumer Behavior)
1. Introduction
Consumer behavior on the Web has been the subject of considerable research in the last few years, but understanding it is made difficult by the fact that the main entities involved, consumers and businesses, have been transformed. First, every consumer is now also a computer user. The online consumer performs all the functions of a traditional consumer on a computer while interacting with a system, i.e., a commercial Web site. S/he, therefore, also exhibits all the characteristics of a computer user. Second, the physical store has been transformed into a virtual store through information technology (IT). In the physical commercial world, the IT used for operations remains mostly in the background, invisible to the consumer. In e-commerce, however, the technology has been moved to the foreground and has become the store itself as a Web site.
Such Web-based...