ONLINE SHOPPING ACCEPTANCE MODEL ― A CRITICAL SURV

JournalofElectronicCommerceResearch,VOL8,NO.1,2007ONLINESHOPPINGACCEPTANCEMODEL—ACRITICALSURVEYOFCONSUMERFACTORSINONLINESHOPPINGLinaZhouDepartmentofInformationSystems,[e-mail]nformationSystems,[e-mail]ntofInformationSystems,[e-mail]1990s,onlineshoppinghastakenoffasanincreasingnumberofconsumerspurchaseincreasinglydiversifiedproductsontheInternet.Giventhathowtoattractandretainconsumersiscriticaltothesuccessofonlineretailers,researchontheantecedentsofconsumeracceptanceofonlineshoppinghasattractedwidespreadattention.Therehasyettobeaholisticviewofonlineshoppingacceptancefromtheperspectiveofconsumers.Inthisresearch,weconductedanextensivesurveyofextantrelatedstudiesandsynthesizedtheirfindingsintoareferencemodelcalledOSAM(OnlineShoppingAcceptanceModel)toexplainconsumeracceptanceofonlineshopping.Ourliteraturesurveyrevealsthatamyriadoffactorshavebeenexaminedinthecontextofonlineshoppingandmixedresultsonthosefactorshavebeenreported.Theproposedmodelhelpsreconcileconflictingfindings,discoverrecenttrendsinthislineofresearch,andshedlightonfutureresearchdirections.Keywords:onlineshopping,acceptance,consumerbehavior,shoppingintention,e-commerce.1.AConsumer-orientedViewofOnlineShoppingOnlineshoppingisbecomingincreasinglypopular.Onlineretailsalesareestimatedtogrowfrom$172billionin2005to$329billionin2010[Johnson2005].Thereare32countriesworldwidewiththeInternetpenetrationratehigherthan50%().AsofApril2006,73%ofAmericanadultsareInternetusers().Moreover,Internetusers’abilitytoshoponlinehassignificantlyimprovedfrom16%to32%sinceMarch2001.Thepotentialbenefitsofonlineshoppingforconsumersincludeconvenience,variousselection,lowprice,originalservices,personalattention,andeasyaccesstoinformation,amongothers.Theproliferationofonlineshoppinghasstimulatedwidespreadresearchaimedatattractingandretainingconsumersfromeitheraconsumer-oratechnology-orientedview[JarvenpaaandTodd1997].Theconsumer-orientedviewfocusesonconsumers’salientbeliefsaboutonlineshopping.Suchbeliefsmayinfluencepurchasechannelselection.Forexample,onlineconsumerbehaviorhasbeenexaminedfromtheperspectivesofconsumerdemographics[Brownetal.2003;Chauetal.2002;Korgaonkaretal.2004;Lietal.1999;O'Keefeetal.2000;ParkandJun2003;Parketal.2004;Staffordetal.2004],cognitive/psychologicalcharacteristics[HoffmanandNovak1996;Huang2003;LynchandBeck2001;Novaketal.2000;WolfinbargerandGilly2001;Xia2002],perceptionsofrisksandbenefitstowardonlineshopping[BhatnagarandGhose2004a;BhatnagarandGhose2004b;Bhatnagaretal.2000;FeathermanandPavlou2003;GarbarinoandStrabilevitz2004;Huangetal.2004;JarvenpaaandTodd1997;JarvenpaaandTractinsky1999;Jarvenpaaetal.1999;Joinesetal.2003;Kolsakeretal.2004;LiangandJin-Shiang1998;LiaoandCheung2001;Parketal.2004;Pavlou2003;Piresetal.2004;Solomon1999],shoppingmotivation[Childersetal.2001;Johnsonetal.2004;Novaketal.2000;WolfinbargerandGilly2001],andshoppingorientation[DonthuandGarcia1999;KorgaonkarandWolin1999;Lietal.1999;Swaminathanetal.1999].Thetechnology-orientedview,ontheotherhand,explainsandpredictsconsumeracceptanceofonlineshoppingbyexaminingtechnicalspecificationsofanonlinestore.Thesespecificationsincludeuserinterfacefeatures,Websitecontentanddesign,andsystemusability.Theabovetwoviewsdonotcontradictbutratherreinforceeachother.Becausethesuccessofanelectronicmarketlargelydependsonconsumers’willingnesstoacceptit,weadoptthePage41Zhouetal.:OnlineShoppingAcceptanceModelconsumer-orientedviewofonlineshoppinginthisstudy.Asthecompetitionine-commerceisintensified,itbecomesmoreimportantforonlineretailerstounderstandtheantecedentsofconsumeracceptanceofonlineshopping.Suchknowledgeisessentialtocustomerrelationshipmanagement,whichhasbeenrecognizedasaneffectivebusinessstrategytoachievesuccessintheelectronicmarket.Despiteahostofstudiesononlineshopping,thereislackofacoherentmodelforunderstandingmixedfindingsonconsumeracceptance.Inthisresearch,wesynthesizedthefindingsofthestate-of-the-artresearchintoareferencemodelcalledOSAM(OnlineShoppingAcceptanceModel)topredictconsumeracceptanceofonlineshopping.Thisworkextendsthereferencemodel[Changetal.2005]andprovidesanin-depthanalysisofconsumerfactorsassociatedwithonlineshoppingacceptance.Moreover,aholisticcustomer-orientedviewprovidesOSAMwithauniqueedgeandfocusthatfacilitatetheorganizationofrelatedliterature.Productcharacteristicsanddifferentoperationalizationsofconstructsaredrawnupontoexplainandreconcileconflictingfindings.Further,byincorporatingthelatestresearchfindingsintothesurvey,wewereabletorevealrecenttrendsinthislineofresearchandshedlightonsomefutureresearchdirections.Whilecompletecoverageofallpotentialfactorsandissuesisnotfeasible,wehaveattemptedtoincludeasmanyempiricalfindingsaboutinfluentialconsumerfactorsinonlineshoppingacceptanceaspossible.Ourinitialsampleofempiricalstudieswasdrawnfromarticlesininf