This study investigates how perceived attributes of online shopping and the psychological characteristics of consumers such as market mavenism, time-stressed behaviour and familiarity with the Internet impact the acceptance and frequency of shopping for physical goods on the Internet. In the study, the traditional adoption paradigm is refined by specifying in a more differentiated manner the outcome of the adoption behaviour and by postulating a mediator and moderator structure which underlies the relation between psychological characteristics, innovation attributes and adoption outcome. Empirical results identify missing touch and feel experiences as the most influential negative obstacle, and the chance to make better deals, the convenience of a delivery service and the independence of opening hours as the most influential positive factors for the adoption of online shopping. Familiarity also favours adoption behaviour, leading to a uniformly better assessment of many online shopping attributes. The influence of time-stressed behaviour and market mavenism on adoption behaviour is ambiguous and their effects appear to be more complex.

It is well known in marketing that the preference for a target option over a competitor option increases if the choice set entails a third option, known as a decoy. If the decoy is (nearly) dominated by the target according to the attribute levels, the preference increase of the target over its competitor is often termed the "decoy effect," "asymmetric dominance effect," or "attraction effect." If the decoy makes the target appear a less extreme or middle option in the choice set, the preference increase of the target represents the "compromise effect." In both cases, the market share of the target relative to the competitor is higher in the decoy set than in a choice set without the third option (core set).

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize several dimensions of product-price knowledge and to develop measurement variables that qualify a person's product-price knowledge. Assuming product-price knowledge is a multidimensional construct, the relationship between its dimensions is to be investigated and consumer characteristics are to be analyzed according to whether they influence these dimensions. Design/methodology/approach -Drawing on existing research, the paper theoretically develops a framework that proposes a taxonomy of productprice knowledge and leads to a road map to identify determinants that probably affect a person's product-price knowledge. Applying data on 319 shoppers, a path model simultaneously estimates the internal structure of the specified dimensions of product-price knowledge, and determines the influence of the selected consumer characteristics on product-price knowledge. Findings -The proposed taxonomy sees product-price knowledge as encompassing not just isomorphic prices, i.e. actually or formerly perceived and recalled prices. Rather, inferential prices, such as the normal price, or the upper reservation price for a product, as well as knowledge about price-setting conditions and confidence in memorized prices, comprise important elements of a person's product-price knowledge. As a result, there are several measurement variables to qualify a person's product-price knowledge. The empirical results identify price mavenism, price consciousness, the use of a shopping list, and shopping frequency, as determinants of the accuracy and size of, and confidence in, one's product-price knowledge, even though the impact structure is not uniform. There are some indications that formerly encountered price stimuli represent a relatively obsolete part of a consumer's product-price knowledge.Research limitations/implications -Research on product-price knowledge should not be restricted to measuring the accuracy of recalled paid prices. Size of product-price knowledge, and confidence in one's price knowledge, are identified as measures that are at least equally important to qualify a person's product-price knowledge as accuracy. Furthermore, size and confidence are also additional dependent variables in analyzing determinants of consumers' product-price knowledge. This is important for researchers and practitioners. Originality/value -The proposed taxonomy and the empirical results lead to finer grained understanding of product-price knowledge as a multidimensional construct and its determinants.

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