Purchase intention in an electronic commerce environment

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the integrated impact of the application of protection measures against identity theft on consumers’ synergistic perception of trust, the cost of products/services and operational performance (OP) – all of which in turn is postulated to contribute to purchase intention (PI) when shopping online. Design/methodology/approach In order to accomplish the specified aim, this study first conducted an experiment by involving the students from a university in Bangladesh. Then a survey was conducted to capture their opinion based on the previous experiment. Findings The study identified that in e-commerce, OP and trust have potential impact on pursuing consumers’ PI. Traditionally, price is always an issue in marketing; however, for e-commerce, this issue does not have direct impact on PI. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this study is that a less established e-commerce example was utilized to conduct the experiment and survey for validating the model. Also, the study was conducted only in the context of Bangladesh and a student sample was utilized. Future studies can test the model in different contexts (particularly to verify the impact of privacy) by utilizing data from consumers. Practical implications This study has resolved a controversial issue by generating clear guidelines that the overall conjoint effect of OP, trust, and price on PI is neither negative nor neutral. Synergistically, the application of these controlling tools of identity theft can substantially enhance consumers’ trust, which is the single most predictor to pursue consumer PI. Originality/value This study has provided in-depth insight into the impact of different controlling measures in e-commerce PI. Practitioners have potential learning from this study that if consumers find the application of different controlling mechanisms against cybercrimes, particularly identity theft, enhancing the reliability, authenticity and security of transactions in this virtual medium, they do not mind paying a higher price. Such insights have not been provided by existing studies on this topic. Developing trust on e-commerce purchase is the driving force, not the price.

Consumers’ Decision-Making Process on Social Commerce Platforms: Online Trust, Perceived Risk, and Purchase Intentions

“…Vohra and Bhardwaj (2019) point out that trust to a certain extent enables the link between dynamic involvement and engagement. Shareef et al (2018) posit that operational performance and trust may influence consumers' purchase intention when shopping online. Sisson (2017) highlights that positivity and networking approaches have important relationships with features of trust, being useful in reestablishing integrity.…”

Group behavior in social media: Antecedents of initial trust formation

“…It is an outcome of relying willingly on an exchange partner (Moorman et al, 1992). Synthesizing literature on different trust models (Anderson et al, 2008;Gefen et al, 2003;Pavlou, 2003;Shareef & Kumar, 2012), Shareef et al (2018) developed a conceptual paradigm of trust, reflecting the idea of expected reliability from interactions. By organizing the central idea of trust in the context of social media, it can be deduced as the overall confidence a person has in their own cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitude towards another socially associated individual's actions to be aligned with their expectations (Gefen & Straub, 2004;Schaik et al, 2011).…”

“…In social media, trusting peers is an automatic belief that their actions, i.e. shared content/information on social networks are reliable and consistent with favorable expectations (Shareef et al, 2018). Researchers suggest that for any social interaction involving remote technology, for instance -computer mediated interactions, both external and internal environments impact interpersonal trust (Goles et al, 2009;Li et al, 2008;Shin, 2009).…”

The Effect of Electronic Word of Mouth Communications on Intention to Buy: A Meta-Analysis

“…Collectively, studies (e.g. Kizgin et al 2018;Shareef et al 2018) provide valuable insights into factors affecting intention to purchase within the boundaries of the contexts studied but it is difficult to generalise them. Meta-analysis addresses issues of generalisability across contexts by integrating the results of existing studies (Eden 2002;Ismagilova et al 2019;Pan et al 2012;Patil et al 2018;Tamilmani et al 2019).…”