The effects of integrated information & service, institutional mechanism and need for cognition (NFC) on consumer omnichannel adoption behavior

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of consumers’ omnichannel (OC) adoption intention and explore how consumers’ personality trait affects their OC adoption behavior. Design/methodology/approach A total of 227 Korean consumers were invited to participate in a survey study, and partial least squares–structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the measurement and structural models. Findings The results show that three consumer groups by “Need for Cognition (NFC)” show different response to four identified OC attribute/benefits. Finally, the authors hypothesize and find that shed light on the possible ways to differentiate OC marketing for different target consumers and provide implications for practice and further research. Research limitations/implications This study provides empirical evidence that OC is an expanded retail format of e-commerce, which is predominantly affected by how information on the cross-channel marketing mix/retail strategies is delivered to consumers. From communication perspective, findings suggest that retail communication strategy need more careful attention in dealing with individual difference of consumers. In addition, the significant role of NFC on consumers’ OC adoption process validates the importance of customization and differentiation in retailers’ message to different consumer groups. In order to do so, comprehensive analysis on consumer database may be necessary to develop personalized OC service. In-depth analysis of consumer profile may enable more specific methods for marketing and managing consumers in the OC context. Although the study provides additional empirical findings for consumers’ perception on selected characteristics of OC (i.e. delivery approach of information and service in OC and institutional mechanism of OC), there may be additional extrinsic motivation factors which affect consumers’ OC adoption behavior. Extrinsic factors such as web design, convenience, assortment, moving saving which trigger positive perception of OC, may be important determinants to consider. Furthermore, situational factor such as social media (Huseyinoglu et al., 2018) and behavioral factors such as platform use habit (Chen, 2018) may also be significant in assessing consumers’ OC adoption behavior. Finally, this study has been conducted on a particular culture setting, and the generalizability of study findings, particularly about the role of NFC may need to be improved by cross-culture evaluation. Practical implications NFC-high and medium consumers are likely to use the four OC service options in future, while a larger proportion of the NFC-low consumers shows negative response to the OC service usage. This evidently shows that innovative features of OC service are not homogenously adopted by consumers, and subject to their experience and intrinsic difference, adoption rate was found to vary. This suggests that companies need to pay careful attention in implementing innovative OC service, and may approach communication of information strategically for different consumer groups. For high-NFC consumers with previous BOPIS experience, retailers may effectively engage them by enhancing and expanding the BOPIS service features, yet for low-NFC consumers, raising awareness and initiating interest among unexperienced consumers may be more imminent issue. Indirect communication using peripheral cues may be necessary to draw less motivated consumer group. Social implications The OC retailers may need to set the scope and range of information into in-depth information and simplified/unified information, and address the different type of information to different consumer groups in order to facilitate consumers’ OC adoption. For consumers with medium and high NFC, it may be necessary to provide in-depth, detailed information relevant to product quality and promotional items consistently both in on/offline channels to gain their trust. Consumers with low NFC are found to prefer unified and simplified messages on information for price, delivery, inventory in on/offline channels. Originality/value This study addresses the perceived value of unique and fundamental features and specificity of OC service by consumers with different personality trait. The authors develop consumers’ OC adoption model based on the theory of reasoned action, which depicts relationship between four extrinsic motivation factors and consumers’ intention for the OC usage, which is further differentiated by an intrinsic factor. We segment consumers based on individual difference of “NFC” and investigate how different consumer groups value different aspect of the selected OC attributes and benefits. Findings validate the importance of customization and differentiation in retailers’ message to different consumer groups and in facilitating consumers’ OC adoption.

Consumer decision‐making in omnichannel retailing: Literature review and future research agenda

“…Our review demonstrates that the exploration of consumer responses to omnichannel stimuli has been in the forefront of consumer behaviour research in recent years (Du et al., 2018; Ieva & Ziliani, 2018; Juaneda‐Ayensa et al., 2016; Murfield et al, 2017; ; Park & Kim, 2019; Zhou et al., 2020). For instance, previous studies employed the Wixom & Todd model (Shen et al., 2018), Stimulus‐Organism‐Responses model (Zhang et al, 2018b) and the Engel et al’s model (Kang, 2018, 2019) to understand factors affecting the consumer decision making process within the specific context of omnichannel retailing.…”

“…), Theory of Planned Behaviour (Jo et al., 2020; Xu & Jackson, 2019a), Theory of Reasoned Action (Park & Kim, 2019) and the Extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (Juaneda‐Ayensa et al., 2016; Kazancoglu & Aydin, 2018) were applied in a number of studies aiming to empirically examine the technology‐based offering of omnichannel retailing. Second, there is a growing interest in investigating consumer motivation, trust, preference, value and fear in the omnichannel retailing setting, with theories such as commitment‐trust theory (Xu & Jackson, 2019a), situated cognition theory (Hilken et al., 2018), self‐determination theory (Zhang et al., 2018b), and formal disappointment theory (Du et al(2018) employed to decipher these issues.…”

“…Shopping intention, purchasing and recommendation to use the omnichannel environment (e.g., word‐of‐mouth, online recommendation, reference) are the most common themes that emerged from the literature. A number of studies suggest various factors influencing omnichannel shopping intention (Juaneda‐Ayensa et al., 2016; Kang, 2019; Kazancoglu & Aydin, 2018; Park & Kim, 2019; Shi et al., 2020; ; Zhou et al., 2020), including connectivity, integration, consistency, flexibility and personalization (Shi et al., 2020). Omnichannel consumers’ showrooming and webrooming behaviours have been shown to positively affect their intention to develop user‐generated content (Kang, 2018).…”

“…In addition to primary data, few studies turned to social media platforms (Rosenmayer et al., 2018), online reviews (Yang et al., 2019) or transaction records (Park & Lee, 2017) to explore consumer behaviour in the omnichannel context. Finally, the majority of empirical studies employed advanced statistical techniques like structural equation modelling to analyse linear relationships among variables (Hoehle et al., 2018; Lee et al, 2019; Li et al., 2018; Murfield et al., 2017; Hüseyinoğlu et al., 2018; Park & Kim, 2019; Xu & Jackson, 2019a, 2019b), leaving qualitatively oriented approaches less prevalent.…”

“…In terms of theoretical positioning, consumer‐focused studies engaged a range of theories to understand consumer behaviour in the omnichannel context, including information system‐based behavioural theories, such as theory of planned behaviour (Xu & Jackson, 2019a), technology acceptance model (Hüseyinoğlu et al., 2017; Kazancoglu & Aydin, 2018; Silva et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2019) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (Juaneda‐Ayensa et al., 2016); theory of reasoned action (Park & Kim, 2019) and theories related to marketing and consumer behaviour (Adivar et al., 2019; Pagani et al., 2019). Nonetheless, specifically theory‐driven empirical studies on omnichannel consumer behaviour remain minimal (Shen et al., 2018).…”