The Mediating Role of Customer Trust in Affecting the Relationship between Online Shopping Factors and Customer Purchase Decision

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Ph.D., Institute of Business Excellence, Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract

Buying online is a trend especially for young customers aged less than 30 years old. A lot of studies have been conducted to investigate this phenomenon but hitherto no cohesive model has been established. Therefore, the present study is meant to investigate online shopping factors that contribute to customers’ purchase decision. Five factors were identified to have potential influence on online purchase decision and one factor is expected to be a mediator to affect the relationship. From 384 data collected from online customers who visited popular online shopping sites, it was found that all five factors (perceived convenience, perceived risk, perceived competence, perceived benevolence, and perceived integrity) lead to trust and at the same time trust acts as a quasi mediator to affect the relationship between these factors and online purchase decision. The findings provide the actively sought after evidence to support the claims on the role of these factors in affecting online purchase decision. Online businesses should incorporate the findings in order to facilitate customers’ decision making process while visiting their websites. The websites must contain or portray all the elements as found in this study.

Keywords

References

Adobe (2015, October 29).  Adobe APAC DigitalMarketing Performance Dashboard-Infographic[Blog post]. Retrieved from https://blogs.adobe.com/digitaldialogue/digital-marketing/apac-digital-marketing-performance-dashboard-infographics/
Abdul-Rahman, A., & Hailes, S. (2000, January). Supporting trust in virtual communities. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 9-pp). IEEE.
Amaro, S., & Duarte, P. (2015). An integrative model of consumers' intentions to purchase travel online. Tourism Management, 46, 64-79.
Ariff, M. S. M., Sylvester, M., Zakuan, N., Ismail, K., & Ali, K. M. (2014, June). Consumer perceived risk, attitude and online shopping behaviour: Empirical evidence from Malaysia. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 58, No. 1, p. 012007). IOP Publishing.
Bauer, R. A. (1960). Consumer behavior as risk taking. In dynamic marketing for a changing world, Ed. Robert S. Hancock, 389-98. Chicago: American Marketing Association.
Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O. A., Pavlou, P. A., & Venkatraman, N. (2013). Digital business strategy: toward a next generation of insights. MIS Quarterly, 471-482.
Calefato, F., Lanubile, F., & Novielli, N. (2015). The role of social media in affective trust building in customer–supplier relationships. Electronic Commerce Research, 15(4), 453-482.
Castelfranchi, C., & Tan, Y. H. (Eds.). (2001). Trust and deception in virtual societies. Kluwer.
Chang, M. K., Cheung, W., & Lai, V. S. (2005). Literature derived reference models for the adoption of online shopping. Information & Management, 42(4), 543-559.
Che, J. W., Cheung, C. M., & Thadani, D. R. (2017, January). Consumer purchase decision in Instagram stores: The role of consumer trust. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, P. R. (1992). Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to use computers in the workplace 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22(14), 1111-1132.
De Langhe, B., Fernbach, P. M., & Lichtenstein, D. R. (2016). Navigating by the stars: Investigating the actual and perceived validity of online user ratings. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(6), 817-833.
Freathy, P., & Calderwood, E. (2013). The impact of internet adoption upon the shopping behaviour of island residents. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 20(1), 111-119.
Gong, J. H., Xie, L. S., Peng, J. M., & Guan, X. H. (2015). Customer responses to integrity issues for travel services in China. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(2), 199-213.
Gupta, D. K., & Khincha, P. K. (2015). Factors Influencing Online Shopping Behavior of Customers: An Empirical Study. Commonwealth Journal of Commerce & Management Research, 2(7), 39-50.
Hajli, N. (2015). Social commerce constructs and consumer's intention to buy. International Journal of Information Management, 35(2), 183-191.
Hajli, N., Lin, X., Featherman, M., & Wang, Y. (2014). Social word of mouth: How trust develops in the market. International Journal of Market Research, 56(5), 673-689.
Hong, I. B., & Cha, H. S. (2013). The mediating role of consumer trust in an online merchant in predicting purchase intention. International Journal of Information Management, 33(6), 927-939.
Horrigan, J. B. (2008). Online shopping (Vol. 1615). Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Hung, Y. T., Dennis, A. R., & Robert, L. (2004, January). Trust in virtual teams: Towards an integrative model of trust formation. In 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004. Proceedings of the IEEE.
Islam, M., Arif, M., & Uddin, Z. (2016). Measuring trustworthiness toward online shopping websites: an empirical study. ASA University Review, 6(2), 223-236.
Jawa, H. A., & Chaichi, K. (2015). Factors influencing consumer behavior towards online shopping in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 2(4), 1-10.
Katawetawaraks, C., & Wang, C. (2011). Online shopper behavior: Influences of online shopping decision. Asian Journal of Business Research, 1(2), 66-74.
Kharouf, H., Lund, D. J., & Sekhon, H. (2014). Building trust by signaling trustworthiness in service retail. Journal of Services Marketing, 28(5), 361-373.
Khoo, S. (2014). Online shopping takes off in Malaysia, security concerns linger. Retrieved from:https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2014/07/11/online-shopping-takes-off-in-malaysia-security-concernslinger/
Kim, S., & Park, H. (2013). Effects of various characteristics of social commerce (s-commerce) on consumers’ trust and trust performance. International Journal of Information Management, 33(2), 318-332.
Kim, H. W., Xu, Y., & Gupta, S. (2012). Which is more important in Internet shopping, perceived price or trust?. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 11(3), 241-252.
Liao, C., Liu, C. C., & Chen, K. (2011). Examining the impact of privacy, trust and risk perceptions beyond monetary transactions: An integrated model. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 10(6), 702-715.
Lindenmeier, J., Schleer, C., & Pricl, D. (2012). Consumer outrage: Emotional reactions to unethical corporate behavior. Journal of Business Research, 65(9), 1364-1373.
Liu, H. Y., & Hung, W. T. (2010). Online store trustworthiness and customer loyalty: Moderating the effect of the customers perception of the virtual environment. African Journal of Business Management, 4(14), 2915-2920.
Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709-734.
Meng-Hsiang, H., Li-Wen, C. & Cheng-Se, H. 2014. Understanding online shopping intention: The role of four types of trust and their antecedents. Journal of Internet Research, 24(3), 332-352.
Mittal, A. (2013). E-commerce: It’s impact on consumer behavior. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(2), 131-138.
Mou, J., & Cohen, J. (2013). Trust and risk in consumer acceptance of e-services: A meta-analysis and a test of competing models. Thirty Fourth International Conference on Information Systems, Milan, 1-18.
Schiffman, L.G. & Kanuk, L.L. (2000). Consumer behavior. International. Inc.: Prentice-Hall.
Shazi, R., Gillespie, N., & Steen, J. (2015). Trust as a predictor of innovation network ties in project teams. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 81-91.
Scheer, L. K., & Stern, L. W. (1992). The effect of influence type and performance outcomes on attitude toward the influencer. Journal of Marketing Research, 29(1), 128-142.
Sheng, H., & Joginapelly, T. (2012). Effects of web atmospheric cues on users’ emotional responses in e-commerce. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 4(1), 1-24.
Sreeram, A., Kesharwani, A., & Desai, S. (2017). Factors affecting satisfaction and loyalty in online grocery shopping: an integrated model. Journal of Indian Business Research, 9(2), 107-132.
Sultan, M. U., & Uddin, M. (2011). Consumers’ attitude towards online shopping: Factors influencing Gotland consumers to shop online. Master thesis in Business Administration.
Tam, C., Loureiro, A., & Oliveira, T. (2019). The individual performance outcome behind e-commerce: Integrating information systems success and overall trust. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 30(2), 439-462.
Wu, L. (2013). The antecedents of customer satisfaction and its link to complaint intentions in online shopping: An integration of justice, technology, and trust. International Journal of Information Management, 33(1), 166-176.
Yang, K. (2012). Consumer technology traits in determining mobile shopping adoption: An application of the extended theory of planned behavior. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 19(5), 484-491.
Yulihasri, Islam, M. A., & Daud, K. A. K. (2011). Factors that influence customers' buying intention on shopping online. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 3(1), 128-139.
Zhang, L., Tan, W., Xu, Y., & Tan, G. (2012). Dimensions of perceived risk and their influence on consumers’ purchasing behavior in the overall process of B2C. In Engineering Education and Management (pp. 1-10). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Zhu, D. S., Chih, Z., O'Neal, G. S., & Chen, Y. H. (2011). Mr. Risk! Please trust me: Trust antecedents that increase online consumer purchase intention. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 16(3), 1-23.
Journal of Information Technology Management
Volume 13, Issue 3
2021
Pages 141-159

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics