A

PROJECT
ON
“UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER BEHAVIORAL
INTENTION IN ONLINE SHOPPING: A COMPARISON
OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES” CASE STUDY AT
KARNAL

Research Supervisor: Submitted by:

Mrs. Shuchika Arora Batra Saurabh Khurana
BCA, PGDEMM, PGDIB, CFA MBA IVth Semester (Marketing)
M.B.A (Faculty) Roll No. 08061104034

Remarks of Evaluator

Approved/Disapproved Approved/Disapproved
(1st Evaluation) (2nd Evaluation)

Session (2008-10)
Directorate of Distance Education
Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar
(India)
Certificate

This is to certify that the major project titled “Understanding consumer behavioral
intent in online shopping” is a bonfire record of work carried out by Saurabh Khurana
under my guidance and supervision in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the
degree of Masters in Business Administration at Karnal. The work has not been
submitted anywhere else for the award of any degree or diploma.

Signature of Supervisor/ Guide (with SEAL)

SHUCHIKA ARORA BATRA

Lecturer (M.B.A. MARKETING)
GHIM KARNAL

Forwarded by the Head/ Director of Study Center

(With Signature, Name &
SEAL)
Acknowledgement

This is to acknowledge the support and guidance of a number of people who were directly
and indirectly associated in the completion of my major project. I am deeply grateful to
my project guide Mrs. Shuchika Arora Batra for the guidance and insights that enabled
a successful conclusion to my project. Her periodic reviews and suggestions were critical
in helping me come up with an effort that hopefully meets the expectations and objectives
from the project. It was a great learning experience working with someone with constant
ideas for improvement and encouragement. I would also like to thank all the respondents
for sparing their invaluable time for the study and filling the questionnaires and my
friends for their inputs and ideas throughout.
Abstract

The survival of an electronic commerce business depends on attracting and retaining new
customers. Customer loyalty plays an important role in business profitability not only
because repeat customers buy more and, in the process, generate more revenue, but also
because it costs less to retain them.
This paper examines the relationship between purchase decisions and intentions to shop
online and the factors affecting the decisions regarding the same in the minds of a
consumer. Consumer intention in web based shopping is analyzed through a comparison
of the factors that facilitate or inhibit online purchasing of products and services using the
Theory of Planned Behavior. A theoretical model that explains purchase intentions was
tested with a sample of 120 consumers.

Key Findings:

Consumers who purchase on-line perceive significantly lower channel risk, search effort,
evaluation effort, and waiting (delivery) time on-line than off-line and express
significantly higher price-search intentions on-line than off-line. Consumers attracted to
off-line channels also perceive lower search-cost and higher price-search intentions
online than off-line, but their perceived on-line search effort and price-search intentions
are significantly lower than for consumers attracted to on-line channels. The data analysis
and statistical tests in the previous chapters throw light on the fact that intention and
purchase behavior in the online environment for products and services are driven by a set
of factors that are not always the same. Thus we see that the difference between behavior
and intention for services is that of the perceived concerns about vendors, while it does
not affect actual behavior, though people like to think that they are concerned about it.
The perceived ease of use and usefulness, even though highly relevant for products do
not really affect behavior in services as people are more concerned about security and are
influenced by information available from external sources.
For subjective norms, peer influence was not significant but media influence was the
most important factor. For products, Attitude accounts for the influence of PBC on
intention while for services, attitude does not mediate the relationship between PBC and
intention. Intention is found to be the mediating variable explaining the relationship
between attitude and behavior as a positive attitude towards shopping leads to higher
intention to indulge in a behavior.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction..........................................................................................................8

1.1 Research Issues:...................................................................................................................8

1.2 Scope of the Project:............................................................................................................8
1.3 Background:.........................................................................................................................9
1.4 Motivation for area of research :........................................................................................11

Chapter 2 Literature Review..................................................................................................13

2.1 Purchase Behavior:............................................................................................................13

2.2 Factors affecting online purchase behavior:......................................................................14
2.2.1 Channel risk perceptions:..................................................................................15
2.2.2 Price-search intentions :......................................................................................16
2.2.3 Search and evaluation effort :.............................................................................16
2.2.4 Delivery time:.....................................................................................................16
2.2.5 Vendor/Service/Product Characteristics :...........................................................17
2.2.6 Website Quality :................................................................................................17
2.3 Predicting intentions:.........................................................................................................17
2.3.1 Theory of Reasoned Action:...............................................................................17
2.3.2 Technology Acceptance Model:.........................................................................18
2.3.3 Theory Of Planned Behavior:.............................................................................19
2.4 Research Objective............................................................................................................24
2.5 Research Model: Modified theory of planned behavior:...................................................25
2.5.1 Factors that influence attitude.............................................................................27
3.4.2 Factors that influence Perceived Behavioral Control........................................29
2.5.3 Factors that influence Subjective Norms:...........................................................33

Chapter 3 Methodology.....................................................................................................34

3.1 Steps Followed...................................................................................................................34

3.2 Research boundary :...........................................................................................................36
3.3 Research Approach:...........................................................................................................37
3.5 Profile of respondents:......................................................................................................38
3.6 Data Validity and Reliability:............................................................................................42
 3.6.1 Reliability :.........................................................................................................42
3.7 Data description:................................................................................................................44

Chapter 4 Analysis and Results...................................................................................................46

4.1 Statistical Tests:.................................................................................................................46

4.1.1 One Way Anova:.................................................................................................46
4.1.2 Factorial Anova:.................................................................................................47
4.1.3 Correlation analysis:...........................................................................................49
4.1.4 Model Evaluation: Regression Analysis.............................................................53
4.2 Analysing the effect of mediation in the model :...............................................................58

Chapter 5 Conclusion and Discussions...............................................................................60

5.1 Summary Of Results:.........................................................................................................60

5.2 Implications:......................................................................................................................61
5.3 Limitations of the study :...................................................................................................62

References......................................................................................................................................64

Annexure Questionnaire................................................................................................................67

List Of Tables and Figures

Figure 1 :Theory Of Reasoned Action..................................................................................19
Figure 2 :Technology Acceptance Model.............................................................................19
Figure 3: Theory Of Planned Behavior................................................................................24
Figure 4: Modified Theory Of Planned Behavior.................................................................31
Table 1: Profile of Respondents...........................................................................................38
Table 2: Usage patterns of internet among respondents.......................................................40
Table 3: Reliability for Website Appeal..............................................................................43
Table 4: Reliability Statistics for Percieved usefulness........................................................43
Table 5 :One Way ANOVA for Purchase behavior and Intention.......................................46
Table 6 :Factorial ANOVA for Purchase intention............................................................. 48
Table 7 :Factorial ANOVA for Purchase behavior..............................................................48
Table 8 : Expansion Of symbols...........................................................................................50
Table 9: Inter Correlations for factors affecting product purchase :....................................51
Table 10:Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase intention of a product...53
Table 11:Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase behavior of a product....55
Table 12: Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase intention of a service....56
Table 13 :Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase behavior of a service....57
Table 14: Mediation effects..................................................................................................59
Table 15 : Significant predictors of intention and behavior.................................................61
 Chapter 1

Introduction

This chapter presents the recent status, trend, and the background of worldwide online
shopping. Statement of the problem and research question is also described.

1.1 Research Issues:

The study aims to understand consumer behavioral intention and actual purchase
behavior in web based shopping. The purpose of the study is to analyze various issues
pertaining to perceptions of the people about online medium for shopping. The research
intends to discover the various attributes and qualities valued by the consumers both
current and prospective.

1.2 Scope of the Project:

The research is conducted to investigate the online buying behaviour of Indian

consumers. A study on how online buyers act in an ever-changing electronic market
environment, therefore, becomes necessary. What factors affect purchasers’ behavior?
Also, what factors can explain the differences in online buying behavior among different
online buyers? Consumer intention in web based shopping is analyzed through a
comparison of the factors that facilitate or inhibit online purchasing of products and
services using the Theory Of Planned Behavior .The effect of the various factors as
modeled through a modification of the Theory of Planned behavior in the context of
online purchases is studied to determine

 The reasons for the gap between purchase intention and actual purchase behavior.
 Significant factors affecting actual purchase behavior
  To find out how are various products and services in the segment are relatively
judged and on what parameters.
 Measure relative reliabilities for each factor
 Role of attitude as a mediating variable in determining intention
 To identify key factors influencing online shopping purchase behavior vies a vies
intention
 To identify whether different categories of online buyers; e.g., trial buyers,
occasional buyers, frequent buyers and regular buyers; high income group buyers.
Buyers with a certain education level perceive website factors and website
elements differently, and whether these perceptions affect buying behavior in
different ways.

We also limit the scope of this study to the investigation of the factors affecting attitude
and intention to shop online, although several other dependent variables are important
and relevant to online consumer behavior

1.3 Background:

Electronic commerce generally refers to the sale and purchase of products and services
on the Internet; consumer purchasing decisions mainly depend on individual evaluations
of the value of products or services.

What makes a customer shop on-line? More important, what makes a customer come
back to the same e-business? Can on-line shopping behavior be explained by
demographics and lifestyle variables? Is it influenced by culture (e.g., customs and
language)?

In addition to this tremendous growth, the characteristics of the global electronic market
constitute a unique opportunity for companies to more efficiently reach existing and
potential customers by replacing or enhancing traditional retail stores with Web- based
businesses. Therefore, the World Wide Web (WWW) enables businesses to explore new
markets that otherwise cannot be reached.
For B2C e-commerce, electronic-shopping (e-shopping) involves intensive
communication of information, and thus is an interactive behavior involving consumers
and firms, conducted via the Internet or World Wide Web (WWW). In business-to
consumer electronic commerce there have been two transformations: (1) the
transformation of the consumer into a computer user, and (2) the transformation of the
physical store into a phenomenon that is information technology intensive—in other
words, a Web site. The new double role of consumer/ computer user resulting from the
first transformation is inherently complex and still not well understood. The second
transformation concerns store technology. In the physical commercial world, the
information technology used in a store is most often invisible to the consumer, whereas in
e-commerce it has been moved to the foreground. To the consumer, the Web site, an
information system, is a full representation of the store. Therefore, it is necessary to look
at the interaction between consumer and store through the filter of user-technology
interaction.

Online shopping behavior (also called online buying behavior and Internet
shopping/buying behavior) refers to the process of purchasing products or services via the
Internet. The process consists of five steps similar to those associated with traditional
shopping behavior: problem

Recognition, information search, evaluation of product options, purchase decision, and

post-purchase support. In the typical online shopping process, when potential consumers
recognize a need for some merchandise or service, they go to the Internet and search for
need-related information. However, rather than searching actively, at times potential
consumers are attracted by information about products or services associated with the felt
need. They then evaluate alternatives and choose the one that best fits their criteria for
meeting the felt need. Finally, a transaction is conducted and post-sales services
provided. Online shopping attitude refers to consumer’s. Psychological state in terms of
making a purchase through the internet. The new channel of e-shopping thus has changed
the relationship between consumers and firms.
The online shopping medium has various relative advantages over the traditional means
of retail format.

• On-line shopping dramatically reduces the search effort for price and product
information, since it can all be done with just a few clicks.
• Efficiencies in the form of increased market access and information, Range and
availability Of products at competitive prices ,easy comparison across vendors ,
Flexible operational timings, across geographical boundaries

The relative ease of an on-line search for better prices motivates consumers to shop
online. Despite the reduced search costs for price information, consumers may find it
difficult to evaluate nonprice attributes on-line. The color and style of a product may not
be exactly as they seem when displayed on a computer screen. Product quality is hard to
evaluate on-line. This is especially true for the “feel and touch” product categories. For
example, consumers may be apprehensive about buying something without touching or
feeling it because of quality uncertainty. Therefore, the on-line medium can facilitate
information search but impede evaluation of product options in terms of non-price
attributes. Research has shown that a consumer’s decision to modify, postpone, or avoid
a purchase decision is heavily influenced by the perceived risk. If on-line shopping is
perceived as too risky, this reduces the overall utility that can be obtained from it, but a
consumer perceiving a certain amount of risk in on-line shopping may not decide to avoid
the risk. Since consumers tend to maximize utility subject to time constraints, the
efficiency of delivery is a real concern for both consumers and on-line retailers. On-line
retailers often experience low customer satisfaction because of poor fulfillment of on-
time delivery. Consumers place different valuations on speedy delivery. Those who are
time sensitive may favor a traditional channel simply because it saves delivery time.

According to the Internet &Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), number of Internet

users in India: 2007: 38.5 million and is estimated to reach 71.6 billion by 2011, Internet
users per 100 inhabitants: 2004: 1.5
The Percentage of Population with access to internet in 2008 was 3.8 %
and of these the percentage of internet users who shop online was 40 -45 %

Estimated value of total e-commerce market in 2006-2007: 2300 crore (23 billion) ,

Total online shopping revenue 2004: 570 crore (of this 63% was travel related).

Many researchers and practitioners have recognized the emergence of on-line shopping
as a new retail format. In a time-constrained world, on-line stores allow consumers to
shop from any convenient location. However despite the obvious advantages, as is
evident from the above figures, consumers are still not willing to replace traditional
shopping with online format completely and the Potential pitfalls of the internet shopping
experience outweighs the attractions.

With this background, we developed a model to ascertain the underlying factors

behavioral nuances that impact the choice and intention to shop through the web.

1.4 Motivation for area of research:

The idea of buying goods (unless they are of homogenous quality such as books, VCDs,
hotel rooms and airplane tickets) that one cannot see and touch, from sellers thousands of
kilometers away may take some ‘getting used to’ for an ancient culture such as Indians,
who are used to face-to-face transactions, familiarity with the other party (strong
individual relationship and long term association between the parties), and getting
satisfaction from winning business negotiations (they are willing to employ a variety of
tactics to get the best deal).

After so many years of catalog sales and extensive acceptance of Internet and e-
commerce, and availability of infrastructure that is functional and reliable, there are still
concerns of security and ‘touch and feel’ issues among online consumers. As one person
stated “I like buying over the Internet, but it does not beat going to an actual shop where
you can see what you are buying and make sure it’s what you want.” All of these long
standing cultural traits are undermined by and are contrary to the depersonalization
associated with e-commerce and business systems designed to sell products online. My
motivation to take up this area of research is to be able to understand the impact of
consumer experience and attitudes on intention to return and unplanned purchases on-line
and also examine how certain consumer and Web site factors influence the on-line
consumer experience and identify area of improvements and unmet needs in the
electronic media that can add more value to the customers.

While it is believed that, in the online environment, the same observation will hold, only
modest efforts have been devoted to examining the effect of product type on consumers’
online shopping

Behavior. We tried to analyze if the behavior is similar for intangible services that people
indulge in through the web or tangible products.

This study also aims to determine from a customer’s point of view the combination of
features that is of the maximum importance to him/her in affecting a purchase decision
and the perceptions of Consumers for electronic versus traditional medium of purchase.

According to a survey by AC Nielsen, over 80% of web shoppers have at some left e-
markets without finding what they wanted while 23% of all attempted e-shopping
transactions end in failure.

Through this study, I tried to assuage whether it was the rebuilt perceptions resulting
from experience or behavioral control factors that determined future behavior.
 Chapter 2

Literature Review

This chapter presents a review of the relevant literature published in the field of consumer
behavior towards online shopping and the specific objectives as well as the research
model developed.

2.1 Purchase Behavior:

Online purchase behavior (also called online buying behavior and Internet
shopping/buying behavior) refers to the process of purchasing products or services via the
Internet. There is little debate that Internet usage is growing. The Internet was very small
during the 1980s, experiencing a slow but steady growth until 1994 when the number of
Internet users exploded, doubling in size In fact; the Internet has the highest adoption rate
of any other technology in history.

There have been intensive studies of online shopping attitudes and behavior in recent
years. Most of them have attempted to identify factors influencing or contributing to
online shopping attitudes and behavior. The researchers seem to take different
perspectives and focus on different factors in different ways. These studies have all made
important contributions to our understanding of the dynamics of online shopping field.
However, there is a lack of coherent understanding of the impact of relevant factors on
online attitudes and behavior and an inconsistent identification of relevant independent
and dependent variables. This makes comparisons of different studies difficult,
applications of research findings limited, and the prospect of synthesizing and integrating
the empirical literature in this area elusive.

For example, Bellman, Lohse and Johnson (1999) examine the relationship among
demographics, personal characteristics, and attitudes towards online shopping. These
authors find that people who have a more .wired lifestyle. and who are more time
constrained tend to buy online more frequently, i.e., those who use the Internet as a
routine tool and/or those who are more time starved prefer shopping on the Internet.

Bhatnagar, Misra and Rao (2000) measure how demographics, vender/service/ product
characteristics, and website quality influence the consumers. Attitude towards online
shopping and consequently their online buying behavior. They report that the
convenience the Internet affords and the risk perceived by the consumers are related to
the two dependent variables (attitudes and behavior) positively and negatively,
respectively.

Differences between goods (physical products) and services in the traditional shopping
environment and their differences in the Ecommerce environment by Lusch and Lusch
suggest that in the tradition al shopping environment, there are four unique characteristics
of services which differentiate services from goods. These characteristics are generally
unique to the E-commerce environment and have been summarized as intangibility,
inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability. In the E-commerce environment, goods—
as much as services—are perceived to be intangible. That is consumers cannot touch,
taste, feel, hear smell the goods before they make purchase decisions. However people
display a tendency to buy products that do not need to be physically felt before purchase
in the online environment, for eg. Standardized products whose quality one can be
assured of. in the E-commerce environment, the inseparability of production and
consumption distinguishes services from goods. The inseparability of production and
consumption enables consumers to derive immediate satisfaction from online transactions
for services.

In contrast, consumers’ satisfaction from goods purchased online is subject to a

prolonged delay.

Second, the inseparability of production and consumption of services may prompt the
perception that online transactions are more complex for services than for goods

Online services, however, are standardized and so, their quality does not depend on
situational
Factors such as form, place and time. Thus, it is likely that the quality of service in the
E-commerce environment would be perceived as consistent. Goods ordered online,
however, may be damaged during shipment and delivery. So unlike goods in the
traditional shopping environment, goods

In the E-commerce environment may not be perceived to be consistent in quality.

In the E-commerce environment, although services still cannot be stored and inventoried
as in the traditional shopping environment, they are available for purchase at anytime,
anywhere, and according to the consumers’ individual convenience.

2.2 Factors affecting online purchase behavior:

A critical understanding of consumer behaviour in the virtual environment, as in the

physical world, cannot be accomplished if the factors affecting the purchase decision are
ignored or misunderstood. For instance, online consumers’ concerns about lack of
opportunity to examine products prior to purchase are regarded as the specific factor
affecting the online buying decision.

Explaining human behavior in all its complexity is a difficult task. It can be approached
at many levels, from concern with physiological processes at one extreme to
concentration on social institutions at the other.

Consumers. Intention to shop online refers to their willingness to make purchases in an

Internet store. Commonly, this factor is measured by consumers. Willingness to buy and
to return for additional purchases. The latter also contributes to customer loyalty.
Jarvenpaa and colleagues (2000) assess consumers. intention to shop online by asking a
series of questions assessing the likelihood of returning to a store’s website, the
likelihood of purchasing from the store within the next three months, the likelihood of
purchasing within the next year, and in general the likelihood of ever purchasing from a
particular store again.
Attitude can be defined as the extent to which consumers’ perceptions of the online
shopping experience confirm their expectations. Most consumers form expectations of
the product, vendor, service, and quality of the website that they patronize before
engaging in online shopping activities. These expectations influence their attitudes and
intentions to shop at a certain Internet store, and consequently their decision-making
processes and purchasing behavior. If expectations are met, customers achieve a high
degree of satisfaction, which influences their online shopping attitudes, intentions,
decisions, and purchasing activity positively.

Based on the consumer purchase-decision process, there are five factors that may affect
consumer intentions to shop on-line and off-line:

 channel-risk perceptions,
 price-search intentions,
 search effort,
 evaluation effort,
 delivery time
 vendor/Service/Product Characteristics
 website Quality

2.2.1 Channel risk perceptions:

Perceptions of the risk entailed by on-line shopping differ from one person to another, but
overall they pertain to the Internet as a purchasing medium rather than to the
consequences of purchasing a particular product. The Internet allows consumers to shop
conveniently from remote locations, but they may be apprehensive about making
purchases on-line if they perceive a risk associated with on-line shopping. Some early
research suggests that risk perceptions may play a minor role in the adoption of on-line
shopping , but several recent industry- and government-related studies, in contrast,
consider consumers’ risk perceptions to be a primary obstacle to the future growth of
ecommerce. Financial risk stems from paying more for a product than necessary or not
getting sufficient value for the money spent. Performance risk, sometimes referred to as
quality risk, is based on the belief that a product will not perform as well as expected or
will not provide the benefits desired .Physical risk involves the threat to consumer safety
or physical health and well-being. Psychological risk arises from the likelihood that the
purchase will fail to reflect one’s personality or self-image. Social risk is concerned with
the individual’s ego and the effect of consuming the product on the opinions of others.

2.2.2 Price-search intentions:

Consumers expect finding low prices to be easier in the on-line environment than in the
off-line environment. The Internet provides a single source where consumers can
evaluate their price-consideration sets, instead of having to search for prices in numerous
traditional stores. Thus, consumers who display more positive perceived differences in
price-search intentions between on-line and off-line channels would exhibit a higher
tendency to switch to on-line channels.

2.2.3 Search and evaluation effort:

The widespread availability of information on the Internet is one reason why many
buyers view on-line search and purchase as a utilitarian activity. Many on-line buyers
revel in the fact that they can get information directly without having to go through a
salesperson, who in any case usually has very limited information as compared to what is
available on a Web site. On the other hand, the difficulty of evaluating certain types of
product information on-line may impede channel switching. This is especially true for
“look and feel” products . Alternative technologies, such as on-line customization tools,
help, but, for example, unless the consumer can feel a swatch of the fabric for a suit, it is
difficult to make a purchase decision.

2.2.4 Delivery time:

Most on-line transactions involve physical product delivery, and efficient delivery can be
a real burden for both consumers and on-line retailers. If timing is so important and
“convenience” (time-related) is one of the major benefits offered by e-commerce, then
shorter delivery times should increase the utility (benefits) for consumers (especially for
time-sensitive consumers) and thereby motivate them to purchase on-line.

2.2.5 Vendor/Service/Product Characteristics:

Vender/service/product characteristics refer to features of the Internet stores, the products

they sell, and the service they provide to support the transactions. These factors are found
to influence customers’ online shopping attitudes and behavior significantly.

2.2.6 Website Quality:

Their studies show that website design features can be regarded as hygiene and motivator
factors that contribute to user dissatisfaction and satisfaction with a website. Hygiene
factors are those whose present make a website functional and serviceable, and whose
absence causes user dissatisfaction. Thus the ease of navigation and website appeal
matters to consumers in their decision to purchase online.

Purchasing can be considered as humans’ socio-psychological behaviour. Therefore

having a psychological background and knowledge of human behaviour is essential for
marketers to better achieve their online marketing strategic goals. Several theoretical
models have been proposed for human behaviour study in recent years that have been
used in IT adoption, Marketing, and E-commerce fields. Theory of Reasoned Action
(TRA), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
are the most widely used Theories. A review of the empirical studies in this area
[Lymayem, 2003] shows that Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Theory of Reasoned
Action (TRA) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) are the most popular theories
used to explain online consumer behavior.
2.3 Predicting intentions:

2.3.1 Theory of Reasoned Action:

The theory of reasoned action (TRA), developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen
(1975, 1980), derived from previous research that started out as the theory of attitude,
which led to the study of attitude and behavior. The components of TRA are three general
constructs- 1) behavioral intention, 2) attitude, and 3) subjective norm. TRA suggests that
a person's behavioral intention depends on the person's attitude about the behavior and
subjective norms.

Behavioral intention measures a person's relative strength of intention to perform a

behavior. Attitude consists of beliefs about the consequences of performing the behavior
multiplied by his or her valuation of these consequences. Subjective norm is seen as a
combination of perceived expectations from relevant individuals or groups along with
intentions to comply with these expectations.

A person's volitional (voluntary) behavior is predicted by his/her attitude toward that

behavior and how he/she thinks other people would view them if they performed the
behavior. A person’s attitude, combined with subjective norms, forms his/her behavioral
intention. “The aim of the TRA is to explain volitional behaviors. Its explanatory scope
excludes a wide range of behaviors such as those that are spontaneous, impulsive,
habitual, the result of cravings, or simply scripted or mindless (Benter & Speckart, 1979;
Langer, 1989). Such behaviors are excluded because their performance might not be
voluntary or because engaging in the behaviors might not involve a conscious decision on
the part of the actor.
Figure 1: Theory of Reasoned Action (Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen (1975)

2.3.2 Technology Acceptance Model:

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)(Davis 1989, 1993: Davis et al. 1989) is an
adaptation of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)(Fishbein and Ajzen 1975) which
specifies two beliefs, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as determinants of
attitude towards usage intentions and IT usage .

 Perceived usefulness (PU) - This was defined by Fred Davis as "the degree to
which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her
job performance".
 Perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) - Davis defined this as "the degree to which a
person believes that using a particular system would be free from effort" (Davis,
1989).
Usage intentions are, in turn, the sole direct determinant of usage.

Figure 2: Technology Acceptance Model (Davis 1989)

In the Technology Acceptance Model, system usage behavior is modeled as a direct

function of behavioral intention (BI), which is in turn, a function of attitude towards
usage {A), which reflects feelings of favourableness or unfavourableness towards using
the technology, Attitude is determined jointly by perceived usefulness and perceived ease
of use . Finally, ease of use is modeled as a direct determinant of perceived usefulness.
TAM departs from TRA in one significant way. The direct path from perceived
usefulness to intention violates the TRA model which claims that attitude completely
mediates the relationship between these types of beliefs and intention. According to
Davis et al. (1989), the reason for this deviation is that in work settings, intentions to use
IT may be based on anticipated job performance consequences of using the system
regardless of overall attitude. Thus, according to TAM, the easier a technology is to use,
and the more useful it is perceived to be, the more positive one's attitude and intention
towards using the technology. Correspondingly, the usage of the technology increases.
Although it is a special case of the TRA, TAM excludes the influence of social and
personal control factors on behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior, described next,
takes these factors into account and thus might be expected to increase our understanding
of user behavior.

ACCOUNTING FOR ACTIONS IN SPECIFIC CONTEXTS:

2.3.3 Theory of Planned Behavior:

The Theory of Planned Behavior was proposed by Icek Ajzen in 1985 through his article
“From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior”. The theory of planned
behavior is an extension of the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980;
Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) made necessary by the original model*s limitations in dealing
with behaviors over which people have incomplete volitional control. As in the original
theory of reasoned action, a central factor in the theory of planned behavior is the
individual*s intention to perform a given behavior. Intentions are assumed to capture the
motivational factors that influence a behavior; they are indications of how hard people
are willing to try, of how much of an effort they are planning to exert, in order to perform
the behavior. As a general rule, the stronger the intention to engage in a behavior, the
more likely should be its performance. A behavioral intention can find expression in
behavior only if the behavior in question is under volitional control, i.e., Although some
behaviors may in fact meet this requirement quite well, the performance of most depends
at least to some degree on such no motivational factors as availability of requisite
opportunities and resources (e.g., time, money, skills, cooperation of others; see Ajzen,
1985,). Collectively, these factors represent people’s actual control over the behavior. To
the extent that a person has the required opportunities and resources, and intends to
perform the behavior, he or she should succeed in doing so. According to the theory of
planned behavior, perceived behavioral control, together with behavioral intention, can
be used directly to predict behavioral achievement.

The theory of planned behavior postulates three conceptually independent determinants

of intention.
Attitude toward behaviour:

 An individual’s positive or negative evaluation of self-performance of the

particular behavior. The first is the attitude toward the behavior and refers to the
degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of
the behavior in question. The concept is the degree to which performance of the
behavior is positively or negatively valued. It is determined by the total set of
accessible behavioral beliefs linking the behavior to various outcomes and other
attributes. Most contemporary social psychologists take a cognitive or
information-processing approach to attitude formation. This approach is
exemplified by Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975) expectancy-value model of attitudes.
According to this model, attitudes develop reasonably from the beliefs people
hold about the object of the attitude. In this fashion, we learn to favor behaviors
we believe have largely desirable consequences and we form unfavorable
attitudes toward behaviors we associate with mostly undesirable consequences.

Subjective norms:

 Ajzen defined subjective norms as perceived social pressure to perform or not to

perform the behaviour. Doll and Ajzen described the same as an individual’s
perception of social normative pressures, or relevant others’ beliefs that he or she
should or should not perform such behavior. They added further clarification that
adds group approval to their definition of the subjective norms
construct:”Perceived social pressure is assumed to increase to the extent that
salient references with whom a person is motivated to comply are seen as
approving of the behavior under consideration.
 Reno et al 1993 differentiate perceptions of behavior typically engaged in from
perceptions of behavior typically approved of by society labeling these two
constructs descriptive and injunctive norms respectively. The concept of social
influence has been assessed by social norm and normative belief in both the
theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior. Individuals’ elaborative
thoughts on subjective norms are perceptions on whether they are expected by
 their friends, family and the society to perform the recommended behavior. Social
influence is measured by evaluation of various social groups.


 It seems reasonable to assume that perceived social pressure to comply with

normative behavior expectations does increase with perceived social referent
approval of the behaviour. It is not clear however that perceived approval of
behavior and perceived behavioral expectations by important others are
synonymous constructs.
 Studies in organizational settings have found subjective norms to be an important
determinant of BI or self reported usage of IT {Hardwick and Barki 1994. Moore
and Benbasat 1993). Thus, in a setting where actual behavior with real
consequences is studied, subjective norm would be expected to be an important
determinant of intention and usage. Furthermore, its relative importance may be a
function of the phase of implementation of the technology; subjective norms have
been found to be more important prior to, or in the early stages of, implementation
when users have only limited direct experience from which to develop attitudes
(Hardwick and Barki 1994).

 Perceived behavioral control :



 An individual's perceived ease or difficulty of performing the particular behavior

(Ajzen, 1988). It is assumed that perceived behavioral control is determined by
the total set of accessible control beliefs. Another approach to perceived control
can be found in Atkinson*s(1964) theory of achievement motivation. An
important factor in this theory is the expectancy of success, defined as the
perceived probability of succeeding at a given task. The present view of perceived
behavioral control, however, is most compatible with Bandura’s (1977, 1982)
concept of perceived selfefficacy which is concerned with judgments of how well
one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations.
Among the beliefs that ultimately determine intention and action there is,
according to the theory of planned behavior, a set that deals with the presence or
 absence of requisite resources and opportunities. These control beliefs may be
based in part on past experience with the behavior, but they will usually also be
influenced by second-hand information about the behavior, by the experiences of
acquaintances and friends, and by other factors that increase or reduce the
perceived difficulty of performing the behavior in question. The more resources
and opportunities individuals believe they possess, and the fewer obstacles or
impediments they anticipate, the greater should be their perceived control over the
behavior. As of today, only a handful of studies have examined the relation
between specific control beliefs and perceived behavioral control (e.g., Ajzen &
Madden, 1986).


 As Ajzen (1991) stated in the theory of planned behavior, knowledge of the role
of perceived behavioral control came from Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy.
 Perceived behavioral control reflects beliefs regarding access to the resources and
opportunities needed to perform a behavior, or alternatively, to the internal and
external factors that may impede performance of the behavior. This notion
encompasses two components. The first component is "facilitating conditions
(Triandts 1979), which reflects the availability of resources needed to engage in a
behavior, such as time, money or other specialized resources. The second
component is self-efficacy; that is. An individual's self-confidence in his/her
ability to perform a behavior (Bandura 1977, 1982).


 Recently, Fishbein and Cappella (2006) stated that self-efficacy is the same as
perceived behavioral control in his integrative model, which is also measured by
items of self-efficacy in a previous study (Ajzen, 2002a). In previous studies, the
construction and the number of item inventory of perceived behavioral control
have depended on each particular health topic. For example, for smoking topics, it
is usually measured by items such as “I don’t think I am addicted because I can
really just not smoke and don’t feel crave for it,” and “It would be really easy for
me to quit.” The concept of Self-efficacy is rooted in Bandura (1977)’s social
cognitive theory. It refers to the conviction that one can successfully execute the
 behavior required to produce the outcome. The concept of self-efficacy is used as
perceived behavioral control, which means the perception of the ease or difficulty
of the particular behavior. It is linked to control beliefs, which refers to beliefs
about the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of the
behavior. It is usually measured with items which begins with the stem, “I am
sure I can (e.g., exercise, quit smoking, etc)” through a self-report instrument in
their questionnaires. Namely, it tries to measure the confidence toward the
probability, feasibility, or likelihood of executing given behavior.


 The IT literature to date demonstrates that PBC may be an important determinant

of usage. In a direct test, Matheson (1991) found that PBC did have a significant
relationship with behavioral intention, though it did not provide substantial
explanatory power. Other indirect evidence with respect to PBC can also be found
in the literature. For example, Moore and Benbasat (1993) found that perceived
voluntariness, which they liken to perceived behavioral control, was a significant
determinant of usage. Similarly, Hardwick and Barki (1994) noted that mandated
and voluntary use result in different relative impacts for Attitude and Subjective
Norm in TRA. Furthermore. Campeau and Higgins (1991b) have shown that self-
efficacy has a significant impact on usage. Overall, this literature suggests that
PBC should influence IT usage.
 Figure 3: Theory Of Planned Behavior (Icek Ajzen, 1985 )

As a general rule, the more favorable the attitude and subjective norm with respect to a
behavior,

and the greater the perceived behavioral control, the stronger should be an individual*s
intention to perform the behavior under consideration. The relative importance of
attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in the prediction of intention
is expected to vary across behaviors and situations.

The theory of planned behavior distinguishes between three types of beliefs: behavioral,
normative, and control. And between the related constructs of attitude, subjective norm,
and perceived behavioral control. The necessity of these distinctions, especially the
distinction between behavioral and normative beliefs (and between attitudes and
subjective norms) has sometimes been questioned (e.g., Miniard & Cohen, 1981). It can
reasonably be argued that all beliefs associate the behavior of interest with an attribute of
some kind, be it an outcome or a normative expectation.

Theory of planned behavior is based on cognitive processing and level of behavior

change. Compared to affective processing models, theory of planned behavior overlooks
emotion variables such as threat, fear, mood and negative or positive feeling and assessed
them in a limited fashion. integrate all beliefs about a given behavior under a single
summation to obtain a measure of the overall behavioral disposition.

The question of the model*s sufficiency can be addressed at a more general level by
considering the theoretical limits of predictive accuracy. If all factors whether internal to
the individual or external that determine a given behavior are known, then the behavior
can be predicted to the limit of measurement error. So long as this set of factors remains
unchanged, the behavior also remains stable over time. The dictum: past behavior is the
best predictor of future behavior will be realized when these conditions are met. The
primary objection to such an approach is that it blurs distinctions that are of interest, both
from a theoretical and from a practical point of view. Theoretically, personal evaluation
of a behavior (attitude), socially expected mode of conduct (subjective norm), and self-
efficacy with respect to the behavior (perceived behavioral control) are very different
concepts each of which has an important place in social and behavioral research.
Moreover, the large number of studies on the theory of reasoned action and on the theory
of planned behaviour have clearly established the utility of the distinctions by showing
that the different constructs stand in predictable relations to intentions and behavior.
Perhaps of greater importance is the possibility of making further distinctions among
additional kinds of beliefs and related dispositions. The theory of planned behavior is, in
principle, open to the inclusion of additional predictors if it can be shown that they
capture a significant proportion of the variance in intention or behavior after the theory’s
current variables have been taken into account.
2.4 Research Objectives

The objective of the study is to understand consumer behavioral intention and actual
purchase behavior in web based shopping. The purpose of the study is to analyze various
issues pertaining to perceptions of the people about online medium for shopping . The
research intends to discover the various attributes and qualities valued by the consumers
both current and prospective. The specific objectives of the study are :

 To understand the interrelationships between the various factors and predictors

affecting the intention as well as purchase behavior in online shopping for
services and products
 Analyze the effects of demographic variables like age, occupation, income,
education levels, and employment sector on the purchase intent and behavior for
products and services.
 To study the predictive power of the research model and to see if the individual
variables under study are significant predictors of the outcome of behavior and
intention or not.
 To study the difference in trends in the explanatory power of the variables for
services and products
 To study the effect of mediation that the variables of Attitude and intention might
have in the model as a predictor of intent and behavior respectively.

2.5 Research Model: Modified theory of planned behavior:

The research model that we used for the study is a modification of the existing Theory of
planned behavior so as to include the specific variables and constructs relevant to online
shopping behavior and user’ perceptions of the same.

Behavioral intention refers to “instructions that people give to themselves to behave in

certain way”. In our model, behavioral intention refers to customer intention to shop
online. From the perspective of customer behavior, it is customer intention to exchange
information online, share confidential information and engage online transaction
The TPB asserts that behavior (B) is a direct function of behavioral intention (BI) and
perceived behavioral control (PBC) and that behavioral intention is formed by one's
attitude {A), which reflects feelings of favourableness or unfavourableness towards
performing a behavior; subjective norm (SN). which reflects perceptions that significant
referents desire the individual to perform or not perform a behavior; and perceived
behavioral control (PBC), which reflects perceptions of internal and external constraints
on behavior (Ajzen 1985, 1991). More formally, behavior is a weighted function of
intention and perceived behavioral control: and intention is the weighted sum of the
attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control components.

In our modified version, Purchase behavior is predicted directly by intention which in

turn is predicted by subjective norms and attitude. Attitude again is predicted by a
combination of perceived behavioral control and certain factors external to an individual.

Thus,

A= W3 PBC+ W4 EX.

Where:

BI: Behavioral intent

A: Attitude towards action

SN: Subjective norms

PBC: Perceived behavioral Control

EX: External factors

Figure 4: Modified Theory of Planned Behaviour

Peer expectations Subjective Norms

Perceived usefulness
INTENTION
Purchase behavior
Perceived ease of use

Security concerns Attitude

Vendor Reliability and ethical concerns Perceived Behavioral

Control

External factors

Product category

Existing and
Accessible information

Demographic Characteristics

Each of the determinants of intention, i.e., attitude, subjective norm and perceived
behavioral control, is, in turn, determined by underlying belief structures. These are
referred to as attitudinal beliefs’, normative beliefs, and control beliefs which are related
to attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control respectively. These
relationships are typically formulated using an expectancy-value model which attaches a
weight to each belief in a fashion similar to Vroom’s (1969) expectancy theory.

 Attitude (A) is equated with the two constructs:

 Attitudinal belief that performing a behavior will lead to a particular
outcome.
 An evaluation of the desirability of that outcome

For example, an individual may believe that using information technology

will result in better job performance and may consider this a highly desirable
outcome.

 Subjective norm is formed as the weighted sum of:

 An individual’s normative belief concerning a particular referent
 motivation to comply with that referent,

For example, an individual may believe that his/her peers think that one
should us information technology but that complying with the wishes of peers
is relatively.

 Perceived behavioral control (PBC) is formed as the sum of the:

 Perceived control belief.

 perceived facilitation of the control belief in either inhibiting or facilitating
the behavior

For example, an individual may feel that he/she does not have the skill to use

Technology and that skill level are important in determining usage .

In our research model, attitudinal, normative and control beliefs are decomposed into
multi-dimensional belief constructs. By decomposing beliefs, the variety of dimensions
representing each belief should become clearer and more readily understood. In addition,
the decomposition can provide a stable set of beliefs which can be applied across a
variety of settings. This overcomes some of the disadvantages in operationalization that
have been noted with respect to the traditional intention models. Finally, by focusing on
specific beliefs, the model becomes more managerially relevant, pointing to specific
factors that may influence adoption and usage.

2.5.1 Factors that influence attitude:

External environment refers to those contextual factors that impact consumers. Online
shopping attitudes and behavior. Attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a
consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with a given object”. It is a positive or
negative feeling about performing a particular behavior. Attitude is directly related to the
intention because people will only have intention to perform behaviors towards which
they have positive feelings.

 Information about the service :Existing and accessible information in

memory

 Media:

 This included information from channels like newspapers, TV, magazines,

outdoor advertising as well as the internet.
 Public opinion:
 General opinion accessible to an individual from his external environment
that might shape his/her perceptions.
 Price levels in online markets vs. traditional models:
 Consumers expect finding low prices to be easier in the on-line
environment than in the off-line environment. Search engines and agent
technologies dramatically reduce search costs
 Product category and characteristics
 Product type:

Consumers may favor buying products that are standardized and do not need
to be physically verified before purchasing online. So the product category
and type may be an important variable in the decision. Shopping environments
on the internet may be uncertain for the majority of online shoppers,
especially if they are novices. Online buyers may not be to physically inspect
the product that they intend to buy and this can be a drawback to the
electronic business.

 Product information:

Whether the relevant information about the product features, prices, services,
appearance are available readily online.

 Brand Reputation
 Product availability :

Whether the product is available easily through the retail format or

exclusively available through the internet

 Demographic attributes:

Demographics and lifestyle characteristics also play an important role in customer

buying habits.

 Lifestyle and career:

Shopping can go beyond the utilitarian experience of fulfilling product needs.

It can be used to alleviate loneliness, eliminate boredom, fulfill fantasies, or
escape from everyday life.
  Age
 Gender
 Geographical and area influences:

People living in places far from retail outlets might have an added incentive to
indulge in internet shopping even for the traditional items.

2.5.2 Factors that influence Perceived Behavioral Control:

 Security concerns:

Risk associated with context of online transactions, and includes risk of privacy,
security related to disclosure of sensitive information. They may also be concerned
about possible risk of online transactions and lack of control. Some may have the
impression that the Internet is not a secure environment for transactions and may fear
that others would have an unlimited access to their personal information. These
“negative” feelings could affect customer’s willingness to shop online.

 Vendor reliability and ethical concerns about the vendors:

Vender/service/product characteristics refer to features of the Internet stores, the
products they sell, and the service they provide to support the transactions. These
factors are found to influence customers. online shopping attitudes and behavior
significantly.
 Reputation
 Assurance-building mechanisms:

(e.g., seals, warranties, news clips), and use of testimonials and service ratings
by customers.

 Quality of merchandise and after sales service:

This includes quality of the products sold, availability of personalized

services, ease of return and refunds, fraud, delivery (speed, tracking and
tracing), transaction costs, peripheral costs, and promotion. Satisfaction is
 important to the individual consumer because it reflects a positive outcome
from the outlay of scarce resources, and/or the fulfillment of previously unmet
needs

 Customer communication channels/ease of vendor contact:

Response to customer needs, accessibility of sales people, reliability of the

purchasing process/process uncertainty, a prompt response to customer
inquiries and the ability to answer their questions may affect customer
satisfaction. These issues are especially important to online shoppers, since
those customers don't meet face-to-face with merchants (O'Shea, 1999; Aaron,
1999). Research has shown that an online transaction may be abandoned if the
customer questions remain unanswered

 Perceived usefulness:

Refers to the degree to which an innovation provides benefits which supersede those
of its precursor and may incorporate factors such as economic benefits, image
enhancement, convenience and satisfaction

 Compatibility:

Compatibility is the degree to which the innovation fits with the potential
adopter's existing values, previous experiences and current needs.

 Perceived difference in Time of order & delivery

As compared to retail store format is one reason why consumers prefer the
online media especially when they are hard pressed for time. The online stores
are open 24 hours a day and offering shopping convenience at little or no
additional cost to the owner. This has thus facilitates shopping by anyone,
anytime, anywhere in the world who is connected to the internet. For instance
an international customer from across the world who wants to look for a
certain reference book can do so by logging-on to the websites in mid-day and
 order the book from companies such as Amazon.com while the U.S retailers
are quietly asleep at night. The same user may be shopping from home, from
work, or any other place that he/ she may have access to the internet for
further convenience.

 Wider range of choices :

The widespread availability of information and wide variety of products listed

on the Internet is one reason why many buyers view on-line search and
purchase as a utilitarian activity

 Ease of payment procedures:

Perceptions of ease of plastic money through a click as opposed to hard cash

and paper based formalities for retail purchases. To consumers purchasing
through cyber ads can be compelling. For instance they can save time by
shopping at a place where they have internet access and they can also avoid
crowded shopping malls

 Non solicited advertising:

Consumers may have a negative perception of the medium if they resent being
the subject of non solicited advertising.

 Perceived ease of use:

Represents the degree to which the medium is perceived to be difficult to understand,

learn or operate. In the online environment, perceived ease of use is about the
perception of the ease of making purchases over the Internet. Therefore, in this study,
perceived ease of use is defined as the extent to which a person believes that making
purchases over the Internet (E-commerce) will be free from effort.
 Past experiences and self efficacy:

If customers do not have a valuable and intrinsically enjoyable experience on-

line, they may return to the more enriching and enjoyable physical world. A
more positive shopping experience, where customers experience high levels of
shopping enjoyment, will undoubtedly increase the number of unplanned
purchases.

 Perceived success and failure-

Familiarity with portals: Web skills and familiarity probably affect a Web
customer’s experience and behavior. Technological savvy plays an important
role in building the trust of on-line shoppers. People who are technologically
savvy have more experience with the Internet and consequently have the
know-how to gather information on businesses they are considering for
business transactions.

 Perceived losses or risks while transacting –

Here when studying perceived risk, the focus is primarily on potentially

negative outcome or potential losses or harm, specifically w.r.t returns,
exchanges and refunds. Potential outcomes of a behavior and the possible
unpleasantness of these outcomes. When it is related to online shopping, the
risk may then be defined as the subjectively-determined expectation of loss by
an online purchaser in contemplating a particular online purchase. Physical
risk involves the potential threat to a consumer’s safety or physical health and
well-being. When a purchase made fails to reflect on its purchaser’s self-
image or personality then that is considered as psychological risk. While
social risk is concerned with an individual’s ego and the effect that will have
on the opinions of reference groups. Risk propensity can be defined as the
frequency with which people do or do not take different kinds of risks.
 Search and evaluation efforts:

The ability of an online consumer to search and compare price and quality
information across websites I increases their probability of using the medium over the
retail format. Customers want simple, easy, and stress-free purchasing process
(McGreevy, 1999). A recent research found that about 62% of potential Web
shoppers aborted their transactions in frustration over the purchasing process

 Opportunity to use medium:

Access to resources: Whether a person engages in online shopping may be dictated

to by the access to necessary resources like a computer, the internet, credit cards etc.

 Website appeal :

Necessary and motivating appeals:

Many researchers have found the quality of web retailing sites is a dominant
antecedent of customer satisfaction within the online shopping environment.
Website design features can be regarded as hygiene and motivator factors that
contribute to user dissatisfaction and satisfaction with a website. Hygiene factors
are those whose presence makes a website functional and serviceable, and whose
absence causes user dissatisfaction. Some of the categories of hygiene factors are:
Privacy and Security, Technical Aspect, Navigation, Impartiality, and Information
Content. Motivator factors are those that add value to the website by contributing
to user satisfaction like Enjoyment, Cognitive Outcome, User Empowerment,
Credibility, Visual Appearance, and Organization of Information Content.

Web stores have responded to the desire for customer control and convenience
with systems that enable consumers to easily find what they need, learn more
about it, and quickly make a purchase decision. Internal search engines,
hierarchical classifications of company products, and intelligent agents are
provided by many Web stores to support users’ need for control in accessing
information. Sites offer quick, automated purchasing through “one-click” buying
and the use of shopping carts. All these site features enable Web customers to
enjoy higher levels of control and convenience. In the competition between click
and mortar, the system design of the e-tailing experience must compensate for the
loss of traditional in-store atmospherics

 Navigation structure of a website:

The popup windows, search options, instructions for processing requests and
an uncomplicated structure influence a person’s readiness to return in the
future to the portal. The combination of less time available for shopping,
limited information-processing capability and the explosive amount of
information on the web has, however, led customers to demand more control,
less effort and greater efficiency during shopping. In order to respond to the
customers’ desire for control and convenience, web stores have to design an
efficient system to enable consumers to easily find what they need, learn more
about it and quickly make a purchase decision

 Web design:

The look, design and feel of a site that can attract first time consumers.
Including additional products in the store and adding a FAQ section may
attract more traffic. Providing a feedback section for customers will lead to
higher sales. Finally, they found that improved product lists significantly
affected sales

 Accessibility of a website
 Customized content:

The availability of customizable products and services built to pre specified

standards can attract consumers looking for value added services. Typical
online consumers are characterized by their wired lifestyle, and are time
starved. Therefore, providing customized information for the online shoppers
 who buy standard or repeat items, which can lead to shoppers gaining a
feeling of increased convenience, and allow them to make quick purchase
decisions. The existence of value-added information at a commercial website
can be an important incentive for people to shop online, and provides a key
source of diversity. Finally, they suggested that specific information available
to support consumer search, and multiple search, mechanisms with a positive
challenge will increase shopping enjoyment.

 Updated, socially acceptable information:

On-line customers have tremendous access to information about products and

services from anywhere in the world and from sources other than the product
seller. A high daily hit-rate is strongly influenced by the number of updates
made to the website in the preceding three month period. The number of links
to other websites was also found to attract visitor traffic.

 Efficient search options:

People often give up searching for a product after a few searches as the results
often do not match their specifications. That is where an efficient search
option is important.

2.5.3 Factors that influence Subjective Norms:

 Peer pressure : Expectations of relevant others that a person has to deal with on a
personal as well as professional basis which may include peer groups, family,
colleagues, organizational norms, societal norms etc.
 Chapter 3

Methodology

This chapter presents the methodology and the sample as well as the research approach
used. The methodology utilized for the project can be broken down into three steps as
described below:

3.1 Steps Followed

Step 1:

In designing the structure of research study and the framework to be adopted ,it was
necessary to study and analyse the kind of studies already done on the various
applications of the theory of Planned behavior, The Technology Acceptance Model
,Theory Of reasoned action , their applications and their limitations as identified in
previous research articles. This was followed by an exploratory study in the area.

Exploratory research is a type of research conducted because a problem has not been
clearly defined. Exploratory research helps determine the best research design, data
collection method and selection of subjects. It is the initial research before the more
conclusive research os undertaken. The results of exploratory research are not usually
useful for decision-making by themselves, but they can provide significant insight into a
given situation.

In our case, the exploratory research was conducted on people who used the internet. This
is not the actual sample under stud but to an extent an overlap is possible.it helped in
identifying the relevant factors affecting the decision process in internet shopping and the
usage pattern among Indians. Secondary research on the utility of the Theory of Planned
behavior, in particular in the context of consumer behavior for online medium was done.
The papers were obtained primarily from the Springer and EBSCO databases available at
IIT Delhi. The exploratory study helped in determining the broad framework and
objectives of the study which were further refined during the design of the questionnaire.
This was also followed by direct interviews with some respondents to get a feel of the
anxieties and attitudes which work in their minds and the issues they had with the internet
as a medium of shopping over the traditional means.

Step 2:

The second phase of the study was on designing a research model to be tested and its
analysis. The focus was on identifying a sample representative of the characteristics that
were desired as described in the research boundary. The theory Of Planned behavior was
modified to suit the context of online buying behavior and the various parameters and
constructs to be utilized to test the theory were identified. For example, the parameter of
perceived behavioral control was further decomposed into factors like vendor reliability,
past experience, website appeal etc. These were then broken into constructs to be
implemented in the questionnaire.

Questionnaire survey:

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other

prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents, a document that is
used to guide what questions are to be asked respondents and in what order, sometimes
lists the alternative responses that are acceptable. Often they are the only feasible way to
reach a number of reviewers large enough to allow statistically analysis of the results. A
well-designed questionnaire that is used effectively can gather information on both the
overall performance of the test system as well as information on specific components of
the system.

Looking at the sample, the model to be tested and the number of surveys to be conducted,
it was decided that a questionnaire based survey would be the best method to be
followed. The reason this kind of research was chosen was keeping in mind the numbers
involved and time constraints where doing an in depth personal interview would not be
possible.

It is important to remember that a questionnaire should be viewed as a multi-stage

process beginning with definition of the aspects to be examined and ending with
interpretation of the results. Every step needs to be designed carefully because the final
results are only as good as the weakest link in the questionnaire process.

The following steps were followed to design and administer the questionnaire:

1. Defining the Objectives of the survey

2. Determining the Sampling Group
3. Writing the Questionnaire
4. Administering the Questionnaire
5. Interpretation of the Results

The questionnaire was designed to take into account of the subjective and demographic
characteristics of respondents like income, occupation as well as data on demonstrated
online purchase behavior, instances of purchase and intention for future purchases.

The proposed research model was to be tested by way of two different constructs in the
questionnaire: the belief about a parameter that a person had and the motivation to
comply with that belief. The respondents were asked to indicate their levels of agreement
to each statement on a 5 point scale ;( 5= completely agree, 1= completely disagree).

The data so obtained from the respondents was then statistically analyzed through SPSS.

Step 3:

The final stage was the interpretation of the results so obtained from the statistical
analysis of the data by SPSS. The results from the analysis were used to predict the
buying behavior on internet and interpret the effect of the mediating variable son the
actual purchase behavior.

3.2 Research boundary:

The research not only explores the attributes and characteristics offered widely by the
current players in the online market but also the attributes which are most liked by the
people irrespective of whether they are provided or not.

The research is largely confined to sample data taken from Delhi and nearby areas. Hence
the study is based on the attitudes and perceptions of residents of Delhi. We have based
our conclusion depending on the responses received from them.

The sample was taken from students ,faculty members and residents of educational
institutions in and around Delhi, working professionals in IT organizations and some
MNC’s, as well as online responses from existing internet users and online shoppers and
includes the feedback of the people selected based on random sampling.

The sample under study is confined to the educated citizens of Delhi above the age of
18 .The sample is so chosen because these respondents have the basis level of
competencies, willingness and access to resources for using the web as a medium for
shopping. The age group is so chosen so that the individuals would be legally entitled to
make independent purchases and have access to financial resources for the same. The
sample I believe opens up the best opportunity to test the theory under study.

Population:

Target populations are the existing internet users and intended buyers in and around
Delhi.

Sample: Educated citizens above the age of 18.

Sampling:

Convenience sampling method is selected for this research, since respondents have to be
computer and internet literate In Convenience sampling, sample members who can
provide required information and are more available to participate in the study are
selected.

Sample size:

120

Survey Methodology used:

Questionnaire method is used. (Questionnaire is given in annexure).

3.3 Research Approach:

Research approach tends to be qualitative or quantitative. Quantitative research is one in

which the investigator primarily uses post positivist claims for developing knowledge
(i.e., cause and effect thinking, reduction to specific variables, and hypotheses and
questions, use of instrument and observation, and the test of theories), employs
instruments that yield statistical data. Qualitative research is one in which the inquirer
often makes knowledge claims based on constructivist perspectives (i.e., the multiple
meaning of individual experiences, meaning socially and historically constructed, with an
intent of developing a theory or pattern) The researcher collects open-ended, emerging
data with the primary intent of developing themes from the data

Since the purpose is to test the conceptualized theoretical model, related hypotheses, and
use the designed survey instrument, this is considered mainly a quantitative research.

Sources of data:

The data is basically primary in nature and was obtained from personal as well as online
survey. The questions were administered to the people selected based on random
sampling A total of 120 samples were taken and their responses were noted as per the
questions administered to them. The sample consists of 29 females and 91 males. The
occupation and profile of the sample is tabulated in the figure.

Sample questions:

Purpose: To analyze the decision-making factors with which consumers decide whether
to buy goods at stores or at online shops. Majority of the questions were closed ended
ones. However room was given to the respondents to express themselves whenever
needed. The questions were designed carefully to take care that no respondent is offended
intentionally or unintentionally. In addition, effort was made to make the questions
smaller, and easily understandable & answerable.

The questions were targeted to collect vital information about the perceptions that
consumers consciously and subconsciously refer to when making a purchase decision,
and how do they rate various parameters in terms of importance in online shopping
according to the research model. Also it was explored by multiple scale questions as to
how they rate parameters vis-à-vis a product and use of a service online. The interviewer
provided all the help and clarification if at all needed by the respondents.

The questionnaire is divided into three main sections, section 1 studies the respondents
Internet experience. Section 2 assessed their online purchasing behaviour. A 5-point
Likert scale, whereby 5 = completely agree to 1 = completely disagree. Finally the
respondents’ demographic data are collected in Section 3.

3.4 Profile of respondents:

The sample under study is confined to the educated citizens of Delhi above the age of
18 .The number of respondents were 120. The sample consists of 29 females and 91
males. These included people from all walks of life and social strata. It is important to
profile the respondents before we start discussing the results of the data analysis, so as to
study the relationship and influence of demographics on the decision making process.
The demographics of the respondents is as follows: The maximum number of
respondents belonged to the age group 25- 30 and around 60 % of the sample held post
graduate degrees and above.

Table 1: Profile of Respondents

Variable Units Category Count Percentage

Gender Male 91 75.83

Female 29 24.17

Variable Units Category Count Percentage

Age Years 18-25 20 16.67

25-30 32 26.7
30-35 12 10
35-40 8 6.67
40-45 12 10
45-50 5 4.17
50-55 15 12.5
Above 55 16 13.33
Education Undergraduates and 44 36.67
below
Level Graduates 30 25
Post graduates 30 25
Doctorates and above 13 10.33
No response 3 2.5
Occupation Service 17 14.6
Housewives 18 15
Professionals 26 21.7
Businessmen 11 9.17
Students 38 31.67
None 10 8.33
Income Rupees per Less than 3 lakhs 11 9.167
year 3-6 lakhs 30 25
6-9 lakhs 57 47.5
Greater than 9 lakhs 17 14.17
 No response 5 4.167
Sector Of IT 25 20.83
Retail 5 4.167
employment
Consultancy services 18 15
Manufacturing 3 2.5
Automobiles 2 1.67
Education 32 26.67
Health services 6 5
No response 8 6.67
Any other 21 17.5

Variable Units Category Count Percentage

Area of IIT 46 38.33333

JNU 17 14.16333
employment IIPM 4 3.333333
AIIMS 4 3.333333
IMI 8 6.666667

IIFT 11 9.166667
TIFAC 9 7.5
Hausa Khans 6 5
Sachet 5 4.166667
No response 10 8.333333
Total respondents 120 100

The following table summarizes the usage patterns, usage intention and displayed
purchase behavior of the respondents interviewed.

Table 2: Usage patterns of internet among respondents

Variable Units Category Count Percentage

Time spent Hours per Less than 5 5 4.166667

on the week 5-15 10 8.333333
15-25 27 22.5
internet
25-35 41 34.16667
35-45 16 13.33333
45-55 14 11.66667
Greater than 55 7 5.833333
Usage Informational 12 10
Communication 15 12.5
purpose

Shopping 2
1.666667
Services 4 3.333333
Combination of above 87 72.5

Variable Units Category Count Percentage

Number of items As per last Less than 5 12 10

5-20 75 62.5
/services year
Greater than 20 33
purchased online 27.5
Products/services
purchased online
Clothes 13 10.83333
Books 32 26.66667
Airline /Train
Tickets 65 54.16667
Music Recordings 32 26.66667
Movie 43
Tickets/Event
Tickets 35.83333
Computer Software 86 71.66667
Computer
Hardware 4 3.333333
Hotel
Accommodation 34 28.33333
Flowers 26 21.66667
Shoes 2 1.666667
 Any others 59 49.16667
Usage behavior : Rupees per Less than 10,000 35 29.16667
!0,000-50,000 48 40
Amount of money year
50,000-1 lakh 12
spent on products 10
Greater than 1 lakh 4 3.333333
No response 13 10.83333
Usage behavior : Rupees per Less than 10,000 63 52.5
Amount of money year !0,000-50,000 20 16.66667
50,000-1 lakh 11 9.166667
spent on services
Greater than 1 lakh 7 5.833333
No response 19 15.83333
Intention Of Products Definitely 57 47.5
purchase Maybe 35 29.16667
Never 21 17.5
No response 7 5.833333
Intention Of Services Definitely 24 20
Maybe 58 48.33333
purchase
Never 23 19.16667
No response 15 12.5

3.5 Data Validity and Reliability:

The validity of a scale may be considered as the extent to which differences in observed
scale scores reflect true differences among objects on the characteristics being measured,
rather than systematic or random error.

Following steps have also been taken to ensure the validity of the study:

1. Initial response and Data is collected by in-depth interviews; the result is

supported by conducting a quantitative survey by structured questionnaire.
2. Interview and survey questions were selected based on literature review
3. Data was collected from reliable sources, from experienced users.
3.5.1 Reliability:

A measure is reliable to the degree that it supplies consistent results [Wilson E.J., 1995].
Reliability is a necessary contributor to validity but it is not a sufficient condition for
validity. Reliability is concerned with estimates of the degree to which a measurement is
free of random or unstable error. Reliable instruments are robust and they work well at
different times under different conditions.

Internal consistency reliability is used to assess the reliability of the summated scales
where several items are summed to form a total score. In a scale of this type, each item
measures some aspect of the construct measured by the entire scale, and the items should
be consistent in what they indicate about the construct. This measure of reliability focuses
on the internal consistency of the set of items forming the scale. Among many tools to
assess reliability, Combat’s alpha has the most utility for multi-item scales at the interval
level of measurement [Combat L.J., 1951]. This coefficient varies from 0 to 1, and a
value of 0.6 or less generally indicates unsatisfactory internal consistency reliability. A
number of steps have been taken to ensure the reliability of the scale: After finishing the
interviews recorded contents were cross- checked with the scale direction to get the
correct data. The theory selected for the study has been clearly described and research
questions have been formulated based on the constructs. Data has been collected based on
the frame of reference that was drawn previously.

The reliability test was done separately for each of the variables that were constituted by
other decomposed variables to judge the efficacy of the scales and individual constituents
in the overall value of the final variable. It was performed for each of the following
constructs:

Website appeal:

We see that the overall value for Combat’s alpha comes out to be 0.753 but it improves
to 0.903 if the variable updated and socially acceptable information is deleted from the
measure .So in the final data analysis we delete this variable from the cumulative score.
Table 3: Reliability for Website Appeal

Combat’s N of
Alpha Items
.753 6

Item-Total Statistics

Scale Combat’s
Scale Mean Variance if Corrected Alpha if
if Item Item Item-Total Item
Deleted Deleted Correlation Deleted
Navigation 61.2330 375.631 .802 .625
Search options 61.2330 375.631 .802 .625
Customized
57.6311 410.431 .577 .693
content
Web design 60.6019 385.713 .881 .614
Accessibility 62.3301 458.537 .530 .710
Updated info 64.0583 669.879 -.298 .903

Vendor reliability and ethical concerns about the vendors:

The value for Combat; s Alpha for PBC comes to be 0.952 with no requirement of
deletion of any of its constituents.

Perceived usefulness:

We see that the overall value for Combat’s alpha comes out to be 0.662 but it improves to
0.799 if the variable Non solicited ads is deleted from the measure .So in the final data
analysis we delete this variable from the score for perceived usefulness.
Table 4: Reliability Statistics for Percieved ease of use:

Combat’s N of
Alpha Items

5
.668

Item-Total Statistics

Scale Combat’s
Scale Mean Variance if Corrected Alpha if
if Item Item Item-Total Item
Deleted Deleted Correlation Deleted
Past experience 44.5631 276.131 .644 .509
Self efficacy 44.2913 269.365 .681 .489
Perceived risk 44.7087 317.012 .600 .554
Access to
48.4660 408.369 -.068 .875
resources
Search efforts 44.7282 314.572 .616 .548

We see that the overall value for Combat’s alpha comes out to be 0.668 but it improves to
0.875 if the variable Access to resources is deleted from the measure .So in the final data
analysis we delete this variable from the score for perceived ease of use.

For services, Alpha is 0.664 which improve s to 0.876 if search and evaluation efforts are
eliminated.

Perceived behavioral control:

The value for Cronbach; s Alpha for PBC comes to be 0.947 with no requirement of
deletion of any of its constituents of vendor concerns, Security, Perceived usefulness,
Perceived ease of use or Website Appeal.

Similarly, the reliabilities for each of the variables are found out for the data on services
and the ones with low reliabilities are deleted from the cumulative score.

3.6 Data description:

Identifying inaccurate or incomplete data is the first step of data analysis. Three common
kinds of inaccuracies in our data are outliers, missing data, and inconsistent data.

Outliers are data that lie outside the expected distribution. Some human judgment is
necessary when examining the expected distribution and identifying outliers. Outliers
contaminate the mean, so in addition to examining the mean, we check the values of the
max and the minimum. Among the responses received only 4 were found to be outliers
were the responses lied outside the expected scale. These were omitted or approximated
to the closest relevant response.

Missing data are automatically checked during statistical analysis by SPSS, and the
number of missing cases is reported in separate tables simultaneously. Missing data can
also lead to misleading results by introducing bias. Whenever segments of the target
population do not respond, they become under represented in our data. In this situation,
we end up not analyzing what we intended to measure. To compensate for under-
representation of the respondents, missing data can be replaced with statistical estimates
of what they would have answered.

However since in our case the number of respondents who did not answer is low, so we
omitted that .In the qualitative data, there were a maximum of 10 respondents across the
categories who did not respond.

For usage behavior, for products and services respectively.13 and 7 people did not
respond.
For usage intention, for products and services respectively, 7 and 15 people did not
respond.

Mean substitution in general could have been used for the missing data. However, it is
easy to see that if the mean is substituted in more than a handful of cases, then surely this
adversely affects the estimated variance or standard deviation of the variable in question.
Beyond that, estimated co-variances and correlations involving that variable are also
adversely affected. Therefore, any subsequent analysis such as regression or factor
analysis will also be suspect.

For the data on usage behavior and intention for products, the responses of 16 people who
had not responded were omitted for all the variables since these could not be substituted.

For the data on usage behavior and intention for services, the responses of 17 people who
had not responded were omitted for all the variables.

A five point Likert scale has been used to measure the variables, in all of which, 1 refers
to “strongly disagree, 2 refers to “disagree”, 3 refers to “in between or not sure”, 4
refers to agree, and 5 refers to “strongly agree”.

Usage behavior has been coded as 1,2, 3,or 4 representing users spending less than

10,000, 10,000- .50,000, .50,000- R.1 lakh and greater than

,1 lakh respectively per year on product and/or services purchased online.

Purchase intention is coded as 1, 2 and 3 for unfavorable (never buy in future),
favorable (may buy in future) and very favorable (definitely buy in future).

Chapter 4

Analysis and Results

4.1 Statistical Tests:

4.1.1 One Way Anova:

In statistics, one-way analysis of variance (abbreviated one-way ANOVA) is a technique

used to compare means of two or more samples (using the F distribution).

We conducted the One Way Anova between the dependent variable of purchase behavior
and intention for products and services respectively with the factor of gender of the
respondents to see if there is a relation between them.

We have the following hypotheses to test:

 The mean level of purchase behavior remains the same for both levels of gender
 The mean level of purchase intention remains the same for both levels of gender

Table 5: One Way ANOVA for Purchase behavior and Intention

The significance of F values are:

F value
Products Services
Gender Intention 0.134 0.17
Behavior 0.46 0.345

Therefore, from the above values ,we can infer that gender of the respondents is
not statistically significant at 95 % confidence level.So none of the hypotheses
can be rejected ,as the significance of F values are greater than 0.05 in all of the
cases. So we can infer that gender of people does not have any significant impact
on purchase behavior or intention of online products or services.
4.1.2 Factorial Anova:

It is used when the experimenter wants to study the effects of two or more treatment
variables on a dependent variable. Here each independent variable is called a factor. The
major difference in analyzing factorial design with two or more factors is that the
interaction of the factors among themselves form a separate effect.

We conducted the factorial Anova between the dependent variable of purchase behavior
and purchase intention for products and services respectively with the factors as the
income levels, education levels and sector of employment and occupation of respondents
to see if there is a relation between them.

Factors:

 Income and education levels :

There were four income and education levels: Less than 3 lakhs, 3-6 lakhs,
6-9 lakhs, greater than 9 lakhs; Undergraduates and below, Graduates,
postgraduates, doctorates and above. We had three hypotheses:

 The mean level of purchase behavior / intention remains the same for all 4 levels
of education level(Main effect 1)
 The mean level of purchase behavior / intention remains the same for all 4 levels
of income(Main effect 2)
 The mean level of purchase behavior / intention remains the same for all
combinations of education level and income categories(Interaction effect)

To check if theses hypotheses are to be accepted or not, we set the significance level
at 0.05.

 Occupation and sector of employment:

 There were four occupation levels and sectors of employment: Professionals,
Students, and Businessmen, None; IT and consultancy, Education,
Manufacturing, Others We had three hypotheses:

 The mean level of purchase behavior/ intention remains the same for all 4
categories of occupation(Main effect 1)
 The mean level of purchase behavior/ intention remains the same for all 4 sectors
of employment.(Main effect 2)
 The mean level of purchase behavior/ intention remains the same for all
combinations of occupation and employment categories(Interaction effect)

Table 6: Factorial ANOVA for Purchase intention

Purchase Intention: The significance of F values is:

F value
Products Services
Education 0.04 0.0473
Income 0.542 0.638
Income by education 0.023 0.042
Occupation 0.364 0.454
Sector of employment 0.698 0.710
Occupation by sector 0.219 0.3

Therefore, education is statistically significant at 95 % confidence level for

purchase intention while the interaction effect of income and education is also
significant while none of the variables of Income, occupation, sector of
employment or a combination of occupation and sector of employment is
statistically significant at 95 % confidence level.So we reject the hypotheses :

 The mean level of purchase intention remains the same for all 4 levels of
education level(Main effect 1)
 The mean level of purchase intention remains the same for all combinations of
education level and income categories(Interaction effect)

The rest of the hypotheses are accepted.

So we can infer that none of income, occupation, or sector of employment have

any significant impact on purchase intention of online products or services though
the combination of education and income may have some effect on the purchase
intention.

Table 7: Factorial ANOVA for Purchase behavior

Purchase behavior: The significance of F values is:

F value
Products Services
Education 0.732 0.731
Income 0.904 0.931
Income by education 0.356 0.342
Occupation 0.307 0.444
Sector of employment 0.488 0.510
Occupation by sector 0.219 0.103

Therefore, none of the variables of education, Income, occupation, sector of

employment or a combination of these is statistically significant at 95 %
confidence level. So none of the hypotheses can be rejected ,as the significance of
F values are greater than 0.05 in all of the cases. So we can infer that none of
education, income, occupation, or sector of employment have any significant
impact on purchase behavior of online products or services though the
combination of occupation and sector of employment has an F value that is much
lower than the one for products, so we can say that occupational choice may have
some effect on the purchase behavior.
 4.1.3 Correlation analysis:

Correlation indicates the strength and direction of a linear relationship between

two random variables. In general statistical usage, correlation or co-relation refers
to the departure of two variables from independence. Correlation does not imply
causation" means that correlation cannot be validly used to infer a causal
relationship between the variables. This dictum should not be taken to mean that
correlations cannot indicate causal relations. However, the causes underlying the
correlation, if any, may be indirect and unknown. Consequently, establishing a
correlation between two variables is not a sufficient condition to establish a causal
relationship (in either direction).

The expansion for each of the variables is as follows:

Table 8: Expansion Of symbols

Symbol Variable
I Purchase intention
IF Existing and accessible information in memory
PC Product category and characteristics
B Purchase behavior
D Demographic attributes
PE Expectations of peers
WA Website appeal
S Security concerns
VR Vendor reliability and ethical concerns about the vendors
PERU Perceived usefulness
PRES Perceived ease of use

Table 9: Inter Correlations for factors affecting product purchase:

PER PRE
I B PE S VR U S WA IF PC D
I 1 . .032 . . . . . . -.431(* -.630(
752(* 891(* 865(* 860(* 859(* 830(** 382(* *) **)
 *) *) *) *) *) ) *)
.751 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
B . . . . . . .
-.28 -.586(* -.553(
752(** 1 867(* 850(* 786(* 789(* 766(** 492(*
0(**) *) **)
) *) *) *) *) ) *)
.000 .004 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
PE -.280 -.199 -.239 -.238
.032 1 -.191 -.073 -.062 .204(*) .096
(**) (*) (*) (*)
.751 .004 .053 .044 .015 .015 .466 .535 .039 .336
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
S . . . . . . .
-.19 -.559(* -.642(
891(** 867(* 1 995(* 967(* 968(* 845(** 433(*
1 *) **)
) *) *) *) *) ) *)
.000 .000 .053 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
VR . . . . . . .
-.19 -.548(* -.648(
865(** 850(* 995(* 1 974(* 976(* 832(** 440(*
9(*) *) **)
) *) *) *) *) ) *)
.000 .000 .044 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
PER . . . . . .
-.23 1.000 -.480(* -.627(
U 860(** 786(* 967(* 974(* 1 810(** 420(*
9(*) (**) *) **)
) *) *) *) ) *)
.000 .000 .015 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
PRES . . . . . .
-.23 1.000 -.482(* -.628(
859(** 789(* 968(* 976(* 1 812(** 422(*
8(*) (**) *) **)
) *) *) *) ) *)
.000 .000 .015 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
WA . . . . . . .
-.07 -.479(* -.555(
830(** 766(* 845(* 832(* 810(* 812(* 1 425(*
3 *) **)
) *) *) *) *) *) *)
.000 .000 .466 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
IF . . -.06 . . . . . 1 -.044 -.362(
382(** 492(* 2 433(* 440(* 420(* 422(* 425(** **)
 ) *) *) *) *) *) )
.000 .000 .535 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .661 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
PC . .
-.431( -.586 -.559 -.548 -.480 -.482 -.479(
204( -.044 1 360(**
**) (**) (**) (**) (**) (**) **)
*) )
.000 .000 .039 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .661 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103
D -.630( -.553 -.642 -.648 -.627 -.628 -.555( -.362 .
.096 1
**) (**) (**) (**) (**) (**) **) (**) 360(**)
.000 .000 .336 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103 103

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

The significance of the correlation is indicated by the asterixes, the higher the number,
the more significantly correlated the variables. From the table, we can see that Security
concerns, Vendor reliability and ethical concerns about the vendors, Perceived
usefulness, Perceived ease of use, Website appeal are significantly related to
purchase intention and behavior for products.

Peer expectations and Existing and accessible information in memory show a low
corerelation to behavior and intention while Product category and characteristics
and demographic characteristics are negatively correlated with behavior and
intention. This shows that the product category and characteristics affects the decision of
the buyers in a negative way, i.e. I only buy those products whose quality I can be sure of
without seeing physically and I only consider buying online if the product/service is not
available in a retail store.

Security, Website appeal, Vendor reliability and ethical concerns about the vendors,
Perceived usefulness and Perceived ease of use are all highly correlated to each other.
This indicates that they may not be independent of each other
However these are one to one correlations of each variable with the other and subsequent
regression analysis may throw up significant differences.

For services, Security, Vendor reliability and ethical concerns about the vendors,
Perceived ease of use, Existing and accessible information in memory are highly
correlated with behavior as well as intention though perceived ease of use has a greater
correlation with purchase intention than actual behavior.Demographic characteristics is
significantly correlated, however in the opposite direction. This shows that people tend to
buy products online if they were away from a retail outlet.’ I would shop online more
frequently if I stayed far from a retail outlet.’ This is different from the result for products
where people tend to shop online even if they are within a stone’s throw from a physical
store.

Product characteristics, website appeal and peer expectations are not significant in
their correlation with either intention or behavior since a service is readily thought to be
intangible and the issues of touching and seeing before buying do not occur. People are
also more wary of peer pressure when it comes to sensitive services like banking and
website appeal does not matter in their choice.

4.1.4 Model Evaluation: Regression Analysis

Multiple regressions, a general linear model technique, are one the most popular method
for studying the relationship between an outcome variable and several predictors, or
independent variables. It is often used with survey data, because it enables us to combine
many variables into one predictive equation. In addition, multiple regression helps to
determine the unique role of each variable in predicting the outcome, provides a measure
of the total explanatory power of the model and provides an estimate of whether a
variable is a statistically significant predictor or not. Once a regression model has been
constructed, it is important to confirm the goodness of fit of the model and the statistical
significance of the estimated parameters. Commonly used checks of goodness of fit
include the R-squared, analyses of the pattern of residuals and hypothesis testing.
The first step in regression sis is to identify the predictors and the variables we want in
the model. Predictors of Intention include:

Existing and accessible information in memory: IF

Product category and characteristics: PC

Demographic attributes: D

Expectations of peers: PE

Website appeal: WA

Security concerns: S

Vendor reliability and ethical concerns about the vendors: VR

Perceived usefulness: PERU

Perceived ease of use: PRES

We run the regression model of the following form:

Y= a+bx1+cx2+dx3+ex4+fx5+gx6+hx7+ix8+jx9

Where y is the independent variable representing purchase behavior or intention and x 1,

x2…….represent the predictors.

Regression Analysis for purchase intention of a product:

Table 10: Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase intention of a
product

Std. Error
Mode Adjusted of the
l R R Square R Square Estimate
 1 .955(a) .913 .904 .21943

A Predictors: (Constant), Information, vendor concerns, Perceived ease of use, Security,

website appeal, peer expectation, Perceived usefulness, product charac, demographics

Coefficients (a)

Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Mode Std.
l B Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 1.470 .170 8.636 .000
Perceived ease of
.049 .008 .195 5.858 .000
use
Perceived
.310 .040 2.868 7.815 .000
usefulness
Product charac -.328 .055 -2.635 -5.916 .000
Peer expectation .200 .328 1.551 .609 .544
Demographics -.127 .335 -1.004 -.379 .705
Website appeal .020 .009 .137 2.269 .026
Vendor concerns .007 .005 .059 1.440 .153
Security .017 .006 .123 -3.032 .003
Information .003 .007 .018 -.485 .629

A Dependent Variable: Intention

Purchase intention (I) = 1.47 + 0.049(PRES) + 0.310(PERU) -0.328(PC) +0.2(PE)

-.127 (D) +.02(WA) +0.007(VR) +0.017(S) +0.003(IF)

From the ANOVA output, the p level of significance is found to be 0.000, so the model is
highly significant. The R2 value is 0.913, so around 92 % of the variation in the dependent
variable can be predicted by the independent variables. The t tests for the significance of
independent variables indicate that ate significance level of 0.05(confidence level of 95
%), the variables Perceived ease of use, Product characteristics, Security concerns,
Perceived usefulness, Website appeal are statistically significant while the other
individual variables are not.
So, in effect it implies that the purchase intention of a person to buy a product online
increases with his beliefs about his ease with which he can use the service (in terms of
his Past experiences, beliefs about Self efficacy, Low levels of perceived losses or risks ,
Lesser Search and evaluation efforts ), Security concerns(I think online transactions are
secure), Perceived usefulness( in terms of Compatibility, Perceived advantages in Time,
Wider range of choices, Ease of payment) and Website appeal( in terms of Navigation
structure ,Web design, Accessibility).

The purchase intention of a person decreases with the concerns about Product category
and characteristics (in terms of Product type, Product information, Brand Reputation,
Product availability in retail stores)

Regression Analysis for purchase behavior of a product:

Table 11: Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase behavior of a
product

Std. Error
Mode Adjusted of the
l R R Square R Square Estimate
1 .923(a) .852 .837 .33150

A Predictors: (Constant), Information, vendor concerns, Perceived ease of use, Security,

website appeal, peer expectation, Perceived usefulness, product charac, demographics

Coefficients (a)

Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Mode Std.
l B Error Beta T Sig.
1 (Constant) 1.184 .257 4.605 .000
Perceived ease of
.048 .013 -.163 -3.765 .000
use
Perceived .263 .060 2.097 4.387 .000
 usefulness
Product charac -.433 .084 -.918 -1.582 .056
Peer expectation .693 .495 4.634 -1.398 .165
demographics -.597 .507 -4.063 1.179 .241
Website appeal .015 .013 .086 1.099 .275
Vendor concerns .014 .007 .104 -1.938 .117
Security .001 .008 .008 .143 .053
Information .038 .011 .168 3.535 .639

A Dependent Variable: behavior

Purchase behavior (B) = 1.184 + 0.048(PRES) + 0.263(PERU) -0.433(PC) +0.693(PE) -0.597

(D) +.015(WA) +0.014(VR) +0.001(S) +0.038(IF)

From the ANOVA output, the p level of significance is found to be 0.000, so the model is
highly significant. The R2 value is 0.852, so around 85 % of the variation in the dependent
variable can be predicted by the independent variables. The t tests for the significance of
independent variables indicates that at a significance level of 0.05(confidence level of 95
%), the variables Perceived ease of use, and Perceived usefulness are statistically
significant while the other individual variables are not. Product characteristics,
Security concerns are almost significant at 0.053 and 0.056 respectively. So, in effect it
implies that the purchase intention of a person to buy a product online increases with his
beliefs about his ease with which he can use the service (in terms of his Past experiences,
beliefs about Self efficacy, Low levels of perceived losses or risks, Lesser Search and
evaluation efforts) and Perceived usefulness (in terms of Comaptibility, Perceived
advantages in Time, Wider range of choices, Ease of payment). The purchase intention of
a person decreases with the concerns about Product category and characteristics( in terms
of Product type ,Product information, Brand Reputation, Product availability in retail
stores ) and demographic concerns ( if the product is available in a physical store, I would
not buy it online).This implies that even though security concerns, concerns about
trusting vendors, quality of products and an appealing web interface may impact the
intention of a person to shop online, it does not necessarily mean it gets converted to an
actual purchase. In terms of actual behavior, it is the ease of use, past experiences and
compatibility that are much more effective in determining the behavior.
Regression Analysis for purchase intention of a service:

Table 12: Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase intention of a
service

Std. Error
Mode Adjusted of the
l R R Square R Square Estimate
1 .937(a) .878 .866 .25605

A Predictors: (Constant), perceived usefulness, website appeal, peer exp, info, vendor
concerns, demographics, ease of use, security, product category

Coefficients (a)

Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Std.
Model B Error Beta T Sig.
1 (Constant) 1.734 .381 4.551 .000
Perceived
.013 .019 .053 .705 .482
usefulness
Perceived ease of
.372 .089 3.485 4.194 .000
use
Product
-.401 .124 -3.259 -3.232 .082
characteristics
Peer expectation .460 .734 3.612 -.627 .532
demographics -.475 .750 -3.794 .633 .528
Website appeal .025 .020 .173 1.265 .209
Vendor concerns .026 .011 .222 2.377 .019
Security .034 .012 -.252 -2.735 .007
Information .010 .016 .052 .632 .063

A Dependent Variable: intention

Purchase intention (I) = 1.734 + 0.372(PRES) + 0.013(PERU) -0.401(PC) +0.46(PE) -0.475 (D)
+.025(WA) +0.026(VR) +0.034(S) +0.01(IF)

From the ANOVA output, the p level of significance is found to be 0.000, so the model is
highly significant. The R2 value is 0.878, so around 88 % of the variation in the dependent
variable can be predicted by the independent variables. The t tests for the significance of
independent variables indicates that at a significance level of 0.05(confidence level of 95
%), the variables Perceived ease of use, vendor concerns and security are statistically
significant while the other individual variables are not. existing and accessible
information are almost significant at 0.063.So, in effect it implies that the purchase
intention of a person to buy a service online increases with his beliefs about his ease with
which he can use the service (in terms of his Past experiences, beliefs about Self
efficacy, Low levels of perceived losses or risks , Lesser Search and evaluation
efforts ),vendor concerns( in terms of the trustworthiness and reputation of the vendor)
and security concerns .The purchase intention of a person decreases with the concerns
about demographic concerns (I would only buy the service online, if it is not available in
a physical store,).

Regression Analysis for purchase behavior of a service:

Table 13: Model Summary for Regression Analysis for purchase behavior of a
service

Std. Error
Mode Adjusted of the
l R R Square R Square Estimate
1 .874(a) .764 .741 .45969
A Predictors: (Constant), perceived usefulnss, Peer exp, website appeal, info, vendor
concerns, demographics, ease of use, security, product category

Coefficients (a)

Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Mode Std.
l B Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 1.339 .561 2.388 .019
Demographics -.022 .028 -.069 -.804 .423
Security .534 .131 3.879 4.091 .000
Vendor
.530 .183 3.344 2.906 .06
characteristics
Product
-1.645 1.080 -10.016 -1.523 .131
characteristics
Website appeal 1.550 1.104 9.596 1.404 .164
Information .054 .029 .290 1.857 .045
Perceived ease of
.037 .016 .248 2.325 .022
use
Peer expectations -.014 .018 -.083 -.787 .433
Perceived
.045 .023 .180 1.907 .060
usefulness

A Dependent Variable: behavior

Purchase behavior (B) = 1.34 + 0.049(PRES) + 0.045PERU) -1.645(PC) -0.14(PE)

-.22(D) +.1.55(WA) +0.53(VR) +0.534(S) +0.054(IF)

From the ANOVA output, the p level of significance is found to be 0.000, so the model is
highly significant. The R2 value is 0.764, so around 77 % of the variation in the dependent
variable can be predicted by the independent variables.

The t tests for the significance of independent variables indicates that at a significance
level of 0.05(confidence level of 95 %), the variables Perceived ease of use, Security
concerns, Information is statistically significant while the other individual variables are
not. So, in effect it implies that the purchase intention of a person to buy a product online
increases with his beliefs about his ease with which he can use the service (in terms of his
Past experiences, beliefs about Self efficacy, Low levels of perceived losses or risks,
Lesser Search and evaluation efforts), Security concerns (I think online transactions are
secure) and existing information from sources and public opinion.

The purchase intention of a person decreases with the concerns about Product category
and characteristics( in terms of Product type ,Product information, Brand Reputation,
Product availability in retail stores ), demographic concerns and peer expectations,
though not significantly.

4.2 Analyzing the effect of mediation in the model :

A mediator variable (or mediating variable) in statistics is a variable that describes how
rather than when effects will occur by accounting for the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables. A mediating relationship is one in which the path
relating A to C is mediated by a third variable (B).

A variable functions as a mediator when it meets the following conditions:

(a) variations in levels of the IV significantly account for the variations in the presumed
mediator
(b) variations in the MV significantly account for variations in the DV, and
(c) when both IV and MV appear in the model, a previously significant relation between
the IV and DV is no longer significant, with the strongest demonstration of mediation
occurring when the direct IV to DV path is zero.

In our model, we analyze the effect of mediation between

 PBC Attitude Intention

 Attitude Intention Behavior
Table 14: Mediation effects

Dependent Independent F value

Variable Products Services
Variable
Intention PBC 0.00 0.00
Attitude PBC 0.00 0.00
Intention PBC, Attitude 0. 003(Attitude) 0.16(Attitude)
0.12(PBC) 0.00(PBC)
Behavior Attitude 0.00 0.00
Intention Attitude 0.00 0.00
Behavior Attitude, 0.939Attitude) 0.595(Attitude)
0.00(Intention) 0.00(Intention)
Intention

The values of F show that while PBC is able to predict intention and PBC is able
to predict attitude individually to a high level of significance for products as well
as services, when we consider the effect of PBC and attitude together on
intention, PBC becomes insignificant for products whereas attitude becomes
insignificant for services. This shows that while the attiude of a person dictates
his intention in the purchase of a product, for services, it is the perceived controls
about unfavorable consequences that affect the intention more significantly.

Thus for products, Attitude accounts for the influence of PBC on intention while
for services, attitude does not mediate the relationship between PBC and
intention.

When we analyze the relationship between Attitude, Intention and behavior, the
values are significant for the relationship between Attitude and behavior as well
as Intention and behavior for products as well as services .When the effects of
both attitude and intention are considered on behavior, attitude assumes an
insignificant value of 0.939 for products and 0.595 for services while Intention
remains significant. So, we can infer that intention acts as a mediating variable
between attitude and behavior for products as well as services.
 Chapter 5

Conclusion and Discussions

5.1 Summary of Results:

The relations between intention to shop on line as dependent variable and its antecedents
i.e. perceived beliefs toward on line shopping, perceived behaviour control, perceived
consequences, social norms, demographics and personal efficacies as independent
factors, and the relations between behavior and its antecedents were assessed applying
Multiple-Regression , Correlation and ANOVA.

The effect of demographic characteristics like income, gender, occupation, education

levels, sector of employment are found to be statistically insignificant on both behavior
for products as well as services while none of income, occupation, or sector of
employment have any significant impact on purchase intention of online products or
services though the combination of education and income may have some effect on the
purchase intention.

The data analysis and statistical tests in the previous chapters throw light on the fact that
intention and purchase behavior in the online environment for products and services are
driven by a set of factors that are not always the same. Thus we see that the difference
between behavior and intention for services is that of the perceived concerns about
vendors, while it does not affect actual behavior, people like to think that they are
concerned about it. The perceived ease of use and usefulnesss, even though highly
relevant for products do not really affect behavior in services as people are more
concerned about security and are influenced by information available from external
sources. For subjective norms peer influence was not significant but media influence was
the most important factor.

For products, even though security concerns, concerns about trusting vendors, quality of
products and an appealing web interface may impact the intention of a person to shop
online, it does not necessarily mean it gets converted to an actual purchase. In terms of
actual behaviour, it is the ease of use, past experiences and compatibility that are much
more effective in determining the behavior.

People also tend not to purchase services if they think they have a viable physical store
format on hand rather than for products, where it does not matter too much. Vendor
concerns about reliability and trust are also much more pronounced for services where
people are sensitive to cyber fraud and perceive their losses or risks to be much higher in
the longer term.

Table 15: Significant predictors of intention and behavior

Products Services
Intention Perceived ease of use Perceived ease of use, and
Product characteristics vendor concerns
Security concerns Security Concerns
Perceived usefulness
Website appeal
Behavior Perceived ease of use Perceived ease of use,
 Perceived usefulness Security concerns,
Information

For products, Attitude accounts for the influence of PBC on intention while for services,
attitude does not mediate the relationship between PBC and intention. This could be due
to the fact that people are more sensitive to using services online and the effect of the
consequences of their behavior has a significant bearing on their intention and despite
having a control on their personality and choices, they consciously decide to indulge in
purchases online. When people go for shopping of products online, it is the predisposed
attitude they have towards it that leads to the behavioral controls and ultimately to the
intent to purchase.

Intention is found to be the mediating variable explaining the relationship between

attitude and behavior as a positive attitude towards shopping leads to higher intention to
indulge in a behavior.

5.2 Implications:

The purpose of this study was to use a modification of the TPB (Theory of Planned
Behaviour) to investigate factors that influence online shopping in India. The explanatory
powers of the model vary between 76 % to 92 %, indicating a good prediction from the
independent variables. Thus for vendors merchandising their products online, the
vendors would do well to address the issues of perceived usefulness in term s of
increasing customer comfort, increasing the range of products available, easy payment
options and efficient search options. Ease of use is largely a psychological construct that
depends on the internal mechanisms of the mind and satisfaction with Past experiences,
beliefs about self efficacy and perception of losses in unfavorable circumstances.

For services, vendors should try to increase perceptions of secure transactions and
credibility through public information systems and general advertisements. According to
the finding most of the available sites in India for shopping are not designed to fulfill
various aspects of online shopping transactions effectively. The results also indicated that
the “saving time” was an important formative measure of perceived consequence of
online shopping. Bellman et al found that the amount of discretionary time available to
shoppers is an important predictor of online buying. If the checkout process, for example,
is more complicated than necessary, customers might get frustrated and the sales can be
easily lost. Thus, web designers should make it easy and quick for online shoppers to
review and empty all or part of the content of the shopping cart. The use of consistent
menus to allow online customers to review and change the content of the shopping cart
from all the pages of the site is highly recommended. Also considering the transportation
and traffic problem of the big cities, online shopping can be the best shopping channel to
resort.

The results of this research contribute to the body of knowledge by adding to cumulative
results of previous studies and the overall field of online shopping behaviour of
customers and assessment research.

5.3 Limitations of the study:

This study provides broad understanding of the customer behaviour on online shopping;
the depth of the study is limited to the ability to explain more variances of attitude and
intention to online shopping. The findings provide the overall knowledge about the
subject.

The breadth of the study is limited to the sample of the population. Although the sample
was selected with pre selected boundaries, but the sample size was limited practicality to
the internet literate respondents in Delhi. Therefore, the implications of this research
should only be applied to other population with caution. Second, this research was
conducted with respondents in the same culture. Therefore, cross- cultural implications
were not provided.

The following errors might have crept into the study:

1. Sampling error:
There could have been some sampling error which might have resulted in giving us a
sample that may not be representative of the population. To counter this, sample was
taken from diverse locations and we tried to have as large and representative a sample as
possible.

2. Non response error:

Out of people who were approached, some did not respond because of their reservations.
This is a major limitation of the study as the people who backed out were supposedly
very different from people who responded. Hence their opinions would have
complemented the analysis in an effective way. For the people who did not respond to the
critical data, their responses were approximated to be the nearest averages.

3. Response error:

Response error occurs when there is a possibility that the respondents either intentionally
or unintentionally have provided the incorrect answers which might have led to wrong
analysis. There could also have been a possibility that the respondents misinterpreted
questions. To counter this, the questions were kept as simple as possible and
clarifications were provided as and when sought.

4. Hidden biases

There could have been some hidden biases among respondents, which might have
resulted in an analysis that is not completely accurate. The survey being conducted on a
small sample of the representative population might not be a very accurate indicator of
intentions and buying characteristics throughout the country, especially in the semi
developed areas. Some of the respondents may have shown a prejudice or predisposition
towards some brands and attributes, related to past experiences or word of mouth
publicity that may not have been based on factual data. So we tried t o stress the fact that
this was an academic research and the views and opinions would not be divulged in
public. Respondents were encouraged to give as bias free a response as possible.
For any research of this sort where the number of people making use of such services is
large, it is necessary that the sample be large enough to account for the above limitations.
This study can be extended to include a larger sample of people and would also throw
light on the unexplored parts of this research.

References

Books, News Papers

 Aggarwal R. and Prasad J. (1998) “A Conceptual and Operational Definition of

Personal Innovativeness in the Domain of Information Technology,” Inf. Syst.
Res. V0l. 9, no.2, pp. 204-215,
 Ajzen. Icek. "From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behavior." in
Action Controt: From Cognition to Behavior, J. Kuhl and J. Bcckmann (Eds.).
Springer Verlag. New York, 1985, 11-39.
 Ajzen, I. (1987). Attitudes, traits, and actions: Dispositional prediction of
behavior in personality and social psychology. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in
experimental social psychology (Vol. 20, pp. 1.63). New York: Academic Press.
 Ajzen, I., & Driver, B. L. (1999.) Prediction of leisure participation from
behavioral, normative, and control beliefs: An application of the theory of
planned behavior. Journal of Leisure Sciences.
 Ajzen. Icek (1998)"The Theory of Planned Behavior." Organizational Behavior
and Human Decision Processes 50(1991), 179-211.
  Alba, J.; Lynch, J.; Weitz, B.; Janiszewski, C.; Lutz, R.; Sawyer, A; and Wood, S.
Interactive home shopping: Incentives for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers
to participate in electronic marketplaces. Journal of Marketing, 61, 3 (July 1997),
38–53
 Bandura. Albert. "Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral
Change," Psychological Review 84.2(1977). 191-215.
 Bandura, A., Adams, N. E., & Beyer, J. (1977). Cognitive processes mediating
behavioral change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 125.139.
 Booker, E. Internet users cruising for info, not purchase. Computerworld, 29, 8
(1995), 6.

Websites Accessed

 http://retailindustry.about.com/library/bl/02q2/bl_cgey042302.htm
 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1046151.1046154
 http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=203
 http://www.businesswire.com/news/google/20070924005851/en
 http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/events/conferences/2005/2005_proceedings/Tang.pdf
 http://www.capgemini.com/industries/products/future_consumer/key_findings/
 http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/1/3/0/9/p13099_in
dex.html
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 Annexure

Questionnaire

Dear Respondents,

This survey is being conducted to assess the behavioral aspects of online shopping
intention among consumers. This is a purely academic study meant for research purposes.
You are requested to give your views on the questionnaire that follows. We seek your
help in conducting the study.

Thanking you,

Saurabh Khurana

GJU HISAR
Name:

Sex: Male Female

Age:

20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-above

Address:

Educational Qualifications:

Undergraduates or below Graduates Postgraduates Doctorates and

above

Industry sector of employment:

IT Manufacturing Automobiles Education Health

services

Retail Consultancy services

Any other
Average annual salary:

>3 lakhs I 3-6 lakhs 6-9 lakhs <9 lakhs

1. Do you use the internet? Yes No

2. How much time do you spend on the internet per week?

Less than 5 hours 5- 15 hours 15- 25 hours 25- 35

hours

Greater than 35 hours

3. What activities do you use the internet for?

Informational

Communication

Shopping

Services

4. If you have purchased online, approximately how many items have you bought and
about how much money did you spend on all your purchases in the past year?

Number of items

Amount spent on products: Amount spent on services:

 Less than 10,000 Less than 10,000

10,000-50,000 . 10,000-50,000

50,000-1 lakh 50,000-1 lakh

Greater than 1 lakh Greater than 1 lakh

5. What products/services have you purchased online within the last year?

1. Clothes
2. Books
3. Airline /Train Tickets
4. Music Recordings
5. Movie Tickets/Event Tickets
6. Computer Software
7. Computer Hardware
8. Hotel Accommodation
9. Flowers
10. Shoes
11. Any others

6. If you have not bought online recently, what is the likelihood that you will make an
online purchase in the future?

Products: Services:

Definitely Definitely

Maybe May be
Never Never