Last Version

电子科技大学UNIVERSITY OF ELECTRONIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CHINA

MASTER RESEARCH REPORT

A Master Research Report submitted to

University of Electronic, Science and Technology of China

Thesis Title: Impact of E-Commerce Innovation on the Chinese Purchasing Behavior: Using C to C as an Example

Major: Management Science and E-Commerce

Author: Gbongli Komlan

Student No: 201023110114

Advisor: Dr. Jiaming Fang

http://www.google.com.gh/imgres?q=uestc+logo&um=1&hl=en&newwindow=1&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=567&tbm=isch&tbnid=Z4zm8Cxmsc4d1M:&imgrefurl=http://piers.org/piers2011Marrakesh/sponsor.php&docid=iPiJ_727UaHsHM&imgurl=http://piers.org/piers2011Marrakesh/img/logo_UESTC.jpg&w=1181&h=1125&ei=7hQgT4bFHI3KmAWy97zKDg&zoom=1

School: School of Management and Economics

Date: May, 2012

独创性声明

本人声明所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作

及取得的研究成果。据我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方

外，论文中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为

获得电子科技大学或其它教育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与

我一同工作的同志对本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的

说明并表示谢意。

作者签名：日期：年月日

论文使用授权

本学位论文作者完全了解电子科技大学有关保留、使用学位论文

的规定，有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和磁盘

允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权电子科技大学可以将学位论文的全

部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描

等复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。

（保密的学位论文在解密后应遵守此规定）

作者签名：导师签名：

日期：年月日

Abstract

Abstract

Since 1970, China has entered into a new governance system which

has enabled the country to shift from closed, central planning to a

more general customer-oriented strategy, an essential phase for the

global economy. Therefore in 2010, China became the world largest

exporter in general goods. Though it also tried to be the world largest

e-commerce country due to its possession of many resources and

capabilities to gain a competitive advantage over other countries,

China was still struggling behind the leading e-commerce countries.

Surprisingly, China is progressively beginning to improve their

infrastructure and innovation of e-business Companies; they have

developed a well planned websites like e-banking service websites,

i

Master Research Report Of University Of Electronic, Science And Technology Of China

auction websites, and online commercial platform websites to

purposely support their e-commerce growth. Many people assumed in

2009, it would be negatively affected by the global financial crisis but

electronic commerce was still at its peak. Some of the reason of that

expansion may have been the availability of the product found on the

web as compared to the off-line, or the opportunity for the consumer

to easily search for the discount products or items on the internet. As

the number of Chinese online shoppers increase, it becomes

increasingly necessary to know Chinese people decision-making. The

factors that influenced the purchasing behavior of two hundred fifty

two (252) online shoppers mainly a cross-section of students from

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC)

comprising of Chinese National and other International Students from

other nations. This research showed that the ease or convenience of

ii

Abstract

the website, the quality of the product information provided the price

type and the perceived trust greatly enhanced the satisfaction of online

shoppers and significantly influenced their buying intentions. The

buying intention of consumers was used as the dependent variable in

the construction of the research model (see figure1 in chapter one).

The dependent variable was also tested against the demographic

features and previous experience of internet usage, frequency of use

and the level of computer literacy.

The objective of this research was to discuss the theoretical issues that

remain uncovered by literature and that need deeper understanding.

The measuring indices of the major variables studies in this work were

adapted from those used recently in the research literature. All of the

questionnaires used 5 points Likert Scales. Test items in the

questionnaire included the following constructs: Convenience, Trust,

iii


Product Information, Buying Intention and Satisfaction. These gave

measurement procedure developed for this work. The respondents

were asked to complete structured questionnaires which were used to

evaluate their buying intention. The online shopping exercise gave me

useful insights into factors relating to website commercial activities

and provided the subject with a recent online buying experience to call

upon when filling in the questionnaire. First we found a strong

relationship between internet users experience the trust. Then product

information also was found to have positive influence on the online

consumer’s satisfaction. Also, there was significant positive

correlation between the general satisfaction variable (dependent

variable) and convenience, trust, product price, product availability

and trust according to the correlation coefficients which showed a

positive value for the independent variable. The findings according to

iv

Abstract

the analysis were that Chinese people are gradually shifting their

buying and selling behavior from the old customs of the buying and

selling. They prefer to purchase on the trusted and secured network

and that gives them some sort of convenience once they are satisfied

with the product price, product availability and sometimes the product

quality and information. Friends and relatives with experience in the

use of the internet, influence the purchasing behavior according to the

model analysis performed. The overall background of the respondents

was as follows: The sample was made of two hundred and fifty-two

(252) students. 64.3% were Chinese students whiles the remaining

35.7% were International students. The respondents were students

who are mainly online shoppers, highly educated in various courses

(Management Science and E-Commerce, Finance and Economy,

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Macro-Electronic Engineering,

v


Computer Science and Engineering) with high income. Many of the

respondents had previous experience of using the internet. Two

hundred and eighty (280) questionnaires were distributed and two

hundred and fifty-two(252) representing 90% were received, 42.5%

females and 57.5% males students with about 61.5% between ages of

19-24 years and 27.8% between 20-30 years and the rest were either

below 18 years or above 31 years. The information was collected by

means of self-administered survey with personal supervision and by

technical assistant. A formal interview was also done on respondents

who found it difficult to understand, or busy to fill the questionnaire.

To acquire good information about the study, we used primary and

secondary data, and then the statistical tool called Statistical Package

of Science Solution (SPSS version 18.0). The conceptual model was

used to help for analyzing the relationship between the different

vi

Abstract

factors and their effect on the electronic consumer behavior which was

part of the main benefit of the study.

We found that studying consumer behavior provides clues for

improving or introducing products or services, price setting, devising

channel and creating other marketing strategies. Obviously, marketers

or organizations are always looking for emerging trends that suggest

new marketing opportunities. Particularly, e-marketers must focus on

purchasers social characteristics in order to satisfy them efficiently.

According to the result of the study, Chinese culture has a great

influence on the satisfaction of consumers. For instance, the way

Chinese buyer will respond to a marketing stimulation will be

different from the Indian, similarly to the African or the American. As

most of the university students are youth, the online business sector

must develop customer satisfaction programs as they are scare in

vii


China and present a differentiation strategy. Observation is made that,

traditional disinclination of Chinese consumer to protest which is

embedded in the Confucius teaching is now over. The new economy

put in place by the Government has led the youth to search for their

right and obligation hence self-interest. Consequently, their demand

for the same products in term of quality is becoming high, and that

provide insight for e-commerce both home and abroad to be aware of

the reality if they proclaim customer oriented strategy.

Keywords: Electronic Commerce, consumer purchasing behavior,

influencing factors, SPSS, Consumer buying, decision process.

viii

Abstract

ix


摘要

自 1970 年以来，中国已经进入了一个新的制度系统，它使得这

个国家从一个封闭、中央规划的管理转变为更为一般的以顾客为

导向的战略，这对于全球经济是至关重要的一步。因此在 2010

年，中国变成了世界最大的一般商品输出国。他也在试图成为世

界最大的电子商务国家，因为他可以借助占有的丰富资源和能力

来获取超越其他国家的竞争优势，但是电子商务领导国也仍然只

是一个奋斗的目标。意料之外，中国正逐步开始提高他们电商企

业的基础设施和创新能力，相继开发了一些精心计划的网站，比

如电子银行服务网站、拍卖网站和在线商务平台，以此专门支持

他们电子商务的发展。很多人认为它在 2009 年将有一个很好的

发展, 它将给全球金融危机带来负面影响, 但电子商务仍在顶峰时

期。.一些理由认为，相对于线下产品而言，网络产品能够更有效

x

摘要

的推广，这个机会对于消费者来说就是，可以轻松搜索折扣产品

或项目。

随着中国的网上购物者的数量增加,了解中国人的决策变得越来越

必要。252 个网上购物购买行为的影响因子，主要是来自中国电

子科技大学（电子科大）的学生，包括来自其他国家的国际学生

和中国学生。这项研究表明，轻松方便的网站，提供产品信息的

质量，价格类型和感官信任，大大提高了网上购物者的满意度，

并且对他们的购买意向产生显著影响。以有购买意向的消费者作

为因变量而建立的研究模型(图 1)。因变量对互联网的使用，使

用频率，电脑知识水平的人口特点和以往的经验进行了测试。本

研究的目的是讨论并重视理论问题，通过文献发现，需要更深入

的了解相关理论。

通过对最新的文献的研究，我对这项工作中的主要变量的测量指

标进行了调整。

xi


所有问卷均采用 5点李克特量表测量问卷包括：方便度，信任度

产品信息，购买意向和满意度，这些指标为这项工作提供了测量

依据。受访者被要求完成结构问卷，这些问卷被用来评估他们的

购买意向。

在填写问卷时，在线购物经历给了我有益的见解，在商业活动网

站相关的因素，并提供最新，我们找到了一个用户体验和信任度

的强大的关系网络，发现产品信息对在线消费者的满意度有积极

影响。用户更愿意在信任和安全的网站上购买东西，而这些网站

将给用户提供，产品价格，产品的实用性介绍和一些有关产品质

量的信息，方便用户找到满意的产品。根据模型分析，有互联网

使用经验的朋友和亲戚会直接影响用户的购买行为。

整体受访者的背景情况如下：使用了 252 个学生所取得的样本。

64.3％是中国学生，其余 35.7％为国际学生。受访者主要是网上

xii

摘要

购物，以及一些未来高收入的专业（管理科学与电子商务，金融

经济，电气与电子工程，宏电子工程）的学生。许多受访者有互

联网使用经验。在这项研究中，共发放问卷 280份，收回 252份，

占总问卷的 90％，女性占 42.5％，男性占 57.5％，约 61.5％的学

生年龄在 19-24岁之间和 20-30岁之间，其余 27.8％的学生年龄

是 18岁以下或 31岁以上。我通过自调查手段收集信息。正式的

采访中我也发现受访者很难理解问卷内容，或者是忙于填写问卷

而不能接受采访。有关研究获得良好的信息，我们使用的主要和

次要的数据，并使用被称为统计软件包的科学解决方案的统计工

具（SPSS软件版本 18.0）。概念模型是用来帮助分析不同因素

之间的关系、以及他们对电子消费行为的影响，这也利用概念模

型进行研究的主要好处之一。

我们发现，对消费者行为的研究，为改善和引进产品或服务的价

格制定，制订渠道和创造其他的营销策略提供了线索。显然，市

xiii


场营销组织一直在寻找新兴方向，从而找出新的市场机会。特别

是电子营销，必须把重点放在买家的社会特性，以便有效地满足

他们的需求。

根据研究结果，中国文化对消费者的满意度有很大的影响。例如

中国买家将响应市场营销刺激的方式与印度买家，以及非洲或美

国买家完全不同。由于大部分的大学生都是年轻人, 在线业务部

门必须开发客户满意度项目, 并提出一个差异化战略。

观点指出,抗议建立在儒家思想的传统中国消费观已经结束了。由

政府领导的新经济带领年轻人寻找他们的权利和义务

因此，用户长期在质量相同的产品的需求越来越高，并提供电子

商务公司家庭和跨国公司意识到，如果用户宣布以客户为导向的

战略现实的洞察力。

xiv

摘要

xv


I here declare on my honor that all information contained in this

Master Thesis is essential original obtained from personal field

research. References from other sources are however duly cited and

acknowledged.

Author’s Signature…………………………….Date………….............

I declare, here within, that I have transferred the final digital text

document (in the format doc, pdf, or rtf) to my mentoring supervisor

that the content and wording is entirely my own work.

Supervisor’s Signature:………………………… Date:……………….

xvi

Table of Contents

Thesis Title: ...... Impact of E-Commerce Innovation on the Chinese Purchasing Behavior: Using C to C as an Example Chapter 1 Introduction

Research Background and Significance Research Model and Theoretical Concept

Model of the Study Hypotheses

The Problem of the Study The Objective of the Study

Scope and Limitations……………………………………………………………........8 Outline of the Thesis……………………………………………………………………9Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.2 Overview of e-commerce 2.2.1 Definition of E-Commerce 2.2.2 Brief History of Electronic Commerce 2.2.3 Classification of E-Commerce according to participants

2.3 Consumer Markets 2.4 Understanding of Consumer 2.5 Characteristic Affecting Individual Consumer Behavior

2.5.1 Cultural Characteristic of Consumer 2.5.2 Psychological Characteristic of Consumer

2.6 Consumer purchasing behavior in online environment 2.7 Consumer Buying Decision Process…………………………………..…………17

2.8 Identified influencing factors of online consumer purchasing behavior 2.8.1 Product- Price. 2.8.2 Convenience 2.8.3 Trust 2.8.4 Product availability 2.8.5 Social Characteristics 2.8.6 Experience using internet 2.8.7 Satisfaction 2.8.8 Purchasing Behavior 2.8.9 Demography

2.9 Conclusion Chapter 3 Methodology

3.1 Introduction 3.2 Research Design


Population Sample and Sampling procedure Demography Sources of Data Instrument for the data collection. Data analysis

Chapter 4 Analysis of Results 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Results on Reliability of Data 4.3 Path Analysis 4.4 Discussion

Chapter 5: Conclusion 5.1 Concluding Remarks 5.2 Future Work

Acknowledgment References Appendix..

xviii

Chapter 1 Introduction


1.1 Research Background and Significance

Network has a variety of functions, such as the function of science, economy, education and

entertainment. The economy function of network means that we can perform economic activities

and create value through the network. Network performs the main economic function by

exchanging economic information, producing social communication, trading all kinds of

commodities, controlling economies activities. E-Commerce enterprises help to accomplish this

function: Firstly, e-commerce enterprises disseminate and collect economic information through

the network to realize economic information exchange, Secondly, e-commerce enterprise

cooperate and interact with upstream and downstream firms, clients, by network to realize social

production and communication functions. In addition, the e-commerce enterprises carry out

marketing and payment online and achieve all kinds of commodity trading. Due to the rising

development of Information Technology today, the world is being affected electronically shifting

which has direct impact on the way people communicate and run their business. The fast growth

of internet service providers which connect millions of public scattered over distance, [1] offers

consumers with a convenient and inexpensive channel to enjoy the success of online

communities. By Sept 2001, the number of internet users was 54% of the USA population and

among them, 39% were using internet for online purchasing while 36% were using it to look for

product or service [2]. Another research identifies the development of the internet user

particularly from the demographic prospective and predicts the number of internet user to be

1.53 billion by 2015 [3]. China is classified [4] as fastest growing internet users in world around

16.9 million which suppose to be doubled each six month. The number of people online in China

reached 457 million and the popularity rate of internet has climbed up to 34% with an increase of

54% compared with 2009 ended[5]. In 2011, [6] the Asians internet users represent 44%

showing the biggest part and USA 22.4% in the world by geographic region. The result from all

figures shows the internet has developed and improved to highly competitive market, where a

1


competition over the consumer is fierce. So far, internet popularity has created a model shift to

the traditional way people satisfy their need and want. Consumers are drive to purchase on

virtual world at any time and any where they are. A 3000 internet shopper survey shows the

increasing number of Australian are purchasing online more than before. Due to the Global

financial crisis, more consumers are obliged to look for bargain on wide variety of product which

situation started from 2009 [7].

Although the penetration of internet users in China continues to grow, the e-commerce activities

still remain low as only 10% of users had fully fulfilled the requirement for online purchasing

[8]. If we consider internet users as people using the internet to search for information, to

communicate, and to buy, [5] statistical result shows that generally, the information and

communication internets users were higher at the rate of 50% as compared to 26% penetration

rate which refer to online shoppers. [5] E-Commerce is relatively new business mode. Therefore,

the factors which influence consumers to buy online are different from those that influence

traditional consumers. Some other researchers in China studied, what influence traditional online

Chinese consumers so far, most Chinese researchers have paid no attention to online shoppers

and their behavior.

China’s unique social-cultural environment along with the recent development of China’s e-

commerce markets combine to provide Chinese online shoppers with their own particular

characteristics regarding their buying decision-making.

In order for e-commerce to survive on the online activities, the satisfaction, the need and want of

consumers, and several online problems need to be identified and addressed; these can be

regarded as factors influencing online Chinese purchasing decision-making.

China is chosen for the testing of the research model because it’s the highest population in the

world with rapid increasing internet users and emerging manageable economy. Thus our model is

unique in its ability to represent the most influential factor of online consumer behavior. Ongoing

research is being carried to deduce the comparison between Chinese consumer and International

consumer.

The outcome of these research findings will enlighten and broaden our knowledge on online

shopping behavior of other countries as compare to China.

2


1.2 Research Model and Theoretical Concept

1.2.1 Model of the Study

For the online shopping, decision making purchasing behavior is used as the dependent

variable, factors relating to the individual consumers, to the product being purchase online were

identified as being those which influence the buyer intentions or perceptions. These factors

include demographic characteristics, cultural background, previous experience, convenience,

trust and social characteristics. Factors relating to the product include product type, price and

perceived quality. The ease of website navigation, organizational structure, clears pricing, and

simple purchase procedures. Several researchers have reported positive relationship between

ease of use (convenience), consumer satisfaction and its related Product.

3

Satisfaction

Convenience or ease of

Product Information

Social Characteristics

Experience using internet

Purchasing behavior

Trust


Figure 1-1 The proposed Research model: Online Purchasing Behavior model.

1.2.2 Hypotheses

E-Commerce has given access to online consumers to manage their time spent to getting

product or to reaching a store to purchase products. Several researches confirm that convenience

is the fundamental objective associated with the online shopping satisfaction [9]. The most

important action a company when dealing with a customer is to create a more convenience

before, during and after a purchasing process [10]. In the buying process, if the consumer thinks

that the e-vendor company is more convenient for him, the level to repurchase will be higher

[11]. Therefore, [12] service convenience was analyzed into different categories decision

making where consumers has to pass through various stages: decision-making convenience,

accessibility convenience, transaction convenience, gain convenience and follow-up

convenience. In addition, when consumers have a strong convenient feeling, the consumer

satisfaction will lead to higher satisfaction.

Hypothesis (H1): Convenience / ease of use have a positive influence on the online

shopper’s satisfactions.

Product information includes (product price, product availability and product quality).

Information refers to a process and technology involving in gathering knowledge about the

product characteristics, quality of the product investigates. Nowadays, consumer satisfaction

calls for more and more attention and it is becomes a significant factors that leads markets of

business companies to success. Hence, it demonstrated by many literatures that price and quality

has higher influence on customer satisfaction. In other hand, it has been affirmed [13] that both

quality and satisfaction have subordination to price while quality and satisfaction are also related.

If we understand price as an amount of money consumer spent on product for acquiring it, [14]

previous researchers shows some inclination through price fairness with regard to consumer

satisfaction [15]. They further conclude in another study that price fairness influence direct

consumer satisfaction while price perception rather has an indirect impact on consumer

satisfaction. We can conclude with the following hypothesis:

4


Hypothesis (H2): Fair Product information includes (product price, product availability

and product quality) has positive influence on the online consumer satisfaction.

Trust was identified as key component in e-business. In the online business activities, trust is

developed between an individual and a group of unfamiliar person which may provide positive

outcomes for the community as whole. Researches find that a lot of consumers engage in internet

purchasing decision on the basis of trust. There is no hesitation that trust is crucial for consumer

deciding in commercial dealing like online purchasing [16]. For instance, if we identify one of

the attribute of the trust which is benevolence, and then when considering it, on the view of

consumer is to analyze whether the e-vendor is preparing to enjoy fast revenue on him or her.

Trust has positively perception from the trustee to the trustor. The following hypothesis is drawn:

Hypothesis (H3): Trust influences positively the satisfaction and the purchasing behavior of

online shoppers.

The study of consumer purchasing provides information about consumer needs and wants which

leads to the markets to find a good strategies to satisfy them. Only organization which supplies

consumer with all these requirements can be able to survive in the competitive market. Indeed,

consumer may react differently and according to a lot a factors which may have impact on their

purchasing intention. Often not knowing the recovery of one’s own inner driver; consumers can

react differently at the minute by changing his mind. One influential aspect here is the social

characteristics made of family, friends, relatives etc. Sometimes in deciding what to purchase,

customer like to think of making his or her own consumption choice according to his own point

of view, but indeed he or she is led by a lot of social context. With regards to the power of mouth

communication to transmit attitudes and behavior, Paul M. Herr, Frank R, Kardes and John Kim

[17] affirmed that in part, the word of mouth information has so much influence as it is salient

and vivid. Vivid because this type of information is colorful and simple to memorize and it has a

great influence on the consumer purchasing decision via satisfaction.

From the above understanding we propose the following hypothesis.

Hypothesis (H4): Social characteristics influence highly the online shoppers purchasing

behavior through their satisfaction.

5


Many factors influence consumer experience positively or negatively. An importance piece of

customer satisfaction evaluation implies identifying the key driver that causes their satisfaction

or dissatisfaction. Researches on satisfaction and values show a lot of antecedents to online

customer, for instance on convenience and global choice [18]. [19] Satisfaction is the feeling

that the service provided is of a real value in view of the customer. A lot of researches were

showed that consumer satisfaction is the core of keeping them. The customer’s satisfaction

passes different stages any time he or she decides to purchase:

First when he needs something, he gathers the information about it, and then takes time to

analyze from a different perspective and follow by the actual purchasing decision and later come

the post purchasing behavior [20]. From that explanation, internet is used as the medium channel

to help reduce cost of searching and at the same time improving convenience significantly and

leading to product information. Satisfaction drives behavior, therefore a good understanding of it

gives retails insight the need to influence online customer behavior whether in short term or long

term. By this way, customer satisfaction is the leading driving force in increasing sales revenue

and loyalty. The result from the study [21] indicates a strong positive relationship between the

level of consumer satisfaction and the amount of product bought. So customer satisfaction is

considerably taken into consideration as effective guarantee to keep customer or to build his

loyalty and toward influencing their purchasing behavior. Purchasing behavior includes the

process of decision-making, performance of purchasing and the product usage. In that case,

customer satisfaction in e-commerce and how it is affecting consumer behavior is the mean to

know your consumer expectation. High the level of personal satisfaction is, high customer

behavior intention will be when purchasing particularly in retail store [22]. Based on these

affirmations we propose the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis (5): satisfaction increases the level of buyer intention and purchasing behavior.

6


1.3 The Problem of the Study

Likely started from 1990, consumer has changed their way of buying from traditional

conventional one to electronic commerce mode. This changing has a lot of implications on

consumer behavior. At present, all geared toward internet usage as a new medium for acquiring

product or service as means to satisfy needs and wants. Despite the increasing popularity of

internet users, previous researches demonstrate the online commercial to be slow special in

China [8]. A company selling its products online has to search for why people should embrace or

refuse to embrace that activity. Surprisingly, China Small Medium Enterprises started

contributing a lot to the Chinese GDP through E-Commerce and stimulated GDP Growth by 0.13

[23]. What can be the reason for that changing in comparison to some year ago? Earlier

researches on online consumer have to lead to information confliction. One of the main motives

why online consumers are risk averse to shopping online is the fundamental lack of faith or

loyalty that currently exists between most companies and consumers on the internet. It is not

easy for people to build up their trust in online shopping.

A little is known on Chinese online customer satisfaction and how is related to their purchasing

behavior.

1.4 The Objective of the Study

Corresponding to the development of the electronic commerce, there is an obvious increase

in the revenue and profitability of some of the major Web-based businesses. In order to keep

such kind of growth for large businesses whereas encourage middle- and small-sized businesses

to take advantage of the growth; the e-commerce industry needs to better understand their

audiences. The main reason for this research is to understand how so far the e-commerce affects

Chinese’s consumer behavior of buying especially consumer to consumer towards consumer

satisfaction. From that perspective, we will measure the level of consumer’s satisfaction when

shopping on the internet.

7


Secondly, we will get insight to customer purchasing behavior with the various factors that

influence them. The research further probes into finding the relationship between satisfaction and

purchasing behavior. The related factors (independent variable) which may have direct or

indirect impact on consumer satisfaction to the intention to buy are as follows:

Convenience: Ease of website navigation organizational structure, clear pricing and simple

purchase procedure;

Product Information: It is the process of acquiring the information;

Satisfaction: Degree of contentment. How happy is the consumer with the shopping experience;

Trust: The degree of confidence that the consumer has in the internet in general and in the

reliability and sincerity of the shopping website included; Security of consumer personal

information and protection of individual data;

Social Characteristics: Friends and relatives influence on the consumers purchasing behavior;

Perception: The process by which people (consumer) discover, and understand information he

receives from external environment of the sensory receptors. It is also refers to the instant

appreciation that someone has something.

China is selected to test the research model because it is the biggest population, an emerging

economy and the largest e-commerce market in the world, which turning to be the prospective

economy hub of the world.

1.5 Scope and Limitations

The scope of the study is limited to the student (Domestic and International) of University of

Electronic Science and Technology of China (U.E.S.T.C) purchasing behavior. Satisfaction

variables for purchasing on the World Wide Web (www) are particularly relevant in the context

of predictions made regarding electronic shopping (e-commerce) in the near future.

This study will contribute to and extends our understanding of the Internet as a medium for

commercial use in the C2C arena, identifying the factors which have impact on e-commerce

innovation on the Chinese consumer behavior environment.

There are a number of factors influencing the purchasing behavior of consumer. However, this

research will try to limit these to a few in order to investigate the effect on the online consumer

behavior. Within the field of consumer purchasing behavior, there are many theories and model

8


that the study can identify:

Consumers’ behavior differs depending on what product or service is bought.

Firms engaging in e-commerce must study and understand factors affecting the online

purchasing behavior of consumers of different countries. This study is concentrated in

Chengdu; capital city of Sichuan province (China).

It must be stated that time constraint poses a problem to the study due to the limited time within

which the study was conducted.

Due to limitations of financial and material resources, the sample size was selected to be two

hundred and eighty respondent (280) out of the entire population of users of twenty thousands

(20000).

1.6 Outline of the Thesis

This Thesis is outline as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Chapter three: Methodology

Chapter four: Analysis of the Results

Chapter Five: Conclusions

Acknowledgments

References

Appendix

9


Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter examines the various views expressed by different authors about Electronics

Commerce, it origin and definition and tries to classify it according to some characteristics.

Since many years now, e-commerce has been changing the way people buy and communicate.

Internet presents a firm varieties of opportunity by enlarge their market share and at the same

time affecting consumer behavior. This chapter involves the study of consumers with all its

features and environment, mention the consumer buying process and finally identify main factor

influencing its online purchasing behavior.

2.2 Overview of e-commerce

2.2.1 Definition of E-Commerce

Electronic-Commerce mainly known as E-C is the process of conducting business by using

internet as the channel. It also illustrates the procedure of selling, buying, exchanging and

transferring goods and services and or information via computer network. E-Commerce can also

be defined according to different perspective:

Business process perspective: Talking about E-commerce, it is to engage and complete the

business process electronically in such a way to replace information for physical business

process [24]

Communication perspective: It is the supply of goods, services, payment or information over

internet or by any other electronic way.

Service: E-C it is an instrument used by government to address issue concerning their need and

want in order to cut service cost while improving the customer service quality and increasing the

speed of service delivery.

Learning: It is a teacher for online training and education in schools, universities and among

businesses.

10


From another perspective, E-Commerce is the use of digital information to understand the need

and want of consumers and to satisfy them by increasing the company revenues, lower cost,

build and strengthen customer. To achieve these objectives, many companies today adopt

electronic commerce for direct marketing, customer service and selling, online banking,

corporate purchasing.

Despite the increasingly benefits of E-Commerce system, managing it requires a lot of potential.

Apart from adopting new technology, business process needs to be reorganized for the online

activities profit maximization.

2.2.2 Brief History of Electronic Commerce

E-C applications started in the early 1970 with innovations in the form of electronic fund

transfers (EFT), and where fund could be routed electronically from organization to another.

However, these applications were limited to larger corporations and financial institutions then by

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). This new application helps to extend more and more new E-

C application followed ranging from travel reservation system to stock trading [25]. Over the

next few years, more key innovation made possible the boom of E-Commerce. Data warehousing

and mining were important to the process and the main vital is the invention of World Wide Web

–internet browser by Tim Berners-Lee (1990). By 1991, E-Commerce get access to the web, but

gain popularity until security issue and modem speed significantly improved [26].

Another reason for the rapid expansion was the increasing in competition and other business

pressure. Economic, legal, societal and technological factors have created a highly competitive

business environment where consumers are becoming more powerful, as far as these

environments can change quickly, sometimes in an unpredictable manner [25]. E-Commerce has

grown faster and the figures from 2008 with 204 billion of dollars. United States E-Commerce

totals sales rise 14.8% in 2010 from 144.1 billion 2009 to 165.4 billion in 2010, based on the

non-adjusted estimates released by US Commerce department. A continuous flow activity of E-

Commerce make purchasers go online, more often than before, and from 1999, the emphasis of

E-C shifted from B2C to B2B and from B2B to B2E, C-Commerce, E-Government, E-Learning

and M-Commerce. From all figures pointed out, it undoubted to say that the future of E-

Commerce is even brighter and also, when considering the nature of technology and the internet,

and it will surely continue to shift and change.

11


2.2.3 Classification of E-Commerce according to participants

The following types are commonly distinguished by Turban, King Lee, Warkentin

and Chung [26] without the additional types that researchers have identified.

Business to Business: All the participants in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce that is

business or inter-organizational, information system and electronic transaction. For instance,

General Electric’s Trading Process Network (TPN) www.tpn.geis.com; most of Mark α

Spencer’s application involve B2B (more than 85% of E-C volume is B2B [27].

Business to Consumer (B2C): Based on retailing transactions of products or services from

business to individual customers: Amazon.com (www.amazon.com).

Consumer to Business (C2B): Involves consumers who use internet to sell product or

service to organization in order to agree on transaction deal: (Priceline.com is well-known

C2B organizer of such transactions)

Consumer to Consumer: It is where consumers deal directly to other consumer: The

advertisement of personal services over the internet and auction sites.

Despite the increasingly evolution of numbers of internet users, e-commerce has failed to

meet the forecast the nine e-commerce prediction for 2009(Adam Weinroth).Many reason

can be identified as factor behind.

A lot of previous researches attempt to gain insight the motivation factor for the consumer to

engage in online shopping and vice-versa. Some result has demonstrated (convenience,

competitive price, excitement etc) to be optimistic for the online activities, while the

hindrance is hard and unsteady [28]. According to the research conducted by Sang M. Lee,

Liqiang Chen [29], the result carry out the main support on the impact of the three flows

construct (concentration, enjoyment and telepresence) on consumer behavior. Furthermore it

founded that Telepresence had a negative impact on online consumer behavior and such

finding is reported for the first time in e-commerce setting.

A recent research from the angle of consumer purchasing behavior in cyberspace [30] by

using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) found that security of online shopping, price and

commercial credit is main factors affecting buyer behavior while genders, education, level of

consumers and designs of store are the secondary one. There are still some features that can

have impact on the electronic buyer behavior and the next text will help to fulfill our

12

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.tpn.geis.com/


objective.

2.3 Consumer Markets

Consumer market is that market mainly dominated by the large number of products or

services for the purpose to satisfy consumer needs and wants and also generate profit. Building a

consumer market strategy is the good approach to attain the big market share leading to sales and

revenues maximization. If the aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers’ needs

and wants better than competitors, there is an eternal relevant question which company should

ask and the one which help him to know his audience. How do consumers react to the marketing

strategy the company might attempt to exploit? So far there is a need to know the consumer.

Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use,

and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences, to satisfy their needs and wants. Studying

consumers provides clues for improving or introducing products or services, setting prices,

devising channels, crafting messages, and developing other marketing activities. Marketers are

always looking for emerging trends that suggest new marketing opportunities.

2.4 Understanding of Consumer

The key of market orientation is a customer focus. Marketers and managers must focus on

the consumer feelings, thoughts and behavior for building their strategy planning. By so doing,

marketers should have a broad view of the whole environment emphasis on the economic, socio-

cultural of consumption. Despite Mattel is the world’s largest toy company and occupies a larger

market share of its toys, it still hold 16 percent and almost 8 percent market share of toys in both

United States and Europe respectively. Having a large focus, it is the link between successful

marketing strategy and consumer understanding. To maintain this goal, companies have to keep

in touch with their customer periodically and use all alternative possibility available.

Global customer marketing obliges firms to built strategies in order to fit the variation of

the environment. Sometimes, what foreigner’s resources are capable of doing, locals firms also

will find useful. Unfortunately, a lot of companies do not have those abilities. Therefore, gaining

thorough, and get insight understanding of these opportunities enables company to validate the

right product to be produced to the right consumer in the right place. It is true that, in deciding

13


about which product or service one consumer will like to obtain, thoughts, feeling and behavior

can influenced his choice. He can like one brand but not purchase it means that person has

positive attitude toward the brand while he has the negative purchasing intention or behavior.

The better way to satisfy this people is to come out with the differentiated product. [31] Product

is differentiated from an economic stand point when it faces competition from products

considered to be partial, not perfect, substitutes for it in the minds of consumers. From that

perspective, marketer should understand both theory and the reality of it consumer. Focusing on

the consumer buying behavior part, external environmental also come to play an important role.

2.5 Characteristic Affecting Individual Consumer Behavior

2.5.1 Cultural Characteristic of Consumer

These factors contribute a lot to the influencing of a customer’s behavior. Culture can

be classified as social culture and, subculture.

Culture can be said to be the fundamental basis on which a person’s wants and behavior can be

determined. Chinese consumer, for instance, may respond differently from Indian, Japanese, or

Filipino consumers. Culture has an influence on peoples buying behavior since they have

different ideology about different products at different points in time. And also certain culture

has certain values which will influence the decision of a buyer. Culture is point out as the main

reason of a person’s wants and needs. Kotler, Armstrong [32] argue that human behavior is most

of the time at the learning process, challenge with values and belief since our childhood age

which values impact our behavior. Therefore a marketer should be aware of this, so as to use it as

an indicator to know the taste and preference of it consumers.

Subcultures as a kind of culture or behavior one acquires through a small group of people who

share values and beliefs such as nationalities, religions or geographic regions. An identified

subculture can serve as an important and effective market segment which can be targeted.

Social class is recognized [32] as a class structure, consisting of a combination of factors which

gather different types of members. It differs in dress, in speech also factors like occupation,

income, age, and education, and wealth.

14


2.5.2 Psychological Characteristic of Consumer

The Psychological characteristic of consumer is mainly classified in various theories and

concepts: Motivation, Perception, Learning, Memory, Belief and Attitude.

Motivation: Talking about motivation, it is the main reason someone has to react or act in a

particular circumstance in order to attain its objectives and which may root as basic need and

want. According to Kotler, some need are biological (desire to eat and resting), and

psychological such as the need for recognition, esteem or belonging. A motive is engine that

drives someone to act. A lot of motivation theories were discussed [33] which theories include

Freud, Maslow and Herzberg. Freud assumed the psychology forces motive people’s behavior is

more unconscious so people find difficult to understand his own motivation. In other hand,

Maslow argue that need is hierarchy established in such a way that the most pressing should be

satisfy before the least pressing and so on. A clear example is to satisfy the physiological need

before the Safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and Self-actualization needs. Herzberg’s

theory emphasize on two factors: one factor causes dissatisfaction and the second one the

satisfaction. He mentions the lack of dissatisfaction should minor compare to the satisfaction

which must be there at any time as far as motivation is concerning for the purchasing. The

marketing implication is that marketer should make sure to avoid the dissatisfaction and

secondly discover the primary motivator and make it available for the consumer.

Perception: It refers to our identification and interpretation of a circumstance according to our

sensory knowledge. The perception is explained as the process [33] by which an individual

selects, organize and interpret information input to create a meaningful picture of the world.

Perception varies according to everyone, different people, different perception. People

perception is lead by three different perceptual processes: The first is selective attention. It the

process adopt to figure out the most important needs among the several opportunities which

facing people. The second one is the selective distortion. This is affinity or inclination to

particular characteristics or to analyze information that fit our previous experience. And the last

is the selective retention. It refers to the fact of keeping information to himself which support its

attitudes and beliefs. Learning: learning, [34] “derive from experience and consumer

experiences are the heart of consumer behavior” and consumers learning as adjustment and

15


characterized by values systems, desires, needs and the previous knowledge. Proving to support

that judgment, Kotler [33] explains learning as result from experience that people goes through

which affect their behavior then, in the learning process, four factors need to be considered:

Drives implies a strong internal stimulus pushing action while cues are minor incentive that

determines when, where, and how a person responds. Suppose, you experienced a rewarding

after buying a product, then your feedback toward the specific product will be reinforced

positively. From there, consumer will generalize his view to experience more the product more

than one.

Memory: It is the process of acquiring, storing and recalling information when needed it. From

the cognitive psychologist point of view, there are two types of memory: One is Short-Term

Memory (STM) that is temporary repository of information where the mind keeps the

information just for a period of time. Another one is the Long-Term Memory (LTM) which refers

to the information you carefully store in your mind. Marketer should take into consideration that

the right experience about the product or service is what consumer is keeping in his mind in

order to impact his feedback positively.

Beliefs and Attitudes: These play an important role in evaluation where the consumer has to

assess the alternative possibility before engaging into buying. It is acquired through learning and

experience. [33] The belief as a descriptive though an individual holds about something

according to his knowledge. Belief becomes knowledge when the belief is true or can be proved

for believing it is true. Attitude is a favorable or unfavorable personal evaluation, emotional

feeling and action tendencies about some object or idea. Kotler argues that attitudes are complex

to be changed because it’s saved energy and thought. It is crucial for marketer to study

consumer’s beliefs and attitudes by understanding which circumstance requires acting

influencing purchase decision intention.

2.6 Consumer purchasing behavior in online environment

The main objective to learn consumer behavior precisely the online consumer purchasing

behavior is to identify their influential factors which will give hand to marketer in their strategy

making process in order to produce goods or service according to it needs and wants. Some

marketers often make a prediction about the online consumer toward the study of off-line

16


consumer behavior because they though the two theories are almost the same. But, as internet is

the new channel online consumers use to buy, obviously, it must be changed in the behavior

compare to the traditional way of purchasing. From the cultural aspect of online behavior, [35]

consumers differ from their social class, and therefore it creates a difference in their buying

behavior. He argues that higher class consumers may likely buy on the web than the lower class

for the reason he can get easily access to computer and the net. On the other hand, a lower

consumer’s class may find it difficult to get computer or surf on the net because of the cost to

afford it. Another alternative, he may have the computer literacy difficulty to be controlled even

though he has the computer. To Monsue, Dellaert and Ruyter [36]. talking about online

consumer personality aspect, individual income has a great impact on the consumer purchasing

intention. The one who has a higher household likely will have an optimistic attitude toward the

online purchasing. Smith and Rupp (2003), identify age as a determinant driver for people to go

for online shopping. He mentioned that older people are less seen in the web because they are

less educated in term of computer literacy and in the use of computer, while young adult would.

Motivation, perception, personality, attitude and emotion are the psychological facet of the

online behavior. It can be identified as a process that gives consumers opportunities to ask the

relevant questions before engaging into the online purchasing: If online companies offer better

price than off-line, how much do I really need? Should I buy because of convenience or is there

another opportunities for that product? This characteristic of consumer behavior control the

whole decision process, external input and elicits the responses to buy or not. Smith and Rupp

(2003) explained that, online consumer should have a good motivation for purchasing after all. It

is the unique moment where great attention is to the complexity process. The online company

must not only judge the economic theories part but also get insight to people’s habit towards the

purchasing behavior. Reisenwit [37] also proves to support the idea by explaining the fact related

to senior manager internet using. For him, more senior manager surf on the internet, the more the

positive attitude is created, greater internet purchasing and higher like hood of future internet

purchase.

2.7 Consumer Buying Decision Process

These basic theories explain so far helps companies particularly those who’s responsible

17


for decision and strategy making to understand their audience. It is also classifies as a process

that consumer passes through in deciding to purchase [33].

Problem recognition: This, start once a stimulus (internal or external) leads the consumer to be

aware of his need. Hence, it becomes the marketer’s responsibility to search for the

circumstances which push that specific need in order to develop a strategy to meet them. As

recognition of needs come, consumer turn into information searching. That is where he or she

looks for more facts, for him to evaluate the alternative demands. Evaluation is the process of

assessing the different option concerning brand information, price and make the ultimate value

choice. The opinion of rational consumer will be to target the item that encompassed a single out

profit. Therefore, the marketing strategy should be to segment the market according to the most

significant feature of purchaser group. Kotler explains that the evaluation stage also involves the

creation of preference and the formation of purchasing intention to purchasing decisions of the

most desire brand with its perpetual criterion question: from whom to buy, which quantity need

to acquire and when. There is obvious fact that, every day product doesn’t need a lot of decision

and deliberation before buying it. When the good or service is obtain, the purchaser might

experience disagreement which can depend on his further searching about other brand. From that

perspective, Kotler suggests to marketer, to build belief and evaluation that will support

consumer choice to the particular brand bought. Every organization which aims for

sustainability, must also be anxious about the postpurchase behavior of it consumers by

regularly checking up on postpurchase satisfaction, post purchase actions and postpurchase

product uses.

2.8 Identified influencing factors of online consumer purchasing behavior

2.8.1 Product- Price.

Price is the amount of money a buyer pays to a seller in exchange for the product or

service. It relates to the economics sacrifice a purchaser should make to own something

[38].

Besides the economic function, pricing influences how buyers perceive the product.When

consumers have few cue for judging quality, the evaluate products/service on the basis of

price [39]. However, Internet has become the new medium for acquiring good and service

18


where consumer can gain all information such as price and product information. By the way,

pricing influences whether selling the product will be profitable for the organization and

especially for the e-commerce where the owner of the store is unknown. Furthermore, the

price is the single element that revenue from the selling. From this perspective, when

purchasing online, additional cost for instance freight charges, supply time of goods might

influence the consumer purchasing even though the price of the real product can be cheap.

No matter what type of product you sell, the price your client will directly influence your

business. Bellow is factor price and its measurement Items

Table 2-1. factor price and its measurement Items.

Factor Measurement Items

Offer better price

Price Price of specific product influence my purchasing decision

Saves money

2.8.2 Convenience

According to the empirical studies finding [40], [41], the opportunity that online consumer

have to buy on the web at any period of time(7 days per week, 24 hours per day), wherever they

are regarded as the most obvious and important positive aspect for the e-commerce. On the other

hand, Kim and Park [42] argue that, if convenience is considered as a reason for consumer to

shop online, the consumer should straightforward get access to the net and decide on the

behavior with shopping online. He found that the less complexity consumer access net, the more

careful decision he has to make to enter and to search for information.

Saving time is mentioned as attribute for convenient when consumers purchasing online. There is

no need for him to leave home for brick and motar store before satisfying his needs and want.

Hence, consumer may gain advantage from the purchasing process being faster on online than

that the off-line market as a result of the rapidity of information searching and the transaction

process [43].

19


Table 2-2 factor convenient and its measurement items

Factor Measurement Items.

Saving time

Convenience Purchase at any time

Change order at any time before completing the transaction

Less effort

2.8.3 Trust

Since the internet has become the new medium for the customer to purchase online, a

lot of studies have developed an interest due to the special features distinguishing the business

deal in electronic market to the traditional business style. By so doing, online companies must

cultivate trust and equity brand in order to allow consumer to fulfill their purchasing process

on the website. It is so important for those engage in electronic commerce [44]. From the

same view, trust alleviates the risk bearing that occur when the store is unknown, the quality

of the product is unknown and the settlement performance is unknown [45]. La popularization

of online business opened a new vision of trust in economy to new challenges while

increasing the value of trust, and desire to understand customer decision to trust [46] .

Turban et al (2001) constructed a model to explain what trust is mean from source of

purchasing on the web. From this scale version figure” A trust model for consumer internet

shopping” (Lee, Matthew K.O and Efraim Turban

20

Trustworthiness of InternetShopping Medium- Technical competence- Reliability- Medium understanding

Consumer Trust in InternetShopping(CTIS)

Other Factors

Individual TrustPropensity


Figure 2-1 Matthew K. O. Lee and Efraim Turban

International Journal of Electronic Commerce / fall 2001, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 75–91.

High online traffic implies more opportunities for online advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

The e-vendors companies must prove to their customer their ability to manage and support

during and after they purchase is done. From that perspective, it will generate a high probability

for the consumer to engage in trust related to internet behavior like buying, sharing information,

ideas. By the work did [48] , interpersonal trust and platform credibility are the main factors

which differ effective online communities from ineffective one and provide an advertiser an

opportunities to discover with a high levels of platform credibility(trust) in order to post their

advertising. Surely, high online traffic implies chance for e-marketing strategy.

21

Contextual Factors- Effectiveness of third party certification- Effectiveness of securityInfrastructure


Table below shows the factor trust and its measurement Items

Table 2-3 factor trust and its measurement items


Online vendor is benevolent

Trust Protection of my personal information

E-vendor do so in accordance with what

the claim

E-vendor fulfill his promise

2.8.4 Product availability

Product availability helps to know when a product is likely to be send-off. The product

availability can be defined as present and ready product hand that might be found at any period

of time. An online consumer, who gets access to the product whenever he needs it, will become

loyal to that specific product. We can also derived availability from accessibility which generally

used to describe the degree to which a product is available to as a lot of consumer as possible.

One of the most crucial annoyed things is to spent a lot of time for searching for a product and at

the end you just receive a message “this product is no more available”. Nowadays and from the

evolution of the technology, the electronics gadget seem to be the one of the most popular

product that a consumer can easily access online and every from entertainment to education, and

from bureau to play. A part from computer which is also changing all his feature, a close friend

like smart phone (made of computer, camera, telephone) try to make life easier for online

consumer. Table below shows the factor availability and its measurement items.

Table 2-4 factor availability and its measurement Items

Factor measurement Items

Product available in my shopping area

Availability Large number of online product sold

More choice

2.8.5 Social Characteristics

22


The social group is divided into three categories called reference group, family and social

role and status. This first factor is refers to a reference groups which have direct or indirect

effect on customer perception. It is the group to which someone relates or aspires to relate him

or herself to. Reference group may influence people in various ways: by exposing a person to

novel behavior, affect people attitude and self-concept, then form a pressure of confirmation.

Another facet of social characteristics is the importance of family members, friend, and

neighbors in people behavior. For the online companies where social distinguish factor is

strongly influenced, they must identify the way to target and persuade opinion holder on their

information sharing.

In Kotler point of view [33],he argue that: “Family is the most important consumer buying

organization in society, and family members constitute the most influential primary reference

group” further more mentions the effect of role and statutes in the person life. Kotler, found that

each person position is recognized in term of role and status. So far people choice about the

product according to that. And surely, the concept of mianzi or “face” require everyone to follow

it in the name of social norm and that is imperative in the Chinese culture [33]. In the perception

of online consumers, reference group is made of virtual communities especially discussing group

on the website (chat room, electronic bulletin board, news group). [49] The opportunity for the

client to read the opinions and the experience from the web which may affect their purchasing

perception. We understand that social characteristics concerned about the information based on

the relationship each one has about another and or as part of a group. Thus a consumer may also

decide to follow the group consciously or subconsciously generally. Table below shows social

characteristics and its measurement items.

Table 2-5 factor social characteristics and its measurement items


Social Family affect my purchasing decision

Characteristics Friends affect my purchasing decision

Feed back of purchased product affect my purchasing decision

2.8.6 Experience using internet

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Experience as:” Active participation in events

or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill”. Based on that, it is not part of

23


good experience when people decide to surf on the net, then the webpage takes a long time to be

load, or the website contains a lot of computer codes. So far, the bad experience on the web can

negatively affect the online customer trust. We strongly believe that internet using experience has

to have impact on the factor of trustworthiness. Fewer consumers have internet experience, less

he or she may think there is a strong regulation protecting his or her confidence assessment.

In the previous research, William H. Dutton and Adrian Shepherd [50] found that there is a need

to improve the trustworthiness of the internet especially in the cyber and [51] the importance of

consumers experience in using internet. Their study was based on the comparison of consumer

preference for online and off-line purchasing of home mortgage across the three stage of

purchasing. Some related part of finding from the research state that there is more significant

preference of off-line purchase over that of online. However, the consumer intention for online

medium purchasing tends to increase mainly in the pre and the post stage if he has a favorable

internet experience.

Hence, when try to find the factor influencing online consumers purchasing behavior; firms

should take into consideration the judicious impact of consumer’s internet experience.

2.8.7 Satisfaction

The product is a critical element of marketing mix, since it is through the product or

service that companies survive and grow [52].

In general, the term product is defined as a “thing procedure by effort or labor”. In marketing,

Kotler, P; Armstrong, G; Brown L;and Adam ,S [33 ] define product as anything that can be

offered to a market that might satisfy a want or a need. From the marketing view, the core

element of this definition is the satisfaction of individual or business objective. The online

business should make sure that the type of the product consumer receive it fit his expectation in

term of price, quality, security information, availability.

By the rapid growing of e-commerce activities, lead to competitive market space, customer

satisfaction or product satisfaction has been as main indicator for the business strategy.

Table below shows factor satisfaction and its measurement items.

Table 2-6 factor satisfaction and its measurement items

Factor Measurement items

Satisfaction in term of trust

Satisfaction Satisfaction with the convenience

24


Satisfaction with kind of product

Satisfaction with product availability

General Satisfaction

2.8.8 Purchasing Behavior

Consumer purchasing behavior can be perceive as a process in which consumers react

after acquiring a good or service the like.

Organization today, works in an increasingly competitive market environment. As far e-

commerce is concerned, one of the key to built effective customer relationship is the deep

understanding of the consumer purchasing behavior.

Table below shows purchasing behavior and its measurement items.

Table 2-7 factor purchasing behavior and its measurement items

Factor Measurement Items.

Purchasing I will purchase online

Behavior Intention to buy online

I think buy online is attractive

2.8.9 Demography

Demography is the study of human population statistic including size, age, sex, race,

location, income, education. These types of demographic profile of purchasers highly influence

the buying online decision-making [53], [54]. In term of education, the future generation of

adult is acquiring more schooling than the present generation [55]. According to Xie Guodong

[56] “The fundamental aim of adult education is to enable all citizens with the ability to live,

work and labor to realize all-round development through developing their personal resources,

improving their knowledge and skills and optimizing their personality in accordance with

different needs in life, work and learning”.

Generally, this challenge started as a result from the shifting employment, needs of industry,

changing social values. In another way, knowing the demography characteristic of consumer can

help the manager of business strategic planning to come out of the best decision.

If we emphasize in sex, there is some undeniable demographic pattern to buy such as razor,

purchased usually by men. Men are more interesting in electronic work, financial service while

25


female prefer to spend their time on food, beverage and clothing.

By identify consumer demographic characteristic and understanding their relative significant, e-

business are searching for a way to meet their customer expectation.

2.9 Conclusion

A part from the Electronic Commerce review concerning its origin and its classifications,

the rest of our review of literature is based on different researchers who wrote and discuss issues

and theories related to consumer behavior. We have found that an online consumer behavior has

been an emerging research field with a huge number all over coming. We also notice that, while

a lot of researchers draw a direct conclusion from consumer behavior study and applied directly

to the online consumer behavior, few authors make the online consumer behavior entirely

different from that of off-line in term of the factor influencing them. Therefore, we review the

process consumer goes through before acquiring a good or service which also will be meaningful

to get insight into the impact of e-commerce innovation on the Chinese purchasing behavior by

figuring out the relevant factors.

26

Chapter 3 Methodology


3.1 Introduction

The research methodology describes the methods, techniques and procedures that were

followed in satisfying the research objectives, hypothesis and the study problem. This section

describes how the research was organized and discusses how data for the study was conducted

and it also discusses the statistical instrument used for the collection, data processing and

analysis.

3.2 Research Design

A cross-sectional research which is employing exploratory technique that is using:

3.2.1.1.1 Desktop study (literature review), published and unpublished.

3.2.1.1.2 Experimental survey.

The descriptive study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection by

using formulated objectives and hypothesis of the study.

The methods used were:

1) Questionnaire

2) Operational method.

3.3 Population

The target population for this study is the following: Students from University of Electronic

Science and Technology of China (UESTC). These students comprise of Chinese students and

International students mostly from Africa, Asia, Pakistan, UK, USA etc.

27


3.4 Sample and Sampling procedure

The sample made of two hundred and fifty-two (252) students was used. 64.3% are Chinese

students whiles the remaining 35.7% were International student. The respondents are students

who are mainly online shoppers, highly educated in various courses (Management Science and

E-Commerce, Finance and Economy, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Macro-Electronic

Engineering) with high incomes. Many of the respondents had previous experience of using the

internet. Two hundred and eighty (280) questionnaires were distributed and two hundred and

fifty-two(252) representing 90% were recovered, this includes in this study, 42.5% females and

57.5% males students with about 61.5% between ages of 19-24 years and 27.8% between 20-30

years and the rest are either below 18 years or above 31 years. The information was collected by

means of self-administered survey with personal supervision and by technical assistant. A formal

interview also was done on respondents who find it difficult to understand, or busy to fill the

questionnaire.

3.5 Demography

The following demographic features such as Age, Gender and Education were used as an

information background for the respondents in the research.

3.6 Sources of Data

To obtain adequate information of the study, both primary and secondary data were collected.

Most of the data collected were through questionnaire with various categories of respondents

from the participating institutions.

3.7 Instrument for the data collection.

The research tools used in this research work include structured questionnaires.

Questionnaire for this purpose were designed in accordance with the research objective and

hypothesis. Questionnaires both open and close-ended questions, and multiple choices were

designed to solicit information. Another tool employed was the Statistical Package of Science

Solution (SPSS) version18.0.

28


3.8 Data analysis

The data collected was coded and by the Statistical Package of Science Solution (SPSS). Data

was analyzed and interpreted by using Hypothetic analysis techniques and Path analysis.

Analysis on reliability using Alpha coefficient were used to check the internal consistency.

Frequency tables on Gender, Age, Educational background and Nationality were used. To check

the relationship between the selected variables, correlation, t-test and multiple regressions were

also used.

29


Chapter 4 Analysis of Results

4.1 Introduction

The main focus of this chapter is to bring out the analysis of the study and conclusion from

the conducted research and the various data gathered that has been presented in the previous

chapter in respect to the impact of e-commerce innovation on the Chinese purchasing behavior

and find out the relationship between the identify factor to purchasing behavior through the

satisfaction variable.

4.2 Results on Reliability of Data

Analyzing on the reliability of a questionnaire using, (Cronbach’s) Alpha (α) a coefficient to

check internal consistency or reliability.

Source: Appendix A.

Table 4.1 shows Reliability of the questionnaire using Alpha Coefficient.

Variables Cronbach’s (α) coefficient

Convenient 0.882

Product Information 0.883

Trust 0.886

Social Characteristics 0.885

Satisfaction 0.882

To check the consistency or the reliability, all the variables had Alpha more than (α=0.6).

Therefore the reliability of the questionnaire in terms of percentage is (α=0.882) approximately

88.2%. Source: Appendix A

30


4.3 Path Analysis

The path analysis was done using SPSS version 18.0 to verify the research model and the

research hypothesis used.

0.676

0.534

0.708

0.697

0.709

Figure 4.1 from Appendix B

The data obtained from the respondents who completed the questionnaires supported almost all

the hypothesis formulated H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 were supported by the results of the data analysis

using the regression model path analysis. The accepted hypothesis used was 95% level of

significance.

Convenience, product information (product price, product availability) and trust all influence the

satisfaction of the online shoppers with a website.

Experience of network influence trust per the results obtained. The satisfaction of online

consumers with a website influences their buying behavior. Invariably, trust does not have any

direct influence over the purchasing behavior according to the regression model results.

Source: SPSS output appendix C and D

31

Satisfaction

Convenience or ease of

Product Information

Social Characteristics

Experience using internet

Purchasing behavior

Trust


4.4 Discussion

The Hypotheses H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5 were supported by the analysis of the

completed questionnaires. The results which interpret that the purchasing behaviors of online

shoppers or consumers are influenced by satisfaction were justified.

The result also showed that, there is a strong correlation between the experience i.e. long time

use of the internet and satisfaction according to the regression analysis.

I discovered that, trust did not have a definite influence on the purchasing behavior of shoppers.

This might be a characteristic peculiar to most decision taken by online shoppers.

This study was done on University students (both home/international) who are frequent users of

the internet and shop online than most people and trust might not be their priority.

Product Information also had a positive influence on the satisfaction of online shoppers. I may

say, here it also implies that consumers expect to have complete and up to date product

specification (price, type, guarantee period, etc) to enable consumers to compare different

products and different brands.

Even though, satisfaction in terms of security of information of consumers was predicted to be

one of the influential variables, my recommendation concerns relating to internet and credit card

security, spam, identity fraud and the misuse of personal data.

To test for the statistical significant differences between the variable means, the t-test was

performed. The independent variables used are product prices, convenience, trust, product

availability, and social characteristics in order to observe the effect on the dependent variable,

general satisfaction. From the SPSS output appendix E, the convenience, social characteristics,

product availability, product price and trust, all have probability error less than 0.5. This is

statistically significant at less than 0.005.

A Pearson product-moment correlation was run to determine the relationship between the

satisfaction as related to purchasing behavior of internet users and the independent variable

which are convenience, product information, trust, social characteristics. The data showed no

violation of normality, linearity. From the data output, there is a significant positive relationship

(correlation) between the General Satisfaction and convenience, Social Characteristic, product

availability, product price and trust since the correlation coefficient r are all positive appendix F.

32


However, the absolute value of r is not close to 1. This indicates somewhat weak correlation.

Therefore, from the result, it could be concluded that there is a significant correlation between

the general satisfaction which corresponds to purchasing behavior of the Chinese and

convenience, social characteristics, product availability, product price and trust the correlation is

weak.

In conclusion, the finding has shown that a lot of Chinese people are been seen in the net for the

purpose to make online shopping and e-commerce activities is taking a large portion in the

Chinese economic which progressively contributing to Chinese GDP.

33


Chapter 5: Conclusion

This chapter presents a summary of findings, Theoretical and Practical implications

drawn from the results obtained. It also provides some recommendations for future research.

5.1 Concluding Remarks

Studying online consumer purchasing behavior is not a simple structure. This research

investigates the impact of electronic commerce innovation on the Chinese purchasing behavior:

C to C and further searches for the relationship between satisfaction and purchasing behavior of

Chinese. Student from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China both National

and International were our population used for the survey and therefore, the demography

characteristic is exploited as background for the research purpose.

Firstly, the finding shows a strong correlation between the experience of using internet and

trust, however there is no direct effect of trust on purchasing behavior from the regression output.

We can assume that factor trust is not the main aim of the online buyers. Not only there is a

positively influence of product information on the satisfaction of the e-shoppers but also the

result shows that, the correlation between general satisfaction related to purchasing behavior and

convenience was noteworthy. As compare to social characteristic factor which is the highest,

trust, convenience and product information have the lower influence on the respondents

purchasing behavior. In general view, the relationship between all variable proposed in our

model is significant at a different level which implies differences in the purchasing behavior

towards the factors. From all consideration, we respond to the objective of the study hence

conclude that, increasing numbers of Chinese are adopting online purchasing. E-commerce is

increasingly becoming one of the important contributions to the Chinese economy. The decision-

making culture of purchasing online in China may be different from other countries.

34

Chapter 5 Conclusion

5.2 Future Work

From the model and research variables, the ease of or convenience, trust, social

characteristics and experience using internet influence the satisfaction of Chinese People using

internet for purchasing. In addition, product prices, product quality and product availability the

users are satisfied. Within the trend of increasing online purchasing behavior, I wish to

recommend that education in form of product information like advertisement and the use of

internet should be easily accessed. It will also be of interest to find out how these identify factors

will impact the online consumer behavior when buying a specific type of product.

35


Acknowledgment

When all is said and done, the only step left is the writing of this acknowledgment.

In the first place I would like to express my profound gratitude to the Almighty God for his

assistance and faithfulness since I stepped to China to pursue my academic endeavor.

By his grace, I encountered a group of extraordinary people that have given me advice, guidance

and support to complete this research.

I would like to thank, all those who have contributed in diverse ways to help me complete my

education and the drafting of this research report. I will always be personally indebted to them.

My deep appreciation goes to Dr Jiaming; my course adviser for his supervision, advice, and

guidance from the very early stage of this research as well as giving me extraordinary

experiences throughout the work and also provides me the statistical tool for the analysis.

I thank the entire faculty of School of Management Science; a world class, intellectual

satisfying and well-rounded education that was vital for the thesis. The following Professors and

Doctors; Kou Gang, Liu Bo, Feng Yi, Xiao Wen and Tang Qi, Peng Yi, Lei Lan and Xu Xuelei,

Ni Debing, Li Yao, He Zheng, Shao Peiji and Fang Jiaming have contributed a lot by their rich

teaching skills which gave me enough for this research report.

It is my pleasure to thank also the Course Coordinator; Mme Shen Ruichen for her support

during my education and my questionnaire distribution period.

I am much indebted to Mr. Okoampa for his valuable advice, support which has been tremendous

and unwavering for the realization of this research.

I would also acknowledge Mr. Shem for his willingness to share his valuable thoughts with me

which was fruitful for shaping up my ideas and research.

I also have to thank my colleagues at UESTC, who perpetually supported me; they are Paulette,

Evelyne, Patern, Melly, Bayassa and my entire classmates.

I also acknowledge Kingsford who spend his precious time to read through my research report

and the design aspect for me.

Here, Mr Armah and my roommate Thai deserve a grateful thank for their assistance in the

realization of this thesis.

36

Acknowledgment

My special thanks go to my friend; Achill, without him I might not have come to China. My

sincere thanks go to Brice for his advice and support before and during my study. I cannot help

to thank Murielle, who contributed in diverse ways to encourage me throughout my studies.

I thank the CIFC worship team which consists of Janice, Nii, Evelyn, Gordon, Anna and

Marguerite for their dedication to God’s work.

Where would I be without my family? De profundis of my heart, my father; Eklu Gbongli and

my mother Amavi, deserve special acknowledgement for their inseparable support and prayers.

My uncle Monkpoh, my sisters Therese and her husband Joe, Evelyn, my brother Paul and his

wife Kerstin, my cousin Noellie and her husband Eusebe, for financial, spiritual and moral

assistance.

Last but not least, I want to thank pastors and Catholic fathers who supported me spiritually in

diverse way. They are Abbe Antoine, Da Mamam, Adjagbehoun, Jules, Josua, Fofo etc.

De facto, I owe a lot of people gratitude who have equally contributed to my training from

TOGO to CHINA whose name I have not mentioned. To all such people, I still remain

grateful.

May the peace of Christ Jesus be with you all!

Samuel Komlan Gbongli

37


References

[1] Reigner Wired CHINA: The power of the world’s Largest Internet Population. Journal of

Advertising Research, 48(4); 2008, pp. 496-505.

[2] US Department of Consumer, A Nation Online: How Americans are expanding their use of

the internet, February 2002.

[3] Liem Gai Sin, Ria Purnamasari, China E-Commerce Market Analisys: Forcecasting and

Profiling internet user, Internationnal refereed Research journal, Vol.11, issue 3 july 2011

[4] CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), Source: Internet World stats ,

2001,www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.

[5] CNNIC: 27th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, 2011

[6] Internet World stats www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.

[7] Get Price, How Australian Consumer are researching and buying online, February 2011,

www.getprice.com.au

[8] Lam S., E-Commerce Growth Remain Slow in Great China, 2001.

www.internetnews.com/bus-news/articles

[9] Balasubramanian, Two essay in Direct Marketing, PHD dissertation Yale University, New

Haven, CT., 1997

[10] Reichheld FF, Schefter P, Your secret weapon on the web. Harvard Bus. Rev. 78(4), 2000,

pp 105-113

[11] Jones, M.A., Mothersbaugh, D. L., & Beatty, S. E. (2003), the effects of locational

convenience on customer repurchase intentions across service types. Journal of Services

Marketing, 17(7), pp 701 – 712.

[12] Berry LL, Seiders K, Grewald D (2002) ,Understanding Service Convenience Journal of

Mark, 66(3), 2002, 1-17.

[13] Aurimas Dapkevicus, Borisas Melnikas, Influence of Price and Quality to Customer

Satisfaction: Neuromarketing Approach” Science-Future of Lithuania vol.1 no 3, 2009

[14] Kotler and Armstrong, Principle of Marketing, 13th edition Pearson Custom Business

Resources, 2010.

38

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/articles

http://www.getprice.com.au/

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

References

[15] Herrmann, A., Xia, L., Monroe, K.B., and Huber. F., The Influence of Price Fairness on

Consumer Satisfaction: An Empirical Test in the Context of Automobile Purchases, Journal of

Product & Brand Management, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2007, 49-58.

[16] Dan J. Kim, Yong I. Song, S.B. Braynov H.R. Rao, A multidimensional trust formation

model in B-to-C e-commerce: A conceptual framework and content analyses of academia/

practitioner perspectives, 2004

[17] Paul M. Herr, Frank R. Kardes and John Kim, Effect of Word of Mouth and Product

Attitude Information on Persuasion: An Accessibility Diagnosticity Perspective, Journal of

Consumer Research 17 (March 1991) pp. 454-462

[18] Kangis, P A. α Rankin, K, Interactive Service: How to identify and Target the New Markets,

Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, vol. 2, no3, 1996, pp.44-67

[19] Cronin, J.J. Brady, M.K. Hult, GTM, Assessing the effect of quality, value and customer

satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environment, Journal of Relating, vol

76, 2000, pp.193-218.

[20] Kotler Phillip, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and ControL,

Prentice hall, Englewood cliffs. NJ., 1997

[21] Timo Koivumaki, Customer Satisfaction and Purchasing Behavior in a web-Based Shopping

Environment. Journal Electronic Market Vol.11 Issue 3(12), 2001 pp 186-192

[22] Suhaimi, Ainul Nadzhirah, The effect of Personal Satisfaction on Customer’s Purchasing

Behavior in Retail Pharmacies. 2010

[23] China Small Medium Enterprises report, 2009 on December 23th

[24] Weill P, and M.R Vitale, Place to Place Migrating to E-Business Models. Boston: Havard

Business School Press, 2001

[25] Efraim Turban, David King, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland, Electronic Commerce: A Managerial

Perspective 3rd Edition. 2004, p.8

[26] Turban.King, Lee, Warkentin and Chun, Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective.

International Edition, New Jersey Pearson Education Inc., 2002

[27] Cunningham, M.S., B2B How to Build a Profitable E-Commerce Strategy. Cambridge:

Persus Pub, 2001.

[28] Doolin, B; Dillon, S: Thompson, F. and Corner, J.L., Perceived Risk, the Internet Shopping

Experience and Online Purchasing Behavior: A New Zealand Perspective. Journal of Global

Information Management, 13 (12), 2005, pp 66-88.

39


[29] Sang M. Lee, Liqiang Chen, The impact of flow on online consumer behavior. Journal of

Computer Information Systems, 2010

[30] Li Guo, A Research on influencing Factors of consumer purchasing behavior in cyberspace.

International Journal of Marketing Studies vol.3 no1 August, 2011.

[31] Velturo, Christopher, Differentiated Products (December 29, 2008). Issues in Competition

Law & Policy, august 2009, pp.485-513, American Bar Association.

[32] Armstrong, G. and Kotler, Ph., Marketing: An Introduction. 8th, Ed. Pearson, Prentice-Hall.

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, NJ., 2007

[33] Kotler,P. Armstrong G; Brown L and Adam S., Marketing 7 th edition. Pearson Education

Autralia/ Prentice Hall, 2006

[34] Eric A., Linda P., George Z., Consumers 1st Edition. McGraw Hill, Boston Burr Ridge, II

Dubuque, IA Madison, WI New York, 2002.

[35] Smith, A.D., Rupp, W.T., Strategic online customer decision making: leveraging the

transformational power of the Internet. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 27(6), 2003, pp.418-

432.

[36] Monsuwe, P.T. Dellaert, C.G.B α Ruyter, K. What drives consumers to shop online? A

literature review. International journal of Service Industry Management, 2004.

[37] Reisenwitz, T., Rajesh, I., Kuhlmeier, D.B., Eastman, J.K.,The elderly’s internet usage: An

updated look. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 24(7), 2007, pp.406-418

[38] Baerden, Ingram and Laforget, Marketing: principle and Perspectives. Burr.Ridge Richard

Irwin, 1995

[39] Monroe K., Buyers Subjective Perceptions of Price. Journal of Marketing Research, Feb.

1997 pp.70-80

[40] Jarvenpa, SL and Tood, PA, Consumer Reactions to Electronic Shopping on the world Wide

Web. International Journal Electronic commerce, vol. no2 1996-1997, pp.59-88

[41] Mc kinney LN,Predicting Online Purchase Intentions for Clothing products. Eur.J.Mark

38(7), 2004, 883-897

[42] Kim, S-Y. and Park, S.Y., Influencing factors of purchase intention through

e-commerce. Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1999, pp.45–66.

[43] Wigand, RT and Benjamin, RT, Electronic commerce: Effects on Electronic Markets.

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol.1 no.3, Dec.1995.

40

References

[44] Keen, Balance, Chan and Schrump, E-Commerce Relationship: Trust by Design. Prentice

Hall, Englewood Cliffs New Jersey, 1999

[45] Tan, Y. H and Toem, W., Toward a Generic Model of Trust E-Commerce. International

Journal of Electronic Markets, vol.5 no2, 2001, pp.61-74.

[46] McKnight, D. H. and Chervany, N. L., What Trust Means in e-commerce Customer

Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Conceptual Typology. International Journal of Electronic

Commerce 6(2), fev 2001, pp 35–59.

[47] Efraim Turban, David King, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland, Electronic Commerce: A Managerial

Perspective 3rd Edition, 2004, p.20

[48] Kineta Hung, Stella Yiyanli and David K. Tse, Interpersonal Trust and Platform Credibility

in a Chinese Multibrand Online Community: Effects on Brand Variety Seeking and Time Spent.

Journal of Advertising, vol.40 no.3 (fall2011), pp.99-112

[49] Christopher D. and Huarng S.A., Planning an Effective Internet Retail Store. Marketing

Intelligence and planning 21:4, 2003, pp 230-238

[50] William H. Dutton and Adrian Shepherd, Trust in the Internet: The Social Dynamics of an

Experience Technology University of Oxford - Oxford Internet Institute, October 1, 2003.

[51] Ruud T. Frambach, Henk C.A. Roest Trichy V. Krishnan The impact of consumer Internet

experience on channel preference and usage intentions across the different stages of the buying

process Journal of Interactive Marketing Volume 21, Issue 2, spring 2007, pp 26–41.

[52] Peter J.P. and Donnely Jr, Marketing Management: Knowledge and Skills 4th Edition, 1995

[53] Hashim and Ghani ; E.K and SAID, Does Consumers Demographic Profile Influence

Online Shopping? An Examination Using Fishbein’s Theory. Canadian Social Science, vol.5

no.6, 2005,pp19-24

[54] Lieberman, Y and Stashevsky,S, Determination of online Shopping: Examination of an

Early-Stage Online Market. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol.26 no.4, 2009, pp

316-325

[55] Fabian Linden, Per Capita-Is. Across the Board, June 1980, pp.65-69

[56] Xie Guodong, Secretary General of the Chinese Adult Education Association (CAEA).

Journal Adult Education 60/2003www.iiz-dvv.de/index.php?article_id=3568

41

http://www.iiz-dvv.de/index.php?article_id=3568

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dir.v21:2/issuetoc


Appendix

Appendix A

VARIABLES AND CRONBACH COEFFICIENTProduct Price Cronbach’s Alpha

CoefficientI think online companies offer better price than off-line. 0.881I think the price of a specific product or item I buy online influence my purchasing decision very much.

0.883

Purchasing online saves me money. 0.886

Convenience Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient

Purchasing on the internet saves me time. 0.884 I can buy things online anytime I wish. 0.883When ordering online, I can change my order several times before completing the transaction.

0.883

I think purchasing online is convenient. 0.881

Trust Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient

The vendor from whom I buy things online is benevolent. 0.885 The vendor from whom I buy things online has the capability to protect my personal information.

0.887

The companies selling product online do so in accordance with what they claim.

0.889

The vendor from whom I buy things online will fulfill his promise. 0.885

Product Availability Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient

Some of the products I purchase online are not available in my shopping area.

0.883

The number of things sold on online is much larger than that of off-line.

0.884

I have more choices online than offline for a specific product. 0.885

42

Appendix

Social Characteristics Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient

The opinions and experiences of my family affect my purchasing decision.

0.888

The opinions and experiences of my friends affect my purchasing decision.

0.885

The feedback and evaluation of a product purchased online affects my purchasing decision.

0.882

Purchasing Behavior Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient

I will purchase things online. 0.879I intend to buy things online. 0.879I think buying online is attractive. 0.882

Satisfaction Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient

Are you satisfied with the trust that you have for the online companies?

0.888

Are you satisfied with convenient or ease of using the internet? 0.885Are you satisfied with the kind of product that you receive from your online companies?

0.879

Are you satisfied with the product availability with the companies you buy from?

0.879

Generally, are you satisfied with the frequency, quality, pricing, flexibility and security of information?

0.879

43


Appendix B

Model Summary for Path analysis

Model R R SquareAdjusted R

SquareStd. Error of the Estimate

1 .534a .285 .276 .823

2 .676b .457 .443 .722

3 .697c .486 .467 .706

4 .708d .502 .477 .700

5 .709e .502 .475 .701

Appendix C

Regression under 95% significant level of the formulated hypothesis

44

Model

Change Statistics

R Square Change F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

1 .285 32.955 3 248 .000

2 .172 25.789 3 245 .000

3 .030 4.692 3 242 .003

4 .015 2.436 3 239 .065

5 .001 .248 1 238 .619

Appendix

Appendix D

Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) in support of the regression DATA

ModelSum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 66.900 3 22.300 32.955 .000a

Residual 167.815 248 .677

Total 234.714 251

2 Regression 107.174 6 17.862 34.313 .000b

Residual 127.540 245 .521

Total 234.714 251

3 Regression 114.184 9 12.687 25.473 .000c

Residual 120.530 242 .498

Total 234.714 251

4 Regression 117.760 12 9.813 20.054 .000d

Residual 116.954 239 .489

Total 234.714 251

5 Regression 117.882 13 9.068 18.472 .000e

Residual 116.832 238 .491

Total 234.714 251

ANOVA under 95% significant level of the formulated hypothesis.

45


Appendix E:

t- value table

Coefficients a

Convenience

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

t Sig.

95.0% Confidence Interval for B

B Std. Error BetaLower Bound

Upper Bound

1(Constant) .904 .225 4.008 .000 .460 1.347

Purchasing on the internet saves me time

-.016 .053 -.017 -.292 .771 -.120 .089

I can buy things online anytime i wish

.047 .051 .056 .929 .354 -.053 .148

When ordering online, i can change my order several times before completing the transactions

.188 .054 .207 3.494 .001 .082 .295

I think purchasing online is convienient

.498 .060 .500 8.327 .000 .380 .616

a. Dependent Variable: Generally are you satisfied with the Frequency, Quality, Pricing, Flexibiliy and Security of Information?

46

Appendix

Product Price Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients t Sig.


BStd.

Error BetaLower Bound

Upper Bound

1(Constant) 1.168 .259 4.505 .000 .657 1.679

i think online companies offer better price than off-line

.287 .062 .295 4.620 .000 .165 .409

I think the price of a specific product or Item I buy online influence my purchasing decision very much

.234 .064 .229 3.636 .000 .107 .361

Purchasing online saves me money

.154 .063 .147 2.461 .015 .031 .278

a. Dependent Variable: Generally are you satisfied with the Frequency, Quality, Pricing, Flexibiliy and Security of Information?

47

Coefficients a

Trust

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.


BStd.

Error BetaLower Bound

Upper Bound

(Constant) 2.219 .264 8.396 .000 1.698 2.739

The vender from whom i buy things online is benevolent

.341 .071 .315 4.831 .000 .202 .481

The vender from whom i buy things online has the capability to protect my personal information

.015 .063 .016 .236 .814 -.109 .139

The Companies selling product online do so in accordance with what they claim

-.115 .075 -.108 -1.544 .124 -.262 .032

The vender from whom i buy things online would fulfill his promise

.194 .067 .208 2.883 .004 .061 .326

a. Dependent Variable: Generally are you satisfied with the Frequency, Quality, Pricing, Flexibility and Security of Information?


Coefficientsa

Product AvailabilityUnstandardized

CoefficientsStandardized Coefficients t Sig.

95.0% Confidence

Interval for B

B Std. Error BetaLower Bound

Upper Bound

(Constant) 1.510 .246 6.145 .000 1.026 1.994

Some of the products i purchase online are not available in my shopping area

.194 .054 .214 3.559 .000 .087 .301

The number of things sold online is much larger than that off-line

.182 .055 .211 3.301 .001 .074 .291

I have more choices online than off-line for a specific product

.204 .062 .212 3.273 .001 .081 .327

a. Dependent Variable: Generally are you satisfied with the Frequency, Quality, Pricing, Flexibility and Security of Information?

Product Price r

I think online companies offer better price than off-line. .462

I think the price of a specific product or item I buy online influence my purchasing

decision very much.

.465

Purchasing online saves me money. .341

Dependent SATISFACTION

Convenience r

Purchasing on the internet saves me time. .328

I can buy things online anytime I wish. .375

When ordering online, I can change my order several times before completing the

transaction.

.453

I think purchasing online is convenient. .610

Dependent SATISFACTION

48

Appendix

Trust r

The vendor from whom I buy things online is benevolent. .341

The vendor from whom I buy things online has the capability to protect my

personal information.

.195

The companies selling product online do so in accordance with what they claim. .099

The vendor from whom I buy things online will fulfill his promise. .238

Dependent: SATISFACTION

Product Availability r

Some of the products I purchase online are not available in my shopping area. .354

The number of things sold on online is much larger than that of off-line. .376

I have more choices online than offline for a specific product. .385


Social Characteristics r

The opinions and experiences of my family affect my purchasing decision. .201

The opinions and experiences of my friends affect my purchasing decision. .279

The feedback and evaluation of a product purchased online affects my purchasing

decision.

.435


r= PEARSON CORRELATION COEFFICIENT.

49


Appendix F

CORRELATION - Descriptive Statistic

Product Price Mean Std. Deviation N

I think online companies offer better price than off-line. 3.67 0.989 252

I think the price of a specific product or item I buy online influence

my purchasing decision very much.

3.53 0.942 252

Purchasing online saves me money. 3.58 0.94 252

Convenience Mean Std. Deviation N

Purchasing on the internet saves me time. 3.88 1.062 252

I can buy things online anytime I wish. 3.61 1.143 252

When ordering online, I can change my order several times before

completing the transaction.

3.60 1.061 252

I think purchasing online is convenient. 3.82 0.972 252

Trust Mean Std. Deviation N

The vendor from whom I buy things online is benevolent. 3.11 0.83 252

The vendor from whom I buy things online has the capability to

protect my personal information.

3.07 1.056 252

The companies selling product online do so in accordance with what

they claim.

3.13 0.909 252

The vendor from whom I buy things online will fulfill his promise. 3.25 1.037 252

50

Appendix

Product Availability Mean Std. Deviation N

Some of the products I purchase online are not available in my

shopping area.

3.51 1.069 252

The number of things sold on online is much larger than that of off-

line.

3.48 1.117 252

I have more choices online than offline for a specific product. 3.78 1.004 252

Social Characteristics Mean Std. Deviation N

The opinions and experiences of my family affect my purchasing

decision.

3.34 1.080 252

The opinions and experiences of my friends affect my purchasing

decision.

3.52 0.947 252

The feedback and evaluation of a product purchased online affects

my purchasing decision.

3.76 0.949 252

Purchasing Behavior Mean Std. Deviation N

I will purchase things online. 3.66 1.023 252

I intend to buy things online. 3.60 0.962 252

I think buying online is attractive. 3.60 0.962 252

Satisfaction Mean Std. Deviation N

Are you satisfied with the trust that you have for the online 3.34 1.080 252

51


companies?

Are you satisfied with convenient or ease of using the internet? 3.52 0.947 252

Are you satisfied with the kind of product that you receive from

your online companies?

3.66 1.023 252

Are you satisfied with the product availability with the companies

you buy from?

3.76 0.949 252

Generally, are you satisfied with the frequency, quality, pricing,

flexibility and security of information?

3.60 0.967 252

Appendix G

Demography of RespondentsDemography Mean Std. Deviation N

Gender 0.58 0.502 252

Age 2.44 0.680 252

Nationality 1.36 0.480 252

Gender

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Female 106 42.1 42.1 42.1

Male 145 57.5 57.5 99.6

2 1 .4 .4 100.0

Total 252 100.0 100.0

52

Appendix

Are you a National of china?


Percent

Valid

Yes 162 64.3 64.3 64.3

No 90 35.7 35.7 100.0

Total 252 100.0 100.0

Age


Percent

Valid Below 18 years 4 1.6 1.6 1.6

19 - 24 years 155 61.5 61.5 63.1

25 - 30 years 70 27.8 27.8 90.9

31 years and Above

23 9.1 9.1 100.0

Total 252 100.0 100.0

53


Appendix H

Impact of E-Commerce Innovation on the Chinese Purchasing Behavior

This is a questionnaire designed to collect data about the impact of e-commerce innovation on the Chinese

purchasing behavior. With the assistance of my fieldworker, I will appreciate if you could take your time to fill

this questionnaire. In a situation where you are uncertain, please give your best answer. Any information

obtained in connection with this study that can be identified with you will remain confidential.

If you have any questions about the research, please call Mr. Sam Komlan Gbongli at any time.

Tel: 008615884531152 or e-mail:[email protected]

PART A

For each of the statement below, please indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement by

ticking the appropriate box.

The response scale is as follows:

1. Strongly Disagree 2.Disagree 3.Neutral 4.Agree 5.Strongly

Agree

Product Price Scale

I think online companies offer better price than off-line. 1 2 3 4 5

I think the price of a specific product or item I buy online influence my purchasing

decision very much.

1 2 3 4 5

Purchasing online saves me money. 1 2 3 4 5

Convenience Scale

Purchasing on the internet saves me time. 1 2 3 4 5

I can buy things online anytime I wish. 1 2 3 4 5

When ordering online, I can change my order several times before completing the

transaction.

1 2 3 4 5

I think purchasing online is convenient. 1 2 3 4 5

54

Appendix

Trust Scale

The vendor from whom I buy things online is benevolent. 1 2 3 4 5

The vendor from whom I buy things online has the capability to protect my

personal information.

1 2 3 4 5

The companies selling product online do so in accordance with what they claim. 1 2 3 4 5

The vendor from whom I buy things online will fulfill his promise. 1 2 3 4 5

Product Availability Scale

Some of the products I purchase online are not available in my shopping area. 1 2 3 4 5

The number of things sold on online is much larger than that of off-line. 1 2 3 4 5

I have more choices online than offline for a specific product. 1 2 3 4 5

Social Characteristics Scale

The opinions and experiences of my family affect my purchasing decision. 1 2 3 4 5

The opinions and experiences of my friends affect my purchasing decision. 1 2 3 4 5

The feedback and evaluation of a product purchased online affects my purchasing

decision.

1 2 3 4 5

Satisfaction Scale

Are you satisfied with the trust that you have for the online companies? 1 2 3 4 5

Are you satisfied with convenient or ease of using the internet? 1 2 3 4 5

Are you satisfied with the kind of product that you receive from your online

companies?

1 2 3 4 5

Are you satisfied with the product availability with the companies you buy from? 1 2 3 4 5

Generally are you satisfied with the frequency, quality, pricing flexibility, and

security of information?

1 2 3 4 5

55


Purchasing Behavior Scale

I will purchase things online. 1 2 3 4 5

I intend to buy things online. 1 2 3 4 5

I think buying online is attractive. 1 2 3 4 5

PART B

I. Gender : 0)Female [ ] 1)Male [ ]

II. Age: 1) Below 18[ ] 2)19-24[ ] 3) 25-30[ ] 4) 31and above[ ]

III. Are you Chinese? Yes [ ] No [ ]

IV. Have you bought things online before? Yes [ ] No [ ]

1. If yes, how often do you purchase online?

Daily [ ] Weekly [ ] Monthly [ ] Quarterly [ ] Semi-Annually [ ] Annually [ ]

2. If No, the primary reason why you do not shop online?

V. Internet Experience (Years): Less than 1 year[ ] 1-2years [ ] 3-4 years [ ]

5-6 years [ ] 7-8 years [ ] 9 years or more [ ]

VI. Educational Background: 1) Undergraduate [ ] 2) Graduate [ ] 3)

PHD [ ]

VII. What is your major?

Thank You!!!!!

56

Last Version

Documents