CONTROLLABLE FACTORS IMPACT ON CONSUMER ONLINE BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

The adoption and diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (further: ICT) between an enterprise and consumers continues to grow. ICT brings new opportunities for enterprises, particularly enabling them to enter the virtual global market as well as develop sales activities in this market. Growing ICT adoption intensifies competition between companies giving wider choice for online consumers. In this context enterprises strive to understand online consumer behaviour in order to better satisfy consumer needs and stay ahead of competition. The paper aims to develop conceptual framework of key controllable factors of consumer behaviour and empirically identify the main ones.

Considering the works of various scholars the conceptual model is developed basing on Intention, Adoption, and Continuance model proposed by Limayem, Cheung and Chan (2005). The proposed model consists of 2 stages – intention and adoption as in this paper consumer behaviour is analyzed. The continuance stage refers to repeating purchase, so this stage is excluded from the proposed model. Most of the researchers consider controllable and uncontrollable factors. From the point of the company controllable factors attract most of the attention as these factors can be influenced.

The proposed conceptual model is based on the “Intention – Adoption” approach rather than on the traditional buying decision model. The value of the paper is reflected through the identification of key factors affecting online purchase behaviour in Lithuania. These factors should be carefully considered by online traders as they impact consumer decision to purchase online.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.19.1.5692