104 Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2004

Copyright © 2004 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Consumer adoption of the internet as an information search and product purchase channel: some research hypotheses

Byeong-Joon Moon School of International Management, KyungHee University, Yongin-shi, Kyunggi-do 449-701, South Korea Fax:+82-31-204-8113 E-mail: bmoon@khu.ac.kr

Abstract: This study provides an exploratory model to understand the factors that influence consumers to adopt the internet instead of traditional channels for information search and product purchase. The authors reviewed previous established theories on consumer decision making in offline environments and research findings regarding consumer behaviour in an online environment. The authors embraced the contingent consumer decision-making model provided by Bettman et al. and classified the factors that influence consumers to use online channels instead of traditional channels into three groups – person, problem, and context.

Keywords: consumer adoption; internet; contingent decision-making model; information search channel; product purchase channel.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Moon, B-J. (2004) ‘Consumer adoption of the internet as an information search and product purchase channel: some research hypotheses’, Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.104–118.

Biographical notes: Byeong-Joon Moon is an Associate Professor at KyungHee University in South Korea and was previously on the faculty of the International University of Japan. He received an undergraduate degree in business administration and an MBA from Seoul National University, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. His teaching and research interests are in the area of internet marketing, cross national consumer behaviour, international marketing, and strategic marketing. He has published articles in journals such as Psychology and Marketing, Advances in Consumer Research, International Business Review, and Journal of International Consumer Marketing.

1 Introduction

The digital economy that is driven by information technology and e-commerce is being developed worldwide. According to the report, The Emerging Digital Economy II, published by the US Department of Commerce [1], the weight of e-commerce in total sales by some companies is pretty high even though the portion of e-commerce in total US consumer sales is less than 1%. For instance, the Dell computer company recorded 18 million dollars sales through the internet during the first quarter of 1999. As a result, about 30% of its 5.5 billion dollars total sales were achieved through the internet.

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One of the reasons for such a rapid diffusion of e-commerce is probably the benefits that the internet provides. First of all, the internet offers diverse kinds of convenience to consumers for them to search information, evaluate, purchase, and use products (hereafter, we define products to include both tangible goods and intangible services) more efficiently and effectively than other channels to satisfy their needs. The internet can enhance consumer efficiency by facilitating consumers’ access to consumption related information more quickly and save time, effort, and monetary cost for information collection. The internet can also improve consumer effectiveness by providing the mixture of sound, image, text, and visual tools to enhance consumer learning and help consumers choose products that can best satisfy their needs [2]. Accordingly, the internet is likely to replace traditional distribution and communication channels and evolve as a channel with much potential.

To date, relatively few studies have investigated the impact of the internet on consumer behaviour. McGaughey and Mason [2] discussed the influence of the internet on consumer behaviour through each step of consumer decision making (problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase, post-purchase behaviour). Alba et al. [3] studied the factors that motivate both consumers and marketers to become involved in electronic home shopping. Oh [4] investigated the factors that promote e-commerce and presented several consumer related variables such as purchase habits, lifestyle, perception of e-commerce, demographic characteristics. Han et al. [5] proposed the factors that influence consumer buying intentions through the internet, such as challenging mindsets towards the internet, internet usage skill, perceived risk, perceived service quality, and involvement. However, previous studies only partially explained the factors that influence consumer buying behaviour through the internet or focused on the marketer’s point of view. That is, they tried to investigate in which cases the internet is a more efficient marketing channel than traditional offline channels. Therefore, research on a comprehensive analytical framework to understand the factors that influence consumers to adopt the internet instead of traditional marketing channel is sparse.

The objective of this research is to provide a comprehensive framework to analyse the factors that influence consumers to choose either offline channels or online channels for their information search and product purchase. To do this, we review existing consumer decision-making theories established in an offline environment and previous research on consumer decision making in the internet environment. In particular, we build on the contingent consumer decision-making model provided by Bettman et al. [6] and propose a conceptual model and research propositions to understand the factors that influence consumers in choosing between offline and online channels for their information search and product purchase.

2 Contingent consumer decision making

Consumers always make decisions on consumption related information search, brand choice, and product usage. These decisions are sometimes difficult because there are too many alternatives or limited time. Particularly, considering the latest super-diffusion of the internet, consumers have to make decisions on whether they will search information through offline channels or the internet, whether they will search information through the

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internet and then they buy through offline channels or whether they will search information through offline channels and then buy through the internet, or use the internet for both information search and product purchase.

As fundamental issues in the consumer behaviour area, such topics as how consumers develop and use their consumer decision-making strategies, how different degrees of prior knowledge affect the consumer decision-making process, how consumers adapt to different consumer decision settings are extensively investigated. In particular, theories on how consumers who have limited information processing ability cope with consumer decision tasks that have different attributes have been actively evolved. Bettman et al. [6] argued that a consumer adapts and modifies his or her own decision-making strategy to meet the demand of the specific decision-making problem that he or she faces. That is, they argue that consumer choice on decision-making strategies is contingent on three factors – the characteristics of the person making the decision, the decision problem, and social context. This conceptual framework may provide useful implications for the consumer decision strategy of whether consumers will use traditional marketing communication and distribution channels or the internet for their information search and product purchase.

Proficiency or knowledge of the consumer who makes the decision gives an essential impact to contingent decision making. For instance, consumers who perceive arithmetic to be difficult are likely to use decision heuristics that require qualitative inferences instead of quantitative inferences relatively more often than those who perceive arithmetic to be easy [7]. Furthermore, extensive research shows that consumers’ prior knowledge and experience influence the information processing modes (e.g. [8]) or inferences (e.g. [9]).

The variables that explain the decision problem also restrict the usage of decision rules [10]. For example, in the case of a simple decision problem that has only two or three alternatives, consumers usually use compensatory decision rules. Conversely, in the case of a complex decision problem, consumers often use non-compensatory decision rules [11,12]. Moreover, if consumers feel time pressure, they either simplify the decision- making process [13], expedite [14,15], or focus on important information [16].

Consumer decision making is not made in a vacuum but is influenced by many societal factors. For instance, Simonson [17] shows that when a consumer needs to justify his or her own decision making, he or she usually choose an alternative that is easy to rationalise. In addition, there is a difference between the case of decision making for oneself and the case of joint decision making with spouse or children [18]. In sum, the three variables – person, problem, and context – influence the contingent consumer decision making. Present research applies and extends this model and investigates the issue of how consumers make decisions on whether they will use offline channels or the internet for their information search and product purchase.

3 A conceptual model of consumer choice between traditional marketing channels and the internet

Consumers follow through the decision-making process to choose an alternative that best satisfies their needs considering their budget. The process is typically composed of five steps – problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. The present research focuses on the two steps – information

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search and purchase – that seem to be important steps in which the internet can provide more consumer efficiency and effectiveness than traditional marketing channels. Information search is looking for alternatives for product choice. Product purchase is buying the chosen product through a channel. Accordingly, consumers may search information through the internet and then buy products also through the internet. On the other hand, consumers may search information through the internet and then can buy products through traditional channels. Alternatively, consumers may search information through traditional channels and then may buy products through the internet. Thus, consumer information search and buying behaviour should be examined separately and influencing factors also need to be investigated independently. Certainly, the common factors that influence both information search and product purchase together also should be considered.

Existing consumer behaviour theories focus on the individual consumer’s psychological factors, social factors, and cultural factors as essential factors that affect consumer behaviour. They also consider appreciably the moderating roles of the individual consumer’s continuous involvement and situational involvement. Furthermore, as discussed earlier, the contingent consumer decision-making model persuasively shows that consumers who have limited ability for information processing modify and adapt their decision strategies to cope with the specific decision problems they face. The present research investigates consumer behaviour through the internet by building upon existing consumer decision-making theories in offline environments and the impact of the unique characteristics of the internet on consumer behaviour.

Previous research on online consumer behaviour focused on either only product purchase through the internet [3,5,19–23] or only information search through the internet [24–26] and it did not examine composite information search and product purchase through the internet. Of course, it is not easy to distinguish clearly the factors that influence consumer information search through the internet from the factors that influence product purchase through the internet. Actually, some factors may influence both information search and product purchase concurrently. Moreover, consumer information search does not necessarily result in product purchase. Anyway, we may extract the factors that primarily influence consumer information search through the internet whether it may or may not result in product purchase and factors that primarily influence product purchase through the internet based upon previous research.

With respect to the research on consumer information search through the internet, Han [27] examined the influence of consumer characteristics such as the internet usage skill on the playfulness in the internet setting. Sohn and Ahn [22] showed that consumers’ knowledge affects their adoption of e-commerce. Furthermore, previous research [28–35] on the factors that influence the use of information technology such as online consumer information services suggested that consumer characteristics such as familiarity with computers affects consumer information search through the internet.

Yang and Cho [26] examined the impact of menu types of web advertisements, consumers’ need for cognition, and search objectives on consumer information search through the internet. They adopted Bloch et al.’s [36] argument and classified consumer search objectives into pre-purchase search and continuous search. According to Bloch et al. [36], we cannot explain consumer information search for entertainment purposes with only the scheme of pre-purchase search. Hence, they provided an alternative search purpose – continuous search.

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The KNP Report on the Internet User [37] published by IMResearch showed that user satisfaction with the website is decided by information quantity, design, transmission speed, user-friendliness of search structure, and update pace. It suggests that website characteristics are likely to influence consumer information search through the internet.

Based upon the previous research discussed earlier, we can sum up the influencing factors of consumer information search through the internet into three categories – consumer characteristics, information search objectives, and website characteristics. If we plug the variables into the contingent consumer decision-making model provided by Bettman et al. [6], consumer characteristics of our model correspond to the person in Bettman et al.’s model, search objectives correspond to problem, and website characteristics correspond to context. These factors are likely to influence a consumers’ decision regarding whether they will use offline channels or online channels for their information search. We sum up the consumer characteristics variables into the five factors – knowledge level, internet usage skill, challenging mindset towards the internet, lifestyle, and demographic characteristics. We apply the binary information search objective scheme – continuous scheme versus pre-purchase search – provided by Bloch et al. [36] and adopted by Yang and Cho [26]. We sum up the website characteristics into the five factors – information quantity, design, access and transmission speed, user-friendliness of search structure, and update frequency – suggested by the IMResearch [37].

Meanwhile, regarding consumer purchase through the internet, Peterson et al. [38] have classified products into two types – search products and experience products – based upon the information source of consumer product evaluation. According to their scheme, consumers use primarily external information to evaluate the search products. Conversely, consumers use primarily their own experience to evaluate the experience products. They then argued that search products are more appropriate to distribute through the internet than experience products. They also contended that tangible products are more appropriate than intangible products and shopping products are more appropriate than convenience products for retailing through the internet considering the distribution cost. Kim and Park [21] showed that benefits of internet transactions such as time saving and convenience enhance consumer purchase intention through the internet; On the other hand, risks associated with internet transactions such as delivery risk and payment risk discourage consumers from buying through the internet. Song and Shin [23] regarded consumer purchase through the internet as a form of innovation. They then showed that the internet transaction characteristic variables such as relative benefits, complexity, and compatibility influence consumer adoption of the internet shopping.

Based upon the previous research discussed earlier, we can sum up the influencing factors of consumer product purchase through the internet into three categories – product type, benefits of internet transactions, and risks of internet transactions. If we also plug the variables into the contingent consumer decision-making model provided by Bettman et al. [6], product type of our model corresponds to the problem of Bettman et al.’s model, and benefits and risks of internet transactions are construed to correspond to context. These factors are likely to influence consumers’ decisions regarding whether they will use offline channels or online channels for their product purchase. We categorise products type into search products versus experience products, convenience products versus shopping products, and tangible products versus intangible products. We condense the benefits of online purchase into five factors – product quality superiority, price advantage, assortment, time saving, and convenience. To the risks of online

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purchase, we apply product related risk (functional risk, product, quality, assortment), purchase method risk (difficulty of comparison, impulse buying, and other purchase risk), service related risk (delivery, refunds, contract related risk), and payment related risk (credit card and transaction information related risk) provided and used by Kim and Park [21].

The internet provides the best environment for concurrent information search and product purchase and this fact is an important characteristic differentiating the internet from traditional channels. Consumers search information affected by consumer characteristics, information search objectives, and website characteristics and then they may also buy through the internet. Alternatively, the purchase may be made through offline channels even after consumers search information through the internet. That is, the possibility that consumers will buy products through the internet instead of an offline channel after they search information through the internet is likely to be moderated by the types of goods they are going to buy, benefits of online purchase, and risks of online purchase. Furthermore, product type, benefits and risks of online purchase may also influence the possibility of online purchases directly and independently. However, for the simplicity of our conceptual model, we do not include this influencing route. Our model is pictorially depicted in Figure 1. Figure 1 Influencing factors of consumer information search and buying behaviour through the internet

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4 Factors that influence consumer information search through the internet

Sohn and Ahn [22] showed that consumers’ knowledge level influences their adoption of e-commerce. That is, in the e-commerce market, consumers’ knowledge level makes the efficiency divide. In the case of less knowledgeable consumers, their information search is less efficient and it increases the information search cost. As a result, the possibility to use e-commerce becomes relatively lower. Sohn and Ahn [22] did not distinguish consumer information search through the internet from product purchase through the internet in their analysis. Rather, they tried to grasp a broad construct – consumer adoption of e-commerce – in their consumer research. Nonetheless, the research suggests that consumers’ knowledge level affects their efficiency of information search through the internet and is likely to influence consumer information search through the internet as a result. Based upon the reasoning, we provide following proposition:

P1 The higher a consumer’s knowledge level, the higher is the possibility of searching information through the internet

Han et al. [5] examined the impact of consumers’ characteristics on their playfulness in the internet, information search through the internet, and purchase intention. They contended that the higher a consumer’s internet usage skill, information search performance, and search proficiency, the higher his or her playfulness in using the internet. As a result, the higher a consumer’s playfulness on the internet, the higher his or her intention of information search and purchase through the internet. Furthermore, previous research [28–35] on the factors that influence consumer usage of information technology showed that the higher a consumer’s computer familiarity, the higher the possibility of using information technology. Based upon this, we provide a proposition as follows:

P2 The higher a consumer’s internet usage skill, the higher is the possibilityof searching information through the internet

Kozinets [24] suggested that consumers in the cyber community are more active and intuitive than those in the offline community. Han et al. [5] showed that the higher a consumer’s challenging spirit and playfulness on the internet, the higher his or her intention to search or purchase through the internet. Moreover, previous research discussed earlier [28–35] on the factors that influence consumer use of information technology suggests that the more venturesome and aggressive towards innovation a consumer is, the higher is the possibility of his or her information technology usage. Based upon this reasoning, we propose as follows:

P3 The higher a consumer’s challenging spirit to internet usage is, the higher is the possibility of his or her information search through the internet

Ewusi-Mensah and Prizasnyski [39] researched on company employees’ adoption of a new information system project and showed that the more sensitive to a new vogue an individual is, the higher is the possibility of his or her adoption of new information technology projects. Oh [4] suggested that the more sensitive to new fashion and used to

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adopting it a consumer is, the more proactive he or she is to use the information technology. Furthermore, Kim and Kwon [20] contended that a consumer whose lifestyle is more progressive and assertive in leisure activities uses the internet more frequently and searches information through the internet more often. Based upon this, we provide a proposition as follows:

P4 A consumer whose lifestyle is more progressive and assertive in enjoying leisure activities, and who is accustomed to accept new trends is more likely to use the internet for his or her information search

Previous research [28–35] on the factors that influence consumer usage of information technology showed that a consumer’s demographic characteristics such as gender, age, income, education, and occupation affect his or her adoption of information technology. Considering that information search through the internet is a typical behaviour of information technology adoption, we can provide following proposition:

P5 A consumer’s demographic characteristics such as gender, age, income, education, and occupation influence the possibility of his or her information search through the internet

Yang and Cho [26] investigated the impact of the objectives of consumers’ information search on their search behaviour. They adopted the classification scheme of information search objectives provided by Bloch et al. [36] and categorised consumers’ information search objectives into ‘pre-purchase search’ and ‘continuous search’. Bloch et al. [36] pointed out that we cannot explain hedonic search behaviour that does not presume obvious consumption need with only the pre-purchase search objective. They then proposed continuous search as an alternative to pre-purchase search. Yang and Cho [26] examined the impact of consumers’ objectives of information search on their search extent and search time with regard to web advertising, and preferred format of web advertising. They showed that consumers with a pre-purchase search objective searched more actively and preferred external web advertisements rather than embedded web advertisements. In addition, Shapiro and Varian [40] highlighted the extraordinary search potential of the internet. Moreover, Dickson [41] pointed out that:

“We are only starting to gain an understanding of the potential strategic impact of its search and navigation capabilities on global consumption and production. Within the near future, simple yet extraordinarily powerful price-and-quality search engines and services are likely to have a significant impact on consumer behaviour.” [41, p.119]

Thus, consumers with a pre-purchase search objective may use internet price search services to identify the cheapest products available in the world. Based upon this, we provide the following proposition:

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P6 The objectives of a consumer’s information search (continuous search versus pre-purchase search) influence the type of information searched, search time, and extent of search through the internet

The KNP Survey of Internet Users [37] by IMResearch demonstrated that consumers’ satisfaction with a website is decided by information quantity, design quality, access and transmission speed, user-friendliness of search structure, and update pace. This suggests that website characteristics are likely to influence consumer information search through the internet. Moreover, Lee et al. [42] showed that the proficiency of the internet website that provides information, entertainment, and interactivity affects consumers’ attitude toward the website. As a result, consumers’ attitude towards the website affects their attitude toward web advertisement. Previous research [43–49] investigated consumers’ attitude and usage of new information technology applied distribution channels. They pointed out that the user-friendly interface of e-commerce is a requisite to achieve high service quality. Additionally, previous research on consumer attitude and usage of information technology such as home shopping, direct marketing, and EDI [35,50–53] suggests that the more detailed and useful, accurate and trustworthy, updated and timely is the information provided by the sellers’ e-commerce interface, the more consumers are likely to have a favourable attitude toward the e-commerce tools and intention to use them. Lee [54] showed that physical aspects of an internet retailer influence consumers’ perception of its service quality. Based upon the reasoning, we can provide the following propositions regarding the influence of website characteristics on consumer information search through the internet:

P7 The more plentiful is the information provided by the website than that provided by the offline channel, the higher is the possibility of consumers’ information search through the internet

P8 The better is the design of the website than the artistic facet of an offline

channel’s store display, the higher is the possibility of consumers’ information search through the internet

P9 The faster is the speed of access and transmission of the website than that

of collecting information through an offline channel, the higher is the possibility of consumers’ information search through the internet

P10 The more user-friendly the search structure of the website is than the

search procedure through the offline channel, the higher is the possibility of consumers’ information search through the internet

P11 The faster is the update pace of website than the pace of new information acquisition through an offline channel, the higher is the possibility of consumers’ information search through the internet

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5 Factors that influence directly and indirectly consumer product purchase through the internet

Consumers’ information search through the internet influences product purchase through the internet. Based upon previous research on internet characteristics and consumer behaviour, the possibility that a consumer will purchase a product through the internet instead of an offline channel after he or she has searched information through the internet is likely to be moderated by product type, internet transaction benefits, and internet transaction risks.

As discussed earlier, Peterson et al. [38] proposed that the appropriateness of marketing through the internet is different across different product types (search products versus experience products). That is, the internet will perform the distribution channel function competently for search products that can be well evaluated by consumers based upon only external information. However, the internet may not perform the distribution channel function for experience products that cannot be sufficiently evaluated by consumers based upon only external information without their own experience.

Extending the logic of Peterson et al. [38], if a product can be well evaluated with only external information searched through the internet, consumers do not need to use offline channels to experience the product before they buy it. Conversely, if a product cannot be well evaluated with only external information searched through the internet and a consumer wishes to experience the product before he or she makes a decision on the purchase, the purchase is likely to be made through an offline channel even after he or she has searched information through the internet. Based upon this reasoning, we can propose as follows:

P12 The influence of information search through the internet (hereafter we express this as ‘online search’) on product purchase through the internet (hereafter we express this as ‘online purchase’) is moderated by product type (search products versus experience products)

Products are categorised into tangible products and intangible products (digital goods and services). Peterson et al. [38] argued that the physical distribution area is the least probable function out of three functions of offline channels – communication, transaction, and physical distribution – that the internet will replace. However, it is not the case with intangible products including digital goods such as software and music, research reports. That is, considering the physical distribution cost, the internet is rather more of an ideal distribution channel in the case of digital goods. Kiang [55] suggested that product characteristics such as product customisation, logistics, and transaction complexity would decide the competitive advantage of the internet as a marketing channel against an offline channel. From the perspective of the consumer, in the case of intangible products, consumers can search information and experience products through the internet quickly and easily. Consumers can buy intangible products at a cheaper price through the internet than an offline channel using a price comparison service as discussed earlier. Though, in the case of tangible products, consumers may perceive the time and economic utility of online buying as not necessarily bigger than that of offline buying even after they have searched information through the internet for the reasons discussed earlier. As a result, the possibility of offline purchase exists even after their online search

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is higher in the case of tangible products than in intangible products. Based upon this reasoning, we can provide following proposition:

P13 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by product type (tangible products versus intangible products)

As extensively acknowledged, goods can be classified into convenience products and shopping products based upon consumer efforts, frequency, and price. Peterson et al. [38] pointed out that, in tangible products case, shopping products are more appropriate than convenience products for distribution through the internet considering the physical distribution cost and price competitive advantage. Interpreting the logic in consumers’ point of view, in tangible products case, the possibility that consumers will buy product through the internet after they search information through the internet is higher in shopping products case than convenience products case considering the physical distribution cost and price competitive advantage. Thus, we can propose as following:

P 14 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by product type (shopping products versus convenience products)

Previous research [46,56,57] on consumers’ intention to purchase through catalogue shopping or electronic shopping channels showed that the higher the product quality provided by the direct channel to satisfy consumers, the higher consumers’ purchase intention. Other previous research [34,50,53,56] on consumers’ intention to purchase through electronic shopping or direct marketing channels contended that the lower the price, and the more diverse the assortment of the product marketed by the channel, the higher is the consumer’s intention to purchase through the channel. Degeratu [19] showed that consumers’ price sensitivity is higher in the online supermarket case than the offline supermarket. It suggests that price directly influences product purchase through the internet and simultaneously price is likely to play a moderating role (indirect influence) in the process in which consumers’ enhanced price sensitivity after they have searched information through the internet affects their product purchase through the internet. Furthermore, previous research [34,50,53,56] on consumers’ intention to purchase through electronic shopping or direct marketing channels showed that the more convenient is the procedure for handling consumer complaints and after-sales service, the higher is their intention to buy through the channel. Oh [4] and Kwon and Cho [58] pointed out that, in e-commerce transactions, the exchange of money for products does not take place simultaneously but there is a time gap between order and delivery. As a result, the better the service provided to the consumers in the whole process of ordering, payment, and after-sales service, the more satisfied they are. Based on the above reasoning, we provide following propositions regarding the moderating roles of the internet transaction benefits in the path in which online search influences online purchase:

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P15 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by product quality provided by the website

P16 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by the price of the product provided by the website

P17 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by the assortment of products provided by the website

P18 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by the speed of the product purchase procedure

P19 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by convenience of order, delivery, payment, and after-sales service procedures provided by the website

Kim and Park [21] contended that the benefits of online purchase such as time saving and convenience enhance consumers’ intention to purchase through the internet; Conversely, the risks of online purchase such as product reliability, delivery or refund related uncertainty reduce consumers’ intention to purchase through the internet. Sung and Kang [59] demonstrated that consumers are concerned with credit card or personal information abuse in the process of online purchase. This previous research suggests that if consumers perceive the risks related to product quality, purchase method, payment, and service with regard to online buying, they may circumvent the internet and choose offline channels for product purchase even after they have searched information through the internet. Based upon this, we provide following propositions:

P20 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by consumers’ perception of product related risk with regard to online purchase

P21 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by consumers’ perception of purchase method related risk with regard to online purchase

P22 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by consumers’ perception of service related risk with regard to online purchase

P23 The influence of online search on online purchase is moderated by consumers’ perception of payment related risk with regard to online purchase

Considering the objective of this research is to provide a comprehensive analytical framework regarding influencing factors of consumers’ internet usage, the direct influence of product type, benefits and risks of internet transactions also need to be considered. As discussed earlier, product type, benefits and risks of buying through the internet may moderate the path from online search to online purchase. Simultaneously, they may directly influence online purchase. That is, consumers search information through the internet and form a favourable attitude towards the product and internet

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channel after they consider product type, risks and benefits of online purchase and eventually may buy through the internet. Alternatively, consumers may perceive the advantage of the internet channel compared to offline channel at the initial stage of consumer decision making, and may execute their purchase through the internet. Thus, we can provide following proposition:

P 24 Product type, benefits and risks of online purchase directly influence consumers’ purchase through the internet

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