An Empirical Study on Consumers’ Resistance to Mobile Shopping Service: The Case of Shopping on WeChat Friends’ Circle

Abstract

Objectives: This study identifies and analyzes the important factors influencing consumers’ resistance to mobile shopping on WeChat Friends’ Circle, and to understand the relationships between consumers’ resistance and intention to innovation. Methods/Statistical Analysis: According to the measurement items of the constructs that are adopted and modified from the previous studies, a questionnaire has been shared and a theoretical model has been proposed from the hypothesis. The collected data is analyzed by structural equation modeling method using SPSS and AMOS and using a sample of 346 respondents from WeChat users in China. Findings: These tests highlighted that the proposed factors of both innovation characteristics and consumer characteristics do significantly impact on consumers’ postponement, rejection, and opposition resistance at some extent respectively. Surprisingly, as been known that high value of relative advantage is found that it did not negatively affect consumers’ resistance, and the fake good risk is highly influencing consumers’ resistance. However, in this present study, the empirical data supported that relative advantage positively influenced consumers’ postponement resistance as a significant level (H1a: 0.200**); and the fake goods risk has no significant influences on three forms of consumers’ resistance at all. Interestingly, it’s found that only postponement positively influences consumers’ intention to purchase on Friends’ Circle. The new findings highlight the difference from our research to the existing research, and lead the new thinking in researching consumers’ resistance to the innovation. Improvements/Applications: This study considered six factors influencing consumers’ resistance, and highlighted that both relative advantage and motivation positively influence consumers’ postponement resistance at significant levels.