Shopping for cultural products on the Internet

Abstract

The present study examined the structural interrelationships among consumer characteristics, shopping attitude, and shopping intention based on Fishbein and Azjen's (1975) Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Study objectives were: 1 ) to identify characteristics of consumers who shop for cultural products on the Internet, 2) to propose theoretical models explaining consumers' shopping for cultural products on the Internet, and 3) to empirically test the proposed models using a random sample of subjects who shop for cultural products on the Internet. This research was conducted in collaboration with a particular company selling cultural products on the Internet, Eziba.com. A random sample of individuals was drawn from the list of consumers provided by Eziba; all had made at least two purchases from the Eziba Website within the past six months. Of the 1000 Eziba customers invited by e-mail to participate in the Web survey, 203 individuals responded fora response rate of 20.3%. Of these returns, 200 usable questionnaires were submitted for the data analyses using descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling via AMOS. Findings from the present study indicated that consumer characteristics, the product, and the Website were all important factors to predict consumers' intention to shop for cultural products on the Internet. Individuals with certain characteristics of Cultural Creatives (Ray & Anderson, 2000) appear to be an important target market for selling cultural products on the Internet. While both product quality and Website attributes were important factors influencing a positive attitude toward shopping for cultural products on the Internet, only consumers' positive beliefs about the Website significantly influenced their intention to shop on the Internet. Specifically, merchandising, such as keeping products in stock and offering competitive prices, appeared to be a critical factor in determining customers' shopping intention. This study also revealed that consumers' utilitarian shopping value appears to be more dominant than hedonic shopping value when they shop for cultural products on the Internet. For consumers with utilitarian shopping value, all aspects of the Website, information quality, merchandising, interface, and protection were important to make their shopping trip successful. Finally, proposed models with good fit and significant paths between belief structures and intention supported the effectiveness of the extended TRA in the context of cultural product shopping on the Internet. Implications of the study and recommendations for future research were provided.