SARS(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)which caused a serious epidemic situation in Taiwan was a never known virus last year. People were fear of going out, and avoided entering to the public place, like theater, department store, bus¡Ketc. in case to be infected with SARS. Under the completed network infrastructure and the changing environment, people seemed to intend shopping on line more than ever To know the effect of SARS on electronic commerce of Taiwan, we tried to investigate the online behavior of users, such as the spending time on surfing, the products by online shopping, and the intention of online shopping. We found that SARS had a positive effect on electronic commerce. Besides, this research uses Maslow¡¦s need theory for the research framework, including the physiological needs, the safety needs, the belongingness and love needs, the esteem needs, the self actualization needs, the desires to know and to understand, the aesthetic needs and the entertainments needs which were derived form the need theory. Basing on the above needs, we investigated what kind of needs would be increasing and what kind of needs would be not during SARS. Moreover we also investigated the degree that products could satisfy the eight needs. Combined with the result of survey, we develop a fitting model to forecast the intention of online shopping and also fit with the result of MIC survey.

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The online shopping industry has been growing over the past decade (Statista, 2014). Former researchers identified consumers’ utilitarian and hedonic online shopping motivations. A qualitative research was conducted to understand the utilitarian and hedonic online shopping motivations of students to shop fashion online. A phenomenological interviewing method was used to generate detailed and in-depth descriptions of the seven students’ experiences of the University of Borås. Respectively three utilitarian and four hedonic online shopping motivations emerged out of the data and could be linked the motivations identified by Vignali and Reid (2014). This paper analyses the utilitarian online shopping motivations respectively convenience, price and discounts and selections and hedonic online shopping motivations respectively enjoyment, sociability, trend discovery and exclusivity. Regarding the utilitarian online shopping motivation convenience several convenience dimensions emerged out of the collected data and matched the dimensions identified by Jiang, Yang and Jun (2013) respectively, respectively access, search, evaluation, transaction, possession and post-purchase convenience. Regarding the hedonic online shopping motivation enjoyment, several dimensions emerged out of the data and could be linked to dimensions identified by Monsuwé et al. (2004) respectively escapism, pleasure and arousal. Some of the linkages that could be found by comparing former research were also found in the data collected. Regarding the utilitarian online shopping motivations, information availability identified by Vignali and Reid (2014) could be linked to evaluation convenience and product availability identified by Vignali and Reid (2014) could be linked to access convenience. Regarding the hedonic online shopping motivations, relaxation shopping identified by (Ozen and Engizek, 2014) could be linked to escapism, social shopping (Ozen and Engizek, 2014) to sociability and idea shopping (Ozen and Engizek, 2014) to trend discovery. The analyses on the linkages further deepened the understanding of both utilitarian and hedonic motivations of students to shop fashion online.

With the fast growing Chinese online marketplace and the increasing popularity of shopping imported products online in China, more and more practitioners and researchers are interested in understanding the cues that Chinese consumers use to evaluate imported products consumption online. Our quantitative study aims to identify what factors affect the behavior of Chinese online consumers towards imported products and the relationships between the identified factors and purchase intention, and thereafter help companies to understand how to increase Chinese online consumers’ purchase intention of imported products. The research model is developed based on The Theory of Planned Behavior. Data were collected through web-based survey in China. Subsequently, the logistic regression in SPSS was used for testing the 12 hypotheses. Results reveal that the purchase intention of Chinese online consumers to imported products is closely associated with Perceived Behavioral Control, Subjective Norms, Perceived Risks, Service Quality, Country of Origin and Price. However, Product Variety and graphically well-designed websites are not relevant to purchase intention when Chinese consumers evaluate online imported products. The findings of our study serve as a link between consumers and online retailers or companies. The information from this study can add knowledge to limited studies on the behavior of Chinese online consumer.

This study examines the online shopping behaviour of 142 international university students (IUSs) within the context of a modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Results indicate that perceived entertainment outweighs the impact of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived self-efficacy (PSE) on attitude towards online shopping (ATT). Perceived risk (PR) was not related to ATT and ATT and behavioural intentions (BI) did not influence actual behaviour. Experience was strongly related to ATT, but demographics have little influence on TAM measures. Entertainment and usefulness were the primary motives for IUSs to shop online. The findings of this study could help universities and e-retailers develop guidelines to ensure a safe and attractive e-shopping experience for IUSs.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Preisvergleich zwischen Online-Shops und traditionellen Geschäften. In einigen Studien wurde bisher versucht, Preisunterschiede zwischen online und traditionellen Geschäften nachzuweisen, um die These, dass Online-Märkte aufgrund höherer Transparenz und niedrigerer Transaktionskosten effizienter sind, zu bestätigen. Studien untersuchten bisher Produktgruppen wie CDs und Bücher. In dieser Studie beschäftigen wir uns mit dem bisher noch nicht untersuchten Spieleeinzelhandel und konzentrieren uns dabei auf den österreichischen Markt. Es soll untersucht werden, ob der österreichische Markt ähnliche oder andere Ergebnisse liefert als die bisher untersuchten Märkte (hauptsächlich im nordamerikanischen Raum). Die Untersuchung zeigt folgendes: Die Preise für Spiele sind im elektronischen Markt um ca. 20 Prozent niedriger als im traditionellen Markt. Die Preisstreuungen im elektronischen und traditionellen Markt unterscheiden sich nicht signifikant. Beide Ergebnisse decken sich mit den Ergebnissen anderer Studien. Damit ist der österreichische Online-Brettspieleinzelhandel ähnlich entwickelt wie der Online-Handel in anderen Ländern und für andere Produktgruppen. (Autorenref.) / Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operations

Problem: E-commerce is a rapidly growing business sector across the world and provides interesting expansion opportunities for retail businesses. However, differing consumer attitudes across borders create barriers for expansion, and subsequently there is a need to study these differences. Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to examine potential differences between Chinese and Swedish consumer’s attitudes and online shopping intentions when purchasing apparel online. The secondary purpose of this study is to contribute to the TAM by adding constructs that facilitate a cross-cultural examination in an e-commerce context. Methodology: This study is explorative and descriptive and has applied a qualitative research approach. The data has been collected primarily by conducting focus groups in both China and in Sweden. Findings: Differences in consumer’s attitudes and intentions toward online shopping between China and Sweden were identified. The main differences were the perceived overall usefulness of online shopping and the level of risk that consumers perceived in online shopping. Risk related constructs added to the TAM were found to be relevant, while the relevance of certain culturally related dimensions added were questionable.

This study examined the effects of sport brand music on the shopping behaviors sport consumers. Sport brand music is custom-designed music that embodies the attributes and characteristics of the sport brand, and plays a formative role in priming concepts related to the sport brand in the minds of sport consumers. Since sport brand music features song lyrics directly related to the sport brand, the purpose of this research was to examine the effects of sport brand music on shopping-related outcomes in an online retail store. Specifically, it was hypothesized that sport brand music would have a positive influence on sport consumers’ perceptions of musical fit with the sport brand, which would then lead to positive effects on various shopping behaviors, including evaluation of the store, attitude towards the brand, and purchase intentions. In addition, because people observe store environments in different ways, it was predicted that the personality trait of atmospheric responsiveness would moderate the relationships. The theoretical framework for this research is based on the principles and perspectives of conceptual fluency. It is argued that sport brand music that consists of song lyrics related to the sport brand will be more conceptually fluent and easier to process in a sport brand store than will popular music. A quantitative research design in the form of a laboratory experiment was used in this study. Participants (N=250) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: sport brand music (conceptually fluent) and popular music (not conceptually fluent). The conditions employed in this research involved shopping tasks that took place in a sport brand online retail store. Following the shopping tasks, participants were asked to answer questionnaire items via Qualtrics online survey software. Structural equation modeling (SEM) by means of AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle, 2006) was utilized to test the hypotheses. Assessment of the measurement model fit for the entire model showed that all variables loaded as expected. Evaluation of the hypotheses showed that participants assigned to the sport brand music condition demonstrated more positive perceptions of musical fit than did participants assigned to the popular music condition(β = -.44, p < .001). Further, results supported the hypothesis that musical fit would then positively affect evaluations of the store (β = .50, p < .001) and attitudes toward the brand (β = .14, p < .05), but did not affect purchase intentions (β = .11, p = .06). In addition, findings indicate that evaluations of the store significantly related to attitudes toward the brand (β = .52, p < .001), which positively related to purchase intentions (β = .53, p < .001). Moreover, atmospheric responsiveness was found to have a moderating effect on musical fit (β = -.13, p = .06). Details of this research, as well as research limitations, study implications, and future directions, are forwarded.

The home delivery service is considered as the bottleneck of online shopping and plays an important role in the success of such business application. A lack of postcode system in the developing countries, Jordan specifically, is one of the main challenges that face delivery couriers and e-retailers. The main aim of this PhD project reported in this thesis is the development of a novel postcode alternative system to enable online shopping and home delivery service of purchased goods in Jordan. The system incorporates two modules: the front-end and the back-end module. The front-end module is combined of two platforms: desktop and smart phone platforms and can be used by online shoppers; the back-end module is designed to be used by retailer/delivery courier as the system administrator. Two studies were conducted in this research; the first study was aiming to understand the problems that face e-consumers when shopping online and the work behaviour of the delivery system in Jordan. Whilst; the second study was aiming to evaluate usability of the designed system. Data was collected by conducting an experimental sessions and distributing questionnaires among three samples of people (consumers, retailers, and delivery couriers). The findings of these studies showed that there was a concern from consumers-side in describing their delivery address to the retailer/delivery courier. In addition, there was a concern from retailers and delivery couriers-side in finding the delivery address location. Furthermore, a user testing was conducted on both modules by involving a number of participants according to the relevance of their use of the system to evaluate the usability of the system. In the evaluation, it was demonstrated that the system makes an important contribution for solving the problem of home delivery service and improving online shopping in Jordan.

As an increasing number of people are logging on to the internet to do their shopping, it is imperative for a site to be accessible and usable. Nielsen’s heuristic method is one esteemed method that many web site developers use in their design work. One study suggests that online shopping needs most improvement with the heuristics “User control and freedom” where an undo button often is lacking and in ‘Help and Documentation’ where the user may not easily switch between their work and the help. The study, however, has been made on grocery shops alone. The following study adopts the results of the past study as hypotheses and investigates if they hold true for another type of online shopping site – women’s apparel. The results of the study confirm that these two heuristics indeed are the two most troublesome. However, for the biggest usability disaster under each, the results are either inapplicable or only lend weak support. The following results lend more support to a possible generalization for all online sites and better awareness among software developers of online shopping sites. Yet a more consistent base of common usability disasters under these two specific heuristics needs to be developed.