Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The market share of online purchasing is under two percent of total retail
spending, which provides an indication that consumers have been slow to adopt
online purchasing. Previous research has shown that consumers perceive risks
associated with purchasing online and these perceptions are likely to affect
purchase intention. Little research, however, has been done on perceived risk
relating specifically to online purchasing, and in particular, risk related to branded
and non-branded retailer websites. Research has shown that brand knowledge
has a direct effect on a consumer’s intention to purchase from an online retailer
and that this relationship between brand knowledge and intent to purchase online
is mediated by perceived risk. The purpose of this exploratory study was
therefore to investigate the consumer-perceived risks associated with the
intention to purchase online.
The research problem considered the question whether the perceived risks
(financial, performance, physical, time, social and psychological risks) associated
with a branded website (Kalahari.net) are different from the perceived risks
associated with a non-branded website (Books.com).
It was found that four types of perceived risk exist namely, performance, time,
social, and personal risk. Of these risks, only performance risk had an influence
on a consumer’s purchase intention from a non-branded website whereas
performance and personal risk influenced a consumer’s intention to purchase
from a branded website. It was also revealed that consumers perceive
performance, time, and social risk as not statistically different when purchasing
from a non-branded or a branded website. However, personal risk was perceived
to be statistically differently for the two websites.
In addition, the brand image dimension of brand knowledge had an influence on a consumer’s purchase intention from both the branded and non-branded websites. The brand awareness dimension of brand knowledge did not influence
purchase intention at all. For all four risk types on both the branded and nonbranded
websites (except social risk on Books.com), at least one and in some
cases, both dimensions of brand knowledge influenced the degree of perceived
risk associated with purchasing on the particular website. Finally, it was
concluded that the more information search a consumer does before purchase of
a book on a branded or non-branded website, the higher their perceived risk
associated with purchasing from the particular website.
A number of recommendations were made. Methods for decreasing the amount
of performance risk which consumers perceive when purchasing a book online
were firstly suggested. It was further recommended that Kalahari.net investigate
the dimensions of their brand such as brand image, brand awareness, and brand
trust, to identify the reasons why consumers perceive performance, social and
time risk as being not statistically different when purchasing on a branded and a
non-branded website. Since consumers did not see a difference between the
brand image of the branded and the non-branded websites, it was recommended
that the branded website make every effort to investigate their current branding
strategy to identify the reasons consumers view the branded website in the same
manner as the non-branded website. Furthermore, since both dimensions of
brand knowledge influenced the degree of perceived risk associated with
purchasing on the particular website to a certain extent, it was recommended that
online retailers focus on building familiarity, positive thoughts, feelings,
associations, and beliefs concerning the online retailer brand. Finally, it was
recommended that the influence of information search online on perceived risk
associated with purchasing be further investigated; because this study found that
an action that was traditionally initiated as a means for decreasing perceived risk
can now be attributed to increased consumer-perceived risk associated with
online shopping.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/2981 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Ward, Shannon-Jane |
| Contributors | Gerber, C., Boshoff, C., Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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