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Research: How Price Changes Influence Consumers’ Buying Decisions

• Ioannis Evangelidis
• Manissa Gunadi

Online shopping platforms allow people to see changes in a product’s price over time — offering opportunities for buyers and sellers alike.

Whether on retailers’ own platforms or through third-party price tracking services, today’s consumers often have access to detailed information regarding changes in a product’s price over time. But how does this visibility influence their purchasing decisions? Through a series of studies, the authors found that buyers are more likely to buy now if they see a single large price decrease or a series of smaller price increases, because they’ll assume that the price will go up if they wait. Conversely, they’re more likely to hold off on buying if they see a single large price increase or a series of smaller decreases, because they’ll assume the price will fall. As such, they argue that sellers should consider this effect when pricing their products, while buyers should recognize and question this natural tendency — to expect price streaks to continue and single large changes to reverse — before acting on it.

Whether you’re looking to buy a plane ticket or a pair of socks, more and more online shopping platforms now offer consumers a detailed look into products’ historical prices. But how does this information influence buying decisions?

• IE Ioannis Evangelidis is an associate professor of marketing at ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University, in Barcelona, Spain. His research focuses on how consumers make decisions, particularly how their purchase behavior can be influenced by changes in the decision environment.
• MG Manissa Gunadi is an assistant professor of marketing at EADA Business School in Barcelona, Spain. In her research, Manissa primarily investigates how different forms of numerical information influence consumers’ judgments, decision-making, and behavior.

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Identifying purchase intention through deep learning: analyzing the Q &D text of an E-Commerce platform

• Original Research
• Published: 01 July 2022

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• Jing Ma 1 ,
• Xiaoyu Guo 1 &
• Xufeng Zhao   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9423-5366 1 , 2  

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Identifying purchase intention by analyzing the Query and the Document of the product description (Q &D) text is one of the most important means of promoting Purchase Rate (PR). In view of that customers sometimes cannot describe their purchasing intention in queries, this paper aims to identify purchase intention from implicit queries by computing semantic similarity between Q &D and proposes a novel model based on Word2Vec algorithm, Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) and Deep Structured Semantic Model (DSSM). Besides, an empirical analysis is conducted through the Keras framework and based on the factual retrieval data of the Home Depot, an E-commerce website selling building materials in America. The results show that the proposed model has achieved improving F1-score on test dataset compared with other existing models. The novel model combines Word2Vec and LSTM to extract text features and applies DSSM to further fetch high-dimension representations by maximizing semantic similarity between the user query and the description of the correct merchandise. Our proposed model can be used to remove or minimize subjective factors in extracting features, improves the performance of purchasing intention identification, and also improves the customer experience of online shopping.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 72174086 and 71801126, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under grant number NW2020001.

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Ma, J., Guo, X. & Zhao, X. Identifying purchase intention through deep learning: analyzing the Q &D text of an E-Commerce platform. Ann Oper Res (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-04834-w

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Research on the factors influencing the re-purchase intention on short video platforms: A case of China

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations School of Economics and Trade, Fujian Jiangxia University, Fuzhou, China, Institute of Education, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

Roles Writing – original draft

Affiliation School of Economics and Trade, Fujian Jiangxia University, Fuzhou, China

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* E-mail: [email protected]

• Baodeng Lin, 
• Yongyi Chen, 
• Liping Zhang

• Published: March 15, 2022
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090
• Reader Comments

Short video platforms, which thrive along with the video-based consumption industry, have become a new channel adopted by an increasing number of enterprises to distribute products. Therefore, it is necessary to study the factors influencing the consumer’s intention to re-purchase on short video platforms, which is helpful for firms to maintain their competitiveness. This paper, based on the customer value theory, seeks to establish a structural model for such factors. The intermediary effect of customer loyalty on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention of customers is also analyzed. Questionnaires were distributed and collected from users of short video platforms in China. Results show that short video content, customer experience, and perceived value have positive impacts on customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction, along with customer loyalty, exert positive impacts on repurchase intention. Notably, customer loyalty plays an intermediary role between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Based on the aforesaid findings, theoretical implications are discussed and managerial implications to increase repurchase rate are offered.

Citation: Lin B, Chen Y, Zhang L (2022) Research on the factors influencing the re-purchase intention on short video platforms: A case of China. PLoS ONE 17(3): e0265090. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090

Editor: Qihong Liu, University of Oklahama Norman Campus: The University of Oklahoma, UNITED STATES

Received: September 5, 2021; Accepted: February 22, 2022; Published: March 15, 2022

Copyright: © 2022 Lin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: Funding: This research was funded by the Fujian Social Science Planning Project (FJ2016C038) and School-level First-class Professional Project Construction in Fujian Jiangxia Uiversity (24/06201901).The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: All authors declare no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or the publication of this article.

Introduction

With the continuous development of 5G network, the mobile internet industry has undergone earth-shaking changes in the “era of short video” dominated by visual communication. As indicated in the 47th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China published by CNNIC, by December 2020, the number of online videos (including short video) users has reached 927 million, accounting for 93.7% of all netizens. Thereinto, the number of short video users has reached 873 million, accounting for 88.3% of netizens [ 1 ]. As the mobile internet develops rapidly, a large number of short video platforms have emerged, such as Tik Tok, Kwai, Pear Video , and MiaoPai. The video covers a wide range of contents from science popularization, to daily vlogs such as makeups, pets, cuisine preparation, etc. Among these platforms, “Tik Tok”, which is preferred by the young, and “Kwai”, which takes the route of “encircling cities from rural areas”, are the most popular.

In addition, these platforms enable the videos to be reposted, commented, shared, and liked, which caters to the demands for today’s mobile social networking. This phenomenon can be verified by the popularity of short video platforms among contemporary youth. Specifically, when people are in quarantine during the outbreak of COVID-19, there are an increasing number of users spending more time on various network video apps, which brings an unprecedented opportunity to short video shopping in China. However, it is critical to consider whether such a platform can retain customers long enough for re-purchase. Therefore, analyzing the influencing factors of repurchase willingness on the short video platform is of great importance.

In this paper, these factors are analyzed empirically based on previous studies to enrich the studies on the repurchase willingness in this industry. Finally, some suggestions are made based on the empirical analysis for related enterprises and platforms, so that they can better understand customers’ psychology in this regard so as to retain more loyal customers and achieve a higher re-purchase rate. In the meantime, new ideas are also proposed for the future development of short video platforms to strengthen their competitiveness.

Literature review

Short videos and related consumption activities.

Short videos, which is typically a few seconds long, can be shot and edited on mobile terminals, and then shared promptly on social platforms. Zhang Haitao et al. (2020) defined it as fragmented entertainment featured with a low creation threshold and high sociability [ 2 ]. Along with the popularity of this mode of entertainment, video contents are increasingly diversified. Peng Lan (2019), indicated that such contents, containing people-oriented emotions and warm lifestyles, can carry forward the folk culture [ 3 ]. As stated in 2020 China Research Report on Internet Audio-Visual Development , the number of short video users, which are dominated by the “post-80s” and “post-90s”, has reached 818 million, nearly accounting for 90% of all netizens. 60.4% of these users browse short videos daily. By June 2020, the users have involved more age brackets, but they are mostly the generation born in the 1980s and people with low or medium levels of education [ 4 ]. By comprehensively observing such users’ motivations, likes, dislikes and lifestyles, Zhang Tianli et al. (2019) found that many of them are pursuing for “energy, connection and individuation”, showing the characteristics of group image [ 5 ].

Due to the rapid expansion of social e-commerce, short video consumption has become a new force and channel of online shopping, and the products can be presented to the user in a more vivid and direct form. This has prompted many enterprises to promote their products via short videos on short video platforms. Wang Jianlei (2021) suggested that customers tend to have an enjoyable, innovative, fun, and immersive shopping experience when shopping on short video platforms. For these users, the purpose of short video consumption is to gain pleasure, value and feedback capabilities, which differs significantly from shopping on traditional media [ 6 ]. Zhou Xuanchen et al. (2021) pointed out that short video contents are characterized by fast pace and strong impact, which stimulates customers’ vision and sense. However, people will stop thinking about other things when they are immersed in the instantaneous sensory pleasure, which results in the fast-food style of short video consumption [ 7 ]. Cao Danning (2019) concluded that short video has changed from the simple media of one-way content output to the composite one of “content+function”, which strengthens the relationship between users and platforms and contributes to a new consumption pattern [ 8 ].

Connotation of repurchase intention.

Feng Jianying et al. (2006) defined intention as the subjective probability of specific behaviors [ 9 ]. The stronger the intention a person has, the higher the probability he/she makes a corresponding behavior. Dodds et al. (1991) thought that purchase intention is not only the subjective probability or possibility when a customer buys a particular product, but also his/her subjective consciousness and potency on a psychological level [ 10 ].

Re-purchase is also known as “repeated purchase”. Chen Mingliang (2002) proposed in his research that, re-purchase intention means that customers wish and tend to maintain a trading relationship with suppliers [ 11 ]. Harrison (2001) considered it as the intensity of actual repurchasing behavior. The customers with a stronger re-purchase intention will be more likely to buy the same thing [ 12 ]. The relationship between such behavior and intention is in essence the relation between behavior and consciousness. In a sense, therefore, the re-purchasing behavior depends on the re-purchase intention, and it can be promoted by studying the influencing factors of this intention. Thus, the short video consumption industry can develop rapidly.

Research on effects of short videos on purchase intention.

The short video, with a huge potential market value, can stimulate customers’ purchase intention. Wei Jingqiu et al. (2020) applied the SOR Framework to their analysis and found that users like to browse the short video mainly because of its serviceability, entertainment, and usability. These factors will directly affect customers’ emotional experience and thus stimulate their purchase intention and behavior [ 13 ]. Wang Xiangning (2020) concluded that users will be more willing to buy a brand after they develop a closer relationship with this brand under the effect of short video contents [ 14 ]. Besides, such contents are more influential than those from the traditional advertisement in aspects of entertainment, function, and social interaction, and these factors also affect customers’ purchase intention.

Customer value theory

Customers will measure the advantages and disadvantages of a product or service before buying it, which is known as customer values. Woodruff (1997) explained this concept from the perspective of changing customers’ values. In his opinion, customer values refer to customers’ satisfaction with a product’s attributes and auxiliary functions based on their likes and dislikes. Li Kouqing (2001) defined it as the benefit received by customers from an enterprise that participates in their consuming behavior by managing them [ 15 ]. Therefore, the customer value theory, which extends customer-guided marketing, is the footstone to improve customer satisfaction and establish customer loyalty. Philip Kotler (1972) believed that for enterprises, customer value management mainly lies in how to build a long-term interest relationship with customers, and perceived values of customers are the key to greater competitive advantages [ 16 ]. To this end, enterprises shall improve their services and resources and provide customers with high-quality products or services, thus maintaining such value.

Preliminary summary

In this chapter, a literature review about short video consumption and repurchase intention is presented. Although previous studies laid the theoretical basis for this paper, gaps still exist. First, those studies primarily focus on short video consumption, and only a few of them involve the influencing factors of re-purchase. Second, there are some follow-up problems faced by the short video consumption industry, that is, how to maintain a good relationship with customers after their purchases and how to improve the loyalty of existing customers. Therefore, this paper analyzes the repurchase intention and factors influencing it and studied the interrelationship among these factors. In addition, an empirical analysis is conducted to study how such intention relates to each factor in the context of the internet, so that the enterprises in this industry can work out better marketing strategies to promote customers’ repurchasing behavior.

Research hypothesis

Effect of short video contents on the repurchase intention towards short video consumption.

Customers’ perception or impression of a product is directly influenced by the interestingness or authenticity of short video contents. In the era of the internet, the qualities of contents vary, so short video marketers need to know how to stand out from others. Leal et al. (2014) concluded that User-generated content affects consumer decision-making through social influence factors [ 17 ]. As short videos are limited in length, the selling point of products becomes especially prominent during the shooting process. In addition, such video can be shot at a low cost and spread at a high speed to achieve better promotional effects. Compared with traditional advertisements that comply with strict regulations on contents, short videos have weird, funny, instructional, and even vulgar contents to attract customers and stimulate their purchase intention. Furthermore, customers will have a fixed impression of a product or brand and get psychologically satisfied again during re-purchase. Thus, the group image can be formed in this product or brand to affect customers. Based on what was stated above, the following hypothesis is put forward for the relationship between short video contents and customer satisfaction:

• H1: Short video contents have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

Effect of customer experience on the repurchase intention towards short video consumption

Customer experience refers to “customers’ activities to create value for a product or service through their firsthand experience, thus enhancing customer and exchange values under particular circumstances”. We defined it as customers’ perception and emotion arising from their interaction with a product or service under specific consumption conditions. Li Qigeng et al. (2011) concluded that the repurchase intention will be positively affected by the brand experience in sense, emotion, cognition and relation [ 18 ]. Zhou Shouliang et al. (2019) also thought that the information quality and perceived interactivity of short videos can determine customers’ confidence in a product or service. Therefore, it is critical to strengthen their trust and loyalty [ 19 ]. Customer experience emphasizes customers’ subjective sensation from browsing products to asking for after-sales services, and the satisfaction is directly influenced by their experience before and after the purchase. Besides, while shopping through short videos, customers will integrate their own perceptions and feelings with video effects. Hence, the short video experience is closely linked to the repurchase intention. In accordance with the above research, it can be hypothesized that:

• H2: Customer experience has a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

Effect of perceived values of customers on the repurchase intention towards short video consumption

Perceived values of customers, are defined by Zaithaml as the “overall assessment made by customers on the usefulness of a product or service after weighing perceived benefits and consumption costs”. Lin et al. (2005) indicated that the reuse intention is positively affected by perceived enjoyment and usefulness, and the expected degree of confirmation [ 20 ]. Wang Dunhai (2018) pointed out that this perceived enjoyment will promote the repurchase intention, and there is a mutual regulation relation between perceived values of customers and repurchase intention [ 21 ]. Therefore, it can be seen that customers will have a higher satisfaction if an enterprise or brand can create a higher perceived value for them by presenting its products in all respects through short videos. Thus, customers will be more willing to trust this enterprise or brand and repurchase its products. Due to the relevant sales connection between customers and their perceived values, the sense of belonging will be enhanced if they can perceive values of products in advance. As indicated by foreign and domestic scholars, the perceived value is positively correlated with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. When such values are higher than expected, the satisfaction and repurchase intention will be enhanced. Conversely, the satisfaction and intention will decline. These lead to the following hypothesis:

• H3: Perceived values of customer have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

Effect of customer satisfaction on the repurchase intention on short video platforms

Philip Kotler (1995) defined customer satisfaction as “a person’s feeling of pleasure or disappointment when he/she compares the perceived outcome of a product or service against his/her expectations” [ 22 ]. The more the customers are satisfied with the products they have bought, the higher the satisfaction will be and the more they will trust in and rely on the enterprise or brand. Xing Wenxiang (2014) thought that customers’ repurchasing behavior is influenced by various factors, such as product diversification, individuation, quality, post-purchase evaluation, brand reputation, payment, distribution, etc., of which customer satisfaction is the most crucial one [ 23 ]. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is also considered to be an important factor affecting customer loyalty. As indicated by Wang Chunxiao et al. (2003), this factor, which is an essential prerequisite for loyalty, can significantly affect customers’ behavioral loyalty [ 24 ]. Li Siman (2009) regarded it as a vital factor affecting the repurchase intention because customers’ purchasing behavior depends on customer satisfaction [ 25 ]. In view of the above, the following hypotheses are proposed:

• H4a: Customer satisfaction has a positive impact on customer loyalty.
• H4b: Customer satisfaction has a positive impact on the repurchase intention on short video platforms.

Effect of customer loyalty on the repurchase intention on short video platforms

Customer loyalty refers to the mental tendency that a customer trusts an enterprise or brand after buying its products and wants to repurchase such products on an ongoing basis. Oliver (1997) optimized this definition and theoretically proposed four stages for forming customer loyalty, namely cognitive, attitudinal, emotional and behavioral loyalties [ 26 ]. Chen Mingliang indicated that customer loyalty is determined by perceived values, transfer cost, customer confidence and customer satisfaction [ 27 ]. In all circumstances, customer loyalty can be reflected in repurchasing behavior. The higher customer loyalty is, the stronger the repurchase intention will be. Therefore, loyalty is another psychological index for such intention. Lv Xiaoping (2008) pointed out that e-loyalty is affected by e-satisfaction and e-trust. In other words, a customer will not reuse a network platform unless he/she trusts and be satisfied with it [ 28 ]. Generally, customer loyalty, which is also an influencing factor of short video consumption, will increase with customer satisfaction. Only when a customer is satisfied with a product or service to a certain extent will he/she be faithful to it. Therefore, the following hypotheses are made:

• H5: Customer loyalty has a positive impact on the repurchase intention towards short video consumption.
• H6: Customer loyalty plays an intermediary role between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention.

Research model

Based on the literature review above and the actual situation, a model for the influencing factors of repurchase intention on short video platforms is constructed based on the customer value theory. As shown in Fig 1 , this model contains five explanatory/independent variables (customer satisfaction, perceived value, experience, loyalty and short video contents) and one outcome/dependent variable (repurchase intention).

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.g001

Questionnaire design

In this research, the questionnaire includes three parts: part one focuses on the basic information of respondents and their attitude towards shopping on short video platforms; and part two, which is the core of this questionnaire, focuses on fifteen measurement items about the above five explanatory variables. Thereinto, the 5-Point Likert Scale was adopted for the survey; and the items about the influencing factors of repurchase intention towards short video consumption referred to foreign and domestic questionnaires conducted previously in this respect, but some adjustments were made in accordance with the research model in this paper. Table 1 presents the questionnaire in detail.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t001

Data collection and analysis

Data collection of questionnaire survey..

This questionnaire survey, lasting from March to May 2021, was conducted by a random sampling method. The questionnaire was posted on the website of wjx.cn through WeChat for respondents who shopped on short video platforms at least once in China. Finally, a total of 208 questionnaires were received, with 199 effective ones, and the response rate was 95.7%. SEM, as other statistical techniques, requires an appropriate sample size in order to produce reliable estimates [ 35 ]. Harris and Schaubroeck proposed that a sample size of about 200 could guarantee robust structural equation modeling [ 36 ].

The sample data obtained were analyzed with SPSS19.0 and AMOS 17.0.

Descriptive statistical analysis

From Table 2 , it can be seen that the respondents were all highly educated, and 75.38% of them had bachelor degrees or above. Besides, the female accounted for 51.25%; and the respondents aged 18–25 accounted for 66.33%. Most respondents were students or enterprise employees. Thereinto, 63.82% of them spent less than 100 yuan on short video consumption monthly, while 27.14% of them spent 100–500 yuan. Statistical results also show that the most common short video apps include Tik Tok, Kwai, and Bilibili.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t002

Measurement model test

First, the reliability of sample data was tested. According to the results shown in Table 3 , the coefficients of Cronbach’s Alpha all exceed 0.7 in the total scale and each subscale, which means that the data of this questionnaire are reliable. Second, the discriminant validity of sample data was tested, as shown in Table 4 . It can be seen that in the six columns, the AVE square roots are 0.715, 0.676, 0.859, 0.735, 0.839, and 0.752, respectively, which are higher than the values of other variables. This indicates that these sample data have good discriminant validity. Last, the convergent validity of sample data was tested. As presented in Table 5 , the factor loading values are higher than 0.7 in respect of customer satisfaction, perceived value, experience, loyalty, and short video content, which shows that the questionnaire items are highly representative for variables. Besides, for each variable, the value of AVE is higher than 0.5, and that of composite reliability (CR) is higher than 0.7. Therefore, the model has good internal consistency and convergent validity.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t003

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t004

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t005

Structural model analysis

Model fitting analysis..

The structural model fit the data well based on fit statistics as can be seen in Table 6 . The value of X2/df is 1.576, which is less than 3, showing an ideal matching degree; and the value of RMSEA is 0.054, which is less than 0.08, also showing an ideal matching degree. Meanwhile, other coefficients are higher than 0.9, which indicates a good degree of fitting. Therefore, this model can fit the data well on the whole.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t006

Structural model test.

The structural model was tested to get the regression coefficients of standardized paths. As shown in Fig 2 , the main effects are significantly verified in this model. Thereinto, short video content, customer experience, and perceived values have positive impacts on the satisfaction; and customer satisfaction and customer loyalty have positive influences on repurchase intention. These results are consistent with the research hypotheses of this paper.

Notes: *p<0<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.g002

As can be seen form the above data obtained from the analysis, the results of parameter estimation are ideal. The loading coefficients of latent variables and measurement indexes are higher than 0.5, which indicates that the path coefficients of such variables are significant. Table 7 presents the empirical results. It can be known from the path analysis that the satisfaction is positively influenced by short video content (β = 0.17, p<0.001), customer experience (β = 0.25, p<0.001) and perceived values of customers (β = 0.50, p<0.001), which are consistent with the hypotheses of H1, H2 and H3. Meanwhile, the repurchase intention is positively influenced by customer satisfaction (β = 0.53, p<0.001) and customer loyalty (β = 0.26, p<0.001), which are consistent with the hypotheses of H4a and H5.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t007

Analysis of intermediary effect.

A multilevel regression analysis was conducted on customer satisfaction (independent variable), loyalty (intervening variable) and repurchase intention (dependent variable) to verify the loyalty’s intermediary effect between the satisfaction and such intention. The results are shown in Table 8 .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.t008

According to Table 8 , the regression coefficient of customer satisfaction (independent variable) to repurchase intention (dependent variable) is significant; the hierarchical regression coefficients of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (intervening variable) to repurchase intention are significant, and the regression coefficient of the satisfaction to the loyalty is also significant. Thereinto, the value of P is less than 0.001. Thus, it can be deduced that the loyalty plays an intermediary role between the satisfaction and such intention. That is, the repurchase intention can be affected by both satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, the hypothesis (H6) stands, that is, customer loyalty plays an intermediary role between satisfaction and repurchase intention.

Conclusions and management inspiration

Research conclusions.

In this paper, a structural model for the repurchase intention towards short video consumption is built and empirically tested. The model has five antecedent variables, including short video contents, customer experience, perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty. One outcome variable, i.e., the repurchase intention, was included. Then, the following conclusions are drawn:

Short video content, customer experience, and perceived values of customers can regulate customer satisfaction to different degrees, showing significant positive impacts. In this paper, a structural equation model is built to analyze the interrelationship of variables. Results show that the customers’ satisfaction with short video consumption is positively affected by short video content, customer experience and perceived value, which show the standardized path coefficients of 0.17, 0.25, and 0.50, respectively. Among them, the perceived values of customers are the most influential variable, which are successively followed by customer experience and short video content. To some degree, customers can shop in a more dynamic and convenient way through short video consumption. Therefore, an enterprise shall provide valuable product information while interacting with its customers by means of short videos. Besides, this enterprise can help customers solve any problem of quality and usage in the same way, thereby improving customer satisfaction and strengthening the repurchase intention.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty have a significant positive impact on the repurchase intention on short video platforms. Thereinto, customer satisfaction is the most important determinant. In other words, a customer, who is satisfied with the products bought on short video platforms, will be more willing to repurchase them. Conversely, he/she may not buy them again on these platforms but resort to other shopping platforms. In addition, customer satisfaction can also positively affect customer loyalty. That is, customer loyalty will enhance when customer satisfaction reaches a certain degree. Thus, the customers, with higher loyalty, would tend to repurchase on the same platform.

The intermediary effect test shows that customer loyalty plays an intermediary role between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Thereinto, customer satisfaction means that customers’ expectations can be met by a product or service; and customer loyalty means that they want to buy this product or service again. Therefore, customer loyalty can be enhanced by improving customer satisfaction, thus strengthening the repurchase intention of customers on short video platforms.

Management inspirations

To use the opinion leaders: “label” the products to increase their appeal..

Due to group psychology, the opinion leaders of short videos will influence customers’ consumption decisions and attitudes, thus igniting their enthusiasm for shopping. When a customer identifies with the brand image established by opinion leaders, such as stars or online celebrities, the consumption guide with high identifiability and reliability will be formed in his/her mind. In view of this, the merchants can take full advantage of such leaders’ strong influence and appeal and select them as short video publishers. When a product is “labeled” as an objective and positive one by these leaders, customers will be more confident in and faithful to this product and more willing to repurchase it.

To improve the visual presentation: Achieve customers’ immersive experience to develop their “empathy”.

Customers will be immersed in short videos due to their visual presentation of different content. So, the content shall originate from and integrate with the elements of our daily life, such as creating some related scenes, to endow the products with cordial feeling and visual attractiveness. In this way, the content will be more real and closer to life, showing a creative point to attract customers. In addition, as customers tend to empathize with on-site and reportorial contents, the video shall present personal colors and true feelings to impress them and strengthen their purchase intention. At last, the contents shall be designed in accordance with customers’ psychological activities so as to improve their identification with products and to stimulate their shopping desire.

To meet customers’ needs: Enhance the perceived value and improve the sense of identity.

Short videos should faithfully introduce products’ quality, performance, advantages and differences because customers tend to have a higher level of perceived values of the products with excellent qualities and reasonable prices. At the same time, all unnecessary expenses should be avoided so that customers’ actual perception is close to or even higher than their pre-purchase expectation. Besides, enterprises can provide new services to meet customers’ personalized demands, thus maintaining regular customers and attracting new ones. Only when customers’ needs are met, will the satisfaction be improved. Finally, enterprises shall post videos constantly and design content according to customers’ psychological activities. Thus, customers, with a stronger sense of identity, will satisfy with the products. Furthermore, enterprises shall establish a stable relationship with customers to strengthen their interactive perception of the video. When customers become more dependent on short video consumption, they will have a stronger desire to repurchase.

To optimize the platform mechanism: Boost customers’ confidence in products and reassure them.

Short video platforms need to be upgraded continuously based on customers’ needs. In addition, improvements in commodity browsing experience, advertising promotion, and after-sales service are needed to enhance user stickiness. Besides, the management should be reinforced to improve products’ cost performance and crack down on counterfeits so that customers have more faith in such platforms. In this way, perceived values of customers can be maximized. For platforms, other improvements can be made in aspects such as page design, functions including search and payment, simplifying the shopping process, as well as shopping experiences including the efficiency, safety, and stability of online transactions. In this way, customers will recognize and trust the platforms and have stronger repurchase intention on these short video platforms.

Limitations and direction for future research.

This study has certain limitations. The influence process of short video consumption on repurchase intention is very complicated. This study only focuses on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and fails to conduct a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the motivation and other antecedent variables of repeat purchases. For example, there are many factors that affect the repeated purchase of short video consumption, such as conversion costs, customer trust, and so on. Future research can explore the reconstruction intention of short video consumption from more perspectives. Similarly, limited by the setting of the research model, it is not possible to disassemble and verify the mechanism of internal factors such as consumers’ gender, income, education level, and external factors such as the category of short video platforms in more detail. The research model can be supplemented in future studies.

Supporting information

S1 appendix..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.s001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265090.s002

• 1. China Internet Network Information Centre. The 47th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China. EB/OL . http://cnnic.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/hlwtjbg/202102/P020210203334633480104.pdf , 2021-02-03/2021-05-08
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How people decide what to buy lies in the ‘messy middle’ of the purchase journey

Alistair Rennie and Jonny Protheroe work on Google’s consumer insights team, which means they spend a large part of their day exploring changes in consumer behavior. Here they share their latest research on the buyer decision process.

The way people make decisions is messy — and it’s only getting messier. Still, there are a few things we know about purchase behavior. We know that what happens between trigger and purchase decision-making is not linear. We know there is a complicated web of touchpoints that differs from person to person. What is less clear however, is how shoppers process all of the information and choice they discover along the way. And what is critical, what we set out to understand with this new research, is how that process influences what people ultimately decide to buy.

As the internet has grown, it has transformed from a tool for comparing prices to a tool for comparing, well, everything. That’s clear in how we’ve seen purchase behavior change over the years on Google Search. Take the terms “cheap” and “best.” Worldwide, search interest for “best” has far outpaced search interest for “cheap.” 1 Those same dynamics hold true in countries around the world, like Germany, India, and Italy, for instance, when “cheap” and “best” are translated into local languages.

Worldwide search interest for “best” vs. “cheap”

Think with google.

Source: Google Trends, Worldwide, 2004–July 2020.

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The precise value of “cheap” may vary between individuals, but it still carries a singular meaning. “Best,” on the other hand, can have a wide range of meanings, including value, quality, performance, or popularity.

This is the kind of research behavior that happens in the “messy middle” between trigger and purchase. And as COVID-19 has accelerated online shopping and research around the world, it’s more important than ever for brands to learn how to make sense of it.

Applying behavioral sciences principles to the purchase decision process

Last year we set out to update our perspective on consumer decision-making, and with the help of behavioral science experts, The Behavioural Architects, we started on a journey into decoding how consumers decide what to buy.

We conducted literary reviews, shopping observation studies, search trend analyses, and a large-scale experiment. Our aim was to understand how consumers make decisions in an online environment of abundant choice and limitless information. What we found was that people deal with scale and complexity by using cognitive biases encoded deep in their psychology.

As these biases existed long before the internet, we were curious to understand how they affect people’s purchase decisions today.

What happens in the messy middle? Two mental modes

Through the research, an updated decision-making model began to take shape. In the center of the model lies the messy middle — a complex space between triggers and purchase, where customers are won and lost.

People look for information about a category’s products and brands, and then weigh all the options. This equates to two different mental modes in the messy middle: exploration , an expansive activity, and evaluation , a reductive activity. Whatever a person is doing, across a huge array of online sources, such as search engines, social media, aggregators, and review websites, can be classified into one of these two mental modes.

People loop through these twin modes of exploration and evaluation, repeating the cycle as many times as they need to make a purchase decision.

Cognitive biases that influence purchase decision-making

As people explore and evaluate in the messy middle, cognitive biases shape their shopping behavior and influence why they choose one product over another. While many hundreds of these biases exist, we prioritized six in our research:

6 biases that influence purchase decisions

• Category heuristics : Short descriptions of key product specifications can simplify purchase decisions.
• Power of now : The longer you have to wait for a product, the weaker the proposition becomes.
• Social proof : Recommendations and reviews from others can be very persuasive.
• Scarcity bias : As stock or availability of a product decreases, the more desirable it becomes.
• Authority bias : Being swayed by an expert or trusted source.
• Power of free : A free gift with a purchase, even if unrelated, can be a powerful motivator.

These biases formed the basis for our large-scale shopping experiment with real in-market shoppers simulating 310,000 purchase scenarios across financial services, consumer packaged goods, retail, travel, and utilities.

In the experiment, shoppers were asked to pick their first and second favorite brands within a category, and then a range of biases were applied to see if people would switch their preference from one brand to another. To test an extreme scenario, the experiments also included a fictional brand in each category, to which shoppers had zero prior exposure.

The results showed that even the least effective challenger, a fictional cereal brand, still managed to win 28% of shopper preference from the established favorite when it was “supercharged” with benefits, including five-star reviews and an offer of 20% extra for free. And in the most extreme case, a fictional car insurer won 87% share of consumer preference when supercharged with advantages across all six biases.

The experiment showed that, when applied intelligently and responsibly, behavioral science principles — and the behavioral and informational needs they align with — are powerful tools for winning and defending consumer preference in the messy middle.

How marketers can succeed in the messy middle

Although the messy middle might seem a complicated place, it’s important to remember that to consumers it just feels like normal shopping. The goal isn’t to force people to exit the loop shown in the model, but to provide them with the information and reassurance they need to make a decision.

Luckily, whether you’re a category giant or a challenger brand, the approach is the same:

• Ensure brand presence so your product or service is strategically front of mind while your customers explore.
• Employ behavioral science principles intelligently and responsibly to make your proposition compelling as consumers evaluate their options.
• Close the gap between trigger and purchase so your existing and potential customers spend less time exposed to competitor brands.
• Build flexible, empowered teams who can work cross-functionally to avoid traditional branding and performance silos that are likely to leave gaps in the messy middle.

Download the full report for a complete understanding of the messy middle, the behavioral science principles we examined, and recommendations for how brands can apply them.

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How 3 brands pivoted to meet changing consumer demand and grow online sales, here's what to do when your retail website becomes your primary storefront, customer journey mapping: the path to loyalty, the ai handbook: resources and tools for marketers, ask a researcher: what can behavioral science tell us about consumer search habits, alistair rennie, jonny protheroe, sources (1).

Google Trends, Worldwide, 2004–July 2020.

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An examination of the factors affecting consumer’s purchase decision in the Malaysian retail market

PSU Research Review

ISSN : 2399-1747

Article publication date: 13 February 2018

Issue publication date: 12 April 2018

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, sales promotion, store environment and perceived value on a purchase decision in the retail sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research methodology was used and the data were collected from 278 customers of retail stores in Malaysia. The collected data were analysed using SPSS 19 and structural equation modelling on AMOS.

The findings showed that corporate social responsibility has significant positive effects on a purchase decision, whereas sales promotion has a negative effect on purchase decision. The outcomes of this study also indicated that store environment has a significant positive effect on consumers’ purchase decisions. Contrary to expectations, the findings revealed that the effect of social media marketing on purchase decision is insignificant. Finally, the results showed that perceived value has a significant positive effect on a purchase decision.

Originality/value

The findings of this study contribute to an understanding of the importance of the selected factors in affecting a consumer’s purchase decision in the retail industry.

Purchase decision

Sales promotion, perceived value, social media marketing, store environment.

Hanaysha, J.R. (2018), "An examination of the factors affecting consumer’s purchase decision in the Malaysian retail market", PSU Research Review , Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 7-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-08-2017-0034

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha.

Published in the PSU Research Review: An International Journal . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

In today’s continuously changing and dynamic business environment, it has become necessary for retail managers to clearly understand and foresee how different types of consumers behave when buying different products and services to fulfil their needs. Thus, to establish a competitive advantage in the marketplace, several retailers have focused on creating favourable images about their brands in the minds of consumers to influence their purchase behaviour ( Shamsher, 2015 ). Consumer behaviour emphasizes on understanding the purchase decision process of individual consumers and how they utilize their existing resources such as time, money and effort to get a product or service ( Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007 ). Hence, retail managers should have knowledge about consumers’ characteristics and preferences as they play an important role in forming purchase decisions. This information could enable them to foster their competitiveness and ensure their long-term survival.

The consumer decision-making process can be described as the phases that consumers go through in making a final purchase decision. The task of a marketer is to focus on the whole purchasing process instead of emphasizing solely on a purchase decision, because consumers experience different phases before reaching a conclusion ( Basil et al. , 2013 ). Understanding buyer behaviour is not easy because several factors can influence consumer behaviour before making a purchase decision. In some cases, consumers tend to spend less time in thinking about purchasing either low- or high-value products, because they consider that fulfilling their needs is more important. This has urged marketing managers to adopt strategies that motivate consumers to purchase their offerings by creating an effective marketing plan. Previous studies reported that corporate social responsibility ( Elg and Hultman, 2016 ) and social media marketing ( Duffett, 2015 ) play significant roles in influencing a consumer’s purchase behaviour and attitude towards a brand. Other scholars also considered store atmosphere ( Hosseini et al. , 2014 ), perceived value and sales promotion ( Andreti et al. , 2013 ) as important predictors of consumer behaviour and brand choice.

However, although previous studies emphasized on both corporate social responsibility and social media marketing in influencing consumer behaviour, only few scholars examined their effects on purchase decision in retail industry settings, particularly in Malaysia. Furthermore, limited studies have explored the role of store environment and sales promotion in forming purchase decision. In other words, considerable research has already been done on examining consumers’ purchase decisions in various business sectors, but there is no mutual agreement towards the factors conditioning consumers’ purchase decision. Thus, this paper is designed to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, store environment, perceived value and sales promotion on consumers’ purchase decision with empirical data from department stores in Malaysia. The next sections present a brief review on past literature and methodological approach used in data collection; finally, the conclusion and recommendations for this study are established based on the findings.

Literature review

Purchase decision involves a sequence of choices formed by a consumer before making a purchase which starts once he/she has a willingness to fulfil a need. The consumer should reach a decision with regard to the place of purchasing, the desired brand, model, purchase quantity, time to buy, amount of money to be spent and the method of payment. These decisions can be influenced by marketers by providing information about their products or services that may inform consumer’s assessment process. Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) stated that consumers normally search for information relevant about a specified consumption-related need from their past experiences before looking for external sources of information. In other words, past purchase experience is regarded as an internal source of information that a consumer relies on before making a decision. In addition, several consumers’ decisions are most likely to be formed by integrating past purchase experience as well as marketing programs and non-commercial information sources ( Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007 ). Past literature also stressed that consumers usually attempt to minimize the risk in their purchase decisions ( Chaipradermsak, 2007 ).

Blackwell et al. (2001) reported that to comprehend consumers’ purchasing decisions, marketing managers should understand their consumption process and the benefits of organizational products and services in their perceptions. The authors also added that when consumers intend to buy certain products, they pass through numerous phases which would influence their purchase decision process and post-purchase behaviour. The first phase represents the problem recognition wherein consumers intend to satisfy their needs and wants. The role of marketers in this phase emerges while using advertisements, personal selling and packaging to arouse the recognition of desired needs or wants. In the second phase, consumers begin to seek information from either internal sources (usually from their past experiences) about the products or outside sources, for example, friends, family, relatives, neighbours, annual reports, publications, sales persons, social media or packaging label. Finally, consumers evaluate the alternatives and select from brands that best suit them and satisfy their needs.

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility has been conceptualized in the literature by a number of scholars. However, there is no consensus on its definition and measurement despite the significant amount of research on this topic. According to Kilcullen and Kooistra (1999 , p. 158), corporate social responsibility can be conceptualized as “the degree of moral obligation that may be ascribed to corporations beyond their simple obedience to the laws of the state.” Similarly, Kotler and Lee (2005) expressed the concept of corporate social responsibility as an organization’s commitment to enhance the welfare of a society through voluntarily business activities and support from its resources. Erkollar and Oberer (2012) also illustrated that the majority of scholars view corporate social responsibility as a term through which organizations incorporate social and environmental aspects or considerations into their business processes and in their dealings with various stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility is usually used as a tactical tool for creating a positive brand image and attracting a larger number of customers ( Reich et al. , 2010 ).

In today’s business environment that is characterized by strong rivalry, corporate social responsibility is regarded as an important strategy for assisting businesses to maintain their competitive strengths ( Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006 ). Albus (2012) reported that corporate social responsibility represents an important strategic marketing tool than can be employed to develop a positive brand image. Corporate social responsibility is a key strategy that organizations should exploit, not only for the purposes of uplifting profit margins, but also due to the necessity to protect the environment. For example, organizations can be involved in social responsibility activities, such as treating business stakeholders (customers, vendors and staff) well. Pakseresht (2010) reported that several brands can be distinguished based on how they behave under the observation of business stakeholders. Consequently, the investment in corporate social responsibility programs enables a brand to foster its competitive advantage and improve its performance in the long term ( El-Garaihy et al. , 2014 ; Ghosh and Gurunathan, 2014 ).

Corporate social responsibility has a positive effect on purchase decision.

Social media is an important marketing communication tool to reach and interact with customers at minimal cost and at different times of the day. Effective management and implementation of social media marketing is one of the key objectives and interests of several brands ( Hanaysha, 2016 ). Successful brands have become aware of the power of social media marketing in today’s interactive marketplace for building and maintaining customer relationships, as well as communicating and interacting with larger numbers of customers ( Bulearca and Bulearca, 2010 ). Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) conceptualized social media as an internet-based program that provides a platform for consumers to express their own opinions, share information and past experiences using different social networks, blogs and other content areas. The efficiency of social media has empowered the marketers and customers with fast interaction and communication processes to enhance customer service, increase brand awareness and build strong customer–brand relationships. Using social media tools, consumers will have the chance to express their opinions to a larger number of individuals and also find the desired information quickly without incurring much cost ( Severi et al. , 2014 ).

Social media channels have appeared as the foremost convenient digital communication media through which several consumers can learn, share information and directly interact with business stakeholders ( Chappuis et al. , 2011 ; Qualman, 2013 ). With the existence of social media, business marketers will have the opportunity to interact with their existing and potential customers using two-way communications to obtain rich and valuable insights quickly and at lower costs. Marketers have also realized the additional values of social media channels through easier collaborations with brand referrals and quality of information sharing ( Hudson et al. , 2016 ). In addition, social media has enabled consumers to easily share important information about products or services offered by certain brands with their peers ( Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012 ; Mangold and Faulds, 2009 ). Such exchanges have provided companies with several advantages represented by cost-effectiveness, increased brand awareness, improved brand recognition, higher customer loyalty and greater profit margins.

Effective implementation of marketing programs on social media can enable organizations to create beneficial relationships with their customers by increasing customer satisfaction ( Hanaysha, 2016 ) and commitment as well as generating positive word of mouth. Through the continuous development and wide-ranging applications of several social media channels, many businesses considered this way of communication to be a noteworthy prospect. They have also started looking for the best ways of using social media for sustaining their businesses, creating healthier relationships with their consumers, marketing their products and services and developing reputable images for their brands to the public. To stay competitive in today’s challenging business environments, it requires firms to put prime emphasis on social media as a marketing strategy. Global companies employ several experts and consultants in social media to gain better recommendations on the contents and features of their advertisements before sharing them on social media to maximize the efficiency of the marketing program ( Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012 ).Moreover, customers regard social media communication as a tool to engage with various brands any time.

Social media marketing has a positive effect on purchase decision.

The importance of constructing an appealing physical environment has attained considerable attention from several scholars and business managers due to its power in attracting and satisfying customers ( Ali et al. , 2013 ; Han and Ryu, 2009 ). In retail stores, the atmospheric environment is considered as a key competitive tactic employed by retailers to stimulate consumer behaviour and increase sales volumes ( Chebat and Michon, 2003 ). The attributes of atmospheric environment focus on several stimuli such as colour, music, scene, layout and space, as they have been considered to be important clues for consumers ( Oh et al. , 2008 ). Lee and Jeong (2012) described physical environment as an environment that is shaped through overall layout, colour, design, decoration, surroundings and aesthetics. Particularly, the atmospheric environment in a store includes various stimuli such as ambience, colour, sound, scent, taste, layout and space, which are important clues for buyers. Prior research also established that physical environment enables a service provider to differentiate itself from rivals and influence customer’s choice ( Mahmood and Khan, 2014 ).

Assessing consumers’ perceptions of the characteristics of a store’s environment may form certain brand associations in their minds, enhance their perception of brand value and elevate buying intentions by minimizing cost and time, as well as the efforts in acquiring potential customers ( Kumar et al. , 2010 ). According to Mahmood and Khan (2014) , the physical environment allows service providers to distinguish their brands from those of competitors and influence consumers’ purchase decisions. Prior literature showed that store environment had a positive impact on consumer purchase behaviour. For instance, Belk (1975) found that the physical environment of a retail store influenced consumer’s buying behaviour. Likewise, creating an attractive store atmosphere was stressed in the past studies as a key strategic factor that many retailers consider to stimulate consumer behaviour and improve their performance ( Chebat and Michon, 2003 ). Further support can be found in the study by Richardson et al. (1996) who revealed that store atmosphere enhances the consumers’ perceptions toward the service and product quality of the department store. Similarly, Newman and Patel (2004) indicated that store environment plays an important role in affecting consumer choice.

Store environment has a positive effect on purchase decision.

In the theoretical literature, promotion is regarded as a key element of marketing mix that aims to inform, encourage and remind the target market about a product of service offer in an attempt to influence the consumers’ feelings, perceptions or purchasing decisions ( Stanton et al. , 2007 ). In other words, promotion programs are used by organizations with the purpose of communicating the benefits of certain products or services to a group of potential and existing customers ( Reibstein, 1985 ). Sales promotion is widely accepted as an important component in marketing campaigns for inspiring and stimulating quicker and effective response (comprising purchase quantity and speed) to the sales of particular products or services. According to Kotler and Keller (2012) , sales promotion represents a strong incentive tool for attracting consumers and increasing sales volumes. Agrawal (1996) conceptualized sales promotions as an aggressive strategy used by many brands to attract profitable customers and avoid issues of switching to other competitors. Thus, sales promotions are adopted by brands to motivate customers’ purchases and reward fast responses ( Kotler et al. , 2004 ). Other benefits of sales promotion can be achieved by attracting the attention of consumers and influencing their purchase decisions.

In the previous studies, it can be observed that price promotion is one of the main strategies frequently used by a number of marketing managers to exploit their sales and performance ( Zoellner and Schaefers, 2015 ). Essentially, promotional sales that can be grasped through several approaches such as customer coupons, displays and price reductions are usually used in diverse retail stores around the world. Price promotions as explained by Mullin and Cummins (2010) can comprise numerous forms such as buy one and then get the other one free, extra packs and money-off coupons. In the early 1990s, several retailers used price promotions to influence consumers who have price sensitivity by presenting to them the discounts on various product items. Generally, retail managers apply promotion strategies as incentives for obtaining a greater number of consumers and uplift their sales revenues ( Cui et al. , 2016 ). Currently, consumers deemed to be price sensitive tend to have high awareness towards the promotional deals and look for them frequently ( Yeshin, 2006 ).

Sales promotion has a positive effect on purchase decision.

Perceived value has a positive effect on purchase decision.

Based on the above literature review and existing research gaps between the selected variables, the framework for this research is presented as follows ( Figure 1 ).

Methodology

This research aimed to examine the predictors of a purchase decision in the retail industry. Therefore, the data was collected using a survey method from 278 customers of several department stores in East Coast Malaysia. The selection of a quantitative approach to conduct this research was considered appropriate to involve as many participants as possible and obtain larger number of responses. Additionally, a quantitative survey methodology is the researchers’ best choice when the targeted population comprises a larger number of individuals without requiring special skills to fill in the questionnaire. McDaniel and Gates (1998) illustrated that the quantitative survey enables researchers to conduct statistical analysis and generalize the results in a given context. To minimize the response bias and sampling error, the respondents were briefed about the purpose of the study and assured that their answers will be kept confidential.

Before starting the data collection process, the questionnaire was designed based on several measurement items for the constructs. Purchase decision was measured using a five-item scale adapted from the study of Shareef et al. (2008) . Furthermore, the measurement scale of corporate social responsibility was adapted from Tong and Wong (2014) . To measure social media marketing, five items were taken from the study by Schivinski and Dabrowski (2014) . In addition, the items used to measure store environment were taken from the study by Hussain and Ali (2015) . To measure sales promotion, a total of four items were taken from Villarejo-Ramos and Sánchez-Franco (2005) and modified to fit the context of this study. Finally, perceived value was measured using four items taken from Puncheva-Michelotti and Michelotti (2010) . All of the items were measured on a five-point Likert scale which ranges from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Analysis of results

Out of the 384 sets of questionnaires distributed to visitors of department stores in East Coast Malaysia, only 278 responses were received from the participants. While analysing the demographic characteristics, it was found that 54.7 per cent of the respondents were women and men represented 45.3 per cent. The respondents’ profile also showed that most of the participants held a bachelor degree certificate. Additionally, the respondents were classified based on monthly income and it was found that 48 participants (17.2 per cent) received an average income of less than RM 500 per month, while 15 participants (5.4 per cent) obtained a monthly income between RM 501 and RM 1000. A total of 44 responses (52 per cent) were represented by the participants with an average income of RM 1,001 to RM 4,000. Those whose monthly income ranged from RM 4001 and above accounted for 71 (25.4 per cent) responses. Furthermore, the reliability assumptions were established on all constructs and the results revealed that the value of Cronbach’s alpha for the measurement scales of constructs exceeded the cut-off point of 0.70. Therefore, the reliability assumptions are fulfilled ( Appendix ).

For testing the hypotheses of this study, structural equation modelling method was used and the procedure was carried out using AMOS 18. At first, the measurement model comprising all measurement items of the constructs was drawn to calculate confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicated that the factor loadings for remaining items of each construct exceeded 0.50; therefore, convergent validity was achieved. Then, the structural model with the residual items was estimated. According to Hair et al. (2010) , the hypotheses can be tested when the fit indices in the structural model fall in the accepted range. Overall, the findings as shown in Figure 2 indicate that the structural model for this study maintained a reasonable fit with the data with the chi-square value being 376.333 1( p = 0.000); values of other criteria (GFI = 0.841, AGFI = 0.792, df = 230, TLI = 0.909, CFI = 0.924 and RMSEA = 0.063) attained the acceptable cut-off point based on the suggestions of Hair et al. (2010) .

To check the normal distribution of the data set, multicollinearity was calculated using AMOS 18 for all variables. According to Tabachnick and Fidell (2001) , multicollinearity issues exist when the relationship between any two distinct variables is 0.90 or more. As shown in Table I , the relationship between any two different variables is less than 0.90; thus, there is no sign of multicollinearity issues in the current data set. Furthermore, the discriminant validity among the constructs was verified by computing the average variance extracted (AVE) and correlation values between each pair of constructs. As cited by de Pablos (2016) , Bagozzi et al. (1991) reported that discriminant validity is achieved when the correlation values between pairs of constructs are less than 1.00. This was further advocated by Mohammad and Yusoff (2017) who stated that discriminant validity exists when the correlation values between pairs constructs are below 0.95. Overall, the output confirmed the existence of discriminant validity among the constructs.

After achieving an acceptable fit for the structural model and fulfilling the reliability and validity assumptions, the hypotheses in this study were verified. The results presented in Table II show that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive effect on purchase decision ( β = 0.188, C.R. = 1.803, p < 0.10); hence, H1 is accepted. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that social media marketing has an insignificant effect on purchase decision ( β = −0.165, C.R. = –1.536, p > 0.05); therefore, H2 is rejected. Moreover, the analysis confirmed that store environment has a significant positive effect on purchase decision ( β = 0.351, C.R. = 2.637, p < 0.05); consequently, H3 is accepted. The results also indicated that sales promotion ( β = −0.158, C.R. = −2.035, p < 0.05) has a significant positive effect on purchase decision; thus, H4 is rejected. Finally, the findings of this paper showed that perceived value has a significant positive effect on purchase decision ( β = 0.593, C.R. = 4.142, p < 0.05), which implied that that H5 is validated. Overall, these factors explain 72 per cent of the total variance in purchase decision.

Discussion and conclusion

This study aimed to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, sales promotion, store environment and perceived value on purchase decision in the retail industry. The findings revealed that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive effect on purchase decision and this is in line with previous researches ( Elg and Hultman, 2016 ; Green and Peloza, 2011 ). Hassan et al. (2013) stated that if individuals feel that a brand has social responsibility towards them and the society, they will prefer to select its products/services. Similarly, Handelman and Arnold (1999) found that marketing activities which are socially responsible influence consumers’ evaluation of a brand and enhance their willingness to purchase its offerings. The second purpose of this paper was to test the link between social media marketing and purchase decision. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that the effect of social media marketing on a consumer’s purchase decision is insignificant. The insignificant result could be attributed to the lack of or inefficient marketing activities among the selected retail stores through social media. Additionally, negative word of mouth through social media sites could lead to negative perceptions among consumers, which may hinder their purchase intentions. Overall, social media sites can be a strong platform for building brand awareness, but its effect on purchase decision may not be strong enough in the retail context.

The findings of this study also showed that the store environment has a significant positive impact on purchase decision. The result was supported by many scholars ( Amofah et al. , 2016 ; Hasan et al. , 2016 ) who confirmed that the store environment plays an important role in affecting consumer purchase behaviour. Mahmood and Khan (2014) indicated that the store environment enables a brand to distinguish itself from competitors, thus leading to favourable customer’s choice. Therefore, store environment is an important means through which retailers can influence consumers’ behaviour and their purchase decisions. Furthermore, the results revealed that sales promotion has a negative effect on purchase decision. Eleboda (2017) also confirmed that sales promotion had a negative impact on consumer purchase decision. The result was supported by Santini et al. (2015) who stated that much discount leads to a state of discomfort among consumer, which will ultimately causes a sense of caution highlighted earlier, associating negatively with the hedonic features. Furthermore, Simonson et al. (1994) confirmed that sales promotion had a negative impact on brands. Similar views were shared by Shrestha (2015) who revealed that sales promotion does not have any effect on brand building and may lead to declining impacts for the brand, especially those which are well established. Thus, this study concludes that sales promotions could have a negative effect on consumers’ perceptions towards brand quality as lower priced items tend to have low quality.

Finally, the outcomes of this research confirmed that perceived value has a significant positive effect on purchase decision. The results were supported by a number of researchers ( Astuti, Silalahi, and Wijaya, 2015 ; Bakırtaş, 2013 ; Cheng et al. , 2006 ; Nochai and Nochai, 2011 ) who reported that perceived value plays a significant role in affecting purchase decision. Demirgünescedil (2015) also reported that perceived value plays an important role in affecting consumers’ purchase decisions. This means that marketing programs associated with added values reinforce consumers’ purchases and improve organizational profitability. Consequently, retailers are recommended to cultivate their customer value to attain greater competitive advantages in the presence of competitive marketplace environment. This study also suggests that retailers should focus on communicating their product values to customers and compare their prices with those competitors and observe how they influence consumers’ purchase decisions.

This study has some limitations which would provide directions for future research. Firstly, the main focus of the study was restricted to department stores and involved only consumers. Therefore, future studies can extend the scope by collecting the data at different areas in the country and include several staff of department stores to get better insights into the important factors in retail sector. Secondly, the data were gathered through quantitative survey using structured questions; thus, future studies can involve other research methodologies to confirm the findings. Additionally, the sample size used in this study may not be enough to represent the population. Thus, future studies are recommended to rely on larger sample sizes and in different industry contexts. Future studies may also examine other marketing factors, such as cultural factors and reference groups to gain further insights about their role in affecting consumers’ purchase decision in the retail sector. Finally, only five independent variables were examined in this study; hence, future research can consider other factors that can influence consumers’ purchase decision in the Malaysian retail sector such as service quality and store image.

Implications

The examination of the direct effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, store environment, sales promotion and perceived value on purchase decision in the retail industry provides a theoretical contribution to the existing literature in this field. This study is one of the few research studies which attempted to examine the causal link between these variables. Particularly, the findings have theoretical significance by providing empirical evidence with regard to the relationships between the stated factors and purchase decision. Furthermore, there are useful practical implications for the business practitioners of retail stores. Managers can benefit from the results of this research to achieve better recognition and sustainable competitive advantage. The findings of this study also indicate that managers should understand the implications with respect to social media marketing in the Malaysian context; although this variable was found to be insignificant in affecting purchase decision in the retail context, it may yield different outcomes in future research.

Research framework

Structural model

Discriminant validity

Results of hypotheses

Measurements of constructs

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Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha is currently a Senior Lecturer at DRB-HICOM University of Automotive Malaysia. He obtained his PhD majoring in Management from Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia, in 2015, as well as an MSc (Management) from Universiti Utara Malaysia in 2011. He also received a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Arab American University – Jenin, Palestine in 2008. To date, he has published more than 45 research articles in international journals and conferences. He has also received several awards for best research papers being presented at local and international conferences. His research interests include business management and marketing, in particular branding, consumer behaviour, social media marketing, CSR, business and product innovation, human resource practices, and business strategy.

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Descent and Étale-Brauer Obstructions for 0-Cycles

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Francesca Balestrieri, Jennifer Berg, Descent and Étale-Brauer Obstructions for 0-Cycles, International Mathematics Research Notices , 2024;, rnae140, https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnae140

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For 0-cycles on a variety over a number field, we define an analogue of the classical descent set for rational points. This leads to, among other things, a definition of the étale-Brauer obstruction set for 0-cycles. We show that all these constructions are compatible with Suslin’s singular homology of degree 0. We then transfer some tools and techniques used to study the arithmetic of rational points into the setting of 0-cycles. For example, we extend the strategy developed by Y. Liang, relating the arithmetic of rational points over finite extensions of the base field to that of 0-cycles, to torsors. We give applications of our results to study the arithmetic behaviour of 0-cycles for Enriques surfaces, torsors given by (twisted) Kummer varieties, universal torsors, and torsors under tori.

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• v.6(6); 2020 Jun

Purchase intention and purchase behavior online: A cross-cultural approach

Nathalie peña-garcía.

a CESA School of Business, Department of Marketing, Bogotá, Colombia

Irene Gil-Saura

b University of Valencia, Department of Marketing, Valencia, Spain

Augusto Rodríguez-Orejuela

c University of Valle, Department of Business and Organizations, Cali, Colombia

José Ribamar Siqueira-Junior

d Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Department of Economics and Management, Bogotá, Colombia

This article aims to explore the key factors on e-commerce adoption from elements of social psychology, such as attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, ease of use and perceived usefulness, introducing the study of non-traditional elements like buying impulse, compatibility, and self-efficacy in online stores, contrasting relationships in a cross-cultural environment. The proposed model is tested from quantitative research with a sample of 584 online consumers in Colombia and Spain. The following statistical analyses were conducted: CFA, structural equations, measurement instrument invariance, and multi-group analysis with EQS 6.3 software. The study reveals that self-efficacy in online stores is a key factor in adopting electronic commerce above the cultures studied. Also, there is significant evidence that proves the moderating effect of national culture on several relationships of the model proposed. Results highlight the importance of national culture to understand impulsive buying behavior. The article presents several considerations toward the main elements to generate online purchase intention among consumers in an emerging country and finds substantial differences with consumers in a developed country. Practical implications are made for companies to adopt online channels and expand internationally.

Online purchase intention; Purchase behavior; Cross-cultural study; Colombia; Spain; Technology management; Technology adoption; Marketing; Consumer attitude; Decision analysis; Business

1. Introduction

e-Commerce has had remarkable success and provided significant economic and social benefits in developed countries; however, in developing countries, the picture is quite different. Many challenges in these economies have hindered the growth of e-commerce. In this regard, Uwemi and Fournier-Bonilla (2016) indicate that consumers in developed countries have become accustomed to using the Internet and have been benefited from e-commerce, changing their lifestyles. In contrast, consumers in developing countries are used to face-to-face transactions, do not trust in electronic processes, and cannot afford the risk involved. This situation demonstrates the need to study the crucial factors that could lead consumers in developing countries to adopt e-commerce so that they can enjoy the economic and social benefits that developed countries already enjoy. The aim of this research is to assess the main theories about consumer behavior/making decision from the social psychology perspective, to understand the intention to adopt electronic channel and, in this way, to determine the precursors of online purchase intention in an emerging economy, and to compare these precursors with the precursors in a developed economy through a cross-cultural study.

The proposed framework for this study examines and contrasts key elements related to the purchase decision making process and their consequences. These elements are operationalized as antecedent variables (attitude, buying impulse, subjective norms, self-efficacy, PBC, Compatibility and PIIT) that can influence online purchase intention and consequently online purchase behavior both in a developed and in an emerging economy. Based on a literature review, the variable online purchase intention has been often selected as the basis of purchasing behavior study. Literature shows the intention may be the main predictor of any behavior ( Fishbein and Ajzen, 1977 ); thus, this work use purchase intention online as the main antecedent of purchase behavior from an online retailer. The main theories that have impacted the prediction of human behavior from a social psychology standpoint were reviewed to determine which factors influence online purchase intention (ie, Theory of Planned Behavior TPB, Technology Acceptance Model TAM, Diffusion of Innovation Theory DIT), these theories have strongly proved being effective to predict human behavior in many contexts. The literature review indicated that some studies had common factors, such as attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, which originate from the TRA and TPB ( Ajzen, 1985 ); ease of use (EOU) and perceived usefulness, which originate from the TAM ( Davis, 1989 ); and compatibility and personal innovation in information technology (IT), which originate from DIT ( Rogers, 2010 ). Although these theories were developed in the 80s, they are still used to describe and predict behavior in different sciences, such as economics, psychology, and medicine ( Agag and El-Masry, 2016 ; Montaño and Kasprzyk, 2015 ). In this study, the construct of self-efficacy in online stores is added to these variables to explain the intrinsic factors of the consumer that influence online purchase intention, as well as the construct of buying impulse, to add subjective factors not included in traditionally studied variables. In this way, we look to incorporate a broader perspective of the intentions of purchase behavior online that can be compared in two different markets.

According to Verdugo and Ponce (2020) , there is a lack of cross-cultural studies about consumer behavior including Latin America countries, several studies from western vs. eastern countries can be found in literature, as much as cross-cultural studies making comparisons between individualistic vs. collectivistic countries, selecting individualistic samples from North American and Western European countries and collectivist samples from Asian countries ( Mazaheri et al., 2011 ). However, Latin America has the most collectivist countries in the world, namely Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala, and Colombia, in that order ( Hofstede et al., 2010 ). Engelen and Brettel (2011) suggest that future cross-cultural studies need to include samples of South American individuals and compare them directly with individuals from Western Europe or North America. Following this suggestion, this research proposes a cross-cultural comparison between a developed and individualistic country from Western Europe (Spain) and one of the most collectivist countries in the world with a developing economy located in South America (Colombia). It is hoped that the research model used to compare these countries will provide results that will contribute to the literature on consumer behavior in cross-cultural contexts and provide answers relevant to both the national and international levels, due to the academic interest in testing and building new theories in countries with under-developed economies.

To do so, the paper presents a literature review of national culture and the main antecedents of consumer purchase intentions. Then, in materials and methods, we present the research model, the measurement scales, and the description of the sample and procedure used. The results present the main findings of the research, and for last, conclusions also present implications for academy and practice.

2. Literature review and research hypotheses

Given this study is oriented to find the differences between the purchase intention formation between two countries, it is important to review the literature about national culture, which has been a valuable tool to explain the differences that underlie the behavior of the individual based on culture. Then, a review of the literature of the most important variables proposed as antecedents of purchase intention is presented, according to the theories revised.

2.1. National culture

Culture is not so much a property of individuals or groups, but a tool for understanding and learning the differences commonly attributed to national culture ( Burton, 2008 ). Specifically, Yang and Jolly (2009) claim that national culture is a key element from which consumer behavior can be differentiated. According to Kumar and Pansari (2016) , national culture can affect consumer behavior in different areas. In this research, the national culture will be used as a key variable in the differentiation of consumer behavior in the electronic channel from two nations with distinct cultures, according to the indexes of the dimensions that make up the national culture. According to Wanick et al. (2019) , cross cultural study in consumer behavior has had a great attention to comparisons between eastern and western countries, however, Latin America has been lagged from these studies. This study focuses on Colombia and Spain and aims to help fill an important gap in the scientific literature on Latin American culture ( See-Pui, 2013 ; Verdugo and Ponce, 2020 ) by studying Colombian consumers and comparing them with Spanish consumers. Table 1 shows the indexes of the six cultural dimensions for the selected markets, according to Hofstede et al. (2010) .

Table 1

6D Model: Colombia vs. Spain.

Source: Hofstede et al. (2010) .

Delta > 30.

Now, according to the bipolar dimensions of Inglehart (1997) , Colombia and Spain differ significantly in the dimension that includes traditional values vs. secular/rational values. Figure 1 shows the location of the countries, according to the results of the World Values Survey (WVS) Wave 5.

Cultural map - WVS wave 6 (2010–2014). Source: ( Inglehart et al., 2014 ).

Specifically, there is a significant difference in the dimension of traditional values – secular/rational values of the countries analyzed. This dimension is used to analyze the process of change from traditional to modern societies. In the first, religion, family ties, gender roles, and national pride are important. In contrast, societies oriented toward secular-rational values, based on the development of the individual, do not give much importance to religion; additionally, there is gender equality, and tolerance is exercised as a fundamental value. This second dimension is also called Modernization, “which involves changing from religious authority to state authority, through the process of secularization and bureaucratization” ( Ros, 2008 , p. 15). According to the graph, Colombia is at the pole of traditional values, whereas Spain, although moderately, is at the pole of secular-rational values. The difference between both national cultures is expected to impact consumer behavior online.

2.2. Online purchase intention and purchase behavior

Purchase intentions can be used to test the implementation of a new distribution channel to help managers determine whether the concept deserves further development and decide which geographic markets and consumer segments to target through the channel ( Morwitz et al., 2007 ). Their importance lies in the fact that intentions are considered the key predictor of actual behavior ( Montaño and Kasprzyk, 2015 ); therefore, their study is of the utmost importance for the success of any online retailer. This research proposes to purchase intentions as the key variable to be investigated. The construct takes place at the pre-purchase stage and captures the motivational aspects that affect customer behavior ( Armitage and Conner, 2001 ). To predict consumer behavior, it is necessary to know the attitudes, assessments, and internal factors that ultimately generate the purchase intent ( Fishbein and Ajzen, 1977 ). In this research, in line with Pavlou (2003) , online purchase intention is understood as the degree to which a consumer is willing to buy a product through an online store.

Purchase behavior has been studied in various marketing fields besides traditional purchasing in physical stores, such as green marketing ( Nguyen et al., 2016 ), luxury brands and products ( Beuckels and Hudders, 2016 ), B2B transactions ( Wei and Ho, 2019 ), and lastly, online purchase (ie, Sundström et al., 2019 ). Following George (2004) , in this investigation, online purchase behavior is understood as the frequency with which consumers make purchases over the Internet. According to ( Ajzen, 1991 ), the intentions of the consumer are an indicator of the extent to which people are willing to carry out a specific behavior, which in this research would be translated as online purchase behavior. It has been found that the lack of intention to buy online is one of the first obstacles for the development of e-commerce ( He et al., 2008 ), and researchers such as Lim et al. (2016) note that online purchase intention and online purchase behavior need to be explored more. Based on the above, the first research hypothesis for this study explores the effect of online purchase intention on consumer purchase behavior.

H1. Consumer online purchase intention has a positive effect on online purchase behavior

To assess national culture as a crucial factor in the behavior of consumers in the electronic channel, it is proposed that the effect of intentions on actual purchase behavior will be different, a more traditional society is expected to be more reluctant to adopt technology, because it breaks with its lifestyle, while a society oriented to secular values adopts any type of technology that helps make their life easier and reach faster their goals, as presented in the following hypothesis:

H1a. The effect of online purchase intention on online purchase behavior is moderated by culture

2.3. Attitude toward online shopping

Attitudes are learned and developed over a certain period and are often difficult to change but can be influenced by satisfying psychological motivation ( Lien and Cao, 2014 ). More specifically, attitudes change over time as individuals learn new concepts about the idea or object they are evaluating ( Shaouf et al., 2016 ). According to Allport (1935) , attitude is an important determinant of the predisposition of an individual and has a positive relationship with behavior. It is defined as the level to which an individual makes a positive or negative assessment of behavior ( Fishbein and Ajzen, 1977 ). In this research, attitude is understood as the assessment of the consumer about purchasing through online stores, following the work of Andrews and Bianchi (2013) . According to TRA, intentions are the result of the attitude toward certain behavior: the greater the positive attitude toward a behavior, the greater the intention of carrying out the behavior ( Amaro and Duarte, 2015 ). It is then expected that, if the assessment of the consumer toward buying online is positive, the consumer intention to buy through online stores will increase. Thus, the second research hypothesis is proposed, and the effect of moderation of culture is examined as well.

H2. Attitude toward e-commerce has a positive effect on online purchase intention

Again, traditional societies may not have an open attitude towards new technologies because they are more risk averse than pragmatic and secular societies, therefore it is expected that there will be a significant difference in the relationship between the attitude and the intention to buy in The markets studied.

H2a. The effect of attitude toward e-commerce on online purchase intention is moderated by culture

2.4. Subjective norms

Subjective norms are based on the perception of an individual about what should or should not be done in accordance with the reward or punishment that may be obtained from carrying out such behavior. Thus, according to the study by Kim et al. (2013) , subjective norms are defined in this research as the motivation a consumer receives from friends, family, and colleagues, to make purchases through online stores. Subjective norms are a construct that is commonly used as a precursor in decision-making ( Sandve and Øgaard, 2014 ) because people are more inclined to act if their role models think they should do so ( Schepers and Wetzels, 2007 ). The research concerning the factors that influence the individual to make an online purchase is limited ( Andrews and Bianchi, 2013 ); however, studies such as that by Nor and Pearson (2008) state that subjective norms from friends, family, and colleagues have a positive influence on buying online. According to the literature, it is proposed that if consumers believe that their peers are in favor of an online purchase, the online purchase intention will be greater. The evidence shows the subjectivity inherent in the perceptions of consumers according to their culture. The level of individualism can explain the moderation of national culture on the relationships in the studied regions. According to Hofstede et al. (2010) , Colombia is a country with a high degree of collectivism, whereas Spain is an individualistic country. Individualism “is the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups” ( Hofstede, 1994 , p. 6), whereas in collectivism, individuals prefer to feel they are part of a group ( Triandis, 1990 ). Subjective norms dictate that the behavioral intention of consumers originates from perceived social pressure, following Schepers and Wetzels (2007) ; people who believe subjective norms are important to tend to act if their peers think they should do it. Individuals are, therefore, expected to show stronger subjective norms in collectivist cultures than in individualistic cultures to be accepted by the group ( Choi and Geistfeld, 2004 ). Thus, hypothesis 3 and 3a are proposed.

H3. Subjective norms have a positive effect on online purchase intention

H3a. The effect of subjective norms on online purchase intention is moderated by culture

2.5. Perceived behavioral control - PBC

The theory of planned behavior, TPB, adds the construct of perceived behavioral control (PBC) and establishes it as the determinant between intentions and actual behavior ( Ajzen, 2002 ). Thus, a person who has no control over a situation may not be inclined to participate in it. In this research, PBC is understood as the level of control perceived by a consumer over external factors during the process of buying from an online store ( Amaro and Duarte, 2015 ). E-commerce may represent a sense of loss of control of the situation due to the uncertainty caused by the intangible environment ( Dabholkar and Sheng, 2009 ); therefore, perceived control in this study is a key factor to be investigated to understand the shaping of consumer behavioral intentions in the context of e-commerce. It is expected that people will prefer situations that they can control over those in which external forces have control (E. S.-T. Wang, 2014 ). In this regard, this research aims to establish a directly proportional relationship between the PBC of consumers and their online purchase intention, as shown in the following hypotheses.

H4. PBC has a positive effect on online purchase intention

H4a. The effect of PBC on online purchase intention is moderated by culture

2.6. Self-efficacy in online stores

Some authors claim that self-efficacy has been misunderstood in the study of e-commerce, and it is often used interchangeably with PBC ( Amaro and Duarte, 2015 ). Although these concepts are related, they are not interchangeable and should be differentiated. Whereas PBC refers to the external factors of the individual, self-efficacy is related to the cognitive perceptions of the consumer ( Armitage and Conner, 2001 ) and reveals the beliefs of the consumer about his or her ability to perform a behavior ( Hernández et al., 2011 ). According to Wu and Wang (2015) , self-efficacy should be examined for a specific task or context because the validity and predictive relevance of the measure will be greater. As a result, based on the study by Amaro and Duarte (2015) , this research aims to study the specific variable of self-efficacy in online stores, defined as the belief of consumers in their capacity to successfully use the Internet to search for information and purchase products through online stores. In this regard, Yeşilyurt et al. (2016) note that individuals with low self-efficacy tend to resist using computers and IT, whereas those with high levels of self-efficacy strive to overcome any challenge to achieve their goals (Y. C. Liu and Hung, 2016 ). It is expected that consumers with higher perceived self-efficacy in online stores will show greater online purchase intention.

On the other hand, the level of individualism/collectivism guides how individuals interact and relate to cultures. Because shopping is a social process, it is determined by the relationships of individuals. Electronic purchases can be perceived as a solitary activity in which the consumer needs to have all the skills and abilities necessary to make the purchase decision and carry out the procedure. Thus, consumers in collectivist countries are expected to consider self-efficacy in online stores as an essential element in the development of online purchase intention, more than consumers in individualistic countries, as shown in the hypothesis:

H5. Self-efficacy in online stores has a positive effect on online purchase intention

H5a. The effect of self-efficacy in online stores on online purchase intention is moderated by culture

2.7. Ease of use (EOU)

In the technology acceptance model, TAM, the key issue posed by Davis (1989) lies in the wasted potential of IT in the performance of tasks, due to the resistance of users to accept and use such technologies. However, if the technology is perceived as easy to use, its adoption by the potential user will be easier because the learning curve is reduced ( Smith et al., 2013 ).

EOU is linked to consumer perception during the user experience ( Perea y Monsuwé et al., 2004 ) and refers to the absence of effort perceived by a person when using a technology ( Lee, 2009 ; Smith et al., 2013 ). Following the line of these authors, for this research, EOU will be understood as the belief of the consumer that buying over the Internet will require minimal mental and physical effort. This perception, according to the literature, has a positive impact on the attitude of consumers toward e-commerce because if the process of using online stores is simple, the evaluation of e-commerce by the consumer will be positive ( Agag and El-Masry, 2016 ). Thus, hypothesis 6 and 6a of the research are presented.

H6. EOU of e-stores has a positive effect on attitudes toward e-commerce

H6a. The effect of EOU of e-stores on attitudes toward e-commerce is moderated by culture

2.8. Perceived usefulness

Along with EOU, perceived usefulness is one of the cognitive factors that determine the acceptance of an IT, according to TAM ( Agag and El-Masry, 2016 ). It refers to a person's belief about the improvement in performance and productivity that will be achieved by using new technology ( Lee, 2009 ). The construct was originally proposed by Davis (1989) , whose main idea was that people would adopt an IT if they perceive that this technology will improve their performance.

In e-commerce, perceived usefulness from the consumer perspective has been studied in terms of how they perceive the effectiveness, productivity, and importance associated with electronic stores. Perea y Monsuwé et al. (2004) note that usefulness is linked to the perceptions of consumers after use is already experienced; therefore, in e-commerce, usefulness will be understood as the perception of consumers that purchasing through online stores will improve the outcome of their shopping experience. As a result, it is expected that if an online store improves the outcome of the shopping experience, then the consumer will evaluate e-commerce favorably.

Besides, according to Hofstede (2011) , indulgence is the degree to which people try to control their desires and impulses for their satisfaction. Society is oriented towards fun and enjoyment if it has high levels of indulgence ( Belanche et al., 2015 ), whereas societies with a low indulgence level are restrictive. It is then hypothesized that consumers from restrictive cultures value the utility offered in an IT significantly more than those consumers from indulgent cultures, where hedonic and non-functional elements are expected to be the crucial factors determining positive attitudes toward online shopping,

H7. The perceived usefulness of online stores has a positive effect on consumers' attitudes towards online shopping

H7a. National culture moderates the effect of perceived usefulness on attitudes toward online shopping

2.9. Buying impulse

According to O'Cass and Fenech (2003) , the immediate predecessor of e-commerce is TV infomercials. Donthu and Gilliland (1996) found that one of the main differences between TV infomercial buyers and non-buyers was impulsivity. Those who used the infomercial channel were more impulsive than those who did not use the channel, with buying impulse being a precursor of accepting IT. Now, it is expected that the inclusion of buying impulse in the proposal of this research model will provide a theoretical contribution to the study of consumer behavior, specifically the adoption of new technologies to facilitate spending behaviors. Impulse buying may contain more hedonic elements than rational ones ( Rook, 1987 ). These elements form a broader and more complex spectrum that has prompted further study of the impulse process in the consumer to understand it better. Due to the boom of e-commerce, there has been an opportunity to redirect these studies and apply them to the new electronic channel alternative. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding impulse buying in e-commerce, specifically in emerging economies, in which the adoption of this new distribution channel has been lower than in developed economies. Following this line of thought, this research defines the buying impulse and proposes that buying impulse will influence online purchase behavior according to the following hypothesis.

H8. Buying impulse has a positive effect on online purchase intention

Also, Stern (1962) associates impulse buying with the ease of carrying it out because a purchase involves sacrifices related to travel, time, and budget. As a result, when the act of a purchase requires greater investment in these resources, more thoughtful consideration and planning will be required. In contrast, if less effort is required, then the likelihood of impulse buying will be greater. Due to the ubiquity of virtual stores, the absence of commuting to the point of the sale and the time savings implied in the search for information and comparison of products and prices that are inherent to online purchases, this research proposes that buying impulse may be a consequence of the EOU, as presented in the following hypothesis.

H9. The perceived EOU of e-stores has a positive effect on buying impulse.

Considering the literature on impulse behaviors, what occurs when a consumer has an urge to purchase without cognitive considerations needs to be examined ( Rook, 1987 ). Therefore, it can be deduced that the buying impulse originates from a hedonic, emotional, or irrational need that generates instant gratification when buying is easy. Because indulgent societies allocate their resources and time to things that provide them pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment, it is presumed that national culture will moderate the relationship between the EOU of online stores and the buying impulse. Similarly, it is assumed that in the Colombian sample, the relationship between buying impulse and online purchase intention will be significantly stronger than in the sample from Spain. Thus, this research suggests that national culture has a moderating effect on the relationships set out in the following hypotheses:

H8a. The effect of buying impulse on online purchase intention is moderated by culture

H9a. The effect of EOU on buying impulse is moderated by culture

2.10. Compatibility with online shopping

Vijayasarathy (2004) used compatibility for his proposed extended TAM, which understands compatibility with online shopping as “the extent to which a consumer believes that shopping online fits/matches his/her lifestyle, needs, and shopping preference” p. 750. The present study accepts the definition of Vijayasarathy (2004) because the same type of technology is studied. Compatibility with e-commerce has a direct and important relationship with behavioral intentions in an online environment ( Amaro and Duarte, 2015 ), because it is assumed that the adoption process will be easier if consumers perceive that the online purchase does not conflict with their interests and tastes.

According to Vijayasarathy (2004) , compatibility with online shopping will depend on existing values. Because culture has been defined as the set of values and symbols, among others, shared by a group of individuals, it can be argued that compatibility with online shopping will vary depending on the values of each of the samples in the cross-cultural study. In turn, the relationship between compatibility with online shopping and online purchase intention is significantly different between groups. In this research, compatibility will be studied as a precursor of online purchase intention, as stated in the following hypotheses.

H10. Compatibility with e-commerce has a positive effect on online purchase intention

H10a. The effect of compatibility on online purchase intention is moderated by culture

2.11. Personal innovation in IT - PIIT

Personal innovativeness in the domain of information technologies, PIIT, has been studied from the perspective of the diffusion of innovation in general ( Rogers, 2010 ) and applied particularly in marketing ( Agarwal and Prasad, 1998 ). Personal innovation is the latent preference for new and different experiences, which causes the search for experiences that stimulate the mind and senses (J. Kim and Forsythe, 2008 ). In the technological context, Agarwal and Prasad (1998 , p. 206) define PIIT as “the willingness of an individual to try out any new information technology”. An important feature of PIIT emphasized by Agarwal and Prasad (1998 , p. 206) is that as a trait, it is “a relatively stable descriptor of individuals that is invariant across situational considerations”. Traits are not usually influenced by internal factors or the environment ( Webster and Martocchio, 1992 ) and therefore ensure stability over time. According to Agarwal and Prasad (1998) , PIIT is an important concept for studying the adoption of new technology. For example, Yi et al. (2006) demonstrated that there is a relation between PIIT and the intention to perform a behavior. Given these results, this research seeks to transfer the concept of PIIT by applying it to e-commerce and examine its effect on online purchase intention, as presented in the last set of research hypotheses.

H11. PIIT has a positive effect on online purchase intention

H11a. The effect of PIIT on online purchase intention is moderated by culture

3. Materials and methods

Based on the literature review, a research model is proposed to compare the relationships ( Figure 2 ).

Model research.

3.1. Samples and procedure

To determine the online purchase intention in the selected cultures, 600 intercept surveys were applied between November 2014 and February 2015 in the studied countries. All the ethical guidelines for data collection, informed consent and pertinent disclaimers were reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of CESA. The information was collected from e-commerce users over the age of 18. The sample was gathered by two companies specialized in market research, one in each country, using a structured questionnaire. The companies obtained the data from students of undergraduate programs of economy, in two urban cities (Valencia, ES, and Cali, CO). Participation was voluntary and limited to consumers born and raised in the selected countries to ensure that they were from the national cultures analyzed in this study. Also, to determine if they were regular users of e-commerce, a filter question was proposed at the beginning of the survey, asking the last time they bought online. Users with experience in the last six months were electable for the study. After applying both filters, 585 valid surveys were obtained: 291 for Colombia and 294 for Spain. The sample profile for Colombia is composed mainly of women (53%). Most participants are single (58%) and between 18 and 39 years of age (84%). For Spain, the sample is balanced concerning gender (50%–50%); almost all participants are single (99%), and all of them are under 39 years of age. The programs EQS 6.3 and Smart-PLS were used to process the data. Table 2 shows demographic information of the sample.

Table 2

Demographic information of the sample.

3.2. Measures

Measurement scales previously validated in the literature were used in this study. The measures for attitude toward online shopping were adapted from Jarvenpaa et al. (1999) . The study of Wu and Chen (2005) were adapted to measure subjective norms and PBC. The scales to measure EOU and perceived usefulness were obtained from the study by Pavlou (2003) . The scale to measure compatibility was adapted from Andrews and Bianchi (2013) ; the study by Agarwal and Prasad (1998) was used to measure PIIT. The proposed scale to measure self-efficacy in online stores is based on the studies by Pavlou and Fygenson (2006) and Lian and Lin (2008) . The scale of Wells et al. (2011) was adapted to measure the buying impulse; online purchase intention was measured based on the studies by Pavlou (2003) . Finally, the scale to measure online purchase behavior was obtained from the study by George (2004) . Appendix 1 shows the scales adapted.

The results are subjected to different analyses to find all the information needed. First, the model is validated using a confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA) with the software EQS 6.3. Subsequently, invariance of the instrument of measure is addressed to determine if the questionnaire is not just valid for both subsamples, but to assure the items proposed are measuring the same factor. Finally, to contrast hypotheses, a Bootstrapping analysis, and a partial least square multigroup (PLS-SEM) analysis is conducted to determinate the moderation effect of the culture in the proposed relationships.

4.1. Model validation

To validate the model, a CFA for the total sample was performed with the software EQS 6.3. The model fit showed satisfactory values: NFI = 0.925; NNFI = 0.928; CFI = 0.945; RMSEA = 0.065; SRMR = 0.055. Composite reliability of the model for the total sample is verified with values between 0.75 and 0.93 in all the constructs; Also, AVE values were over 0.6. With the goodness of fit of the model established, a CFA was conducted for each sub-sample to determine the reliability and validity of the measuring instrument for the Colombian and Spanish subsamples. Results are shown, respectively, in Tables  3 and ​ and4 4 .

Table 3

Reliability and validity of the model – Colombian sample.

Note: The diagonal indicates the square root of the AVE (discriminant validity). The data in the lower triangle correspond to the correlations between the factors. CR: composite reliability. AVE: average variance extracted. Delta > 30.

Table 4

Reliability and validity of the model – Spanish sample.

To confirm discriminant validity, the square root of the AVE (diagonal in bold) must be greater than the numbers in each row and column, which correspond to the correlations between factors ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ). The reliability is confirmed by the composite reliability being greater than 0.7 and the AVE being higher than 0.5 ( Bagozzi and Yi, 1988 ).

4.2. Invariance of measurement instrument

The invariance of the measurement instrument consists of introducing constraints to validate that the latent variables represent the same in both groups Aldás, 2013 . Equal form and equal factor loading analyses were carried out in this research using software EQS 6.3. Table 5 shows the results.

Table 5

Measure invariance test.

To determine if the constraints can be sustained, and confirm the invariance of the measurement instrument, Cheung and Rensvold (2002) proposed an approach based on the CFI difference between the results after equal form and equal factor loading, or ΔCFI. This approach indicates that when ΔIFC >0.01, the constraints applied cannot be sustained, whereas when ΔCFI ≤ 0.01, the constraints are sustained, which means latent variables are the same in both subsamples. In this study, it was found that ΔCFI = 0.006; consequently, the invariance is confirmed.

4.3. SEM and multi-group analysis

Now, to contrast the research hypotheses, an SEM analysis and a Multigroup analysis are used to test the moderating effect of national culture in the proposed relationships. The relations are controlled by sociodemographic variables like age, gender, income, and user experience to better understand if the difference in the sub-samples is given by the culture or sociodemographic differences. Table 6 shows the results.

Table 6

Results of SEM analysis and Multi-group analysis.

‡ X 2 (df=893) = 1792.708; RMSEA (CI:90%) = 0.059 (0.055–0.063); CFI = 0.930; NNFI = 0.922.

∗p < 0.05; ∗∗p < 0.10.

The control by sociodemographic variables shows that in the complete sample, just the user experience has a significant and positive effect on online purchase behavior (p = 0.034); that is, the more experience the user has, the more online shopping behavior exhibits. Age, gender, and income did not show a significant relationship with the key variables. On the other hand, when the sample is separated by country, income is significantly related to online purchase behavior: the Spanish subsample shows a negative relation, meanwhile Colombian subsample has no significant effect. The difference between both paths is significant at p = 0.017, which means Spaniard customers reduce online purchase behavior if their income is lower than Colombian subsample, not Colombian customers, who have the same behavior no matter the income.

Based on the results, the moderating effect of the national culture in six of the hypothesized relationships is confirmed with a significance of p < 0.05. The empirical study has shown that the impact of the perceived usefulness on attitudes in the Colombian sample is greater than that in the Spanish sample, although the hypothesis is positively verified in both sub-samples. The research suggested that the EOU would affect the buying impulse; although the effect was not significant in the whole sample or subsamples, there is a significant difference between the paths of Colombia and Spain, in Colombia, the relationship is positive and in Spain is negative, which demonstrates that national culture moderates the relationship. Also, one of the main contributions of this research is that buying impulse is considered a precursor of online purchase intention; this relationship was positively verified in the Colombian sample, whereas in the Spanish sample, a non-significant negative relationship was found. The results also indicate that the impact of compatibility on online purchase intention is greater in the Colombian sample compared to the Spanish sample, and in both markets, the relationship is significant. Finally, it is believed that national culture will have a moderating effect on the relationship between online purchase intention and online purchase behavior; this moderation was verified by the difference of paths; in Colombia, the relationship is not significant meanwhile in Spain, the effect is significant and negative. Neither the subjective norms nor the PIIT showed a significant effect on online purchase intention in either of the samples.

5. Discussion

This research has considered the differences in consumer behavior that underlie their national culture, since traditional behavioral theories have always emphasized a linear and generalizable prediction of behavior to any population studied, without the critical view of the differences in the customs and values of the place of birth and raise of individuals. Thus, substantial differences were found in the relationships previously established in the classical theory of behavior when comparing consumers from two very different regions with respect to their adoption of electronic purchasing. This research studied the variable of self-efficacy in online stores to measure consumers' perceived capability to make purchases on the Internet, based on previous jobs ( Wang et al., 2013 ). The multigroup analysis indicated that the impact of self-efficacy in online stores on online purchase intention is significant in the Colombian subsample but not in the Spanish subsample. Thus, Colombian consumers, in general, have less experience in electronic purchases than Spanish consumers due to the incipient development of e-commerce in Colombia; consequently, self-efficacy in online stores influences their intention to adopt the electronic distribution channel. Conversely, Spanish consumers have the experience necessary to consider self-efficacy in online stores as something inherent, normal and secular, and therefore online purchase intention must originate from functional elements, as in the case of the PBC, or intrinsic elements, such as personal preferences. It is important to highlight the contribution in this research regarding the importance of self-efficacy in online stores for inexperienced consumers, as established in the literature ( Vijayasarathy, 2004 ; Wang et al., 2013 ). It is expected that, over time, consumers will be able to not only navigate and find information of interest but also better evaluate the accuracy and usefulness of the information found ( Chuang et al., 2015 ), building a more responsible and objective consumer society.

This study added the emotional factor to the analysis of buying impulse, which is lacking in traditional analyses, intending to contribute information to the literature on the effect of impulse on online consumer behavior. This analysis also explains the formation of behavioral intentions in the studied markets. The research explored the impact of EOU on buying impulses because it is a relationship barely studied in the literature. It is assumed that if the consumer perceives that purchase takes no effort, then an impulse to buy will be more likely because it is known that purchase involves investment in terms of money, time, and travel. If these are absent, the consumer will spend less time thinking about the purchase, and, therefore, the possibility of buying unintended products will be greater ( Stern, 1962 ). In empirical research, the relationship is significantly verified in the Colombian subsample, but not in the Spanish subsample. The literature indicates that EOU is one of the factors that stimulate positive emotions in the consumer, which makes impulse buying by the customer more likely ( Verhagen and van Dolen, 2011 ), as is the case of Colombia. However, in the case of Spanish consumers, the relationship was not significant, which coincides with the research of Liu et al. (2013) , who explored the relationship between EOU and the positive emotions understood as instant gratification, which results in impulse buying.

It should be noted that the research carried out by Liu et al. (2013) was applied on consumers from China, which is a restrictive society. According to Hofstede et al. (2010) , China's indulgence index is only twenty-four points, unlike Colombia's, which is eighty-three points. We conclude then that indulgence in the consumer can affect the relationship between EOU and buying impulse, assuming that lower perceived effort means a greater tendency towards satisfying the impulses to enjoy life and have fun ( Hofstede et al., 2010 ). The results of this research are expected to provide information of interest to educational institutions and stimulate further research on impulse buying behavior, comparing results in indulgent and non-indulgent countries.

Following the same line of thought, the relationship between buying impulse and online purchase intention is also found to be moderated by the national culture. It was found that there was a significant effect on online purchase intention in the Colombian subsample but not in the Spanish subsample. This result may be related again with indulgence: Colombian consumers are significantly more indulgent than Spanish consumers ( Hofstede et al., 2010 ), which can be translated to the search for instant gratification that can be obtained through an impulse purchase. Besides, given the short-term perspective of the Colombian context, it would be natural that unplanned expenditures in impulse purchases would not worry them.

The variable of compatibility, proposed as a precursor of online purchase intention, has been positively verified in the literature ( Andrews and Bianchi, 2013 ). In this case, the relationship was positively and significantly confirmed in both subsamples, although there is a significant difference between them. This difference is explained by culture: Colombia is a collectivist country, whose inhabitants' associate purchases with social processes and, therefore, collective processes. Thus, this type of consumer needs to perceive greater compatibility with online buying to prompt an online purchase intention.

Finally, the construct of online purchase intention was proposed as a precursor of online purchase behavior, as described in the study by Ajzen (1991) , among others. The evidence indicates that the relationship is significantly and positively verified in the Colombian subsample, as supported by the literature. However, in the Spanish subsample, the relationship is negative and significant. This means that for Spanish consumers, online purchase intention has a negative effect on online purchase behavior. This may be due to the current economic situation of the country because according to Hampson and McGoldrick (2013) and Pappas (2016) , the influence of the economic recession can mean that even if the consumers have the intention to buy, their awareness of their spending habits prevents them from buying, which establishes a negative relationship.

6. Implications and future research

The theory claims that measuring behavioral intentions is the ideal method for predicting consumer behavior ( Pascual-Miguel et al., 2015 ). For this reason, it was proposed that online purchase intention was a determinant of online purchase behavior. However, the relationship was significantly contrasted, although negatively in the Spanish sub-sample, contrary to the results of research such as Escobar-Rodríguez and Carvajal-Trujillo (2014) . The results show a clear discontinuity between intention and actual behavior, which confirms that such an intention emerges as an inadequate path to predict the actual behavior of the customer. This also casts serious doubts as to whether the intention is automatically transformed into an actual purchase, which coincides with the research of Zaharia et al. (2016) , and highlights the importance of analyzing the relationship between intentions and behavior in greater depth, as proposed by Lim et al. (2016) .

The study also shows a discontinuity of generally accepted antecedents of online purchase intention, such as self-efficacy, subjective norms, and PIIT. The fact of contrast the theories that have been formerly accepted in modern and different contexts allows a wider perspective of the theory and its limitations. E-commerce is the way consumers make purchases more often every time, and the study of consumer behavior should provide new theories or improve before predicting consumers' decisions. Based on the results of this study, it is proposed that consumers with less experience in e-commerce need more functional elements to adopt it; meanwhile, experienced consumers need more hedonic elements. Also, the study indicates that buying impulse is an antecedent of online purchase intention in markets with short-term orientation, which can lead to creating design strategies for online stores in those cultures. The relevance of the electronic transformation has been stamped in many industries, transcending to B2B commerce ( Wei and Ho, 2019 ) and e-learning ( Ivanaj et al., 2019 ).

In Colombia and the emerging economies in general, most companies are SMEs (micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises). This type of company has a small number of employees and, generally, low capital. These are family businesses with a short-term vision focused on results and, consequently, on sales. The limited vision and knowledge of the market usually lead to dissolving the company. To ensure success, companies need to be able to look ahead, plan, and not focus only on daily sales. The paradigm shift has piqued the interest of companies in joining forces with educational institutions to better understand consumer behavior in e-commerce, a synergy that has advanced in developed countries but that in emerging economies is still in its early stages. The government must play a fundamental role in uniting small- and medium-sized business owners with educational institutions so that each can acquire knowledge and mutually benefit through training, professional practices, and participation in research projects.

According to the eCommerce Observatory (2016) , companies—mainly large-sized companies—have turned to digital transformation to increase income and reduce costs, which means greater profitability for shareholders. One of the major drivers of SMEs adopting the electronic channel is their access to international trade. The ubiquity of the Internet allows information to be sent to any destination. Thus, employers do not have to make significant financial investments in marketing their products. However, business owners should consider various issues before entering international trade. The adaptation of messages, as well as the products and services to the target culture, is a sine qua non condition to reaching the market and securing the first step to commercial success. Besides, it must be considered that the Spanish consumer is more experienced, is self-efficient in online stores, and usually has the tools necessary to carry out electronic purchases, Colombian consumers are not.

This research focused on learning and understanding the motivational factors that determine the behavioral intentions of consumers in e-commerce in Colombia and Spain by carrying out an empirical study in the selected universes. However, the research has limitations. The study was conducted based on estimates of national culture of Hofstede and WVS to establish a difference between Colombian and Spanish consumers. Although these estimates are widely accepted to compare the national culture, future research should measure the culture of each consumer independently to empirically contrast the effect of cultural values on the relationship between the studied variables. In the other hand, in this study, the frequency of purchase was used as the variable to measure online purchase behavior, following the line of work of other studies. However, some authors claim that in addition to the frequency of purchase, it is advisable to analyze the average cost of purchase or the proportion of the budget used in online buying versus traditional shopping. Adding these items and exploring the relationship between intentions and behavior again would provide more decisive conclusions for this assumption. Another limitation of the study lies in the fact that external factors may and make impact consumer decisions, those factors were not included in this study, and it is recommended to use them in broader research.

Declarations

Author contribution statement.

N. Peña-García: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.

I. Gil-Saura: Conceived and designed the experiments.

A. Rodríguez Orejuela: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments.

J. R. Siqueira-Junior: Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.

Funding statement

This research has received support from the University of Valle – Internal call for research 2014: C.I.8114 and from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, National Research Agency Project Reference ECO2013-43353-R and ECO2016-76553-R, State Program of Research, Development and Innovation oriented to the Challenges of the Society.

Competing interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Data associated with this study has been uploaded to Mendeley (DOI: 10.17632/wy4cw82jpz.1 ).

Appendix 1. Scales used in the study

∗Items were dropped during CFA analyses to improve fit indices.

Data available ( Peña García et al., 2020 ).

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Health Status and Mental Health of Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adults

• 1 Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
• 2 Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
• 3 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
• 4 The Fenway Institute, Fenway Health, Boston, Massachusetts
• 5 Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor
• 6 Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• Invited Commentary Association of Political Assaults With the Health of Transgender and Nonbinary Persons Carl G. Streed Jr, MD, MPH; Kellan E. Baker, PhD, MPH, MA; Arjee Javellana Restar, PhD, MPH JAMA Internal Medicine

The National Institutes of Health has designated transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people as a population that experiences health disparities. A 2017 US study documented physical and mental health inequities between TGD and cisgender adults. 1 Since then, a record number of enacted laws has threatened the rights and protections of TGD people, including restricting access to gender-affirming care and permitting discrimination in public accommodations. 2 , 3 Little is known about how the health of TGD people has changed during this surge in legislation. This study evaluated recent trends in health status and mental health among TGD adults in the US.

• Invited Commentary Association of Political Assaults With the Health of Transgender and Nonbinary Persons JAMA Internal Medicine

Read More About

Liu M , Patel VR , Reisner SL , Keuroghlian AS. Health Status and Mental Health of Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adults. JAMA Intern Med. Published online June 24, 2024. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.2544

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• Personal Finance

3 Things Rich People Do With Their Money That You Probably Don't

Published on June 29, 2024

By: Maurie Backman

• Wealthy people can afford to invest in real estate.
• They often have access to other assets that aren't available to everyone.
• They generally prioritize estate planning.

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As of 2022, the average American had a net worth of $1,063,700, according to Federal Reserve data. But when we look at median net worth, that number is only $192,900. This tells us that the typical American has considerably less wealth than $1 million and change. And that it's probably a smaller percentage of rich folks who are bringing up that average.

1. Buy rental properties

Owning rental properties is a great way to generate steady income and grow wealth. But it takes money to be able to buy a rental property. Even if you're able to get a mortgage , you generally still need to be able to put some money down. And you also need to be in a position where you can afford the upkeep on a rental property.

If you only earn an average wage, you may not be in a position to buy rental properties. But you can still invest in real estate -- just in a more creative way.

For example, you can buy shares of REITs, or real estate investment trusts. A lot of REITs trade publicly like many of the stocks you may be familiar with, which means you can buy and sell them in your brokerage account like you would a regular old tech stock.

And because REITs are required to pay out at least 90% of their taxable income to shareholders as dividends each year, they can be a good wealth-building tool for you. That's because any dividend income you receive is money you can then reinvest.

2. Invest in assets that aren't available to everyday investors

We just talked about the fact that it's easy to buy and sell shares of REITs. But that applies to those that trade publicly. There are also private REITs, and other types of private investment funds, that are available to people with lots of money. But you may need an "in" to get access to them, such as having a financial advisor who's able to put your money into one of these funds. And often, there's a minimum buy-in. That could be $50,000, $100,000, $250,000, or more, depending on the investment in question.

If you're an average earner, investing this way may not be feasible. But that's okay, because you can do quite well for yourself by loading up on S&P 500 ETFs (exchange-traded funds) in your portfolio.

The index's average annual return over the past 50 years has been 10%. So a $10,000 investment in an S&P 500 ETF today could be worth about $281,000 in 35 years if you score that same return.

3. Make a plan to pass it on

Wealthy people with a lot of assets tend to be meticulous about estate planning. This often goes beyond writing wills. They commonly work with attorneys to set up trusts to pass down wealth efficiently. A trust may not be suitable or necessary for you -- though you don't necessarily have to be super rich to set one up. But there is a cost involved you may not want to bear.

At the very least, though, make sure to have a will in place so you get a say in what happens to your assets. Also, if you're looking for an efficient way to leave money behind to your heirs, consider saving for retirement in a Roth IRA .

Roth IRAs don't impose required minimum distributions (RMDs) like other retirement plans do, so you're not forced to spend your savings in your lifetime. And the rules of inherited Roth IRAs can be pretty favorable to those on the receiving end. For example, withdrawals from an inherited Roth IRA can generally be taken tax-free.

There are certain money management strategies the rich tend to adopt that may not be things you can imitate. But as you can see, there are plenty of great alternatives you can explore even if you're not wealthy.

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Maurie Backman is a personal finance writer covering topics ranging from Social Security to credit cards to mortgages. She also has an editing background and has hosted personal finance podcasts.

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Here's the state of U.S. EV adoption in 2024

Leading this set of facts and figures: ev sales were up 60% in the u.s. last year.

It seems, as we approach the mid-point of 2024, that there can’t be enough surveys, theories, reports and analyses about the state of electric vehicles worldwide. But there’s always room for one more.

A comprehensive EV primer, "Electric Vehicle Statistics 2024," from the folks at MarketWatch, examines EV sales, market share, environmental effects, mileage figures and more.  A key finding: The U.S. saw an increase of 60% year over year in EV sales, from 1 million in 2022 to 1.6 million in 2023.

Socially-conscious readers will likely gravitate to the findings about the ecological positives and negatives of EVs. One of the report’s many conclusions is that “although there are many myths about how eco-friendly EVs really are, the overall carbon footprint of EVs is still smaller than those of gas-powered cars" — even accounting for their manufacturing and charging.

The guide addresses pollution from battery production and from the massive amounts of electricity needed to power growing fleets of EVs. While electric vehicle manufacturing can create more carbon pollution than creating gas-powered vehicles, “the overall carbon footprint of EVs is still smaller than those of gasoline cars — even accounting for the carbon pollution required during the manufacturing process.”

In 2022 California, led states with the most EV registrations, followed by Florida, Texas and Washington.

Prospective buyers may find some value in the MarketWatch list of affordable vehicles, most of them ranging is price from between $30,000 and $50,000. But customers should be aware that the prices in the piece will be influenced by options, insurance costs, sales taxes, document fees and other expenditures that may be hidden. There’s an explainer as well about current and future tax incentive eligibility rules for EV purchases.

So why doesn’t everyone own or consider buying an electric vehicle? The story points out obvious reasons: anxiety over the driving range before the battery charge is exhausted; lack of enough charging stations; initial retail prices higher than those of similar internal combustion-powered (ICE) vehicles. And, for many, a natural resistance to embrace still-evolving technologies.

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7 reasons Nvidia is poised to soar 67% as its rally continues for the next 2 years, according to a Wall Street research firm

• Constellation Research said Nvidia stock will soar 65% to $200 per share over the next year.
• The research firm said it expects Nvidia stock to continue soaring for the next 18 to 24 months as it benefits from its AI dominance.
• There are seven moats around Nvidia's business that will enable continued growth. 

Nvidia stock will surge to $200 per share over the next 12 months, and its ongoing rally is set to last up to another two years, according to Constellation Research.

Constellation founder R "Ray" Wang told CNBC on Monday that he believes Nvidia has seven moats that will help it maintain its dominant position in the market for GPUs that are fueling the AI boom.

"Nvidia is the foundational stock in the Age of AI. CEO Jensen Huang intends to achieve vertically integrated domination from silicon to software through partnerships and direct routes to market. Unlike the PC age where Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco served as a triumvirate foundational players, this new era will have new players all tied back to Nvidia," Wang told Business Insider in an e-mail on Monday.

These are the seven reasons Wang expects Nvidia stock to soar 65% from current levels.

1. Visionary founder-led CEO

"It's a visionary-led CEO, and that's very very important as you've seen in the valley. Those are the ones that have led, like the Larry Ellisons of the world, the scott Mcnealys, the Mark Zuckerbergs," Wang said.

2. High barrier to entry

"There's few competitors that can come into this chip market, and it takes a long time to get a chip to market, and if you can do that and if you succeed and then if you can actually get the right chip, that's a very hard thing to do."

3. High switching costs

"Once you're in, you're locked in because of the CUDA software and all the access to the chips, the software, and the entire stack. You're going to be locked in for quite some time and they've got quite a lead in terms of doing that."

4. Dominant market share

"Nvidia has had dominant market share, and I think that makes a big difference because they've been in this market for quite some time and the competitors are behind by 24 months."

5. Strong product roadmap

"We're only seeing one-tenth, maybe one-one hundredth of the product roadmap that Nvidia has out there, and that's really exciting for those who actually have some insight into what they have next, because it's more than just chips, and it's more than just what's happening in software. That ability to go from silicon all the way to the end side, that's where we're going to see a lot of the innovation."

6. GPU is the default standard in AI

"The ecosystem has made the GPU a default standard. It's the standard everyone's looking to for AI from inference and testing."

7. The numbers don't lie

"We're seeing some amazing growth here that actually matches the P/E ratio, and that's what everyone is looking at, they're trying to figure out how this is going to continue, but gross margins are 78%, 262% growth compared to a year ago, this is going to continue for at least the next 18 to 24 months."

Wang said the current 14% decline in the stock since it peaked at about $140 per share last week represents yet another buying opportunity for investors.

"The pullback is coming at a macro level. People are worried about the consumer side, people worried about where the economy is going to head, and they're doing some profit-taking before the summer, so I think it's a good time to buy the dip," Wang said.

Wang isn't the only analyst on Wall Street with a $200 price target for Nvidia stock.

Last week, Rosenblatt raised its Nvidia price target to $200 per share on the prospect of the company better monetizing its CUDA software platform.

• Main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The impact of online reviews on consumers’ purchasing decisions: evidence from an eye-tracking study.

• 1 School of Business, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
• 2 School of Business, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

This study investigated the impact of online product reviews on consumers purchasing decisions by using eye-tracking. The research methodology involved (i) development of a conceptual framework of online product review and purchasing intention through the moderation role of gender and visual attention in comments, and (ii) empirical investigation into the region of interest (ROI) analysis of consumers fixation during the purchase decision process and behavioral analysis. The results showed that consumers’ attention to negative comments was significantly greater than that to positive comments, especially for female consumers. Furthermore, the study identified a significant correlation between the visual browsing behavior of consumers and their purchase intention. It also found that consumers were not able to identify false comments. The current study provides a deep understanding of the underlying mechanism of how online reviews influence shopping behavior, reveals the effect of gender on this effect for the first time and explains it from the perspective of attentional bias, which is essential for the theory of online consumer behavior. Specifically, the different effects of consumers’ attention to negative comments seem to be moderated through gender with female consumers’ attention to negative comments being significantly greater than to positive ones. These findings suggest that practitioners need to pay particular attention to negative comments and resolve them promptly through the customization of product/service information, taking into consideration consumer characteristics, including gender.

Introduction

E-commerce has grown substantially over the past years and has become increasingly important in our daily life, especially under the influence of COVID-19 recently ( Hasanat et al., 2020 ). In terms of online shopping, consumers are increasingly inclined to obtain product information from reviews. Compared with the official product information provided by the sellers, reviews are provided by other consumers who have already purchased the product via online shopping websites ( Baek et al., 2012 ). Meanwhile, there is also an increasing trend for consumers to share their shopping experiences on the network platform ( Floh et al., 2013 ). In response to these trends, a large number of studies ( Floh et al., 2013 ; Lackermair et al., 2013 ; Kang et al., 2020 ; Chen and Ku, 2021 ) have investigated the effects of online reviews on purchasing intention. These studies have yielded strong evidence of the valence intensity of online reviews on purchasing intention. Lackermair et al. (2013) , for example, showed that reviews and ratings are an important source of information for consumers. Similarly, through investigating the effects of review source and product type, Bae and Lee (2011) concluded that a review from an online community is the most credible for consumers seeking information about an established product. Since reviews are comments from consumers’ perspectives and often describe their experience using the product, it is easier for other consumers to accept them, thus assisting their decision-making process ( Mudambi and Schuff, 2010 ).

A survey conducted by Zhong-Gang et al. (2015) reveals that nearly 60% of consumers browse online product reviews at least once a week and 93% of whom believe that these online reviews help them to improve the accuracy of purchase decisions, reduce the risk of loss and affect their shopping options. When it comes to e-consumers in commercial activities on B2B and B2C platforms, 82% of the consumers read product reviews before making shopping choices, and 60% of them refer to comments every week. Research shows that 93% of consumers say online reviews will affect shopping choices, indicating that most consumers have the habit of reading online reviews regularly and rely on the comments for their purchasing decisions ( Vimaladevi and Dhanabhakaym, 2012 ).

Consumer purchasing decision after reading online comments is a psychological process combining vision and information processing. As evident from the literature, much of the research has focused on the outcome and impact of online reviews affecting purchasing decisions but has shed less light on the underlying processes that influence customer perception ( Sen and Lerman, 2007 ; Zhang et al., 2010 ; Racherla and Friske, 2013 ). While some studies have attempted to investigate the underlying processes, including how people are influenced by information around the product/service using online reviews, there is limited research on the psychological process and information processing involved in purchasing decisions. The eye-tracking method has become popular in exploring and interpreting consumer decisions making behavior and cognitive processing ( Wang and Minor, 2008 ). However, there is very limited attention to how the emotional valence and the content of comments, especially those negative comments, influence consumers’ final decisions by adopting the eye-tracking method, including a gender comparison in consumption, and to whether consumers are suspicious of false comments.

Thus, the main purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of online reviews on consumers’ purchasing decisions, from the perspective of information processing by employing the eye-tracking method. A comprehensive literature review on key themes including online reviews, the impact of online reviews on purchasing decisions, and underlying processes including the level and credibility of product review information, and processing speed/effectiveness to drive customer perceptions on online reviews, was used to identify current research gaps and establish the rationale for this research. This study simulated a network shopping scenario and conducted an eye movement experiment to capture how product reviews affect consumers purchasing behavior by collecting eye movement indicators and their behavioral datum, in order to determine whether the value of the fixation dwell time and fixation count for negative comment areas is greater than that for positive comment area and to what extent the consumers are suspicious about false comments. Visual attention by both fixation dwell time and count is considered as part of moderating effect on the relationship between the valence of comment and purchase intention, and as the basis for accommodating underlying processes.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section presents literature reviews of relevant themes, including the role of online reviews and the application of eye movement experiments in online consumer decision research. Then, the hypotheses based on the relevant theories are presented. The research methodology including data collection methods is presented subsequently. This is followed by the presentation of data analysis, results, and discussion of key findings. Finally, the impact of academic practical research and the direction of future research are discussed, respectively.

Literature Review

Online product review.

Several studies have reported on the influence of online reviews, in particular on purchasing decisions in recent times ( Zhang et al., 2014 ; Zhong-Gang et al., 2015 ; Ruiz-Mafe et al., 2018 ; Von Helversen et al., 2018 ; Guo et al., 2020 ; Kang et al., 2020 ; Wu et al., 2021 ). These studies have reported on various aspects of online reviews on consumers’ behavior, including consideration of textual factors ( Ghose and Ipeirotiss, 2010 ), the effect of the level of detail in a product review, and the level of reviewer agreement with it on the credibility of a review, and consumers’ purchase intentions for search and experience products ( Jiménez and Mendoza, 2013 ). For example, by means of text mining, Ghose and Ipeirotiss (2010) concluded that the use of product reviews is influenced by textual features, such as subjectivity, informality, readability, and linguistic accuracy. Likewise, Boardman and Mccormick (2021) found that consumer attention and behavior differ across web pages throughout the shopping journey depending on its content, function, and consumer’s goal. Furthermore, Guo et al. (2020) showed that pleasant online customer reviews lead to a higher purchase likelihood compared to unpleasant ones. They also found that perceived credibility and perceived diagnosticity have a significant influence on purchase decisions, but only in the context of unpleasant online customer reviews. These studies suggest that online product reviews will influence consumer behavior but the overall effect will be influenced by many factors.

In addition, studies have considered broader online product information (OPI), comprising both online reviews and vendor-supplied product information (VSPI), and have reported on different attempts to understand the various ways in which OPI influences consumers. For example, Kang et al. (2020) showed that VSPI adoption affected online review adoption. Lately, Chen and Ku (2021) found a positive relationship between diversified online review websites as accelerators for online impulsive buying. Furthermore, some studies have reported on other aspects of online product reviews, including the impact of online reviews on product satisfaction ( Changchit and Klaus, 2020 ), relative effects of review credibility, and review relevance on overall online product review impact ( Mumuni et al., 2020 ), functions of reviewer’s gender, reputation and emotion on the credibility of negative online product reviews ( Craciun and Moore, 2019 ) and influence of vendor cues like the brand reputation on purchasing intention ( Kaur et al., 2017 ). Recently, an investigation into the impact of online review variance of new products on consumer adoption intentions showed that product newness and review variance interact to impinge on consumers’ adoption intentions ( Wu et al., 2021 ). In particular, indulgent consumers tend to prefer incrementally new products (INPs) with high variance reviews while restrained consumers are more likely to adopt new products (RNPs) with low variance.

Emotion Valence of Online Product Review and Purchase Intention

Although numerous studies have investigated factors that may influence the effects of online review on consumer behavior, few studies have focused on consumers’ perceptions, emotions, and cognition, such as perceived review helpfulness, ease of understanding, and perceived cognitive effort. This is because these studies are mainly based on traditional self-report-based methods, such as questionnaires, interviews, and so on, which are not well equipped to measure implicit emotion and cognitive factors objectively and accurately ( Plassmann et al., 2015 ). However, emotional factors are also recognized as important in purchase intention. For example, a study on the usefulness of online film reviews showed that positive emotional tendencies, longer sentences, the degree of a mix of the greater different emotional tendencies, and distinct expressions in critics had a significant positive effect on online comments ( Yuanyuan et al., 2009 ).

Yu et al. (2010) also demonstrated that the different emotional tendencies expressed in film reviews have a significant impact on the actual box office. This means that consumer reviews contain both positive and negative emotions. Generally, positive comments tend to prompt consumers to generate emotional trust, increase confidence and trust in the product and have a strong persuasive effect. On the contrary, negative comments can reduce the generation of emotional trust and hinder consumers’ buying intentions ( Archak et al., 2010 ). This can be explained by the rational behavior hypothesis, which holds that consumers will avoid risk in shopping as much as possible. Hence, when there is poor comment information presented, consumers tend to choose not to buy the product ( Mayzlin and Chevalier, 2003 ). Furthermore, consumers generally believe that negative information is more valuable than positive information when making a judgment ( Ahluwalia et al., 2000 ). For example, a single-star rating (criticism) tends to have a greater influence on consumers’ buying tendencies than that of a five-star rating (compliment), a phenomenon known as the negative deviation.

Since consumers can access and process information quickly through various means and consumers’ emotions influence product evaluation and purchasing intention, this research set out to investigate to what extent and how the emotional valence of online product review would influence their purchase intention. Therefore, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H1 : For hedonic products, consumer purchase intention after viewing positive emotion reviews is higher than that of negative emotion ones; On the other hand, for utilitarian products, it is believed that negative comments are more useful than positive ones and have a greater impact on consumers purchase intention by and large.

It is important to investigate Hypothesis one (H1) although it seems obvious. Many online merchants pay more attention to products with negative comments and make relevant improvements to them rather than those with positive comments. Goods with positive comments can promote online consumers’ purchase intention more than those with negative comments and will bring more profits to businesses.

Sen and Lerman (2007) found that compared with the utilitarian case, readers of negative hedonic product reviews are more likely to attribute the negative opinions expressed, to the reviewer’s internal (or non-product-related) reasons, and therefore, are less likely to find the negative reviews useful. However, in the utilitarian case, readers are more likely to attribute the reviewer’s negative opinions to external (or product-related) motivations, and therefore, find negative reviews more useful than positive reviews on average. Product type moderates the effect of review valence, Therefore, Hypothesis one is based on hedonic product types, such as fiction books.

Guo et al. (2020) found pleasant online customer reviews to lead to a higher purchase likelihood than unpleasant ones. This confirms hypothesis one from another side. The product selected in our experiment is a mobile phone, which is not only a utilitarian product but also a hedonic one. It can be used to make a phone call or watch videos, depending on the user’s demands.

Eye-Tracking, Online Product Review, and Purchase Intention

The eye-tracking method is commonly used in cognitive psychology research. Many researchers are calling for the use of neurobiological, neurocognitive, and physiological approaches to advance information system research ( Pavlou and Dimoka, 2010 ; Liu et al., 2011 ; Song et al., 2017 ). Several studies have been conducted to explore consumers’ online behavior by using eye-tracking. For example, using the eye-tracking method, Luan et al. (2016) found that when searching for products, customers’ attention to attribute-based evaluation is significantly longer than that of experience-based evaluation, while there is no significant difference for the experiential products. Moreover, their results indicated eye-tracking indexes, for example, fixation dwell time, could intuitively reflect consumers’ search behavior when they attend to the reviews. Also, Hong et al. (2017) confirmed that female consumers pay more attention to picture comments when they buy experience goods; when they buy searched products, they are more focused on the pure text comments. When the price and comment clues are consistent, consumers’ purchase rates significantly improve.

Eye-tracking method to explore and interpret consumers’ decision-making behavior and cognitive processing is primarily based on the eye-mind hypothesis proposed by Just and Carpenter (1992) . Just and Carpenter (1992) stated that when an individual is looking, he or she is currently perceiving, thinking about, or attending to something, and his or her cognitive processing can be identified by tracking eye movement. Several studies on consumers’ decision-making behavior have adopted the eye-tracking approach to quantify consumers’ visual attention, from various perspectives including determining how specific visual features of the shopping website influenced their attitudes and reflected their cognitive processes ( Renshaw et al., 2004 ), exploring gender differences in visual attention and shopping attitudes ( Hwang and Lee, 2018 ), investigating how employing human brands affects consumers decision quality ( Chae and Lee, 2013 ), consumer attention and different behavior depending on website content, functions and consumers goals ( Boardman and McCormick, 2019 ). Measuring the attention to the website and time spent on each purchasing task in different product categories shows that shoppers attend to more areas of the website for purposes of website exploration than for performing purchase tasks. The most complex and time-consuming task for shoppers is the assessment of purchase options ( Cortinas et al., 2019 ). Several studies have investigated fashion retail websites using the eye-tracking method and addressed various research questions, including how consumers interact with product presentation features and how consumers use smartphones for fashion shopping ( Tupikovskaja-Omovie and Tyler, 2021 ). Yet, these studies considered users without consideration of user categories, particularly gender. Since this research is to explore consumers’ decision-making behavior and the effects of gender on visual attention, the eye-tracking approach was employed as part of the overall approach of this research project. Based on existing studies, it could be that consumers may pay more attention to negative evaluations, will experience cognitive conflict when there are contradictory false comments presented, and will be unable to judge good or bad ( Cui et al., 2012 ). Therefore, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H2 : Consumers’ purchasing intention associated with online reviews is moderated/influenced by the level of visual attention.

To test the above hypothesis, the following two hypotheses were derived, taking into consideration positive and negative review comments from H1, and visual attention associated with fixation dwell time and fixation count.

H2a : When consumers intend to purchase a product, fixation dwell time and fixation count for negative comment areas are greater than those for positive comment areas.

Furthermore, when consumers browse fake comments, they are suspicious and actively seek out relevant information to identify the authenticity of the comments, which will result in more visual attention. Therefore, H2b was proposed:

H2b : Fixation dwell time and fixation count for fake comments are greater than those for authentic comments.

When considering the effect of gender on individual information processing, some differences were noted. For example, Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1993) put forward the selectivity hypothesis, a theory of choice hypothesis, which implies that women gather all information possible, process it in an integrative manner, and make a comprehensive comparison before making a decision, while men tend to select only partial information to process and compare according to their existing knowledge—a heuristic and selective strategy. Furthermore, for an online product review, it was also reported that gender can easily lead consumers to different perceptions of the usefulness of online word-of-mouth. For example, Zhang et al. (2014) confirmed that a mixed comment has a mediating effect on the relationship between effective trust and purchasing decisions, which is stronger in women. This means that men and women may have different ways of processing information in the context of making purchasing decisions using online reviews. To test the above proposition, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H3 : Gender factors have a significant impact on the indicators of fixation dwell time and fixation count on the area of interest (AOI). Male purchasing practices differ from those of female consumers. Male consumers’ attention to positive comments is greater than that of female ones, they are more likely than female consumers to make purchase decisions easily.

Furthermore, according to the eye-mind hypothesis, eye movements can reflect people’s cognitive processes during their decision process ( Just and Carpenter, 1980 ). Moreover, neurocognitive studies have indicated that consumers’ cognitive processing can reflect the strategy of their purchase decision-making ( Rosa, 2015 ; Yang, 2015 ). Hence, the focus on the degree of attention to different polarities and the specific content of comments can lead consumers to make different purchasing decisions. Based on the key aspects outlined and discussed above, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H4 : Attention to consumers’ comments is positively correlated with consumers’ purchasing intentions: Consumers differ in the content of comments to which they gaze according to gender factors.

Thus, the framework of the current study is shown in Figure 1 .

Figure 1 . Conceptual framework of the study.

Materials and Methods

The research adopted an experimental approach using simulated lab environmental settings for collecting experimental data from a selected set of participants who have experience with online shopping. The setting of the task was based on guidelines for shopping provided on Taobao.com , which is the most famous and frequently used C2C platform in China. Each experiment was set with the guidelines provided and carried out for a set time. Both behavioral and eye movement data were collected during the experiment.

Participants

A total of 40 healthy participants (20 males and 20 females) with online shopping experiences were selected to participate in the experiment. The participants were screened to ensure normal or correct-to-normal vision, no color blindness or poor color perception, or other eye diseases. All participants provided their written consent before the experiment started. The study was approved by the Internal Review Board of the Academy of Neuroeconomics and Neuromanagement at Ningbo University and by the Declaration of Helsinki ( World Medical Association, 2014 ).

With standardization and small selection differences among individuals, search products can be objectively evaluated and easily compared, to effectively control the influence of individual preferences on the experimental results ( Huang et al., 2009 ). Therefore, this research focused on consumer electronics products, essential products in our life, as the experiment stimulus material. To be specific, as shown in Figure 2 , a simulated shopping scenario was presented to participants, with a product presentation designed in a way that products are shown on Taobao.com . Figure 2 includes two segments: One shows mobile phone information ( Figure 2A ) and the other shows comments ( Figure 2B ). Commodity description information in Figure 2A was collected from product introductions on Taobao.com , mainly presenting some parameter information about the product, such as memory size, pixels, and screen size. There was little difference in these parameters, so quality was basically at the same level across smartphones. Prices and brand information were hidden to ensure that reviews were the sole factor influencing consumer decision-making. Product review areas in Figure 2B are the AOI, presented as a double-column layout. Each panel included 10 (positive or negative) reviews taken from real online shopping evaluations, amounting to a total of 20 reviews for each product. To eliminate the impact of different locations of comments on experimental results, the positions of the positive and negative comment areas were exchanged, namely, 50% of the subjects had positive comments presented on the left and negative comments on the right, with the remaining 50% of the participants receiving the opposite set up.

Figure 2 . Commodity information and reviews. (A) Commodity information, (B) Commodity reviews. Screenshots of Alibaba shopfront reproduced with permission of Alibaba and Shenzhen Genuine Mobile Phone Store.

A total of 12,403 product reviews were crawled through and extracted from the two most popular online shopping platforms in China (e.g., Taobao.com and JD.com ) by using GooSeeker (2015) , a web crawler tool. The retrieved reviews were then further processed. At first, brand-related, price-related, transaction-related, and prestige-related contents were removed from comments. Then, the reviews were classified in terms of appearance, memory, running speed, logistics, and so on into two categories: positive reviews and negative reviews. Furthermore, the content of the reviews was refined to retain the original intention but to meet the requirements of the experiment. In short, reviews were modified to ensure brevity, comprehensibility, and equal length, so as to avoid causing cognitive difficulties or ambiguities in semantic understanding. In the end, 80 comments were selected for the experiment: 40 positive and 40 negative reviews (one of the negative comments was a fictitious comment, formulated for the needs of the experiment). To increase the number of experiments and the accuracy of the statistical results, four sets of mobile phone products were set up. There were eight pairs of pictures in total.

Before the experiment started, subjects were asked to read the experimental guide including an overview of the experiment, an introduction of the basic requirements and precautions in the test, and details of two practice trials that were conducted. When participants were cognizant of the experimental scenario, the formal experiment was ready to begin. Participants were required to adjust their bodies to a comfortable sitting position. The 9 points correction program was used for calibration before the experiment. Only those with a deviation angle of less than 1-degree angle could enter the formal eye movement experiment. In our eye-tracking experiment, whether the participant wears glasses or not was identified as a key issue. If the optical power of the participant’s glasses exceeds 200 degrees, due to the reflective effect of the lens, the eye movement instrument will cause great errors in the recording of eye movements. In order to ensure the accuracy of the data recorded by the eye tracker, the experimenter needs to test the power of each participant’s glasses and ensure that the degree of the participant’s glasses does not exceed 200 degrees before the experiment. After drift correction of eye movements, the formal experiment began. The following prompt was presented on the screen: “you will browse four similar mobile phone products; please make your purchase decision for each mobile phone.” Participants then had 8,000 ms to browse the product information. Next, they were allowed to look at the comments image as long as required, after which they were asked to press any key on the keyboard and answer the question “are you willing to buy this cell phone?.”

In this experiment, experimental materials were displayed on a 17-inch monitor with a resolution of 1,024 × 768 pixels. Participants’ eye movements were tracked and recorded by the Eyelink 1,000 desktop eye tracker which is a precise and accurate video-based eye tracker instrument, integrating with SR Research Experiment Builder, Data Viewer, and third-party software tools, with a sampling rate of 1,000 Hz. ( Hwang and Lee, 2018 ). Data processing was conducted by the matching Data Viewer analysis tool.

The experiment flow of each trial is shown in Figure 3 . Every subject was required to complete four trials, with mobile phone style information and comment content different and randomly presented in each trial. After the experiment, a brief interview was conducted to learn about participants’ browsing behavior when they purchased the phone and collected basic information via a matching questionnaire. The whole experiment took about 15 min.

Figure 3 . Experimental flow diagram. Screenshots of Alibaba shopfront reproduced with permission of Alibaba and Shenzhen Genuine Mobile Phone Store.

Data Analysis

Key measures of data collected from the eye-tracking experiment included fixation dwell time and fixation count. AOI is a focus area constructed according to experimental purposes and needs, where pertinent eye movement indicators are extracted. It can guarantee the precision of eye movement data, and successfully eliminate interference from other visual factors in the image. Product review areas are our AOIs, with positive comments (IA1) and negative comments (IA2) divided into two equal-sized rectangular areas.

Fixation can indicate the information acquisition process. Tracking eye fixation is the most efficient way to capture individual information from the external environment ( Hwang and Lee, 2018 ). In this study, fixation dwell time and fixation count were used to indicate users’ cognitive activity and visual attention ( Jacob and Karn, 2003 ). It can reflect the degree of digging into information and engaging in a specific situation. Generally, a more frequent fixation frequency indicates that the individual is more interested in the target resulting in the distribution of fixation points. Valuable and interesting comments attract users to pay more attention throughout the browsing process and focus on the AOIs for much longer. Since these two dependent variables (fixation dwell time and fixation count) comprised our measurement of the browsing process, comprehensive analysis can effectively measure consumers’ reactions to different review contents.

The findings are presented in each section including descriptive statistical analysis, analysis from the perspective of gender and review type using ANOVA, correlation analysis of purchasing decisions, and qualitative analysis of observations.

Descriptive Statistical Analysis

Fixation dwell time and fixation count were extracted in this study for each record. In this case, 160 valid data records were recorded from 40 participants. Each participant generated four records which corresponded to four combinations of two conditions (positive and negative) and two eye-tracking indices (fixation dwell time and fixation count). Each record represented a review comment. Table 1 shows pertinent means and standard deviations.

Table 1 . Results of mean and standard deviations.

It can be noted from the descriptive statistics for both fixation dwell time and fixation count that the mean of positive reviews was less than that of negative ones, suggesting that subjects spent more time on and had more interest in negative reviews. This tendency was more obvious in female subjects, indicating a role of gender.

Fixation results can be reported using a heat mapping plot to provide a more intuitive understanding. In a heat mapping plot, fixation data are displayed as different colors, which can manifest the degree of user fixation ( Wang et al., 2014 ). Red represents the highest level of fixation, followed by yellow and then green, and areas without color represent no fixation count. Figure 4 implies that participants spent more time and cognitive effort on negative reviews than positive ones, as evidenced by the wider red areas in the negative reviews. However, in order to determine whether this difference is statistically significant or not, further inferential statistical analyses were required.

Figure 4 . Heat map of review picture.

Repeated Measures From Gender and Review Type Perspectives—Analysis of Variance

The two independent variables for this experiment were the emotional tendency of the review and gender. A preliminary ANOVA analysis was performed, respectively, on fixation dwell time and fixation count values, with gender (man vs. woman) and review type (positive vs. negative) being the between-subjects independent variables in both cases.

A significant dominant effect of review type was found for both fixation dwell time ( p 1  < 0.001) and fixation count ( p 2  < 0.001; see Table 2 ). However, no significant dominant effect of gender was identified for either fixation dwell time ( p 1  = 0.234) or fixation count ( p 2  = 0.805). These results indicated that there were significant differences in eye movement indicators between positive and negative commentary areas, which confirms Hypothesis 2a. The interaction effect between gender and comment type was significant for both fixation dwell time ( p 1  = 0.002) and fixation count ( p 2  = 0.001). Therefore, a simple-effect analysis was carried out. The effects of different comment types with fixed gender factors and different gender with fixed comment type factors on those two dependent variables (fixation dwell time and fixation count) were investigated and the results are shown in Table 3 .

Table 2 . Results of ANOVA analysis.

Table 3 . Results of simple-effect analysis.

When the subject was female, comment type had a significant dominant effect for both fixation dwell time ( p 1  < 0.001) and fixation count ( p 2  < 0.001). This indicates that female users’ attention time and cognitive level on negative comments were greater than those on positive comments. However, the dominant effect of comment type was not significant ( p 1  = 0.336 > 0.05, p 2  = 0.43 > 0.05) for men, suggesting no difference in concern about the two types of comments for men.

Similarly, when scanning positive reviews, gender had a significant dominant effect ( p 1  = 0.003 < 0.05, p 2  = 0.025 < 0.05) on both fixation dwell time and fixation count, indicating that men exerted longer focus and deeper cognitive efforts to dig out positive reviews than women. In addition, the results for fixation count showed that gender had significant dominant effects ( p 1  = 0.18 > 0.05, p 2  = 0.01 < 0.05) when browsing negative reviews, suggesting that to some extent men pay significantly less cognitive attention to negative reviews than women, which is consistent with the conclusion that men’s attention to positive comments is greater than women’s. Although the dominant effect of gender was not significant ( p 1  = 0.234 > 0.05, p 2  = 0.805 > 0.05) in repeated measures ANOVA, there was an interaction effect with review type. For a specific type of comment, gender had significant influences, because the eye movement index between men and women was different. Thus, gender plays a moderating role in the impact of comments on consumers purchasing behavior.

Correlation Analysis of Purchase Decision

Integrating eye movement and behavioral data, whether participants’ focus on positive or negative reviews is linked to their final purchasing decisions were explored. Combined with the participants’ purchase decision results, the areas with large fixation dwell time and concerns of consumers in the picture were screened out. The frequency statistics are shown in Table 4 .

Table 4 . Frequency statistics of purchasing decisions.

The correlation analysis between the type of comment and the decision data shows that users’ attention level on positive and negative comments was significantly correlated with the purchase decision ( p  = 0.006 < 0.05). Thus, Hypothesis H4 is supported. As shown in Table 4 above, 114 records paid more attention to negative reviews, and 70% of the participants chose not to buy mobile phones. Also, in the 101 records of not buying, 80% of the subjects paid more attention to negative comments and chose not to buy mobile phones, while more than 50% of the subjects who were more interested in positive reviews chose to buy mobile phones. These experimental results are consistent with Hypothesis H1. They suggest that consumers purchasing decisions were based on the preliminary information they gathered and were concerned about, from which we can deduce customers’ final decision results from their visual behavior. Thus, the eye movement experiment analysis in this paper has practical significance.

Furthermore, a significant correlation ( p  = 0.007 < 0.05) was found between the comments area attracting more interest and purchase decisions for women, while no significant correlation was found for men ( p  = 0.195 > 0.05). This finding is consistent with the previous conclusion that men’s attention to positive and negative comments is not significantly different. Similarly, this also explains the moderating effect of gender. This result can be explained further by the subsequent interview of each participant after the experiment was completed. It was noted from the interviews that most of the male subjects claimed that they were more concerned about the hardware parameters of the phone provided in the product information picture. Depending on whether it met expectations, their purchasing decisions were formed, and mobile phone reviews were taken as secondary references that could not completely change their minds.

Figure 5 shows an example of the relationship between visual behavior randomly selected from female participants and the correlative decision-making behavior. The English translation of words that appeared in Figure 5 is shown in Figure 4 .

Figure 5 . Fixation count distribution.

The subjects’ fixation dwell time and fixation count for negative reviews were significantly greater than those for positive ones. Focusing on the screen and running smoothly, the female participant decided not to purchase this product. This leads to the conclusion that this subject thought a lot about the phone screen quality and running speed while selecting a mobile phone. When other consumers expressed negative criticism about these features, the female participant tended to give up buying them.

Furthermore, combined with the result of each subject’s gaze distribution map and AOI heat map, it was found that different subjects paid attention to different features of mobile phones. Subjects all had clear concerns about some features of the product. The top five mobile phone features that subjects were concerned about are listed in Table 5 . Contrary to expectations, factors, such as appearance and logistics, were no longer a priority. Consequently, the reasons why participants chose to buy or not to buy mobile phones can be inferred from the gazing distribution map recorded in the product review picture. Therefore we can provide suggestions on how to improve the design of mobile phone products for businesses according to the features that users are more concerned about.

Table 5 . Top 5 features of mobile phones.

Fictitious Comments Recognition Analysis

The authenticity of reviews is an important factor affecting the helpfulness of online reviews. To enhance the reputation and ratings of online stores, in the Chinese e-commerce market, more and more sellers are employing a network “water army”—a group of people who praise the shop and add many fake comments without buying any goods from the store. Combined with online comments, eye movement fixation, and information extraction theory, Song et al. (2017) found that fake praise significantly affects consumers’ judgment of the authenticity of reviews, thereby affecting consumers’ purchase intention. These fictitious comments glutted in the purchasers’ real ones are easy to mislead customers. Hence, this experiment was designed to randomly insert a fictitious comment into the remaining 79 real comments without notifying the participants in advance, to test whether potential buyers could identify the false comments and find out their impact on consumers’ purchase decisions.

The analysis of the eye movement data from 40 product review pictures containing this false commentary found that only several subjects’ visual trajectories were back and forth in this comment, and most participants exhibited no differences relative to other comments, indicating that the vast majority of users did not identify the lack of authenticity of this comment. Moreover, when asked whether they had taken note of this hidden false comment in interviews, almost 96% of the participants answered they had not. Thus, Hypothesis H2b is not supported.

This result explains why network “water armies” are so popular in China, as the consumer cannot distinguish false comments. Thus, it is necessary to standardize the e-commerce market, establish an online comment authenticity automatic identification information system, and crack down on illegal acts of employing network troops to disseminate fraudulent information.

Discussion and Conclusion

In the e-commerce market, online comments facilitate online shopping for consumers; in turn, consumers are increasingly dependent on review information to judge the quality of products and make a buying decision. Consequently, studies on the influence of online reviews on consumers’ behavior have important theoretical significance and practical implications. Using traditional empirical methodologies, such as self-report surveys, it is difficult to elucidate the effects of some variables, such as review choosing preference because they are associated with automatic or subconscious cognitive processing. In this paper, the eye-tracking experiment as a methodology was employed to test congruity hypotheses of product reviews and explore consumers’ online review search behavior by incorporating the moderating effect of gender.

Hypotheses testing results indicate that the emotional valence of online reviews has a significant influence on fixation dwell time and fixation count of AOI, suggesting that consumers exert more cognitive attention and effort on negative reviews than on positive ones. This finding is consistent with Ahluwalia et al.’s (2000) observation that negative information is more valuable than positive information when making a judgment. Specifically, consumers use comments from other users to avoid possible risks from information asymmetry ( Hong et al., 2017 ) due to the untouchability of online shopping. These findings provide the information processing evidence that customers are inclined to acquire more information for deeper thinking and to make a comparison when negative comments appear which could more likely result in choosing not to buy the product to reduce their risk. In addition, in real online shopping, consumers are accustomed to giving positive reviews as long as any dissatisfaction in the shopping process is within their tolerance limits. Furthermore, some e-sellers may be forging fake praise ( Wu et al., 2020 ). The above two phenomena exaggerate the word-of-mouth effect of negative comments, resulting in their greater effect in contrast to positive reviews; hence, consumers pay more attention to negative reviews. Thus, Hypothesis H2a is supported. However, when limited fake criticism was mixed in with a large amount of normal commentary, the subject’s eye movements did not change significantly, indicating that little cognitive conflict was produced. Consumers could not identify fake comments. Therefore, H2b is not supported.

Although the dominant effect of gender was not significant on the indicators of the fixation dwell time and fixation count, a significant interaction effect between user gender and review polarity was observed, suggesting that consumers’ gender can regulate their comment-browsing behavior. Therefore, H3 is partly supported. For female consumers, attention to negative comments was significantly greater than positive ones. Men’s attention was more homogeneous, and men paid more attention to positive comments than women. This is attributed to the fact that men and women have different risk perceptions of online shopping ( Garbarino and Strahilevitz, 2004 ). As reported in previous studies, men tend to focus more on specific, concrete information, such as the technical features of mobile phones, as the basis for their purchase decision. They have a weaker perception of the risks of online shopping than women. Women would be worried more about the various shopping risks and be more easily affected by others’ evaluations. Specifically, women considered all aspects of the available information, including the attributes of the product itself and other post-use evaluations. They tended to believe that the more comprehensive the information they considered, the lower the risk they faced of a failed purchase ( Garbarino and Strahilevitz, 2004 ; Kanungo and Jain, 2012 ). Therefore, women hope to reduce the risk of loss by drawing on as much overall information as possible because they are more likely to focus on negative reviews.

The main finding from the fixation count distribution is that consumers’ visual attention is mainly focused on reviews containing the following five mobile phone characteristics: running smoothly, battery life, fever condition of phones, pixels, and after-sales service. Considering the behavior results, when they pay more attention to negative comments, consumers tend to give up buying mobile phones. When they pay more attention to positive comments, consumers often choose to buy. Consequently, there is a significant correlation between visual attention and behavioral decision results. Thus, H4 is supported. Consumers’ decision-making intention can be reflected in the visual browsing process. In brief, the results of the eye movement experiment can be used as a basis for sellers not only to formulate marketing strategies but also to prove the feasibility and strictness of applying the eye movement tracking method to the study of consumer decision-making behavior.

Theoretical Implications

This study has focused on how online reviews affect consumer purchasing decisions by employing eye-tracking. The results contribute to the literature on consumer behavior and provide practical implications for the development of e-business markets. This study has several theoretical contributions. Firstly, it contributes to the literature related to online review valence in online shopping by tracking the visual information acquisition process underlying consumers’ purchase decisions. Although several studies have been conducted to examine the effect of online review valence, very limited research has been conducted to investigate the underlying mechanisms. Our study advances this research area by proposing visual processing models of reviews information. The findings provide useful information and guidelines on the underlying mechanism of how online reviews influence consumers’ online shopping behavior, which is essential for the theory of online consumer behavior.

Secondly, the current study offers a deeper understanding of the relationships between online review valence and gender difference by uncovering the moderating role of gender. Although previous studies have found the effect of review valence on online consumer behavior, the current study first reveals the effect of gender on this effect and explains it from the perspective of attention bias.

Finally, the current study investigated the effect of online reviews on consumer behavior from both eye-tracking and behavioral self-reports, the results are consistent with each other, which increased the credibility of the current results and also provides strong evidence of whether and how online reviews influence consumer behavior.

Implications for Practice

This study also has implications for practice. According to the analysis of experimental results and findings presented above, it is recommended that online merchants should pay particular attention to negative comments and resolve them promptly through careful analysis of negative comments and customization of product information according to consumer characteristics including gender factors. Based on the findings that consumers cannot identify false comments, it is very important to establish an online review screening system that could automatically screen untrue content in product reviews, and create a safer, reliable, and better online shopping environment for consumers.

Limitations and Future Research

Although the research makes some contributions to both theoretical and empirical literature, it still has some limitations. In the case of experiments, the number of positive and negative reviews of each mobile phone was limited to 10 positive and 10 negative reviews (20 in total) due to the size restrictions on the product review picture. The number of comments could be considered relatively small. Efforts should be made in the future to develop a dynamic experimental design where participants can flip the page automatically to increase the number of comments. Also, the research was conducted to study the impact of reviews on consumers’ purchase decisions by hiding the brand of the products. The results would be different if the brand of the products is exposed since consumers might be moderated through brand preferences and brand loyalty, which could be taken into account in future research projects.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author Contributions

TC conceived and designed this study. TC, PS, and MQ wrote the first draft of the manuscript. TC, XC, and MQ designed and performed related experiments, material preparation, data collection, and analysis. TC, PS, XC, and Y-CL revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, reviewers and typesetters for their highly constructive comments. The authors would like to thank Jia Jin and Hao Ding for assistance in experimental data collection and Jun Lei for the text-polishing of this paper. The authors thank all the researchers who graciously shared their findings with us which allowed this eye-tracking study to be more comprehensive than it would have been without their help.

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Keywords: online reviews, eye-tracking, consumers purchasing decisions, emotion valence, gender

Citation: Chen T, Samaranayake P, Cen X, Qi M and Lan Y-C (2022) The Impact of Online Reviews on Consumers’ Purchasing Decisions: Evidence From an Eye-Tracking Study. Front. Psychol . 13:865702. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.865702

Received: 30 January 2022; Accepted: 02 May 2022; Published: 08 June 2022.

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*Correspondence: XiongYing Cen, [email protected]

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