Assessment Of Customer’s Personal Traits Interaction And Their Effect On Purchase Intention In Various E-commerce Contexts

The rapid development and spread of the Internet worldwide have boosted the shift of major people’s activities from offline to online.This shift,first,became a starting point and then a facilitator of the e-commerce evolution and expansion.Today,online marketplaces are targeting not only their local customers but are also spreading their interests overseas,expanding cross-border e-commerce.Since its’ emergence,ecommerce and its activities has drawn the attention of many scholars and has been analyzed from different perspectives.Despite the thorough analysis,the effect of the context of the e-commerce platform has been ignored,supposing that trust-related behavior is similar in different contexts.By adopting two major theories,cultural dimension theory [171],which has widely proven its’ validity and reliability in cultural and cross-cultural studies,and Mc Knight’s[252] web-trust model that merges TRA and Mayer’s [249] classification of trustworthiness dimensions,this study has conducted an empirical study on the interaction of customer’s personal traits,such as national culture,disposition to trust,and perceived trustworthiness,as well as the customers’ socio-economic characteristics,and their effect on the purchase intention within different e-commerce contexts.The contexts subjected to the analysis are chosen based on the country-of-origin parameter.The present study adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis.Qualitative assessment is performed by the implementation of the discourse analysis technique for the analysis of the contexts.Two major phenomena are analyzed within the research contexts: customer feedbacks and product descriptions.Random samples are collected within the discourses,summarized,and grouped.Then they are presented to the respondents to estimate their effect on the purchase intention.The results indicate that customers’ purchase intention is affected by other users’ feedback and the errors in the product description.Quantitative analysis is performed by questionnaire survey and further SEM analysis.The data for the analysis are randomly collected among the Russian population and assessed using structural equation modeling(SEM).In total,444 samples were collected and analyzed.Within the research framework,three analytical models are developed to thoroughly analyze customer personal traits and perceived trustworthiness in various contexts.The first analytical model aimed to assesses customers’ national culture at the individual level,and the effect of socio-economic characteristics on its variations and expression.The model is applied for the whole collected sample.The comparison of male and female subsamples is performed to trace cross-gender variations.The second analytical model assesses the effect of customers’ socio-economic characteristics and their effect on perceived trustworthiness of the marketplaces.Two mediating variables are used in the model,which are gender and the context of the ecommerce platform.The analysis has shown that both variables moderate the effect of socio-economic characteristics on the perception of the trustworthiness of the ecommerce platform.The third analytical model assesses the relationship between national culture,trust disposition,perceived trustworthiness of the e-commerce platform and purchase intention.To bring a deeper and more comprehensive insight into variables interaction,both direct and indirect effects of cultural dimensions on trustworthiness and purchase intention are analyzed within the research framework.The analysis results prove the marketplace context moderates the interaction of customers’ personal traits among each other and their effect on the purchase intention.Based on the findings of the empirical analyses,the following conclusions are made:(1)The discourses within the e-commerce marketplace context can affect customers purchase intentions.While browsing the e-commerce marketplace,customers aim to refer to the feedbacks of the previous customers.These feedbacks possess a solid ability to affect customers’ purchase intention.The empirical assessment has shown that the majority of the customers pay great attention to both positive and negative feedback.The discourse of the product description is of great importance.The mismatch of the product and its’ description affects the clarity of the product image.Therefore,it may influence the purchase intention.(2)National culture is a dynamic phenomenon which requires constant assessment.The national culture measured at the individual level and the findings presented earlier by Hofstede differ greatly.Moreover,it is found that the indices of the national culture vary according to socio-economic characteristics of the respondents.(3)The effect of customers’ socio-economic characteristics cannot be neglected in contextualization process.Their effect is observed in the first and second empirical studies.It is empirically proved that socio-economic characteristics affect the national culture,perceived trustworthiness of the online vendor,as well as the trust disposition.Gender moderates the effect of customers’ socio-economic characteristics.(4)Trust disposition,perceived trustworthiness of the e-commerce marketplace,and purchase intention are the situational(contextual)variables which are moderated by the context The effect of cultural dimensions on perceived trustworthiness is changeable and dynamic,as well as the effect of trust disposition on the perceived trustworthiness dimensions.The effect of cultural dimensions on trust disposition varies throughout the contexts,with the only similar trait for all the three compared contexts,the negative effect of the uncertainty avoidance on the trust disposition.The findings show that in different contexts different personal traits affect the purchase intention.In the case of similar traits affecting purchase intention,the size of the effect differs.(5)The cultural variations are found when comparing analyses results with the previous findings.Moreover,the mismatch with the previous research,as well as the difference in the obtained indicators among the three data sets highlight the significance of contexts for the determination of perceived trustworthiness,trust disposition,and purchase intention.The contribution of this study is as follows:(1)In this study we have introduced a new research perspective of the consumer online behavior patterns by highlighting the significance of context.Despite the wide range of the research literature assessing the customer’s online behavior,the existing research literature ignores the effect of the specific context on the interaction of the customer personal traits and socio-economic characteristics,trust disposition,perceived trustworthiness and purchase intention.This study puts contexts as a central element of the research as a moderator between the customer personal traits and the behavioral outcome.The current study contributes and diversifies the analysis of customer behavior patterns within context,expanding context-related research direction.It diversifies and contributes to the existing context-related analysis of the consumers’ behavior patterns.(2)In this study we have extended and improved Mc Knight’s [252] model of webtrust bringing cultural element in the analysis and assessing contextual moderator in the model.The research model merges together major cultural and trust-related theories and adds essential context variable as a moderator.It brings deeper insight in the composite elements of trust,its antecedents,and behavioral outcomes.In the present study contexts are chosen based on the country-of-origin concept which role of the concept of e-commerce has not been previously investigated in the research literature related to the online behavior.Prior research of the country-of-origin concept are mainly specialized on the offline brand perception.Contextualization of the marketplace was not prior approached from the country-of-origin perspective as well.Therefore,this study contributes to the analysis of the country-of-origin concept in the online environment.So,the study aims to expand context-related research direction by employing countryof-origin as a moderator factor in the research model.(3)In this study,we have made theoretic contributions.Diversification of the analyzed cultures.Literature review has shown that the set of cultures analyzed within the e-commerce domain is rather limited.Even though the range of studies employing national culture is relatively diverse,they mainly concentrate on the particular group of cultures for the analysis.The analyzed countries above are mainly characterized by well-established e-commerce infrastructure.Consequently,online purchases are habitual actions for customers in such countries.Very few research works concentrate their attention on the customers’ behavior patterns where e-commerce is still developing.The current study aims to fill this research gap by analyzing the Russian customer,where e-commerce is still in the development stage and brings up many trust and uncertainty issues among the customers.Therefore,it diversifies the set of cultures analyzed.At this point,the current research is beneficial not only for the theoretical but also for a practical implication for the practitioners in the countries where e-commerce is still developing,and customers are undergoing an adaptation stage.The study contributes to the theoretical knowledge about the Russian e-commerce environment that hasn’t been thoroughly analyzed in the research literature.The current study is applicable both in domestic and in cross-border e-commerce practice,broadening the understanding of consumer behavior patterns.The research model is relevant for the analysis of trust-effected behavioral outcomes.