Exploring The Mechanism Of Users’ Post-adoption Behavior/Intention In E-commerce Platforms

The e-commerce inaugurated a new shopping era.Especially when the offline shopping is unavailable,it is considered as indispensable by the public.E-commerce platforms,technical service providers,not only afford online transaction services,but also support users to search,share,and communicate.The information technology escalation furnishes the e-commerce platforms new functions such as socializing and entertainment,which promotes the comprehensive development of e-commerce platforms but aggravates competition between them.The proliferation of functions pushes the e-commerce platforms convert their concern on consumption into on use.The e-commerce practitioners urgently need to understand the mechanism underlying the intention and behavior of users in post adoption stage so as to enact targeted measures for preventing user churn and achieving user retention.In view of the opposite implication of user churn and user retention,the formation mechanisms of switching use and continued use are both different but relevant.Both continued use and addictive use contribute to user retention,but the mechanism is quite different.Considering both academic and practical significance,this study intends to explore the formation mechanism of users’ switching,continuance and addiction respectively.The main contents and conclusions of this study are as follows.Firstly,based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm,Study 1 examined how environmental stimulus urges the switching intention of users via their internal cognition and affect,by viewing the uncertainty under principal-agent relationship as the environmental stimulus of e-commerce platform.Study 1 revealed that both perceived information asymmetry and perceived seller opportunism increase users’ perceived uncertainty;perceived uncertainty directly influences disconfirmation(internal cognition)but indirectly influences dissatisfaction(internal affect);usage habit on the incumbent e-commerce platform negatively moderates the effect of perceived uncertainty on disconfirmation;both disconfirmation and dissatisfaction positively contribute to the users’ switching intention.Secondly,guided by value in use and service dominant logic,Study 2 explored the effect of users’perceived value in use on their continuance intention.Study 2 revealed that the effect of negative perceived value in use on confirmation is less than that of positive perceived value in use on confirmation;the confirmation contributes to promote the users’ satisfaction,which in turn facilitates their continuance intention.Thirdly,grounded on cognitive-affective-behavioral paradigm,Study 3 explored the mechanism from habit to addiction.Study 3 testified that habit is boosted by the social influence(cognition-dimensional factor),satisfaction(affect-dimensional factor),and the frequency of past behavior(behavior-dimensional factor);the habit indirectly influences addiction through users’ affective commitment and is a distal driver rather than a proximal driver for addiction;the perceived irreplaceability positively moderates the effect of affective commitment on addiction.Finally,two types of user conversion rates,namely,the user conversion rate for preventing switching from the platform perspective and the user conversion rate for preventing addiction from the user perspective,were proposed,for outlining the relationship of users’ switching intention,continuance intention,and addiction.The data envelopment analysis method was applied to evaluate and analyze two types of conversion rate.The originality of this research is in the following three aspects:First,this thesis differentiates consuming behavior from using behavior of e-commerce platform users and clarifies the connotation of switching,continuance and addiction in the post adoption stage.This deepens the understanding of users’ behavior/intentions in the post adoption stage and provides a new perspective for future research on user retention and user churn.Second,by identifying the antecedents of switching,continuance and addiction,this thesis describes the formation path of users’behavior/intention based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm,value in use,and cognitive-affective-behavioral paradigm.This systematically reveals the mechanism of e-commerce platform users’ behavior/intention in post adoption stage.Third,two types of concepts of user conversion rate,the user conversion rate for preventing switching from the platform perspective and the user conversion rate for preventing addiction from the user perspective,are put forward.By evaluating and analyzing the two types of user conversion rates,this thesis not only extends the connotation of user conversion rates on e-commerce platforms but also outlines the relationship of switching,continuance and addiction,which manifests the integrity and systematicness of this research.