The Influence Of Psychological Distance On Online Purchase Perceived Risk

Ever since online shopping started to thrive, scholars in marketing field has done aseries of researches on online consumers’ purchase intention, and has laid great emphasison antecedents and consumer psychological factors such as trust and perceived risk. Basedon the construal level theory, this research proposes that consumer’s psychologicaldistance will influence online purchase perceived risk. In three experiments, the researchmanipulates the independent variable, temporal distance of the purchase event, and studiesits influence on perceived risk as well as the mechanism.Study1uses a2(temporal distance: distant, near)×2(individual action identification:high, low) design. The result unveils the main effect: online purchase consumer perceivedrisk is higher when purchase event happens in the distant future. Also, the main effect ismoderated by action identification level: for high identification level individuals, the maineffect is attenuated. Study2introduces a potential mediator, perceived uncertainty, andexamines the possible mechanism of the main effect. The result shows that the main effectis partially mediated by consumer’s perceived uncertainty, which means perceiveduncertainty is higher when the online purchase event happens in the distant future, andleads to higher perceived risk. Study3uses a2(temporal distance: distant, near)×2(category familiarity: high, low) design to examine the moderation effect of categoryfamiliarity. The result shows that, when shopping for low familiarity categories, perceivedrisk is higher when online purchase event happens in the distant future; and whenshopping for high familiarity categories, the effect is attenuated.