The factors that influence e-consumers´ behavior while making an online transaction

1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
4. Hypotheses
5. Methodology
6. Online Trust and Internet Fraud Questionnaire
7. Conclusions
8. Limitations
9. References

Introduction

The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that influence e-consumers´ behavior while making an online transaction. Likewise, this study tries to estimate the impact that swindling has over e-buyers quality"s decisions and trust. Therefore, quality and trust become the key variables or subject of study of this research proposal.

Researchers such as Pavlou, Yousafzai, and Gefen have defined trust as an important element affecting consumer behavior. They also argued that online trust plays a key role in creating satisfied and expected outcomes in online transactions; where trust exists it increases consumers" beliefs that e-vendors will not engage in opportunistic behavior (Chen and Barnes, 2007, pg. 22). On the other hand, e-commerce quality is focused on aspects such as web design, information searching, online ordering, delivery, payment, and after-sales service (Su et al., 2006, pg. 362). In brief, it is imperative for online retailers to identify what characteristics influence e-customers before buying; but specifically, how these factors are affecting the trust and quality perception of potential customers.

This is an important topic to analyze because electronic commerce is a growing market all around the world and reaches a greater percentage of the population year after year. In fact, online products and services have become an indispensable tool for businesses and customers; therefore, it is imperative to analyze the e-buyer purchasing behavior and understand what motivates him, what makes him trust, and what his perception about quality is.

Literature Review

Nowadays, more scholars and researchers are accepting consumers" perception of quality and trust as a subject worthy of academic consideration in the e-commerce field. For example, Allred (2006) has pointed out that it is obviously desirable for online retailers to identify the attributes utilized by online customers in their assessment of e-commerce quality (qtd. in Su et al., 2008, 361). Chen and Barnes (2007) affirm that online trust is one of the key obstacles to vendors succeeding on the internet medium; a lack of trust is likely to discourage online consumers from participating in e-commerce (p. 21). In this regard, we assume that e-commerce sellers should manage the customer"s trust through trust-building activities, including identifying and qualifying participants, and maintaining data such as reputation, credit-worthiness, experience (Kim and Ahn, 2006, pg. 90), and outcome quality (Su et al., 2008).

            Consumer-perceived quality (CPQ), first defined by Grönroos (1984), and further refined by Su, Li, Song, and Cheng (2008), is the confirmation (or disconfirmation) of a consumer"s expectations of service compared with the customer"s perception of the service actually received (p. 360). E-quality is composed by specific attributes or properties that differentiate one e-business from another one; consequently, the higher the e-quality the higher the "social position" in the Web. However, companies that participate in the e-business encounter several problems to demonstrate and display quality through their Web sites; thus, a fundamental question is, how can firms use online cues to communicate that their abilities can be trusted? Marketers often use observable signals (e.g., price, warranties, advertising expenditures) to communicate the level of some unobservable quality (e.g., product quality; Schlosser et al., 2006, pg. 135); but, we will later explore in a deeper way the quality signals that affect the behavior of a consumer online.

            Trust has been defined as the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the order will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party (Mayer et al., 1995, pg. 172). Based on this and similar definitions, researchers such as McKnight and Chervany have identified online trust as an important determinant for Web sites to succeed in marketplace, and for retaining long-term relationships with consumers (Chen and Barnes, 2007, pg. 21). Several studies suggest that most internet users have serious concerns about trust. Especially in the e-marketplace, where buyers routinely engage with individual sellers with whom they have little or no prior interaction, making trust one of the most important issues to address (Kim and Ahn, 2006, pg. 84). Later in this review, we will analyze the specific actions that influence e-customers to trust.