Personality and Normative Influences on Online Shopping Behavior

EXTENDED ABSTRACT - Personality and normative influences on online shopping behavior were examined. It was expected that personality influences and normative influences are important in shaping consumers’ perceptions about the benefits that online shopping offers, and these perceptions are the direct determinants of actual online shopping behavior. To test this basic hypothesis, a survey of 309 Hong Kong web users was conducted by mall-intercept.

Citation:

Chung-Leung Luk (2002) ,"Personality and Normative Influences on Online Shopping Behavior", in AP - Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 5, eds. Ramizwick and Tu Ping, Valdosta, GA : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 413.

Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 5, 2002      Page 413

PERSONALITY AND NORMATIVE INFLUENCES ON ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOR

Chung-Leung Luk, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

EXTENDED ABSTRACT -

Personality and normative influences on online shopping behavior were examined. It was expected that personality influences and normative influences are important in shaping consumers’ perceptions about the benefits that online shopping offers, and these perceptions are the direct determinants of actual online shopping behavior. To test this basic hypothesis, a survey of 309 Hong Kong web users was conducted by mall-intercept.

Exploratory factor analysis of the data obtained in the survey has identified four dimensions of perceptions about online shopping. These four dimensions were labelled utilities, hedonic value, price, and autonomy. Together they accounted for 54.8% of the total variance. Furthermore, based on conceptual considerations, a fifth dimension, labelled transaction risk, was singled out.

The personality factors of need for cognition, attention to social comparison information, separateness-connectedness, and relative efficacy were related to these dimensions. Relative efficacy is a newly developed construct. It is one’s self-perceived relative standing with respect to a particular ability in one’s referent group. This perception of one’s relative standing is the immediate and direct outcome of social comparison, and it reflects a basic human concern in social interaction. A recent study has found that relative efficacy has enhancing effects on subsequent task performance above and beyond the effects of Bandura’s self-efficacy.

It as found that all four personality factors were significantly correlated with perception of utilities in online shopping. Perception of hedonic value was correlated with relative efficacy only, and perception of higher production price was correlated with attention to social comparison information only. Perception of autonomy was correlated with need for cognition, separateness-connectedness, and relative efficacy. Perception of transaction risk was correlated with separateness-connectedness only. Normative influences on perceptions about online shopping were moderated by attention to social comparison information. Normative influences on perception of hedonic value in online shopping were stronger among consumers with higher level of attention to social comparison information, whereas normative influences on perception of utilities and transaction risk were stronger but in the negative direction among consumers with lower level of attention to social comparison information.

Finally, perception of hedonic value in online shopping was singled out to the most important determinant of actual online behavior. This last finding was perhaps due to the fact that online shopping was relatively new to the population. The utilities offered by online shopping have yet to be discovered by the members of the population.

The results have important marketing implications to companies who want to go online. First, more attention needed to be paid to increase the hedonic value of surfing the web in general and browsing the company’s own web site in particular. Second, perception of hedonic value was determined by the personality factor of relative efficacy and the interaction between normative influences and attention to social comparison information. Thus, if an internet vendor wants to segment the mass market and select a segment that would be more responsive to its appeals, it seems that those who have higher level of relative efficacy and higher level of attention to social comparison information would be the likely target. As part of the marketing efforts, mobilizing normative influences should be indispensable.

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