Examining the Effects of Decomposed Perceived Risk on Consumer's Online Shopping Behavior: A Field Study in China

Abstract

Perceived risk research has drawn much attention in recent years. In investigating the roles that perceived risk plays in consumers’ online purchasing behavior, most of the studies viewed perceived risk as high-level surrogate construct, and a few focused on one or several risk facets. Few research, however, distinguished how different sources of perceived risk influence consumers’ purchase behavior. In this research, we propose to decompose online purchase perceived risk into three major source components: uncertainty of transaction cost, product performance and consumer’s individual anxiety. Empirical results from a field survey in China shows that different sources of perceived risk bring distinct effects to purchase behavior. Perceived risks from individual anxiety were found to have significant influences on consumers’ satisfaction and re-purchase intention, while risks from transaction cost affect only satisfaction. Moreover, risks perceived from product performance were even found to have positive impact on re-purchase intention. Our study provides insights into how different sources of perceived risk influence consumers’ purchase behavior

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.26.3.8420