The primary research objective of this study rests on presenting and validating a model regarding the antecedents and consequences of consumer trust in the context of online purchase decision making by means of simulation and survey methods. For this ...
The primary research objective of this study rests on presenting and validating a model regarding the antecedents and consequences of consumer trust in the context of online purchase decision making by means of simulation and survey methods. For this purpose, the study seeks to validate the correlation and causal relationships among the model`s elements involving antecedents to trust (transaction security, website essence, search functionality, and individual factors), consequences (purchase intention) and moderating variable (website awareness). The conceptual model of this study postulates that trust, in association with satisfaction, significantly influences online purchase intention. Based on the research findings through a controlled simulation involving 122 college students, the following major results were revealed; 1) website trust showed significant response to the image variables such as company awareness and company reputation, whereas satisfaction responded to website essence variables such as clarity of product attributes and the extent of product availability. 2) familiarity with e-commerce and prior satisfaction with e-commerce, two antecedent personal variables were found to have high correlation with website satisfaction as well as website trust. 3) website trust, website satisfaction, and website recognition all influenced the online purchase intention, and 4) website trust and website satisfaction had high correlation with each other. The findings of this study suggest a realistic as well as substantial approach to understanding the driving force behind website trust by identifying the antecedents and consequences of website trust which is becoming increasingly critical in the study of internet commerce. Also, the study findings can provide the internet marketers with the theoretical as well as practitional foundation upon which to establish effective marketing strategy.