Date of Award

2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Blake, Brian

Subject Headings

Electronic commerce, Diffusion of innovations, Web site development, Consumers' preferences, Consumer behavior, innovativeness online shopping website features

Abstract

This study was developed to investigate the effects of innovativeness and Internet experience on preferences for shopping website features across different product classes. Consumer innovativeness is often studied as being a driver of the adoption of new products and services, including online shopping. Innovativeness and Internet experience are two widely studied characteristics of consumers that have been shown to predict various facets of online shopping behavior. However, there are many issues surrounding the utility and validity of various measures of innovativeness, not the least of which is that innovativeness has been conceptualized at multiple levels of abstraction. Beyond this, there has not been much research into the effects of innovativeness across different product classes online. Using secondary data gathered from responses to an online survey regarding various aspects of online shopping behavior and attitudes, two different innovativeness scales, one residing at a more general level of abstraction, were examined along with Internet experience in explaining website feature preferences across different product categories. The primary analyses consisted of MANOVAs and discriminant analyses used to examine relationships between website feature preferences and groups of high and low innovativeness and Internet experience. The Generalized Shopping Innovativeness (GSI) scale was found to have relatively consistent effects across product classes and adequately capture the full construct of innovativeness. The Domain Specific Innovativeness (DSI) scale was found to have limited consistent effects across product classes and remained questionable in validly representing the construct of innovativeness as traditionally defined. Results of this study will allow marketers to better tailor websites to specific customer segments of interest, and will demonstrate the utility of a more general measure of innovativeness in both practical and theoretical senses

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