Attitude theory applied to in-store and online shopping

Abstract

In this study, we investigated whether our understanding of adoption of e-shopping and instore shopping could be advanced through the application of attitude theory. A shortcoming of the analytical frameworks and models featured in attitude theory is that they do not address the issue of what causes the variation in psychological constructs such as perceived behavioural control. A simplified version of the Extended Model of Goal-directed Behaviour (EMGB) (Perugini & Conner, 2000) was therefore expanded to take into account such external variables as shop accessibility. Data were collected in the centre of the Netherlands, using a questionnaire that included items about the intention to buy media products (books, music, DVDs, for example) online and in-store within the forthcoming month. Structural equation modelling was employed as the method of analysis. The findings show that shopping behaviour is reasonably well explained by the EMGB. The effects of past behaviour and perceived behavioural control on the volition to shop online and in-store were statistically significant. Additionally, the volition to shop in-store was influenced by goal desire and the volition to shop online by subjective norms. People who have media stores within twenty minutes’ cycling distance from their home have a weaker intention to buy media products online, because they experience social pressure not to buy online when stores are relatively near home. Frequent online buyers tend to perceive less control over making a shopping trip to buy media products. Thus, shop accessibility affects the volition to buy online, while online buying experience affects the volition to shop in-store. Substitution between e-shopping and in-store shopping seems likely to occur for media products