A Study Of Perceived Risk And Motivational Process Model Of Consumer In The Situation Of Online-shopping

Over 40 years, the theories on perceived risk (PR) in traditional purchasing situation have been well developed. Due to the appearance of online shopping, the mechanism of perceived risk in the new kind of purchasing situation has become a focus in the field of consumer behavior research.Basing on the multi-dimension theory of perceived risk, This study explored the structure of consumer's perceived risk in the situation of online shopping with 383 undergraduates as subjects from 4 universities located in Hangzhou, Jinan and Qingdao. On this basis a model of consumer's motivational process was developed, and the relationship among the variables in this model was examined.The results suggested that:(1) The perceived risk in online-shopping condition included 5 dimensions: financial risk, social-psychological risk, health risk, time risk and privacy risk.(2) The perceived risk was significantly influenced by both the personal involvement and the self-efficiency of online-shopping. The personal involvement positively affected consumer's risk perception, meanwhile consumer's self-efficiency of online shopping had an adverse influence on consumer's perceived risk.(3) The consumer's propensity to seek information prior to purchase was positively and directly influenced by both consumer's risk perception and the personal involvement. With the perceived risk as an intermediate variable, consumer's self-efficiency of online-shopping affected the consumer's information-seeking propensity indirectly.(4) The 5 dimensions of perceived risk were influenced by both consumer's personal involvement and self-efficiency of online shopping at various degrees, and these dimensions also caused different changing in information-seeking propensity.