| Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce has been rapidly changing the competitive landscape of the retailing and service industries. Despite its claimed benefits, this innovative mode of retailing has not yet been accepted by every buyer and seller. An interesting question is why some consumers accept the idea of online shopping more readily than others. At the organizational level, a similar question is why some sellers have stronger intention to develop (B2C) e-commerce than others. This attitudinal and behavioral difference among individuals and organizations in the face of innovation has been widely studied in various disciplines such as innovation adoption, technology acceptance, marketing, and strategic management. The current research consists of two separate yet intellectually correlated empirical studies. Study 1 investigated how potential online consumers' individual characteristics affected their attitude and intention toward online shopping in a sample of 474 students. It was found that cognitive and psychological characteristics more than demographic characteristics were associated with a consumer's online shopping attitude and purchasing intention. Study 2 proposed and tested a multi-level theoretical model about the factors influencing a firm's intention to develop e-commerce. Travel agencies in Taiwan were selected as research subjects. Interviews were conducted with one government official of the Tourism Bureau and ten travel agency CEOs. Survey data were collected from a sample of 137 travel agencies. Positive and statistically significant relationships were found between perceived competitive pressure, market-driving orientation, IT resource base and e-commerce intention. By contrast, customer-led orientation was negatively associated with e-commerce intention. Implications of these findings for academic research and e-commerce practices are also discussed. |
