Three essays on electronic commerce: WWW information content, Internet involvement and perceived risk

There are three essays in the dissertation. The first essay is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the usefulness of information related to product offerings communicated through company web pages as advertising media. The research question in this part deals with the state of product related useful information available through web pages, as advertising media, to the consumers in making an intelligent choice in a purchase situation for products offered over the Internet.;Using the insights gained in the first part specifically related to advertising communication, it is conceptualized that the Internet or the World Wide Web serves simultaneously as a Communications, Transactions and Distribution channel. The research issue, in the second part, is to what extent are there similarities or differences among corporate web sites in terms of these three channel characteristics. The contention is that it will enable both academicians and practitioners to better understand how the Internet can be integrated in overall marketing communication, transaction and distribution strategy of the firm.;The second essay deals with the concept of Internet involvement. The concept of involvement has played a significant role in explaining consumer behavior in the marketing literature as well as in developing and formulating marketing strategies and policies. In this essay, we focus on developing and validating the "Involvement" construct as related to the Internet from an electronic commerce perspective.;The third essay deals with the concerns expressed, in the anecdotal literature, regarding commerce over the Internet or the World Wide Web, that represents the classic issues concerning exchange processes. Exchange has been proposed by a number of marketing scholars as a fundamental framework for viewing marketing (Bagozzi, 1974). The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model of consumer-perceived risk of transactions over the Internet based on social exchange literature, marketing and consumer behavior research.