Modeling Consumer Adoption of the Internet as a Shopping Medium: ...

Second, the multidimensional nature of consumers’ adoption of the Internet as a shopping medium has not been adequately addressed. There are a variety of ways in which consumers leverage the Internet for shopping purposes. Adoption of the Internet as a shopping medium involves more than simply purchasing online. Indeed, the Internet has the potential to be used for shopping purposes throughout the whole decision-making process. However, most previous research has been centered on consumers’ ultimate purchasing activity, attempting to profile online buyers and investigate predictors of consumers’ buying behavior. In previous research, online shopping visits have frequently been combined with purchases into a single mode or have been merely ignored. Treating website visits and online purchases as fundamentally separate types of shopping behavior will more accurately reflect consumers’ actual Internet shopping behavior.

Third, consumers’ use of the Internet for shopping is subject to change. The dynamic nature of consumers’ adoption of the Internet, namely whether online shopping adopters will change their current behavior, has not yet been adequately addressed. Innovation scholars have argued that initial adoption might be discontinued as a result of an unsatisfactory experience. The initial adoption of the Internet as a shopping medium does not automatically lead to continued instrumental adoption. It is thus necessary to examine both current adoption and continued adoption to provide a more complete and useful understanding of Internet adoption for shopping.