Understanding consumer online shopping behaviour from the perspective of transaction costs

6.2 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
 
 
In this section, the analytical results of this study will be provided. First, the results regarding 
the relationships between the antecedents and consumer TCs are discussed in detail. 
Following that, the impacts of TCs on online purchase behaviour and post-purchase 
behaviour are presented. Next, the mediating effect of customer satisfaction and the 
moderation roles of consumer’s risk-bearing propensity and enjoyment perception are 
discussed. Finally, the discussion of the group comparison in terms of two product categories 
(search products and experience products) is provided.
6.2.1 Antecedents of Consumer TCs 
Unlike the extant online TC research which focuses on a few attributes mainly pertaining to 
online store performance functions (e.g., brand, quality, and privacy policy) (Teo
 et al.
2004, 
Teo and Yu 2005), this study examined the antecedents of consumers’ perceived TCs from 
three aspects, including consumer-related characteristics, online store- and product-related 

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characteristics, and online channel-related characteristics. By analysing from these three 
perspectives, this study extends the existing literature by explicating the features and details 
of online transactions and investigating a comprehensive list of antecedents of consumer TCs. 
The results of analysing the overall sample when controlling respondents’ age, gender, 
income and education levels suggest that Internet access availability (H1a), perceived Internet 
expertise (H1b), online buying frequency (H1c), e-service quality (H2c), reputation of online 
store (H2d) and perceived convenience (H3a) significantly and negatively influence 
consumer perceived TCs associated with purchasing from an online store, whereas product 
quality concerns (H2a) significantly and positively influence perceived TCs. The findings 
reveal that privacy and security concerns (H3b) do not significantly affect perceived TCs. It 
should be noted that H2b (site design) and H3c (environmental uncertainty) were not tested 
due to unsatisfactory discriminant validity of site design and environmental uncertainty.
6.2.1.1 Internet Access Availability 
The result shows that Internet access availability (H1a) negatively affects TCs perceived by 
online shoppers (
β
= -.052, p < .01), indicating that the perceived TCs are likely to be lower 
when Internet accessibility is high. Internet availability is a must for online shopping and is 
related to physical asset specificity for the purpose of online purchasing, which means that 
online shopping needs special physical equipment, such as personal computers and modems. 
As the CNNIC Internet Report (2012) pointed out, the most frequently cited reason among 
Chinese consumers who do not buy online is the inaccessibility of a computer or Internet. 
This implies that, as also suggested by Liang and Huang (1998), a product with higher 
physical asset specificity may favour the traditional shopping channel. With the increased 
availability of Internet access, consumers can easily connect the Internet in their study or 
work place and will have more opportunities to browse online shopping websites, leading to a 

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decline in physical asset specificity of online purchase. Consequently, their perceived TCs, 
particularly the access cost of online shopping, will be significantly reduced. This finding 
corroborates one of the propositions of TCT (Williamson 1985) in relation to the positive 
effect of asset specificity on TCs and also confirms the results found by Liang and Huang 
(1998) and Teo et al. (2004).