Understanding consumer online shopping behaviour from the perspective of transaction costs

1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS 
This chapter has provided the background of e-commerce and online shopping development, 
identified the gaps present in the current consumer behaviour and TC literature, proposed the 
purpose of the study, which is to explain online purchase behaviour and customer loyalty 
from the perspective of TCT in the context of Chinese online shoppers, and finally provided 
the four areas of significance of the study. The remaining part of the thesis is arranged as 
follows. Chapter 2 is dedicated to reviewing the foundational literature and related-theories, 

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including a literature review of theoretical foundations for online consumer behaviour, 
empirical evidence of online shopping behaviour, and TCs in online environments. Chapter 3 
builds on the foundations presented in chapter two and provides a synthesis of literature, 
identifying potential antecedents of TCs that are likely to be salient in online marketing 
setting. It also provides additional logical and theoretical support for the hypotheses that are 
to be tested. Chapter 4 describes the research methodology that was employed to test the 
proposed hypotheses, including research methods, sample, sample size, data collection, 
questionnaire development, operationalization of the variables, and data analysis technique. 
Chapter 5 presents the results of the statistical analyses. Chapter 6 provides a discussion of 
the results, and concludes with the implications of the study, the limitations associated with 
the study presented, and some potential avenues of future research. 
 

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 
2.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter will review relevant extant literature on online consumer behaviour and online 
TCs as well as a number of supporting areas based on an extensive search in the academic 
literature, and is structured around three sections. In this first section, the fundamental 
theories pertaining to online consumer behaviour is reviewed. It provides the major rationale 
for applying TCT to explain online behaviour. In the second section, the major antecedents 
affecting consumers’ online shopping behaviour are presented and discussed. Despite 
numerous studies of the antecedents of online behaviour, research has remained scant in the 
investigation of online consumer behaviour from the cost perspective. In the last section of 
this chapter, relevant studies concerning TCs associated with online shopping, including the 
conceptualization of consumer TCs, their antecedents and consequences, are reviewed in 
detail. Research gaps are identified, which serve as a basis for proposing the specific research 
questions that are addressed in this study.