Understanding consumer online shopping behaviour from the perspective of transaction costs

2.2.5 Conclusion 
It is acknowledged that TAM and TPB are widely applied to explain consumer behaviour. 
However, the inherent weaknesses of both theories should be noted, that is, neither TAM nor 
TPB have been found to provide consistently superior explanations or predictions of 
consumers’ online shopping behaviour (Chen
 et al.
2007a). The extant research is also 
compounded by a lack of academic inquiry into a complete list of antecedents that influence 
consumers’ online shopping intentions and purchase behaviour. Given that online shopping is 
a complicated decision process and the online environment is complex, simply focusing on 
TAM or TPB to identify the antecedents and predict the behaviour-related consequences may 
have some limitations. 
Firstly, consumers make a shopping decision based on their family needs, budget limitations, 
and other constraints impinging on them (Bakshi and Gupta 2012). Accordingly, they are 
likely to maximize the shopping benefits and minimize the costs (i.e., time and effort 
expended during the shopping process) (Chiu
 et al.
2014). In forming value perceptions, 
consumers balance costs against benefits (Kleijnen
 et al.
2007). In relation to online shopping, 
many costs and benefits have been associated with online buying, such as, easy access, time 
convenience, privacy and security issues, product quality concerns, and so forth. Consumers 
feel particularly vulnerable to risks in the online environment because the allocation of 
responsibility for a failure or loss (i.e., who is to blame) may not always be clear in this 
technology-mediated environment (Bahli and Benslimane 2004). Consumers are very 
sensitive with regard to services that involve monetary transactions, in which case they worry 
about both money and information loss (Huang
 et al.
2014). Research reveals that the 
willingness to adopt online shopping depends primarily on consumers’ risk perceptions as 
they increase the potential costs perceived by consumers (D'Alessandro
 et al.
2012). Thus, it 

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is of paramount importance to include the costs-related factors and examine their effects on 
online decision making.
Secondly, online shopping behaviour is a social influence process and is affected by social 
norms, mass media, word-of-mouth and third party organizations (Çelik 2011, Lee
 et al.
2011c). An extensive range of research in social psychology concerns the concept of social 
influence (e.g., peers, family members, superiors, colleagues) and it is considered as an 
independent predictor of behavioural intention (Hong
 et al.
2008). The consumer behaviour 
literature also recognizes the influence of mass media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, 
television) as an important factor that affects consumer purchasing decisions (Campbell and 
Keller 2003, Kim and Han 2009). However, prior TAM and TPB research with its primary 
focus on technology adoption among workers within a specific organization, does not 
examine such social and media influence on consumers’ adoption decisions. Thus, only 
focusing on constructs in TAM and TPB may limit the understanding of individual 
consumer’s online shopping behaviour.
Thirdly, online shopping can be viewed as an innovation and its adoption is impacted by 
consumer characteristics (e.g., involvement, innovativeness, risk-bearing propensity and 
Internet expertise) as well as technology characteristics (e.g., system quality and online store 
design) (Zhu
 et al.
2012b). Therefore, the use of the TAM and TPB, as it is originally 
conceived, is not comprehensive and convincing to fully explain online consumer behaviour. 
No single theory is capable of capturing the complexities of online shopping behaviour. An 
integrated theory is needed in order to provide a better explanation for online shopping 
behaviour. 

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