Elaboração de um modelo de compra na internet: o papel da confiança do consumidor no varejista eletrônico em diferentes situações de risco percebido

• Ano de defesa: 2003
• Autor(a) principal: Hernandez, José Mauro da Costa
• Orientador(a): Lopes Filho, Luciano Saboia
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Varejo; Risco percebido; Experimento; Marcas; Confiança
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Internet
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/10438/2510

Induced by the recent debate regarding the increased price sensitivity of Internet shoppers, this dissertation proposes an Internet purchase model in which the consumer’s trust in the electronic retailer plays a central role. The proposed model has a strong theoretical support provided by the relationship marketing theory and, more specifically, it finds support in the results of a study by Morgan & Hunt (1994). These authors proposed and validated a model in which commitment and trust play a central role for the relationship marketing success. The model proposed in this dissertation was thought only for situations involving first encounters between consumers and electronic retailers. In this particular situation, the model proposes that consumer’s trust in the electronic retailer depends on both consumer’s evaluation of the retailer Website functional attributes and the trust associations of the retailer brand. Consumer’s trust in the electronic retailer results in the formation of consumer’s attitude toward the retailer, which increases the purchase intention and decreases consumer’s price sensitivity. Considering the close relationship between trust and perceived risk concepts, the model also proposes that trust effect is larger in high perceived risk situations than it is in low perceived risk situations. In order to create a contrast to the consumer’s attitude toward the retailer, the model also takes in account the effect of the manufacturer’s brand on both the purchase intention and consumer’s price sensitivity. The hypotheses originated from the theoretical model were tested through two experiments conducted at the same time and data was collected among the same respondents. In general, the proposed model was not rejected by the two experiments. However, its was not possible to verify the perceived risk moderator effect on consumer’s trust, that means, the influence of trust in the retailer was not different at all across the two perceived risk situations. Specifically, results of the first experiment suggest that consumer’s attitude toward the electronic retailer has a positive effect on the purchase intention but has no effect on consumer’s price sensitivity. By the other side, consumer’s attitude toward the manufacturer’s brand has a positive effect on both purchase intention and consumer’s price sensitivity and its effect is larger than the effect of consumer’s attitude toward the electronic retailer. The results of the first experiment also points that consumers show higher levels of trust in hybrid electronic retailers (retailers that sell their products in the Internet and in conventional stores) than in pure electronic retailers (retailers that sell their products exclusively in the Internet). However, this higher level of trust was not translated in higher purchase intention and it is likely that familiarity has an effect on consumer’s trust in the electronic retailer. The results of the second experiment suggest that consumer’s trust in the electronic retailer was less important for the consumer’s decision than the good’s price and only slightly more important than consumer’s attitude toward the manufacturer’s brand. As a whole, results suggest that consumer’s trust in the electronic retailer is important although it is likely it does not deserve the leading role that some authors have been crediting to it. The thesis also raises some limitations of the experiments and suggest paths to be explored by new research in the area.