Effects of Consumer Trust and Risk on Online Purchase Decision-Making: A Comparison of Finnish and United States Students

This research examines the effects of consumer trust and risk on online purchase decisions-making by students in the United States and Finland from the perspective of the Buying Decision Process. Four separate and independent samples were used for comparisons in this study. Data from a specially-developed questionnaire were gathered from 194 students in Finland in 2002 and again in 2004. The United States samples consisted of 152 students in 2002 and 162 students in 2005. Gender, changes over time, and purchase volume hypotheses are examined. Findings include evidence that Finnish men developed a more trusting attitude toward online shopping than women over time. No gender differences were discovered in the United States. Although no relationship between the amount of consumer online risk-taking and online purchase volume was uncovered in either country, in the United States respondents with higher levels of trust towards online shopping tended to buy more. In Finland people with little trust towards e-vendors actually reduced their e-shopping over time. The implications of these findings for effective e-marketers are discussed. Introduction This paper expands previous research where the differences and relationships between online shopping behavior and the stages of the Consumer Buying Decision Process (Kotler, pp. 191-199) in Finland and the United States from two separate samples gathered in 2002 and 2004/2005 were examined (Comegys, Hannula and Vaisanen, 2006). Although some differences were shown regarding the online shopping behavior between the countries, the results made it clear that online shopping has gained popularity as the range of different goods purchased has widened along with the increased purchase volume between the two sampling periods. The earlier research investigated gender and the time of sampling, as well as purchase volume and its changes in time, in relation to the Consumer Buying Decision Process. This paper extends the previous research by focusing on the risk and trust factors, which play an integral role in an online environment, and how theses factors relate to the framework of the purchase behavior model. The risk and trust factors associated with online purchasing are integrated with the five stage Consumer Buying Decision Process traditional model. Both Finland and the United States are considered advanced countries in terms of their information technology infrastructure, as well as their readiness and ability to use it, which is confirmed by the World Economic Forum's 2004-2005 Global Information Technology Report (World Economic Forum, 2005). Thus, any differences determined with respect to the risk and trust factors are rooted in something deeper in the way Finns and Americans perceive Internet shopping, rather than being attributed to the influence of poor G? skills. For example, the earlier studies have shown that although there is a clear indication that online shopping is on the rise in both countries, the United States shoppers out shop their Finnish counterparts at least when it comes to the amount and variety of items, whereas Finns tended to purchase less but more expensive items. This indicates one such fundamental difference between Finland and the United States. From a managerial standpoint, understanding consumer risks and how consumers perceive and reduce them is of great concern. This comes to play especially in an online environment, where the e-marketing vendors have to provide a secure channel for not only monetary transactions, but to logistic solutions to overcome one of the most powerful assets of traditional bricks-and-mortar businesses: the possibility for the customer to walk out with the purchased product in hand. Virtual businesses have to convince the customer that the product can easily be returned if it is not satisfactory. The warranty and customer support must work despite different geographical locations, and the customer has to be convinced to make the purchase without the actual physical product in front of them. …