Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
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C 2004)
Sex Roles, Vol. 50, Nos. 5/6, March 2004 (
Two studies are reported that examine gender differences in attitudes toward conventional
buying and on-line buying. Thematic analysis of open-ended accounts (n = 113) in Study 1
provides a rich, qualitative map of buying attitude dimensions that are important to young
women and men. Study 2 is a quantitative survey (n = 240) of functional, emotionalsocial,
and identity-related buying motivations in the 2 environments. The on-line environment has an
effect on buying attitudes, but more strongly so for women than for men. Whereas mens functional concerns are amplifiedrather than changedin the shift from conventional to on-line
buying, womens motivational priorities show a reversal, and less involvement in shopping. In
contrast to men, womens on-line buying is associated with barriers (socialexperiential factors) and facilitators (efficiency, identity-related concerns) grounded in their attitudes toward
conventional buying. This has implications for the ease with which women and men can and
want to adapt to the accelerating shift toward computer-mediated shopping.
KEY WORDS: Internet and gender; buying motivations; buying on-line.
1 University
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men enjoy surfing the Internet, whereas women prefer
to use it for interpersonal communication (i.e., e-mail;
Jackson, Ervin, Gardner, & Schmitt, 2001). These
findings imply that men could have more positive attitudes toward on-line buying than women do. Furthermore, research on buying in conventional shops
and stores documents that women are often more
psychologically invested in shopping than men are,
particularly when buying goods other than everyday
household products or groceries. Emotional, social,
and identity needs are more prominent in womens
shopping than in mens (Dittmar, 2000, 2001), and this
may influence their attitudes toward buying on-line in
a negative way.
It is possible that, despite the narrowed gender
gap in Internet use overall, gender differences in conventional buying motivations may be an additional
important reason why women experience greater barriers to buying on-lineas an environment that does
not offer much by way of emotional involvement and
social contactand they may therefore find it harder
to adapt to, and make the most of, the accelerating
shift toward computer-mediated shopping. Indeed, a
recent U.S. survey proclaimed that male Internet
users embrace on-line shopping more strongly; 58%
of men expressed a positive interest as compared
to 42% of women (Yahoo, 2002). Thus, gender differences in attitudes toward both on-line and conventional shopping deserve systematic and detailed
investigation.
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attitudes toward computers (Whitley, 1997; Woodfield, 2000). A stereotypically masculine culture has
developed around computer use; this is particularly
evident in the marketing of, and participation in,
computer-based games. Such attitudes are likely to
generalize to the Internet, which is seen primarily as a
highly technological male domain (Morahan-Martin,
1998). Indeed, a recent focus group study of Internet nonusers reported that women are more likely to
believe that the Internet is complicated and hard to
understand (Pew Internet and American Life, 2003).
Although gender differences in attitudes toward Internet use may diminish over time with the increased
participation of women, it is unlikely that they will
disappear any time soon. Skill and confidence in navigating Internet sites have been identified as important
antecedents of positive attitudes toward the Internet
as a shopping environment (Childers et al., 2001). It
may well be the case that women feel less at ease
exploring websites, or at least do not find this activity as enjoyable as men do. Indeed, a recent study
(Jackson et al., 2001) showed that young women and
men use the Internet equally often, but use it differently: women reported less computer self-efficacy and
less favorable attitudes toward computer technology.
Clearly, this has implications for the democratizing
potential and benefits of Internet use, and may affect
more strongly the likelihood of women, than of men,
buying on-line.
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to which Internet purchasing is entirely motivated by
such concerns. Whereas one recent survey reported
that 60% of on-line shoppers claim to have saved
money by buying on-line (Pew Internet and American Life, 2002), another on-line survey of Internet
users showed that economic orientations did not differentiate nonshoppers from shoppers (Li, Kuo, &
Russell, 1999; see also UCLA Internet Report, 2003).
Moreover, Donthu and Garcia (1999) found that Internet shoppers were less price conscious than nonshoppers, which suggests that price is less important
than other perceived benefits that Internet buying can
provide. Understandably, almost all studies show that
convenience is a primary motivation for Internet purchasing, identifying convenience of access, time saving, and efficiency as significant (Donthu & Garcia,
1999; Li et al., 1999; Olivero, 2000; Pew Internet
and American Life, 2002; Swaminathan, LepowskaWhite, & Roa, 1999).
Relatively few studies have considered the extent
to which emotional, social, or identity-related factors
are associated with buying on-line. This is surprising,
given that such concerns have been demonstrated to
be powerful motivations for conventional shopping.
It is not clear how such attitudes would extrapolate to
the Internet: people who derive pleasure from conventional buying may be deterred from e-commerce
if they believe it to be less emotionally rewarding. On
the other hand, those who believe that Internet buying
is (potentially) pleasurable should be more likely to
make purchases in this way. Some on-line buying studies have investigated hedonic motivations, but usually
without specifying the environment in which the buying activity is carried out. Contrary to expectation,
enjoyment of shopping (in general) as a recreational
activity did not differentiate Internet shoppers from
nonshoppers (Donthu & Garcia, 1999; Li et al., 1999),
but Korgaonkar and Wolin (1999) found that social
escapism was one of two predictors of Internet purchasing, and that Internet shoppers reported deriving
enjoyment from the interactive exploration aspects
of Internet buying. A recent study that specifically examined on-line buying motivations demonstrated that
hedonic concerns are at least as important as utilitarian motivations when people purchase on-line goods
other than everyday groceries and household products (Childers et al., 2001).
Social motives have also been shown to be important in conventional buying, and this aspect is clearly
less well facilitated on-line, despite the introduction
of such Internet retail website features as the ability to
e-mail product information to a friend. Swaminathan
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capacity for spending money than are young adults
of a comparable age who are in full-time employment, this difference appears less important for an
investigation of motivationsas in the studies reported hererather than for a survey of purchase
frequency.
Moreover, a student sample offers a particularly
stringent test of our gender hypotheses, given that
studentscompared to the general populationare
more likely to have challenged or overcome traditional gender role identifications, particularly in the
context of computer use and confidence. It is important to emphasize that our predictions of gender differences should not be misunderstood as an essentialist account of differences between male and female
consumers. Rather, we are proposing that buying will
remain gendered in the way described only as long as
cultural norms and social representations (Moscovici,
1988) continue to frame shopping and computer use
as differentially linked to women and mens social,
personal, and gender identities.
Our concern about overcoming the limitations of
previous research through identifying a wider range of
buying motivations, particularly related to emotional,
social, and identity-related needs, suggested a qualitative study as a first step. The findings could then be
used in the development of a more quantitative survey
for a second study.
STUDY 1
A qualitative exploration of young womens and
mens motivations and concerns in on-line as compared to conventional buying from their own perspective allowed us to identify a wide range of positive
and negative aspects through spontaneously generated responses, thus avoiding the possible limitation
of researcher-generated constructs. Given the openended nature of this study, no hypotheses were formulated as such. However, based on previous research, there were general expectations of gender
differences in conventional buying: women would report more emotional and identity-related involvement than would men. With respect to the Internet,
the question arose as to whether the computermediated process of buying on-line fits better with
mens consumer motivations (such as convenience
and efficiency) than with womens. It was also considered likely that women who do not currently buy
on-line might express different concerns about Internet buying than might men who do not buy on-line.
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Method
Respondents
Participants were students at a U.K. university
who responded in writing to a set of open-ended questions on a voluntary basis or in return for course
credit. A total of 113 written accounts were collected: 57 completed by men and 56 by women. Respondents ages ranged from 19 to 34 years, with an
average of 21 years (SD = 2.66). Over 95% of participants were White. All respondents had free access
to the Internet in university-based, open-access, computer suites, regardless of whether or not they had
personal Internet access at home. Forty-three percent
of the sample had made a purchase over the Internet at least once. Consistent with findings reported
in previous studies, gender was significantly associated with buyer status, 2 = 5.70, df = 1; p < .05;
men were more likely than women to report having bought on-line in the past (54% of men, 32% of
women).
Open-Ended Question Schedule
The study was introduced as concerned with
students as consumers, and respondents were asked
to write brief accounts of their experiences of buying
consumer goods in the real world (defined as
conventional shops and stores) and on-line. They
were provided with a definition of consumer goods
as all products you buy excluding grocery and
household shopping. This means consumer goods
for your personal use, such as clothes, CDs, music
items. This distinction was suggested by the findings
of Childers et al. (2001). They responded to two (or
three) questions, and had one blank page to answer
each question in an A4 booklet. They were asked first
to tell us in their own words what they like and dislike
about conventional buying, then what they like or
dislike about buying consumer goods on the Internet,
andif they had never bought on-linetheir main
reasons for not doing so.
Analytic Method
Thematic analysis was carried out on participants responses, and the process was much the same
as that used by Dittmar and Drury (2000) for transcribed interviews on consumer behavior. The aim
of the analysis was to investigate the emergence of
Results
Three primary themes emerged and recurred,
each with their own associated subthemes: functional
issues; emotional, experiential, and social factors; and
identity-related concerns. These are consistent with
the three main buying dimensions identified earlier.
The relative prominence of each of these primary
themes and subthemes as advantages or disadvantages was identified across the sample as a whole, as
well as in terms of comparisons between women and
men, and between current e-buyers and non-e-buyers.
Typical responses are illustrated by verbatim quotes,
each of which is followed by a reference to the respondents questionnaire number, gender (M = male and
F = female), and buyer status (E = has bought goods
on-line in the past and N = has not bought on-line).
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Good points are that one can compare sites and products readily. . . information is available, if you can
find it [092ME].
The second subtheme is that of access to a variety of goods, from a wide range of distributors, and
at cheaper prices. Slightly more men than women referred to these aspects.
I like the fact that you can usually find what you are
looking for [105ME].
You can access web pages of shops that you otherwise
couldnt visit [098FE].
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Finally, anxieties about orders being damaged or
delayed in delivery concerned only a small number of
respondents.
Dont trust Internet prices, detailswhat if something
goes wrong? [223MN].
Transactions when ordering and buying on-line
were not only perceived as disadvantages, but also
emerged as the main functional barriers to on-line
buying, as mentioned by 59% of non-e-buyers, men
and women equally.
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Emotional Involvement
Over 30% of respondents, three-quarters of them
women, referred to emotional involvement as an advantage of conventional buying. Three subthemes
were equally prominent. First, shopping was described, almost exclusively by women, as a buzz or
a thrill.
The ritual involved; its amazing walking into a shop
with all those new and glistening objects. . . Its all
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so tempting, a magical world of all things NEW
[157FE].
Shopping trips were also seen as a form of escapism, a reward or a distractionagain predominantly by women.
I usually buy consumer goods after completing a task,
for example at work or to do with studying. So
buying consumer goods is something of a reward
[163FN].
Its a form of escape into a nonrealistic world!
[157FE].
The thrill of hunting down a good bargain or an
unexpected find, particularly during the sales season,
was also mentioned.
Something can strike your interest that you wouldnt
have thought of picking up otherwise. . . Bargains
are stuck in front of youif you know the right
shops youre bound to find some things you like
[117FE].
Emotional disadvantages, such as discontent,
frustration, or boredom, were reported by 19% of respondents, two-thirds of them men.
Dislike getting tired and not finding what you want
[122ME].
Annoying if you go out to get a specific item and dont
find it [009FN].
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and women equally) reported dissatisfaction concerning goods, predominantly before purchase (not
being able to try on or touch goods) and to
a lesser extent afterward (no contact following
transaction). Furthermore, a lack of contact with
personnel in terms of help, advice, and customer service was seen as a disadvantage, and
over one-half of these respondents (62%) were
non-e-buyers.
Fifty-three percent of participants (slightly more
women than men) reported the need to see, touch, or
try on goods before purchase.
Why buy on the Internet if you can buy in shops
and really see, feel, try, the things you want to buy
[153FN].
In addition, the inability to handle the goods immediately after the decision to buy formed a common
complaint from 14% of respondents.
Want the good immediatelyI dont wanna wait!
[161ME]
Finally, slightly more men than women mentioned the lack of contact with sales personnel, in
terms of receiving advice, dealing with refunds or returns, or a more human touch in general.
I dislike the remote nature of it. I would rather have
the human touch of store shopping or even telephone ordering [213ME].
The lack of social or experiential dimensions in on-line buying was mentioned by 30% of
participantsthe inability to experience the social aspects of shopping and browsing, as well as a discontent with the impersonal and unfamiliar arrangement
of Internet shopping. Respondents wrote about the
difficulty of the buying process as well as boredom
and frustration. Almost three-quarters (74%) of these
respondents were non-e-buyers, and over two-thirds
were women.
In terms of barriers to buying on-line, 42% of
non-e-buyers reported the lack of contact with goods
before purchase, lack of communication with staff,
and having to wait for delivery as factors. Women
made up well over one-half of these respondents.
Just under one-third of non-e-buyers referred to
the lack of emotional involvement, the impersonal
nature of Internet buying and the superiority of
conventional buying as reasons why they do not
buy on-line; women made over two-thirds of these
complaints.
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Discussion
In terms of an overall comparative evaluation,
the thematic analysis of advantages and disadvantages
of conventional buying showed some differences between actual and anticipating on-line buyers. Current non-e-buyers referred to more advantages than
disadvantages of conventional buying, which may indicate that they have a particularly positive view,
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which possibly acts as a disincentive to engage in online buying. Prominent differences emerged in terms
of gender. The majority of responses for most themes
came from women, who wrote more fully and eloquently than men, particularly concerning advantages
of conventional buying and positive emotional and
social involvement. The exceptions to this pattern
are subthemes related to emotional discontent and
hassles involved in buying, which occurred more frequently in mens accounts of disadvantages than in
womens. In summary, women tended to highlight
more positive aspects of buying with fewer references
to disadvantages, whereas men responded less overall,
but more in terms of the emotional disadvantages of
shopping. Furthermore, women frequently stated explicitly that the good aspects of shopping easily offset
the negative aspects.
Our analysis supports the claim made by some
previous researchers (Campbell, 2000; Dittmar &
Drury, 2000) that women tend to see conventional
shopping as an encompassing and psychologically involving activity and experience, in which the actual
ownership of the products forms a comparatively
small part. In contrast, men frequently depicted shopping trips as an arduous and distasteful task, best carried out as quickly and efficiently as possible, that has
to be endured as a means to achieve the main goal of
buying: getting the goods.
As regards buying on-line, women again offered more responsesboth negative and positive
than did men. Furthermore, both men and women
described more disadvantages than advantages of Internet buying, and they often concluded that the shortcomings of Internet shopping outweighed the benefits and that the experience of conventional buying
was generally superior to buying on-line. Perhaps not
surprisingly, differences between actual and anticipating on-line buyers were more prominent than
in conventional buying. Whereas there was no difference with respect to advantages, those who had not
previously bought on-line reported more disadvantages of, and barriers to, Internet buying, particularly
in relation to the lack of direct contact and social
experiential aspects, as well as computer handling
issues.
In summary, there are three findings of the thematic analysis that are both important and not reported in previous studies. First, it seems that security during the buying transaction on the Internet is
not the only, or even the main, barrier to buying online, as stipulated in earlier research, at least not any
longer. Although respondents referred to credit card
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security as a concern, there was no difference in concern between those who did and did not buy on-line. It
stands to reason that initial consumer concern about
credit card security has been alleviated through reassurances by web retailers and through personal experience. There are now additional issues that emerge
clearly, particularly concerning the less psychologically involving nature of the Internet, in terms of
lack of direct contact and socialexperiential buying dimensions. These seem particularly important
to women, and therefore may present gender-specific
barriers to on-line buying. The second interesting finding is that general competence in computer use
evident in our sampleis not sufficient for understanding specific issues concerning Internet buying:
routine use (e.g., word processing, e-mailing) does not
appear to lead automatically to ease and competence
in surfing, negotiating, and understanding retail sites.
Clearly, the increase in the sheer number as well as
complexity of sites is experienced as overwhelming.
The majority of respondents who referred to negative
computer handling issues were not currently buying
on-line, and some aspects of computer handing difficulties were reported more often by women. Finally,
the gendered nature of conventional buying emerged
clearly; women reported emotional and psychological involvement in the whole shopping and buying
process, whereas men focused on efficiency and convenience in obtaining buying outcomes: the actual
products. Although there were some gender differences with respect to Internet buying, these were less
pronounced.
Overall, there is an indication that the buying environment may play a much more important role for
women consumers whereas men may be able to fulfill
their main concerns relatively easily in either environment. For women, perceived advantages of conventional buying, such as emotional involvement and
socialexperiential benefits, may function as barriers
to buying on-line.
STUDY 2
Qualitative research is valuable in obtaining response diversity and identifying major buying motivations for consumers. This forms a useful foundation
on which to build a more quantitative approach that
can assess the relative importance of different motivations, examine systematically gender differences
in the relationships between motivations in conventional and on-line buying, and explore whether there
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Method
Respondents
Two hundred and forty students at the same U.K.
university took part in Study 2 on a voluntary basis or
in return for course credit. They were 124 women and
116 men, of whom over 95% were White. They took a
variety of degree programs, and their average age was
21.75 years (sd = 4.31). In terms of using the Internet
to purchase consumer goods, almost one-half of the
sample (45.8%) had bought on the Internet at least
once. However, there were gender differences, such
that about one-third of women (34.7%), compared
to over one-half of the men (65.3%), had bought on
the Internet. Thus, as in Study 1, the proportion of
men who had made Internet purchases was significantly greater than that of women, 2 = 12.86, df = 1;
p < .001.
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naire hypothetically, that is, to anticipate how they
would feel if they did buy on the Internet, given that
Study 1 confirmed that people who routinely use computers and the Internet have established attitudes toward on-line buying, even if they have not engaged in
it as yet.
The second, and main, part of the questionnaire
consisted of a set of statements, which included motivations for buying consumer goods. These were designed to tap three main dimensions. The first concerned functional issues, which included economic
concerns about the rational benefits of goods (e.g.,
good value for money, price comparison, usefulness);
efficiency and convenience (e.g., saving time, speed
and efficiency, constant access); and information acquisition and exploration, which captures potentially
important dimensions of Internet buying, such as
excitement of tracking down a particular item, or
quick and easy access to consumer information. The
second main dimension focused on emotional and
experientialsocial factors. These consisted of emotional involvement in shopping as a pleasurable activity in which the actual purchase of goods can be of
secondary or even little importance (e.g., leisure activity, enjoyment of browsing without buying), and as
an activity that arouses emotions and can be used to
regulate ones mood (e.g., fun, excitement, buzz, better mood), and experientialsocial dimensions, such as
buying experience, contact and social interaction that
may be linked, particularly for women consumers.
The final dimension of identity-related concerns includes both social and personal identity. On the one
hand, consumers may want to buy consumer goods
as a way of moving closer to an ideal self (e.g., feel
more like person I want to be) and, on the other,
they can see goods as a means of improving social
image and social standing (e.g., impress friends, getting prestige). Respondents were asked to rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each statement (on 6-point scales, from 1 = disagree strongly
to 6 = agree strongly), first with reference to conventional buying, and second with reference to buying online. They were told to expect that their views might
be similar for some statements, but may differ for
others.
The questionnaire was introduced as a study on
students as consumers, and the introductory paragraph referred to the importance of consumption in
everyday life and the predicted exponential increase
in Internet purchasing in the United Kingdom. Participants were provided with the same definition of
consumer goods as used in Study 1, which asked them
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to exclude grocery and household shopping and concentrate on consumer goods for personal use. Participants were assured that their responses would be
treated confidentially and that they could withdraw
from the study at any time.
Results
Preliminary Analysis on Dimensions
of Buying Motivations
Questionnaire items were first examined by
exploratory factor analysis, separately for conventional and on-line buying, andfor on-line buying
separately for actual and anticipating buyers. A small
number of items that did not load strongly on any factors were discarded as a consequence, and five dimensions were identified. We carried out two confirmatory
factor analyses using structural equation modeling,
one for each environment. For conventional buying
(C), the model provided a good fit (RMSEA = .05;
CFI = .92), and for on-line buying (I), the goodnessof-fit statistics indicate a slightly worse, but nevertheless acceptable, fit (RMSEA = .06; CFI = .86). Factor
loadings are similar across the two buying environments (see the Appendix)3 .
Reliability analyses confirmed that these five factors can be treated as scales, as Cronbachs alphas
were acceptable to good for most of them. Reliability coefficients were .92 (C) and .82 (I) for emotional
involvement, .60 (C) and .59 (I) for experiential
social, .73 (C) and .72 (I) for identity-related, .54
(C) and .60 (I) for efficiency, and .65 (C) and .42
(I) for economic concerns. For on-line buying, coefficients were also computed separately for current
as compared to anticipating buyers, but no differences emerged. The five factors fit well with the three
main categories proposed: economic concerns and ef-
3 It
is worth noting that there are significant intercorrelations between factors in the real world: positive links within functional issues (economic concerns and efficiency, r = .37), as well as within
psychological concerns (socialexperiential and emotional, r =
.66; emotional and identity-related, r = .44; socialexperiential
and identity-related, r = .21). In addition, there are a number of
negative associations between dimensions from the two different
main categories (efficiency and emotional, r = .38; efficiency and
socialexperiential, r = .34; economic and emotional, r = .21).
In contrast, for Internet buying, only a single within-category correlation was found: between emotional and identity-related dimensions (r = .53). Thus, compared to conventional buying, factors are far less interconnected on-line.
effects were also significant, but are less central to the concerns of this paper. Some motivations were stronger than others, F(4, 952) = 100.59, p < .001, 2 = .30, andin orderthey
are direct contact (X = 4.48), economy (X = 4.32), emotional involvement (X = 4.16), efficiency (X = 3.48), and, finally, identity
(X = 3.08). Thus, identity-related concerns do play a role in conventional buying, even if less powerfully than the other factors.
Overall, motivations were stronger for women than for men, F(1,
238) = 19.13, p < .001, 2 = .07, which is consistent with womens
greater involvement in conventional buying.
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F(1, 238) = 14.45, p < .001, 2 = .06. The third contrast showed that the gender gap on emotional involvement is much more pronounced than that for
the experientialsocial motivation, F(1, 238) = 20.28,
p < .001, 2 = .08, whereas there is no gender-specific
pattern for the final contrast between the two functional factors, F(1, 238) = 0.70, ns. To summarize
gender differences in conventional buying, men are
more concerned with functional motivations, whereas
women place more emphasis on psychological motivations, particularly emotional involvement, but also
identity-related concerns.
The Impact of Shopping Environment Conventional
and On-Line Buying Motivations
in Current e-Buyers.
The analyses reported in this section are limited to those respondents who had experience of online buying, so that their motivations could be contrasted directly, within-respondent, between buying
on-line and buying in conventional shopping environments. The impact of shopping environment on
buying motivations was assessed separately for men
and women by 5 (motivation) 2 (environment)
ANOVAs with repeated measures on both factors,
and the same set of orthogonal comparisons as in the
previous analysis was carried out. Means are shown in
Fig. 2.
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Table I. e-Buyers Actual and Non-e-Buyers Expected On-Line
Motivations (by Gender)
Men
Motivation
Identity
Emotion
Experiential
social
Economy
Efficiency
Women
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F(1, 122) = 3.91; p = .01; 2 = .03. Thus, the only
noteworthy difference between e-buyers and non-ebuyers occurred in terms of the experientialsocial
motivation, and this may mean that the actual experience of on-line buying offers less in terms of this
motivation than women anticipate.
To summarize these results, the lack of gender
differences is striking, as is the finding that there
are only minor differences between actual and anticipated on-line buying. Clearly, it does not seem to
be unrealistic or unwarranted expectations of on-line
buying that act as major barriers for non-e-buyers, nor
do these findings help to understand why more men
than women buy on-line. Instead, we may need to
look for an explanation in mens and womens conventional buying motivations, which are highly gendered.
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are more concerned with efficiency in conventional
buying are also more likely to have bought on-line.
It is interesting that identity-related concerns also
emerged as a significant discriminator between current and nonbuyers for women consumers. If they
value identity-related functions of goods in conventional buying, then women were more likely to have
tried buying on-line. It may be the case that a focus
on identity-serving functions of consumer goods leads
women to be less concerned about the relative lack of
hedonic and experiential benefits of on-line buying.
Thus, concern with efficiency and identity-related dimensions in conventional buying are facilitators of online buying, whereas attaching importance to social
experiential aspects of conventional buying is a clear
barrier to on-line consumption.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
A recent survey (Angus Reid, 2001) of young
adults Internet buying in several countries indicates
that the samples in our studies are more likely to have
bought on-line than is average for their age group in
the United Kingdom (22%). In fact, on-line buying
rates for the samples in both Studies 1 and 2 are similar
to the 43% average reported for young adults in the
United States. Thus, our samples are comparable in
this respect to young adults in the United States, which
means that our findings may be generalizable to young
Internet users beyond the United Kingdom.
Similarities between the findings from the qualitative and quantitative investigations add confidence
to the validity and consistency of our conclusions. The
dramatic reduction of gender differences in on-line
buying is apparent in both studies. Mens attitudes stay
much the same in both buying environments, whereas
womens do not. Attitudes toward conventional buying seem particularly important for women consumers. Valuing functional benefits of conventional
buyingeconomy, convenience, and efficiencyacts
as a facilitator for womens on-line buying, whereas
socialexperiential concerns are a very important barrier. Socialexperiential aspects are seen as an important benefit of conventional buying, and their
lack as a serious drawback of the Internet, and
the extent to which socialexperiential factors are
important to women discriminates between those
who do and do not buy on-line. Social contact during conventional buying is a double-edged sword
particularly for men, who in the qualitative study reported many irritating and frustrating aspects of such
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442
Functional issues
Economic
Efficient
Emotional involvement
and social experience
Socialexperiential
Emotional
Conventional
On-Line
Scale item
.74
.59
.58
.82
.54
.35
.22
.59
.59
.27
.74
.57
.51
.31
.76
.46
.45
.42
.86
.83
.82
.78
.74
.72
.70
.56
.75
.47
.43
.44
.76
.63
.61
.71
.61
.63
.41
.50
.83
.71
.57
.82
.84
.47
Identity
contact. It may well be that men expect that the Internet will allow them to avoid those social aspects
of conventional buying that they experience as negative, and they may therefore anticipate a different
and more positiveemotional involvement on the
Internet.
Identity-related concerns did not emerge
strongly in the qualitative study, but emerged as
a separate buying dimension in the survey. It is
interesting that, although they were not mentioned
in the qualitative study in the context of buying
on-line, they did appear as an important motivational facilitator for womens on-line buying in the
survey. Identity-related concerns may therefore
be underlying attitudes that respondents do not
detail spontaneously when asked about their buying
motivations, perhaps because they are not completely
aware of them. This apparent tension between the
lack of respondents spontaneous reports concerning
identity and its identification as a predictor of on-line
buying, at least for women, clearly deserves attention
in future research.
The respondents in the studies reported here constitute a sample of young consumers who are highly
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