Risk behavior of Internet shopping: comparison of college students' versus non-student adults'

• Authors: Bo-chiuan Su
• Venue: ICEC '03 Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Electronic commerce
• Year: 2003

This paper makes direct and empirical comparisons of college students and nonstudents as subjects in the understanding of e-Consumer risk behavior. Moreover, the research hypotheses are tested by investigating both search goods and experience goods. It is thus possible to evaluate the potential generalizability of the research results. Results show that most products in the study, when associated with the purchase on the Internet, are significantly riskier online than offline. But both student and nonstudent respondents perceive less channel risk and are also less channel risk-averse online than offline in flight tickets (search goods). The results indicate a consistency between nonstudent respondents' channel risk attitudes and their actual shopping behavior on the Internet. But neither student respondents' channel risk attitudes nor their channel risk perceptions are reflected on their actual shopping behavior on the Internet.