Research Proposal

TENDENCY TOWARDS
TEXTBOOKS PURCHASING
ONLINE
 Research Proposal

TENDENCY TOWARDS TEXTBOOKS PURCHASING ONLINE

Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 3
Literature review ..................................................................................................................... 4
Traditional motivations for shopping online ........................................................................ 4
Demographics .................................................................................................................. 4
Security concerns ............................................................................................................. 4
Lifestyle........................................................................................................................... 5
Likely to purchase............................................................................................................. 6
Social influence theory ...................................................................................................... 6
Effect of social influence and Groups exerting pressure ........................................................ 7
Social learning theory ....................................................................................................... 8
Alerting individuals about online purchasing........................................................................ 8
Problem statement .................................................................................................................. 9
Research objective ........................................................................................................... 9
Research questions........................................................................................................... 9
Research framework ...............................................................................................................10
Research hypotheses ..............................................................................................................10
Methodology .........................................................................................................................11
Data collection method ....................................................................................................11
Research design ..............................................................................................................11
Limitation of study..................................................................................................................12
Significance of study ...............................................................................................................12
Reference ..............................................................................................................................13

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 Research Proposal

Introduction

The rapid progress of Internet technology and the adequate development of

effective and secure real time electronic payment systems, provide business-
to-consumer (B2C) commerce a prosperous online business environment. This
new electronic channel has promised to create a level playing field for firms
of all sizes (Watson and others, 1998). It is important for managers to
understand online purchase behavior and the factors that influence customers.
Thus, the factors that influence attitudes, subjective norms and behavior
toward online purchasing is important and predicting the effect of personality
or lifestyle traits on purchasing behavior should be studied.

Each semester, college students buy millions of textbooks. In 2005, The

National Association of College Stores estimated the sales of textbooks in
college bookstores to total more than $6.8 billion (National Association of
College Stores, 2006). In addition to bookstores, however, online retailers,
such as Amazon.com, varsitybooks.com and bigwords.com, are now capturing
more and more of the textbook market. What is motivating this behavior
change, that is, what causes students to switch the traditional pattern of
purchasing textbooks at the campus store and instead purchase them online?
Can probability to make purchases online be predicted by a range of social and
personal characteristics of consumers?

Internet bookstores accompanying the emergence of the World Wide Web

have flourished. To promote books and to service readers, Internet bookstore
owners often make available space on their Web sites where readers, experts,
and academics can read an abstract, express their views or make comments
upon a particular book. According to a news report in the London Economist
(2003), the number of Internet book reviews is hundreds and even thousands
of times that of the number of reviews published in print versions (Economist,
2003). For example, nearly three million reviews have been posted on the
Amazon bookstores Web page by its customers and the number is
continuously increasing (Amazon, 2004).

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 Research Proposal

Literature review

Each year the Internet becomes a more feasible product-marketing platform.

Many marketing areas, including books and textbooks industries, are
experiencing fast growth in online sales, with total Internet sales topping $37
billion in 2002 (Meeker and Pearson, 2003; eMarketer, 2004). Although this is
still only a portion of the sales generated by online stores, Internet growth is
allowing online retailers to capture a considerable portion of sales in some
sectors. For example, 35 percent of all book sales are expected to occur online
by 2010 (Roe, 2007).

In doing so, we also show that some of these more traditional explanations of
purchasing behavior, such as pricing, do not have a significant impact. Finally,
we propose advertising and marketing suggestions for both on- and off-line
textbook retailers based on social and perceptual climates.

Traditional motivations for shopping online

Demographics

Demographics are often considered when trying to find out why consumers
shop online. While many studies found tiny distinctions in purchasing behavior
based on age and gender, the most considerable differences are usually
related to income and education stages. Those with higher revenue and those
who have attained a higher level of education are somewhat more expected to
shop online (Li and others, 2008). However, most researchers believe that
other factors, such as past purchase and intent, are far more important for
predicting shopping behaviors then are demographics.

Security concerns

Impact of security and privacy concerns

Many earlier studies on online shopping habits have paid attention on the
impact of security and privacy concerns to make decision for shopping online.
Some studies have found these concerns to be a significant deterrent to online
shopping. A study by Bhatnagar et al. (2000) found that perception of risk

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 Research Proposal

significantly decreases the likelihood that an individual will purchase goods or

services online. They also found that higher priced items and ego-centric items,
or those items that are strongly representative of oneself, such as clothing or
cologne, are considered more risky, and therefore are less likely to be
purchased online (Bhatnagar and others, 2000).

Other researchers have found privacy and security concerns to be much less
significantly related to the decision to shop online. Helander and Khalid (2000,
2005) found that while subjects cited security as a concern when shopping
online, their decision to shop online was influenced further more by such
factors as convenience, product availability and cost. Similarly, the Wharton
Virtual Test Market (WVTM) study showed that security concerns did not
affect the decision to shop online, and were not important predictors of the
decision to shop online or the amount of money spent there (Bellman and
others., 1999).

Overall, results from studies on the effect of security concerns on the decision
to shop are inconsistent. Even the Bhatnagar (2000) studies that showed that
security concerns were meaningful when consumers considered shopping
online indicated that these concerns were much more important for high-cost
items. Since textbooks are neither high-cost nor satisfy egocentric needs, it
seems unlikely that security concerns would play a major role in whether or
not to buy them online. It needs more study to understand.

Lifestyle

Important predictors of online shopping

Latest research as part of the Wharton Virtual Test Market (WVTM)

recommends that the most important forecasters of online shopping included
leading a wired lifestyle and being starved for time (Bellman et al., 1999).
Those who lead a wired lifestyle include those who use the Internet for other
reasons such as work, news and communications. Such people have been on
the Internet for several years and often receive a large number of e-mail
messages a day. They also are likely to be early adopters of a variety of high
technology devices. Finally, and most importantly, those leading a wired
lifestyle are significantly more eager to have one or more purchases online.
They are likely to view the Internet as an excellent place to research, search for
and buy goods.

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 Research Proposal

Time starvation is also an important predictor of online shopping. Those with

little time, including those who work long hours and those with a number of
duties, tend to have little time to research and buy things in traditional stores
(Bellman et al., 1999). As such, those people tend to go online to research and
shop for products.

Similarly, Nielson (2006) found that convenience and being easy to use were
the major reasons that people purchase online. Respondents to Nielsons
(2006) survey indicated that the promise of low prices attracted them to online
retailers, but making the shopping experience easy, pleasant and convenient
were the main reasons they actually purchased, rather than browsed, at a
particular site.

Likely to purchase

Although none of these studies belongs to specifically to the case of textbook

purchasing, it seems that those who purchase other items online are likely to
also purchase textbooks online. It as well seems likely that those who have
found the Internet to be more convenient, less stressed, and an otherwise
pleasant place to shop would also be more expected to search online for
textbooks. Therefore, my first hypothesis relates to previous online shopping
as a predictor for online textbook shopping:

H1. Former experience on online purchasing is positively linked to the chance

of a person for purchasing textbooks online.

Social influence theory

Some researchers concluded that Web consumers are likely to shop online to
save time and/or money, but what about those consumers who shop online
when an equally time- and cost-efficient alternative is present? In case of
textbook purchasing, the time spent in searching for the appropriate books is
expected to be similar, regardless of whether the student chooses to shop in
the campus bookstore or through an online textbook seller. If time from
purchase online until use is taken into account, online textbook shopping could
be considered less time-efficient than its offline counterpart. Similarly, the cost
of textbooks purchased online is not significantly different from the cost of
textbooks purchased in the campus store (Foucault and others, 2007). Clearly,
other factors have a role in the decision making to shop online. Traditional
communication theories, such as social learning theory, social influence theory
can be applied to new media and help us identify these issues.

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 Research Proposal

Social influence theory, based on the concept of normative social influence,

believes that groups are governed by sets of rules (the norms) that specify
suitable behaviors and actions. Individuals are pressured to comply with the
norms of their community and reveal suitable behaviors as prescribed. Those
who do not conform are seen as different and they are subject to ridicule,
embarrassment, and ultimately, rejection. The fear of sanction serves as a
powerful tool for enforcing group values and promotes strong conformity to
group norms (Aronson and others, 1997).

Effect of social influence and Groups exerting pressure

This theory has been tested in only a very small number of online shopping
studies. Limayem and others (2000 and 2005) conducted two studies that
demonstrated the effect of social influence on the decision making to shop
online. They found that perceived norms did play a role in the decision to
purchase online, specifically with regard to family influences. Although they did
not find friend influence to be a significant factor, they found that the presence
of an Internet-supportive environment, including friends who shopped online,
increase the likelihood of making an online purchase (Limayem, 2000). In
addition, Kraut et al. (2007) found a significant link between perceived norms
and intentions to shop online. They found that people are interested to use the
Internet for shopping if they have a supportive social environment, including
relatives and friends who shop online (Kraut and others, 2007).

In the specific case of textbook purchasing, however, the groups who are
exerting pressure may be somewhat different than the groups in question for
other online shopping decisions. Clearly, friends could potentially exert
considerable influence on the textbook purchasing decision, just as the
influence of friends' factors into all online purchasing decisions. However, it
seems that parental and family influence would not play an important role in
this case. Because many students are away from home and family, it would be
difficult for these groups to be very influential in the decision to purchase
textbooks whether on- or off-line. Instead, norms determined by college
professors as to appropriate textbook purchasing outlets are likely to influence
the textbook buying decision. Therefore, the next hypotheses deals with the
effect of social pressure (social influence) on online textbook purchasing
decisions:

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 Research Proposal

H2. Social influences for online textbook purchasing are positively linked to
the chance of a person for purchasing textbooks online.

Social learning theory

Humans learn by observing behaviors

A lot of studies beginning with Miller and Dollard (1941) have shown that
humans learn by observing the behaviors of others. The early Miller and
Dollard studies showed that imitative learning occurred when observers picked
up on environmental signs and imitated them in personal behaviors. Bandura
(1971) expanded on these studies to include three different ways that social
learning might occur.

First, through observations, individuals can get new behaviors simply by

watching the behavior represented by others.
Second, viewing an individual being punished for showing a specific
behavior can have an inhibitory effect, and decreases the trend that
viewers will recreate that behavior.
Finally, viewing an individual receive a reward for a threatening or
prohibited behavior can have a dis-inhibitory effect, and significantly
increase the trend that an individual will repeat that behavior (Baran and
Davis, 1995).

Alerting individuals about online purchasing

Although there are limited researches in the area especially in case of

marketing and advertising, it seems very expected that social learning could
affect online purchasing habits in a variety of ways. The most basic way that
could be influencing the decision to shop online would be alerting individuals
that the possibility of online purchasing even exists. In this case it means the
knowledge of existing online textbook retailers. Obviously, if an individual has
not known through friends or the media that there is an alternative to off-line
textbook purchasing, he or she could not show the behavior. Therefore, the
third hypothesis deals with awareness of online retailers:

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 Research Proposal

H3. Awareness of one or more online textbook retailers is positively correlated

with the likelihood of an individual for purchasing textbooks online.

Problem statement

Research objective

In an effort to contribute to the relatively small pool of online marketing and

sales research, this study focuses on the social factors influencing the decision
to purchase textbooks online as an objective. Using theories such as social
motivation theory, social learning theory as a theoretical background, this
study provides a framework for future advertising and consumer research,
demonstrating how peers, authorities, personal perceptions, and past
purchasing behaviors influence the likelihood to shop online. It also
investigates how predictors of online shopping identified in previous research,
such as demographics and security concerns, influence textbook purchasing
decisions.

Research questions

The quickly expanding online marketplace has opened the doors for new
genres of consumer research. The question frequently asked in this research is
what does motivate consumers to shop on the Web. Although the research
pool is still quite small, many researchers have discovered that lower cost and
better product availability are two main reasons why people buy online. But,
what if these factors are not significant, as is the case when comparing on- and
off-line textbook purchasing. There is no statistically considerable price
advantage to purchase textbooks online, given that textbooks can be
purchased in the campus store (Foucault and others, 2007). Yet, students
purchase textbooks online, so the question could be what are the other
possible factors motivating students to turn to the Internet for their textbook
needs.

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 Research Proposal

Research framework

IV DV

Previous experiences

Social influences Purchasing textbooks online

Awareness of online
textbook retailers

Research hypotheses

As mentioned before based on these theories and prior researches, the basic
hypotheses can be as bellow:

H1. Previous positive online purchase is positively correlated with the chance
of an individual for purchasing textbooks online.

H2. Social influences for online textbook purchasing are positively correlated
with the likelihood of an individual for purchasing textbooks online.

H3. Awareness of one or more online textbook retailers is positively

correlated with the likelihood of an individual for purchasing textbooks online.

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 Research Proposal

Methodology

Data collection method

Sampling: The study uses Malaysian universities students (local and

international) as subjects because they almost all use Internet. They will be
given a set of questionnaire. The data will be collected from 15 major
universities (Appendices A), using the quota and convenience sampling
method, among ten percent of student populations from each college. Sample
size selected based on the criteria set according to Roscoe's rule of
thumb (Sekaran and Bougie 2010). The respondents will be asked some
questions to elicit their major characteristics and demographics, lifestyle,
personality, Security concerns and social influence for learn about their
attitudes about textbook purchasing options and to uncover possible
motivations for purchasing textbooks online. It combined a series of closed-
ended questions with open-ended and free recall questions.

Research design

Participants will be chosen from college students, undergraduate students,

post-graduate students, and PhD students of mentioned university randomly
and they will answer questionnaires on maximum 20 minutes.

The SPSS ver. 16 will be used to analyze and data interpretation. All analyses
and tables will present based on Chi-square statistics. For analyzing H1 to H4
we will apply sample mean, multiple regression and Coefficient of Correlation
(R) to test the reliability of measures were found to be sufficiently reliable for
analysis.

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 Research Proposal

Limitation of study

This study focused on university students in Malaysia because they suppose to

be the largest group of Internet bookstore users in Malaysia according to a
survey completed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia
Commission about the Internet Usage (MCMC, 2008). Thus, the results may
not predict the market consumers behavior.

This study used focus groups to investigate attitudes and perceived behavioral
control items before collecting any data. But some failed responses may have
produced a sampling error.

Finally, this work defines Internet bookstores generally; however, different

lifestyles may result in different preferences towards different Internet
bookstores.

Significance of study

This study expected to increase the current body of knowledge by investigating

on social and intuitive influences that exist in current online consumer
marketing research. The study outlines predictors of online purchasing based
on motivation theories drawn from traditional online consumer motivation
research. It also presents important implications for marketing and online
retailing. The finding might be useful for all scientific institutes, online
marketers, publications, universities and book retailers.

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