E-commerce success : an empirical validation and test of alternative models
Master Thesis
2004
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
The business to consumer (B2C) aspect of electronic commerce (e-commerce) is the most visible business use of the Internet. There is a need to identify and understand the relationships between the antecedents of successful B2C e-commerce, and determine a valid measure of the success of an online retail system. Factors that influence Information Systems (IS) Success have been discussed frequently in the academic literature; however significant developments into e-commerce success have been more gradual and are long overdue. This thesis reports on research conducted into e-commerce success. Existing IS success and e-commerce success models and concepts are reviewed and evaluated, gaps in the existing literature are identified, and a new comprehensive conceptual model is formulated. 180 respondents, reflective of the prevalent e-commerce customer profile in South Africa, were questioned on each of the factors identified as being a component of ecommerce success. The data collected was used to empirically test the comprehensive conceptual model and refinements made to improve the statistical fit of the model, were also tested using the data. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to examine the validity of the measurement instrument and various Goodness-of-Fit indexes were calculated for each of the models. Structural Equation Modeling was then used to analyze the causal relationships between factors in the models. In the process eighteen different hypotheses were statistically tested. The models were compared and inferences were drawn from the results. Demographic data was evaluated against findings from previous e-commerce studies conducted in South Africa, and trends in usage and the most popular ecommerce retails sites were identified.
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Includes bibliographical references.
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Reference:
Jayakody, R. 2004. E-commerce success : an empirical validation and test of alternative models. University of Cape Town.