A Longitudinal Study of a Business Model of On-line Shopping Behavior Using a Latent Growth Curve Approach

In spite of the fact that we are in a digital economy, online sales represent less than 2% of the overall retail business. Online retail sales are expected to grow significantly in the future. This presents a significant opportunity for businesses to increase their share of the online retail business and in the process contribute towards the digital economy. In this longitudinal study, we introduce and empirically test over a period of time a business model of online shopping behavior using multinational data. Our study is based on the premise that online shopping behavior may change over time and it is important to undertake a research study to ascertain as to which of these antecedents may remain significant over time. We believe this will allow businesses to come up with a better online shopping channel. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a longitudinal study has been conducted in this area to investigate the antecedents of online shopping behavior. Another contribution of this research is the introduction of a powerful structural equation modeling technique, the latent growth curve (LGC) approach, to the information systems literature. We used this approach to validate the on-line shopping model. Our results show that over time trust and economic condition play a significant and positive role in online shopper’s behavior.