Key Dimensions on B2C E-Business: An Empirical Study in Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to test and compare two models, which have been popularly used for explaining how users come to accept and use a technology and their behavioral intention. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is used to analyze customer intention to buy online. By sampling 102 online potential customers in Malaysia, findings indicate that the TRA and TAM are valid models in the prediction of the intention to buy online. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were found to be positively related to purchase intention, with attitude being the more influential predictor. TRA was found to be a better predictor in comparison to the TAM. The main conclusions of this research can be valuable to organizations that sell their products on the Internet.