Factors Affecting Online Shopping
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background
Considering how important it is these days, it is impossible to imagine life without the internet. However commercial activity on the internet is not as old as most users may believe. The internet was developed over 34 years ago as a project in the United States Department of Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA).The original aim of this project was to investigate the possibility of connecting several computers together to communicate with one another. In 1969 a network of 4 computers were connected and were called (ARPANET).The year 1972 saw the introduction of email capabilities to the network. ARPANET was decommissioned in 1989 to be replaced by NSFNET which was developed by the National Science Foundation. Over time other smaller regional and local networks from all over the world joined this backbone. The Department of Energy and NASA also added networks and backbones. This led to a growth of about 10 percent per month for this network and the term internet was introduced (Kahn, 1994).
Over the years the internet has gained popularity as a means of connecting people together. The introduction of internet based alternatives to everyday activities has become so common in recent times that it has completely changed the way we live. Previous day to day activities such as communication, socializing and even consultancy which were undertaken face to face have since moved online.
Consequently this has changed the way business transactions are conducted as well. The improvement of technology for internet communications such as the development of widely available broadband services and increasingly fast fiber-optic networks has led to increased download speeds and accessibility of the internet from all parts of the world. Couple this increase in capability with a highly efficient postal and parcel delivery system and the possibility of trade over the internet is endless. This has led to an
1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background
Considering how important it is these days, it is impossible to imagine life without the internet. However commercial activity on the internet is not as old as most users may believe. The internet was developed over 34 years ago as a project in the United States Department of Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA).The original aim of this project was to investigate the possibility of connecting several computers together to communicate with one another. In 1969 a network of 4 computers were connected and were called (ARPANET).The year 1972 saw the introduction of email capabilities to the network. ARPANET was decommissioned in 1989 to be replaced by NSFNET which was developed by the National Science Foundation. Over time other smaller regional and local networks from all over the world joined this backbone. The Department of Energy and NASA also added networks and backbones. This led to a growth of about 10 percent per month for this network and the term internet was introduced (Kahn, 1994).
Over the years the internet has gained popularity as a means of connecting people together. The introduction of internet based alternatives to everyday activities has become so common in recent times that it has completely changed the way we live. Previous day to day activities such as communication, socializing and even consultancy which were undertaken face to face have since moved online.
Consequently this has changed the way business transactions are conducted as well. The improvement of technology for internet communications such as the development of widely available broadband services and increasingly fast fiber-optic networks has led to increased download speeds and accessibility of the internet from all parts of the world. Couple this increase in capability with a highly efficient postal and parcel delivery system and the possibility of trade over the internet is endless. This has led to an
References: | Relative Advantage | Degree to which an innovation is seen as being superior to its predecessor | Hebert & Benbasat, 1994; Kwon & Zmud, 1987;Premkumar et al., 1994; Teo et al., 1995;Torknatzky & Klein, 1982; Van Slyke et al., 2002 | Voluntariness | Degree to which use of an innovation is perceived as being of free will | Agarwal & Prasad, 1997; Moore & Benbasat,1991 | Table 3 Source: Van Slyke et al.(2004) The dependent variable will be the intention of the consumer to utilize online shopping otherwise known as use intention