Information Technology Reference
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students. Although the results indicated that availability was the most important
attribute in the basic research, conjoint analysis revealed that university students
and Internet users highly value availability, whereas high school students and
Internet users and nonusers do not consider availability as highly important.
Comparison of high school and university students as well as Internet users and
nonusers revealed that the saturation of a site was considered as most important by
high school students and nonusers. Similarly, ease of purchase procedure is consid-
ered to be more important by Internet users than nonusers, but no statistically
significant difference was found between high school and university students'
ratings of procedure's importance.
The analysis also verified that the marginal utility of a 1-yen increase differs
between the postage and price of goods. The disutility of a 1-yen increase in postage
is larger than that for a 1-yen increase in a product's price, suggesting that consumer
behavior changes with an online shop's pricing tactics.
Because students regard online shops as a complement of the nearby physical
shops, the environment affects their behavior and perceptions, even for online
shops. Similar future research can provide more precise investigation of factors
relating to consumers' geographical locations (urban vs. rural) and age groups.
Consumers' geographical locations may lead following possibilities. Most peo-
ple who live in urban area usually use public transformations to get to their school
or their office. They spend one or two hours in the train or the bus everyday. Many
of them use ICT devices during the “free time” in the vehicle. In many cases, public
transportation system in rural area is less convenient than urban area. Most people
who live in rural area commute by their own car, motorcycle, or bicycle, and they
have less time in the vehicle. Such differences of living environments may lead
different usage of ICT devices and online shops.
Students, working people or house makers may use online shops in different
way. Each consumer has different budget or consumer behavior. Their experiences
or occupations will have close relationship with their behavior for the online
security. Credit card ownership may play a number role in utilization of online
shops. Consumer behavior and perceptions of online shops may be different
between different countries.
Rapid spread of smartphones and tablet terminals will promote the convenience
of online shops. Improving the speed of mobile communication network may
improve the usability of online services. Future research will provide these
investigations.
References
IRC, The state of online shopping in Ehime Pref., Monthly report of IRC, Oct., 2010
McFadden D (1974) Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior. In: Zarembka P (ed)
Frontiers in econometrics. Academic Press, New York, pp 105-142
