Media Richness Theory and the Intention to Use Online Stores

Introduction

A number of studies done in the last few years have shown that a good understanding of consumer behavior on the Internet is essential if firms are to implement effective electronic commerce strategies and deploy functional consumer interfaces (Dellarocas, 2006; Hansen, 2008; Pitta, Franzak, & Fowler, 2006; Schibrowsky, Peltier, & Nill, 2007; Weinberg, Parise, & Guinan, 2007). Numerous studies have attempted to explain consumers’ decision to engage in online shopping or not to do so (Chang, Cheung, & Lai, 2005; Constantinides, 2004; Saeed, Hwang, & Yi, 2003; Zhou, Dai, & Zhang, 2007). Nevertheless, although several studies suggest that consumers’ behavior can be explained by media richness theory (Black, Lockett, Ennew, Winklhofer, & McKechnie, 2002; Korgaonkar, Silverblatt, & Girard, 2006; Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006), we have not found any research that tests this theory’s explanation of consumer behavior. Thus, this article presents the results of an empirical study designed to formulate and test a model to explain consumers’ intentions to use online stores to perform information searches and transactions while testing media richness theory in the context of business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships.