Innovativeness and Online Shopping Adoption

This study was designed to examine the role of innovativeness in online shopping. Innovativeness is one of the more widely studied phenomena in the domain of consumer research and is said to play a prominent role in the adoption of new products (Im, Bayus & Mason, 2003, Midgley & Dowling, 1978). However, issues regarding the validity of the innovativeness construct as well as its scales still remain. Using responses from an online survey given in the United States regarding online shopping habits, the effectiveness and validity of two innovativeness scales were examined both alone as well as in larger models which incorporate other variables. Direct relationships were examined with simple correlation, while the role of the types of innovativeness with other variables was tested using regression. Finally, complete models were tested using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that when used alone, the innovativeness scales are significantly related to the adoption of online shopping. However, it was found that the Doman Specific Innovativeness scale (DSI) as a predictor becomes ineffective in predicting online purchase frequency when used in a model which incorporates a measure of purchase intention. However, this effect was not seen for a new scale, the General Shopping Innovativeness scale (GSI). Results of this study will allow researchers to better understand and measure the innovativeness construct as well as increase marketers understanding of when and why people are likely to adopt innovation