Online Purchase Intention of Fruits: Antecedents in an Integrated Model Based on Technology Acceptance Model and Perceived Risk Theory

Yongchang Wei, Can Wang, Song Zhu, Hailong Xue, Fangyu Chen

Over recent years, online purchase platforms of fruits are increasingly emerged to advance the e-commerce development and improve quality of human life. Unfortunately, we empirically observed that a lot of enterprises selling fruits online have suffered from bankruptcy due to a lot of complicated factors, such as inefficient logistics, low acceptance of online platforms, and financial risks. One of the root causes responsible for such an unanticipated phenomenon is related to the purchase intention, which motivates us to investigate what are the dominant factors affecting the online purchase intention of fruits. The results can be of great significance to the development of fruit e-commerce enterprises in online marketing. Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and perceived risk theory (PRT), this research developed an integrated theoretical model to explore the influential factors underlying consumers' intention to purchase fruits online. A web-based survey of 344 consumers with ages below 30 was used to test the hypotheses in our theoretical model. Through sample collection with questionnaires, a structural equation model is developed to compute the coupling relationship between influential factors and purchase intention. The results reveal that fruit quality and price are dominantly affecting the willingness of consumers to purchase fruit. Surprisingly, we found that e-commerce platforms, information quality, and perceived risk are less significant. Finally, some specific suggestions are recommended for fruit e-commerce enterprises in devising effective marketing strategies.