The third paper in this issue by Seung-Eun Lee and Marty Littrell, was originally presented in an earlier draft at the EAERCD conference in Paris in 2003. The research focuses upon US consumers’ intention to shop for cultural products on the Web. Cultural products are those produced by artisans around the world and include handicrafts which embody local traditions. The research was carried out in collaboration with Eziba.com, a company which is well known for selling such products on the Web. It was shown that consumers shop for both hedonic and utilitarian reasons although the latter was more influenced. Jewellery, fashion accessories and holiday items were particularly popular and factors such as good merchandising and in-stock products at competitive prices were critical factors in determining shoppers’ intentions.

Our penultimate paper by Jihye Park and Leslie Stoel examines the effect of brand familiarity on online apparel purchases. Using a student sample, an experiment 2 £ 2 factorial design was used and tested on four apparel websites. Results show that internal information, specifically familiarity with brands, and previous experience, influence perceptions of risk with shopping or intention to purchase online. The final paper by Gwo-Guan Lee and Hsiu-Fen Lin discusses consumer perceptions of e-service quality in online shopping in Taiwan. The study develops a research model to examine the relationship between e-service quality dimensions and overall service quality, customer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Data from 297 online consumers were used to test the model using CFA and SEM techniques. Website design, reliability, responsiveness and trust affect service quality and customer satisfaction. The latter is significantly related to customer intentions.

Previously published in: Journal of Workplace Learning, Volume: 33, Number 2, 2005  less