Online behavioural intentions: an empirical investigation of antecedents and moderators

Purpose – The current study aims to develop and extend existing research into online behavioural intentions of consumers' by proposing, operationalising, and testing a model of the antecedents of behavioural intentions that models and evaluates how switching costs and inducements moderate the behavioural intentions of online shoppers. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a personally administered structured questionnaire to gather data regarding consumer's interpretations and evaluations of one specific website. A total of 296 completed questionnaires were analysed. Findings – Analyses found support for the theoretical framework and uncovered strong links between a number of hypothesised antecedent and moderating factors and behavioural intentions. Research limitations/implications – The study supplies an empirical contribution through conceptualising, and subsequently empirically verifying, a model of the antecedents and moderators of online behavioural intentions. Empirical contributions also stem from the findings of moderated associations as well as from the strength and magnitude of uncovered associative links. Finally the study also generates a more general contribution to existing knowledge of e‐loyalty. Practical implications – The findings of the study also have numerous implications for practitioners. The moderated regression equation indicates that the exogenous factors studied explain nearly 68 per cent of variance in behavioural intentions. As such, the findings supply valuable insights into which factors practitioners should focus their attention to better tailor their approaches and content. Originality/value – The value of the current study centres on the conceptual and empirical contributions regarding the moderation of links between antecedent factors and online behavioural intentions.