“Buyer's motivation” for online buying: an empirical case of railway e-ticketing in Indian context
| Pages | 43-64 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-07-2011-0036 |
| Date | 20 December 2013 |
| Published date | 20 December 2013 |
| Author | Sangeeta Sahney,Koustab Ghosh,Archana Shrivastava |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,International business |
‘‘Buyer’s motivation’’ for online buying:
an empirical case of railway e-ticketing in
Indian context
Sangeeta Sahney, Koustab Ghosh and Archana Shrivastava
Abstract
Purpose – India has a big pool of internet savvy population that is not only accessing the internet but
also buying online. Online shopping could be defined as the concept of buying and selling of goods
over the internet. From the perspective of the seller, it is the attempt on the seller’s part to attract and
persuade the prospect to conduct the purchase decision-making process, and ensure satisfaction and
loyalty. From the perspective of the buyer, online purchase behavior is the degree to which consumers
access, browse, shop and transact and repeat the behavior. With a revolution in the very basics of
transaction from a physical store format to a non-store one, theretail industry has begun to understand
the indispensability of the internet as a medium of transaction. However, the rate of diffusion and
adoption of the new phenomenon among consumers is still relatively low. With the internet advancing
new opportunities, it is important to understand the factors that could motivate Indian consumers to
indulge in online buying. This paper is a theoretical attempt at conceptualizing ‘‘motivation’’ as a
construct, in the context of online buying and testing it empirically.The objective of the study is to explore
the critical motivational factors that influence the online buying decision of people, and to establish their
causal impact, if any, through developing an integrated model.
Design/methodology/approach – The study, descriptive, diagnostic, and causal in nature, has been
conducted in the context of online buying of railway tickets in India. In the first phase, a pilot survey was
conducted on a sample of 100 users of the online railway reservation. After having tested the survey
instrument for validity and reliability, the secondphase of the study was conducted on a sample of 327
users of online railway reservation facilities. A series of multiple regressions analyses was conductedto
determine the causal impacts of critical motivational parameters on online reservation of railway ticket by
users in the Indian context. The analysis of demographics based on gender and age groups were also
made to capture the cross-comparisons of critical motivational attributes.
Findings – The results were in expected direction and fulfilled the research aims of the current study.
The factor analysis had grouped the items into nine constructs with 38 items. For analytical purposes,
descriptive statistics were used through measures of central tendency and dispersion. The item total
correlations to each construct were found significant. All the critical motivational constructs were found
to have a significant impact on the intention of buyers of booking/purchasing railway tickets online in
India. The analyses of demographics established that as far as gender is concerned, all the critical
motivational attributes to online buying intention have no significant differences between men and
women; however, for age groups it was observed that some of the attributes were found significant and
others were not.
Originality/value – Through identifying and empirically establishing critical motivational parameters in
online reservation of railway tickets in Indian context across demographics, this study helps to
understand what consumers expect from the online reservation facilities from the railways for their
convenience and satisfaction. By examining the various dimensions explored and established in this
study, the concerned authority can develop a better understanding of consumer needs and
expectations. Academicians and researchers can use this study for assessing consumer motivation
towards online reservation of railway tickets in Indian context, and identifying such attributes that would
lead to favourable motivational disposition towards online reservation of railway tickets. The policy
decision makers of railway authority may also use the findings of this study as a resource, while
constructing, managing, and evaluating their marketing strategies in the Indian context.
Keywords Motivation, Buying behavior, Online buying
Paper type Research paper
DOI 10.1108/JABS-07-2011-0036 VOL. 8 NO. 1 2014, pp. 43-64, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894
j
JOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES
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PAGE 43
Sangeeta Sahney is
Assistant Professor at Vinod
Gupta School of
Management, Indian
Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur, India. Koustab
Ghosh is Assistant
Professor at Calcutta
Business School, Kolkata,
India. Archana Shrivastava
is based at VIT Business
School, VIT University,
Chennai, India.
The author is grateful to Mr
Amitabha Datta, Junior Project
Assistant at the Vinod Gupta
School of Management at IIT
Kharagpur, for his efforts that
have helped the authors
conduct the study.
I. Introduction
The number of internet users in India is continuously growing. India has the fifth largest
internet user population after USA, China, Japan, and Germany (Internetworldstate.com).
Reports by Nielsen indicate that India has emerged as the third biggest nation when it
comes to online buying and the total number of internet users in India is 60 million. Indians
are also the third biggest credit card users in the world, next only to the Turkey and Ireland.
Online buyers in India are estimated to be 21 million by the end of the year 2008 (Ecommerce
report internet and Mobile Association of India-IAMAI, 2007, www.iamai.in). The internet
presents a new concept for shopping. In India, many sectors such as travel industry and
retailing are experiencing rapid growth with total online sales of Rs. 9210 crores predicted by
the end of 2008 (IAMAI and Indian Market Research Bureau). The availability of internet
connection and bandwidth issues has been taken seriously in India and an effort to cover the
entire nation through broadband is well underway.Presently, the total number of broadband
subscribers is 2.1 million (Internetworldstate.com).
Online shopping could be defined as the concept of buying and selling of goods over the
internet. From the perspective of the seller, it is the attempt on the seller’s part to attract and
persuade the prospect to conduct the purchase decision-making process, and ensure
satisfaction and loyalty. From the perspective of the buyer, online purchase behavior is the
degree to which consumers access, browse, shop and transact and repeat the behavior.
People in India still prefer the physical formats or brick and mortar stores, be it in the form of
traditional formats like shops, general and departmental stores or newer formats like malls.
The majority of Indian consumers are greatly affected by the price associated with the effort.
Internet users in India log in and log off predominantly because of the cost involved to remain
online. The availability of the internet connection at high speed and at low cost can definitely
boost online buying. Expanding the internet user base is prerequisite to boost up online
buying in India. There has been a visible growth in internet usage among Indians and this is
expected to rise further with the availability of broadband all across the country at much
cheaper rates. Apart from state owned agencies, there are the private players such as which
provide broadband connections. In an attempt to encourage e-commerce and boost up the
economic activity, the government of India proposes to offer free, high-speed broadband
connectivity at a speed of 2MB per second to all citizens of India by the year 2009. Further,
only 30 percent of the internet users in India own credit cards; issues of privacy, security,
mistrust and suspicion, pose greater barriers to the trail and adoption of the internet as a
source of buying. So the challenge is also to find suitable modes of payment, which could be
debit cards, cash and delivery or payment and pick-up. The online market for personalized
goods in India is over Rs 200 crores (www.iamai.in).
The rapidly growing Indian economy is catching the attention of local as well as global
retailers and thereby unlocking the doors for new genres of online consumer research. The
growth of the internet presents a huge opportunity to online retailers to capture a
considerable share of sales. In this context it is important to understand the factors that
motivate Indian consumers to indulge in online buying; in fact the drivers, enablers and the
inhibitors, all need to be identified and addressed. A framework is needed to structure the
complex system of effects of the demographic, psychographic and situational factors that
impact a consumer’s decision to shop online, and develop an in-depth understanding of
consumers’ motivation to shop online.
The paper is a theoretical attempt at conceptualizing ‘‘motivation’’ as a construct, in the
context of online buying and testing it empirically. The objective of the study is to explore the
critical motivational factors that influence the online buying decision of people, and to
establish their causal impact, if any, through empirically testing the theoretically derived
conceptual model. The study has been conducted with the objective of tapping the online
buyers’ motivational profile by identifying the factors and design characteristics towards the
online purchasing of railway tickets in Indian context. Through identifying and empirically
establishing critical motivational parameters in online reservation of railway tickets in Indian
context, this study helps the policy decision makers to understand what consumers expect
from the online reservation facilities from the railways for their convenience and satisfaction.
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