Understanding the antecedents and consequences of live-chat use in e-commerce context

Abstract

Online shopping has progressed from having consumers passively browse through web pages of products to having them proactively engage in communication dialogs with product sellers via Live-Chat. Through Live-Chat, consumers can directly contact the sellers and inquire about their products of interest. This study extends the conceptual framework of motivation, opportunity, and ability (MOA) to understand the antecedents and consequences of Live-Chat usage in consumers' online shopping process. Our survey involving 222 online consumers validated the proposed conceptual model and confirmed most of our assumptions. For antecedents, we found that MOA factors generally influence the Live-Chat usage of consumers in their shopping process. Specifically, perceived information asymmetry, fears of seller opportunism and perceived personal expertise have strong positive effects on Live-Chat usage. For consequences, Live-Chat usage positively affects consumers' perceived interactivity, thereby reducing their uncertainty in transaction. Our findings contribute to the understanding of real-time communication technology in specific and digital service for e-commerce in general. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.