Masters Theses

Abstract

"The internet has revolutionized the shopping experience. As consumers' emotional responses play an important role in predicting behavioral intentions and satisfaction, it is imperative to study e-commerce from an affective perspective and identify the website design features that influence consumers' emotional responses. This research adopted the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model to examine the effects of web atmospheric cues. mainly vividness and interactivity, on users' emotional responses in e-commerce, and their influence on users' purchasing intentions.

The study had three stages: First, experts in human computer interaction (HCI) were recruited and asked to evaluate and rate 25 different e-commerce websites on interactivity and vividness. Based on these ratings, three websites were chosen to represent various levels of atmospheric cues. In the second stage, an experiment collected 20 participants' physiological responses, including galvanic skin response, heart rate variability, and pupil dilation, as they viewed each of the three e-commerce websites; participants' self-reported emotional responses were also recorded. An online survey was conducted in the third stage to collect data on the emotional responses and purchase intentions of 53 participants as they viewed the three e-commerce websites.

The results of the study indicated that web atmospheric cues have significant effects on users' valence and arousal rates. Furthermore, user experiencing higher arousal and more positive valence rates were more likely to make a purchase. analysis of the physiological data showed that users' heart rate variability exhibited a trend similar to that of their self-reported valance rate, but no such trend was observed for self-reported arousal rates, galvanic skin response, or pupil dilation values"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Sheng, Hong

Committee Member(s)

Hilgers, Michael Gene
Hall, Richard H.

Department(s)

Business and Information Technology

Degree Name

M.S. in Information Science and Technology

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2011

Pagination

viii, 57 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 52-56).

Rights

© 2011 Tanvi Joginapelly, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Behavioral assessment -- Case studiesElectronic commerce -- MarketingEmotions -- Physiological aspects

Thesis Number

T 9825

Print OCLC #

792753849

Electronic OCLC #

908695517

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