Title: Buyer behaviour modelling of rural online purchase intention using logistic regression

Authors: Thangaraja Arumugam; S. Shahul Hameed; M.A. Sanjeev

Addresses: Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, India ' Department of Business Administration, Sadakathullah Appa College, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India ' Symbiosis Center for Management and Human Resources Development, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India

Abstract: Improvements in connectivity, smartphone adoption, data usage, a competitive e-commerce space, innovations in financial technologies, and logistics growth are expected to push the Indian e-commerce industry to 200 billion dollars by 2026. The growth will mainly be propelled by the rural populace - constituting 68% of the Indian population and accounting for half of its consumption. It will be primarily driven by their increasing aspirations, brand consciousness, and value search against a stagnant urban market. However, such growth depends on the marketer's understanding of rural consumers, whose online consumer behaviour has not been well investigated. The current study tries to bridge this gap by studying the antecedents of rural e-commerce adoption. The results indicate that service quality, enjoyment, and trust are the most critical parameters for rural e-commerce adoption. The study results can help e-commerce market participants design suitable intervention strategies to improve their rural sales and returns.

Keywords: service quality; enjoyment; trust; website quality; returns; information quality; past experience; online shopping; logistic regression; modelling; rural; consumer behaviour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2023.130153

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2023 Vol.22 No.2, pp.139 - 157

Received: 02 Mar 2022
Accepted: 01 Nov 2022
Published online: 05 Apr 2023 *

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