Bộ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ THÀNH PHỐ HÒ CHÍ MINH BÁO CÁO TÓNG KÉT ĐÈ TÀI NGHIÊN cứu KHOA HỌC THAM GIA XÉT GIẢI THƯỞNG ‘’NHÀ NGHIÊN cứữ TRÉ UEH” NĂM 2024 THE IMPACT OF THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ON PURCHASING INTENTION IN CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAMESE CONSUMERS Thuộc nhóm chuyên ngành : Kinh tế. Hồ Chí Minh, tháng 02/2024 1 ABSTRACT Cross-border E-commerce (CBEC) has thrived and grown in recent years. Due to the more complicated interaction processes compared to domestic e-commerce, consumers experience more significant uncertainty. Despite the rapid development and expansion of CBEC into Vietnam, research on consumers’ intentions remains scarce.
This study employs the commitmcnt-involvcmcnt theory, involvement theory and perceived trust based on the hierarchy-of-effects model to create a three-stage model assessing how product cognition affects purchase intention in CBEC. Data was collected from Shopee platform users. The analysis reveals that a high-quality product description significantly positively affects product involvement, platform involvement, and perceived trust (integrity and ability). Platform enduring involvement positively influences perceived trust (benevolence and ability), and platform situational involvement affects all three indicators of perceived trust.
Interestingly, product involvement does not significantly impact purchase intention, but platform involvement does. Regarding perceived trust, ability and integrity do not significantly affect purchase intention, while benevolence does. This study highlights that although product descriptions may not directly influence purchase intention and perceived trust (benevolence), high-quality product descriptions play a vital role in attracting consumers and shaping their decisions on CBEC platforms. Therefore, optimizing descriptions can increase consumer engagement and trust.
Keywords: Cross-border E-commerce, Product Descriptions, Shopee, Purchase intention. 2 TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT 1 TABLE OF CONTENT 2 LIST OF FIGURE 5 LIST OF TABLE 6 CHAPTER 1. Cross-Border E-commerce (CBEC) 12 2. Purchase Intention in CBEC 13 2.
The involvement theory 14 2. The commitment-involvement theory 15 2. Hierarchy of Effects model (HOE) 16 CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT 18.
Impact of product cognition on behavior intention 19 3. Product description and purchase intention 19 3. Impacts of product cognition on variables of the affective stage 20 3. Product description and product involvement 20 3.
Product description and platform involvement 21 3. Product description and perceived trust 22 3. Impacts among internal variables of the affective stage 23 3. Platform enduring involvement and perceived trust 23 3.
Platform situational involvement and perceived trust 23 3. Impacts of variables of the affective stage on behavior intention 24 3 3. Product Involvement and purchase intention 24 3. Platform Involvement and purchase intention 25 3.
Perceived Trust and purchase intention 26 CHAPTER 4. Data sampling and collection 32 4. Data Analysis Technique 33 CHAPTER 5. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 34 5.
Demographic descriptive statistics 34 5. Measurement model results: 35 5. Structure model evaluation (SEM) 42 5. Path coefficient and hypothesis testing 44 5.
Focusing on Product Description 56 6. Building Trust through Enduring Involvement 57 6. Focusing on Benevolence towards situational Purchase Intention 57 6. Resource Allocation for Cognitive and Affective Involvement 58 6.
Considering Resource Allocation for Integrity 59 4 6. Limitations and Future Research 59 APPENDIX 62 REFERENCES 64 5 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 1. Conceptual Framework 17 Figure 2. Research Model 19 Figure 3.
Research process 28 Figure 4. Structural model andresults of PLS-SEM 46 6 LIST OF TABLE Table 1. Observed variables using measurement of research concepts 29 Table 2. Respondent Demographics 34 Table 3.
Results of scale reliability and convergent validity analysis. Results of discriminant validity analysis (Fornell & Larcker criterion) 40 Table 5. Results of discriminant validity analysis (HTMT) 41 Table 6. VIF rating threshold 43 Table 7.
Collinearity statistics: variance inflation factor (VIF) result 43 Table 8. The f - Square index and the corresponding impact level 45 Table 9. Path coefficients results 48 Table 10. R - Square and R - Square adjusted results 49 Table 11.
Descriptive statistics of all measurement items 62 7 LIST OF ACRONYMS S.No Abbreviation Expansion 1 Al Affective Involvement 2 AVE Average Variance Extracted 3 B2B Business-to-business 4 B2C Business-to-consumer 5 CI Cognitive Involvement 6 CR Composite Reliability 7 CB-SEM Covariance-Based SEM 8 CBEC Cross-border E-commerce 9 EI Enduring Involvement 10 HTMT Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio 11 HOE Hierarchy of Effects 12 PLS-SEM Partial Least Squares SEM 13 PTA Perceived Trust Ability 14 PTB Perceived Trust Benevolence 8 15 PT1 Perceived Trust Integrity 16 PD Product Description 17 PI Purchase Intention 18 SI Situational Involvement 19 SQRTAVE Square Root of AVE 20 SEM Structural Equation Modeling 21 VIF Variance Inflation Factors 9 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION The rapidly advancing processes of economic integration and technological progress have made the world smaller and more interconnected, creating a variety of opportunities for international trade and service. It increases consumers’ awareness of both online purchasing and shopping destinations, which promotes the growth of CBEC. According to an Accenture report in 2019, the CBEC market is developing at twice the rate compared to the domestic e-commerce market.
The number of consumers using the CBEC platform is continuously increasing; by 2020, the number of cross-border orders is expected to reach 9. CBEC booms all over the world (Stoklosa et al., 2018), and it is an inevitable development that no country can stand aside from. Vietnam is one of them. The demand for cross-border shopping by Vietnamese consumers via e-commerce sites is growing, notwithstanding the fact that the method of cross-border sales via e-commerce in Vietnam is still relatively new.
The proportion of consumers who purchase products directly from foreign websites rises considerably from 49% in 2020 to 56% in 2021 (IDEA, 2022). Seeing the high demand and potential, Vietnamese e-commerce platforms have been developing international purchasing capabilities; consumers buy goods from foreign sellers on Vietnamese e-commerce platforms, with that percentage having risen from 41% in 2020 to 57% in 2021 (IDEA, 2022). However, in a CBEC environment, interaction processes are more complex, and consumers may experience more uncertainly (Mou et al., 2017) as a result of the geographical distance barrier between buyers and sellers, causing differences in cultures, languages, customs, and history (Zhu ct al. Product information cognition represents a problem in CBEC that cannot be overlooked.
In this situation, the product description serves as a connection between the two sides (Kim et al. In general, when consumers conduct online product searches, a brief description of the product is shown. The description is an important indicator for the consumer in determining whether or not it is of high quality (Gabriella & Agus, 2020) and making further decisions (Resatsch et al. If consumers are unaware of a product, they will not express any desire or interest in it, thus ensuring that no purchase will occur.
From the perspective of a product seller on CBEC platforms, it is critical to understand consumer behavior during online purchasing to properly target them and deliver information based on their request (Demangeot & Broderick, 2007). Given the aforementioned considerations and previously released data, the purpose of this study is to evaluate and investigate the role of the product description on purchase intention within the CBEC platform. Thus far, the success of domestic e-commerce has been thoroughly researched, whereas CBEC has received less attention to our knowledge (Mou et al. In-depth studies in this area have mainly concentrated on B2B strategics that encourage and foster cross-border trade, yet there are many limitations for B2C, with only exploratory aspects of the relationship between satisfaction with logistics quality and price (Do et al., 2023), the formation of consumer intentions in cross-border trade (Phuong & Tung, 2021), and CBEC platform selection (Cuong & Chau, 2021).
Thus, this study can be incorporated into the research system on consumer behavioral intents in CBEC with the goal of effectively exploiting the market potential. In addition, the HOE model is used in the research to systematically forecast purchase intention, reflect the entirety of the processing response procedure performed by consumers as well as systematically forecast purchase intention on the CBEC platform (Zhu et al. Accordingly, Shopee, with a 63% market share, is one of the typical examples in Vietnam's e-commerce, the largest market share in the entire country's e-commerce sector (Momentum Works, 2023) and right in the first quarter of. In 2022, the platform recorded the most impressive monthly visitation total of 84.000, followed by 11 Lazada, with only 16.
This fact supports the choice of Shopee as the study’s case so that the performance of the CBEC may be seen and studied in the context of Vietnam. While there are no statistics on the number of Internet users by age, it is thought that young people in Vietnam make up the majority of Internet users, with older individuals using the Internet less frequently than younger ones. According to a survey published in 2023 by We Are Social, 54.1% of social network users in Vietnam were in the 18-34 age range. In addition, Shopee’s most frequent user demographic is 18-34 years old, who account for 81.63% of all desktop usage (Similarweb, 2023).
As a result, for the purpose of ensuring study efficacy, the research objectives are Vietnamese consumers aged 18 to 34 who have previously shopped on the Shopee platform. The study investigates a variety of points of view, including both the direct and indirect impacts of the integration of the two theories, and takes into account perceived trust to figure out whether or not product descriptions influence consumers’ purchase intentions in the CBEC environment. The potential contribution of this research would be to provide insight for suppliers and sellers, a guide to improve product awareness, and optimize every stage of the journey, thereby driving buying behavior of cross-border consumers. This research collected data from 353 subjects and analyzed the data using SmartPLS software to assess the given hypotheses.
The theoretical basis of the research is expanded on in the following section. After describing the connections between the constructs and hypotheses, the paper moves on to describe the study methodology and measurement techniques. Based on the study's results and limitations, the current article examines pertinent applications and possible future research paths. Cross-Border E-commerce (CBEC) Cross-border E-commerce (CBEC) is a form of transaction that takes place between different countries or customs areas, facilitated by an e-commerce platform and cross-border logistics (Tmogroup, 2015).
This trend has become increasingly prevalent in the modern e-commerce landscape, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as it offers the potential to reduce trade barriers and stimulate growth in otherwise limited marketplaces (Terzi, 2011). While the advent of the internet and digital technology has significantly reduced the impact of geographical distance on trade costs, other factors have emerged as significant in the context of CBEC. These include language and cultural differences, the quality of legal institutions, and the efficiency of payment and parcel delivery systems. These factors can significantly influence the cost and feasibility of online trade (Blum & Goldfarb, 2006; European Commission, 2012).
In essence, CBEC is a complex concept that encapsulates various aspects of international trade, digital technology, and logistics. Its definition and implications can vary across different studies, reflecting the evolving nature of e-commerce and the diverse perspectives of researchers in this field. Product Description Product description may serve as a brief ovendew of details about a product (Smith et al. Following prior study articles, an online product description pertains to the information given to consumers regarding the features, qualities, functionalities, and advantages of a product.
It functions as a crucial communication tool in the field of marketing and sales, with the objective of providing information and convincing potential consumers. 13 Consumers often make reasonable decisions and rely on factors such as product information, prices, benefits, and promotions to evaluate the quality of a product (Gentry et al. Toulmin (195 8) claimed that information sources that lead to strong statements in purchase intention with the framework and well-organized content arc likely to be more appealing and arc seen as more credible. The persuasive power of quality in product description has been discovered in a variety of contexts.