Impact of Fear of Identity Theft and Perceived Risk on Online Purchase Intention

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Online activities are present in almost every aspect of people’s daily lives. Online purchases are also increasing each year and therefore it is important to investigate what influences online purchase intentions. Online purchase intentions are among everything else, influenced by the fear of identity theft and perceived risk. Design/Methodology/Approach: The online survey was conducted among 190 participants from Slovenia. The relations between the constructs of fear of financial losses, fear of reputational damage, perceived risk and online purchase intention were investigated. Results: The research showed that the relations between the constructs of fear of financial losses, fear of reputational damage, perceived risk are positive and the relation between the constructs of perceived risk and online purchase intention were negative. All of the relations were statistically significant. Conclusion: Understanding the impact of fear of identity theft and perceived risk on online purchase intention can be helpful for online sellers, because with these findings they can manage this fear and perceived risk to increase online purchase intention and address the risks accordingly. Online sellers should therefore regard new findings from the field of online sales. If an online store wants to have success in sales, they should consider all sides of customers’ desires as well as their restraints. Keywords: e-commerce; fear of identity theft; online purchase intention; perceived risk; SEM