The Rise of the Virtual Reality (VR) Marketplace: Exploring the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumer Attitudes toward V-Commerce

Abstract

V-commerce is emerging as a promising technology for a new type of e-commerce application, which can address the critical need for integrating both social and technical aspects of online shopping. This research provides a theoretical framework to understand the antecedents and consequences of consumer attitudes toward v-commerce. Our framework extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) by incorporating immersion, enjoyment, trust and VR self-efficacy as potential antecedents; and consumers’ intention to purchase, intention to visit the company’s online and/or physical store and intention to recommend v-commerce to others as potential consequences. Furthermore, this research proposes that processing fluency, need for touch, propensity to trust and gender have a moderating effect on consumer attitudes toward v-commerce. Overall, the propositions derived from this study can help marketers identify and analyze the factors leading to the acceptance of v-commerce (and other future e-commerce technologies) among consumers. The study concludes with a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications for future research.

Keywords:

• Attitudes
• e-commerce
• enjoyment
• fluency
• gender
• immersion
• marketplace
• need for touch
• purchase intention
• self-efficacy
• trust
• v-commerce
• virtual reality