Intention to shop online among university students in Jordan

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There is no doubt that the electronic commerce has contributed positively in the 
life of modern societies, mainly the consumers. It allowed purchasing of materials 
cheaply without any limit, and without any restrictions.  
 
 The element of e-shopping offers a direct interactive channel as well as no time 
definition, people and place. To shopping on Internet has becomes an alternative for 
consumers since it is more comfortable than conventional shopping which usually 
attributed with anxious, crowded, traffic jam, limited time, parking space and any other 
factors can disturb your shopping. However, the different internet characteristics have 
created a significant level of variation in acceptance and growth of electronic commerce 
in different region of the world. The current study investigates possible factors that 
influence students’ intention to use online shopping..  
 
1.2 E-business in Jordan 
 The first Jordanian global Internet connection was established in 1995 by the 
National Information Center (NIC). Created in 1993, this Center grew out of King 
Hussein's interest in promoting technology and the development of a national information 
policy and appropriate institutions. NIC’s central mission has been national data 
management, but it has pursed the development of national networks as well. While NIC 
limited Internet service to government and academic users, private providers were first 
licensed in 1996. By mid – 1999, seven private ISPs were operational; these plus NIC 
provided service to an estimated 50,000 users, about 1% of the population. What is 
interesting is that the penetration is this high, given Jordan’s relatively low per capita 
income and underdeveloped infrastructure.  
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 (Arab Journal of Administration, Amman 2003) Other countries with similar 
circumstances have lower penetration rates. Government policies are more open than 
inmost Arab countries, Doing nothing too directly to impede the diffusion of the Internet 
or to control access, even in areas such as national security or morality (this is also the 
case in Palestine). In some instances, the government has been proactive. King Hussein 
was committed to the idea that the provision of Internet services should be open. He 
permitted his private satellite ground station, Hashem 1, originally installed for 
communications with the Mayo Clinic, to provide international connectivity to ISPs. 
King Abdullah is continuing his father's support of high technology enterprises. (National 
Information Center –NIC, 1999) 
 In Jordan, Amman in particular, the use of online shopping does not seem to keep 
up with global trends in electronic marketing, and that many consumers are not making 
use of electronic buying. Very often, doubts are raised on knowledge and skills of online 
shopping, accessing Internet services, promotion of companies web sites, and security of 
the Internet for shopping and other transactions. In fact, this phenomenon raises serious 
concerns in electronic consumer behavior. 
 
 (Arab Journal of Administration, Amman 2003) under its 1951 constitution, 
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with a population approaching four million. Unlike 
many of its oil-rich Arab neighbors, Jordan is relatively poor in natural resources, and 
much of its land is too arid for extensive agriculture. Consequently, two of Jordan’s 
primary imports are food and crude oil from its Arab neighbors. The 1991 Persian Gulf 
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War was divesting to Jordan’s economy. Iraq was Jordan’s largest pre-Persian Gulf War 
trading partner. In the years after the war, Jordan has undertaken economic restructuring. 
The country has moved closer to a free-market economy and has announced its intention 
to privatize at least a portion of such state-run enterprises as the Jordan Electricity 
Authority, the Telecommunications Corporation, and Royal Jordanian Airlines. 
 
 (Mhd. Nor Burnham, Arab Journal of Administration 2003) a 20-year lags 
between developed and developing countries in computer usage trends is not uncommon, 
As a developing country, the Jordanian public sector adopted its first computer system at 
the end of the 1960s .In the early 1970s, the Arabian Bank adopted a computer system for 
the purpose of developing and modernizing the country’s banking system and to conform 
to the increasingly technologically sophisticated international financial markets. By the 
end of 1977, only five public organizations operated computers  
 
1.3 Problem statement 
 The review of literature shows very limited studies have explained on 
investigating the factors that enhances the intention of online shopping in Jordan. In 
addition, this study also would like to explore the dominant predictors that influence the 
student’s intention to shop using internet in Jordan. Which, still until today we can 
observe the limitation for using the on-line shopping in Jordan, as thus there is an urgent 
need to study online shopping intention factors. 
 
 
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1.4 Research Questions 
  In attempting to investigate the factors that influence the shopping by 
using internet, this study seeks to answer the following questions: 
1- Is there a relationship between students’ attitude toward on line shopping and 
their beliefs its usefulness? 
2- Is there a relationship between students’ attitude toward on line shopping and 
their beliefs its ease of use? 
3- Is there a relationship between students’ intention to use on line shopping and 
their beliefs its usefulness? 
4- Is there a relationship between students’ intention to use on line shopping and 
their attitude toward it? 
 
.1.5 Research Objective 
 The purpose of this research is to investigate the acceptance level of internet 
shopping among higher learning institution in Jordan, more specifically, the objective of 
this study are as follows: 
1. To determine the relationship between students’ attitude toward online shopping 
and their beliefs usefulness. 
2. To determine the relationship between students’ attitude toward on line shopping 
and their beliefs its ease of use. 
3. To determine the relationship between students’ intention to use on line shopping 
and their beliefs its usefulness. 
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4. To determine the relationship between students’ intention to use on line shopping 
and their attitude toward it. 
 
1.6 Significance of the Study 
The study is able to generate three benefits. Firstly, the study will contribute to the 
literature review of the acceptance level for intention to use online shopping. Secondly, 
would provide insight information for researchers and practitioners to understand more 
about students’ online shopping intention. Thirdly, the empirical findings are believed to 
be useful in understanding the factors influence online intention, practical that can give 
input to local e-retail to more understand the attitude their consumers they might compete 
with local and also foreign e-retail. In addition this study is describing the relationships 
between the variables that influence on students’ intention to use on line shopping. 
 
1.7 Definitions of terms used in this study 
• E-Commerce in this study is refers to doing business electronically using internet 
communications. 
• Online shopping is viewed as shopping over the Internet (or electronic buying). 
• (TAM) refers to Technology Acceptance Model  
• Perceived Usefulness is refers to the degree to which a person believes that 
particular system would enhance his or her job performance. 
• Perceived Ease of Use is refers to the degree to which a person believes that using 
a particular system would be free of effort. 
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• Attitude toward Using is viewed as the feelings of favorableness or unfavorable 
ness towards using the technology. 
• Behavioral Intentions to Use refers to the strength on one's intentions to use the 
technology in the future. 
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CHAPTER 2 
LITERATURE REVIEW 
 
2.1 Introduction 
In this Chapter, we will focus on a key set of studies centered on technology 
assimilation and technology acceptance constructs. While we realize that there are a 
wider set of studies that reference technology assimilation and technology acceptance, we 
analyzed those that have advanced or modified the Technology Acceptance Model for 
specific technologies. We report the results of those studies as well as show the models. 
 
This chapter aimed at surveying the literature review of the relevant theories in 
connection to the purpose and research questions that forms the basis for this study and 
discusses the various works done by past researchers on the subject. The review of the 
literature, elaborates e-retail as new medium transaction followed by theory were based 
on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed by Davis, Bagozzi and washaw 
(1989) and by Vijayasarathy (2003), perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, that 
are proposed in this study as independent variables that influence customers intention to 
shop, followed by the theoretical framework and hypotheses. Lastly, summary of 
literature review will be presented. 
 
2.2 E-Retailing as Shopping Medium 
 Internet was first found by American Defense Department Network through the 
Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPANET) at 1969. Early target ARPANET was 
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to develop educated information for the army forces of US. Most creative technology that 
has reached a big impact at all of us is Internet innovation. 
 
 Yu and Adbulai (2000) mentioned that the most significant result of the rapid 
innovations in information and communication technology is e-commerce. What is e-
commerce? E-commerce basically refers to trade takes place over the Internet where a 
buyer visits a seller’s web site, order and makes the payment of the product over the 
Internet and finally, goods are delivered physically to consumers. Anil (2000) also 
mentioned, electronic commerce is an important part of the growth Internet. E-commerce 
is the general term for Internet and non-Internet computer-to-computer processing of 
transaction, shifting from electronic data interchange (EDI) towards order, payment 
systems, credit cards and consumer sales of goods and services. Crisp, Jarvenpaa and 
Todd (1997) mentioned that the consumers could search information about goods and 
services, ordering, receiving post sales services, and finally, retailers’ delivery to 
consumers who can as individual or group. 
 
 Brown, Pope and Voges (2003) mentioned that the key of e-retailing, the 
consumers is facilitated by information with regard to product attributes, comparative 
pricing, and availability and overall value added; The Internet shopping provides a new 
interactive channel that is not limited by time and place. E-retailing are being developed 
to market over Internet, moreover can be established at low cost, the product and service 
offerings can be updated on demand. Consumers around the world have 24 hours a day 
access to this e-retailing. In the Internet, the development of e-retail implies that there are