Abstract

Despite the significant growth of e-commerce in recent years, especially in the business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail sector, its positive and negative environmental implications are unclear from previous research. To understand the environmental impacts of e-commerce, two conceptual models were first developed from the literature. Next, using 303 responses collected through a structured questionnaire from the GCC countries, the proposed models, including the relevance/appropriateness of each construct and its underlying items, were validated, and then the hypothesized relationships between them were assessed. The findings of Model 1 showed that green consumerism does shape the consumers’ positive and negative environmental attitudes towards e-commerce, which in turn was found to influence the behavioral intention to use e-commerce channels. In Model 2, positive environmental attitudes no longer predicted behavioral intention with the introduction of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness constructs as consumers preferred ease of use and usefulness of e-commerce over positive environmental factors. Interestingly, the impact of negative environmental attitudes on behavioral intention remained even in the presence of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The study provides critical insights for practitioners and policymakers in promoting and leveraging the positive environmental benefits of e-commerce, while at the same time strive to minimize/eliminate its negative environmental impacts. The study is arguably the first empirical attempt in understanding the positive and negative environmental implications of e-commerce and its impact on the consumer intention to use e-commerce, and hence the study findings are novel.

摘要

尽管近年来电子商务显着增长，尤其是在企业对消费者 (B2C) 在线零售领域，但之前的研究尚不清楚其对环境的积极和消极影响。为了理解电子商务对环境的影响，首先从文献中开发了两个概念模型。接下来，使用通过结构化问卷从海湾合作委员会国家收集的 303 份回复，对提议的模型进行验证，包括每个构念及其基础项目的相关性/适当性，然后评估它们之间的假设关系。模型1的研究结果表明，绿色消费主义确实塑造了消费者对电子商务的正面和负面环境态度，进而影响了使用电子商务渠道的行为意向。在模型 2 中，由于消费者更喜欢电子商务的易用性和有用性，而不是积极的环境因素，因此随着感知易用性和感知有用性结构的引入，积极的环境态度不再预测行为意图。有趣的是，即使存在感知易用性和感知有用性，负面环境态度对行为意图的影响仍然存在。该研究为从业者和政策制定者促进和利用电子商务的积极环境效益提供了重要见解，同时努力最大限度地减少/消除其对环境的负面影响。