J. Serv. Sci. & Management. 2008, 1: 101-110
Published Online June 2008 in SciRes (www.SRPublishing.org/journal/jssm )
What are the Benefits of Continued Purchasing through
the Internet? A Study of South Korean Consumers
Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich, Noboru Sonehara and Hitoshi Okada
National Institute of Informatics 2-1-2 Hitotsubashi Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-8430 Japan
ABSTRACT
Since keeping the customer purchasing a product/service is essential to maintaining the profitability of any business,
the continuance of purchasing through the Internet is vital to online business. This study is one of the few attempts to
investigate the perceived benefit factors affecting customers’ intention to continue purchasing through the Internet. Ac-
cording to a multiple regression analysis of online questionnaires filled out by 998 online customers in South Korea,
extrinsic benefits measured in terms of time and money savings as well as intrinsic benefits measured in terms of pleas-
ure, novelty, and fashion involvement have strong effects on the repurchase intention. Our findings indicate that cus-
tomer retention must be promoted in Internet shopping by guaranteeing not only extrinsic benefits but also intrinsic
benefits. This study discusses the relevant techniques of providing those benefits to customers and guidelines for future
research.
Keywords: repurchase intention, benefit, Internet shopping, extrinsic benefit, intrinsic benefit
1. Introduction
The government of South Korea is actively promoting
electronic commerce (EC), in part by providing govern-
ment support, and the total volume of e-commerce in-
creased from $47.93 billion in 2000 to $99.15 billion in
2001 [21]. The growth rate of business- to-customer (B2C)
EC was 252.2% in 2001. Moreover, the total EC sales
during the second quarter of 2002 equaled 1.355 trillion
won, an increase of 52.6% compared to that of 2001 [21].
Because of the rapid growth of the EC market and support
from the government, South Korea has played an impor-
tant role in the global EC market.
However, there are obstacles to B2C adoption in the
area of operation of Internet stores, including high logis-
tics costs, lack of marketing strategy, limited product
range and service differentiation, and lack of features for
customers on the website [21]. As these may cause online
customers to stop shopping through the Internet, an inves-
tigation of the reasons that consumers choose to purchase
again through the Internet is also important. Despite the
need to succeed in business [23], the factors affecting the
continuance of purchasing through the Internet have
rarely been explored. Recent studies show that investi-
gating such factors in an online environment can help us
to create an effective customer-retention strategy and to
determine the impact of the identified factors on the
products and services offered by Internet shops [10, 12].
The fundamental reason for the existence of true mar-
ket segments is the benefit that people derive from con-
suming a given product [24], and the benefits of Internet
shopping for customers have been discussed in the litera-
ture. The benefits include time saving and the conven-
ience of shopping without being restricted by store hours
or location. These extrinsic benefits serve as a means to
help customers achieve other outcomes, for example, to
reduce the time spent shopping and to gain convenience
or efficiency. Shang et al. [22] found that an extrinsic
factor, perceived usefulness, was not an antecedent of
purchasing through Internet shopping, but rather, intrinsic
motivations, fashion and cognitive absorption, were more
important than extrinsic ones. Considering this, the ex-
trinsic benefit and intrinsic benefit customers get by
shopping online can be used as a measure of the willing-
ness of a customer to continue purchasing from an Inter-
net shopping website. While prior studies have examined
the benefits that encourage a customer to purchase
through the Internet, this study examines the extrinsic and
intrinsic benefits affecting the customer’s intention to
continue purchasing items through the Internet. The un-
derlying factors among the variables can be discovered by
applying exploratory factor analysis. These factors were
investigated by using multiple regression analysis to de-
termine whether they had any relationship with continu-
ance of purchasing behavior.
In the following section, we discuss the literature that is
relevant to the continuance of purchasing behavior and
the benefits of Internet shopping. The methodology,
measurement development, and reliability analysis are
described in the third and the fourth sections. The results
are discussed in the fifth section. Finally, we present our
conclusions and discuss the limitations of the present re-
search and guidelines for future research.

102 Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich, Noboru Sonehara and Hitoshi Okada
2. Intention to Continue Purchasing through
the Internet
Many studies on customer behavior, in particular, cus-
tomer satisfaction and intention to continue purchasing,
have applied expectation-confirmation theory in the EC
context. Kim et al. [4] proposed a framework combining
trust, expectation, and satisfaction. Their findings showed
that customer’s trust and expectations are positively re-
lated with satisfaction which has a positive influence on
the intention to repurchase. Lee et al. [12] argued that
retaining customer loyalty is vital to make Internet users
visit Internet shopping websites again. Trust and low
transaction cost help to increase customer loyalty towards
an Internet shopping website. On the other hand, Koufaris
[17] used customer intention to return, not actual return
visits to measure loyalty. He found that shopping enjoy-
ment and perceived usefulness are positively significant
to the customers’ intention to return to visit online book-
store. Liang and Lai [27] examined the effect of design
quality on consume choice of online bookstores. Their
results showed that design quality is as important as
product price to make customers visit and purchase again.
Chung and Lee [10] indicated that product perceptions,
customer service, perceived ease of use, site image, pro-
motion, communications environments, and overall cus-
tomer satisfaction for the Internet shopping stores are
positively correlated with the repurchase intention, but
perceived consumer risk has a negative relationship with
the repurchase intention.
In the literature, perceived benefit has not yet been
examined in the context of behavior of consumers who
may continue to purchase through the Internet. Hence, we
believe that our study on the perceived benefits affecting
continuance of purchasing through Internet shopping is
unique.
Bhattacherjee [1] examined the antecedents of custom-
ers’ intention to continue to use an online brokerage,
which is a kind of EC service. By adding a new factor,
customer loyalty, to that study’s method, Atchariyachan-
vanich et al. [14] developed a model of repurchasing fac-
tors of Internet shopping and examined the key factors
underlying customers’ intention to continue purchasing
items through the Internet. They focused on five factors
including confirmation, satisfaction, perceived usefulness,
perceived incentives, and customer loyalty, which ac-
counted for 46% of the variation in the repurchase inten-
tion. This means that there must be other variables that
have an influence as well. Therefore, the current study
examines a new factor, perceived benefit that affects the
customer’s intention to continue purchasing through
Internet shopping.
3. Benefits of Internet Shopping
According to Haley’s study [24], the fundamental reason
for the existence of true market segments is the benefit
that people derive from consuming a given product. He
also argued that benefits sought by consumers determine
their behavior much more accurately than do demo-
graphic characteristics or volume of consumption. He
pointed out that “a substantial group of people must be
interested in your specific set of benefits before you can
make progress in a market”. This implies that online cus-
tomers must be interested in Internet shopping’s benefits
before Internet shops can make progress in a market as-
pect such as customer retention. Once an online customer
perceives the benefits of purchasing items through the
Internet, he or she will tend to continue purchasing online.
This brings us to a new factor, perceived benefit, which
may affect the customer’s intention to continue purchas-
ing through the Internet.
Two kinds of benefit, extrinsic and intrinsic, were
identified by previous studies in the information systems
domain. Davis et al. [7] indicated that extrinsic motiva-
tion (usefulness) and intrinsic motivation (enjoyment)
influenced a person’s intention to use a computer. Hui et
al. [15] identified seven benefits (i.e. monetary saving,
time saving, self-enhancement, social adjustment, pleas-
ure, novelty, and altruism) that could motivate customers
to disclose their personal information to Internet busi-
nesses. In the domain of Internet shopping, the intrinsic
factor in terms of fashion involvement was more impor-
tant than extrinsic factors in explaining why customers
shopped online [22]. Although the largest number of
benefits has been identified in the context of online in-
formation disclosure [15], they have not been examined
in the context of Internet shopping. Therefore, in the light
of previous studies [7, 15, 22], we propose perceived
benefits in terms of extrinsic and intrinsic benefits.
3.1. Extrinsic benefits
Extrinsic benefits offer a means with which customers
can achieve other goals [15]. Since extrinsic motivation
refers to the performance of an activity because it is per-
ceived to be helpful in gaining valued outcomes that are
distinct from the activity itself [7], extrinsic benefits per-
tain to the benefits obtained from the outcome of per-
forming the activity, but are distinct from the activity it-
self. Such benefits can motivate a consumer’s intention to
perform an action to gain benefits that serve as a means to
reach other outcomes. Four types of extrinsic benefit
classified in Hui et al.’s study [15] were adapted to the
domain of consumer behavior in Internet shopping.
Time saving refers to benefits that provide better effi-
ciency or convenience. The benefits of saving time are to
reduce time spent on and to achieve convenience in shop-
ping. Time saving may affect online customers because it
allows them to carry out more activities. As Internet
shopping reduces the customers’ time needed to obtain
information about product prices and product offerings [2,
13], it may encourage them to shop online again. Thus,

What are the Benefits of Continued Purchasing through the Internet? 103
A Study of South Korean Consumers
we propose that:
H1: Time saving positively affects a customer’s con-
tinuance of purchasing behavior in Internet shopping.
Money saving includes means for customers to reduce
money spent on shopping and to gain free gifts such as
discounts, vouchers, loyalty points, etc.. Perceived incen-
tives in terms of free gifts, free coupons, and points were
found to significantly influence the intention to repur-
chase in Internet shopping [14]. Customers are generally
concerned about the cost of purchasing a product or ser-
vice. If Internet shopping can help them save money in
purchasing items, they may come back to purchase again.
Therefore, we propose that:
H2: Money saving positively affects a customer’s con-
tinuance of purchasing behavior in Internet shopping.
Social adjustment refers to the customers’ need to es-
tablish social identities by assimilating into desired social
groups. In general, customers have a desire to align with
others who are like-minded [15]. Internet shopping pro-
vides additional services to satisfy such a desire. For ex-
ample, a beauty club webpage is made for online custom-
ers who like purchasing beauty products and also to ex-
change and share knowledge about those products. This
may motivate online customers to visit the Internet stores
and purchase from them again. Thus, we propose that:
H3: Social adjustment positively effects a customer’s
continuance of purchasing behavior in Internet shopping.
Self-enhancement refers to means for customers to as-
sert their self-concept or to maintain self-esteem in rela-
tion to others. Hui et al. [15] asserted that Internet busi-
nesses can possibly make use of such characteristics by
bundling self-enhancement benefits with requests for
personal information. In addition, the consumer behavior
of an individual will be directed toward enhancing
self-concept through the consumption of goods as sym-
bols [16]. For example, online customers will be recog-
nized by the Internet store on their next purchase after
they have registered as members of the Internet store. We
posit that:
H4: Self-enhancement positively affects a customer’s
continuance of purchasing behavior in Internet shopping.
3.2. Intrinsic Benefits
Intrinsic benefits refer to the benefits gained from pur-
chasing through Internet shopping, apart from any pur-
chase consequences that may be anticipated, and are ends
in themselves to customers [7, 15]. When a customer
considers the intrinsic benefits, they perform a task sim-
ply because the performance of the task offers them bene-
fits. Previous studies [15, 22] indicate that online custom-
ers seek out consumption experiences obtainable from
purchasing (pleasure, novelty, and fashion involvement)
as ends in themselves.
Pleasure is defined as the extent to which the activity of
purchasing in Internet shopping is enjoyable and pleasant
in its own right, apart from any purchase consequences
that may be anticipated [7, 15, 17]. Jarvenpaa and Todd
[25] show that Internet customers miss the fun and at-
mosphere of shopping in traditional stores. In response to
this problem, Aberg and Shahmehri [11] developed the
Human Web Assistant to provide efficient user support to
make a website more fun to use, to increase the custom-
ers’ trust in the website, and to improve the website’s
atmosphere. In addition, virtual reality storefronts offer
online customers additional ways to find enjoyment
through Internet shopping. This perception of pleasure
may make customers more likely to purchase again in
Internet shopping. Thus, we hypothesize that:
H5: Pleasure positively affects a customer’s continu-
ance of purchasing behavior in Internet shopping.
Novelty focuses on means that help customers fulfill
their innate needs for exploration or information. Hui et al.
[15] indicated that the curiosity of customers can be
stimulated by an appropriate level of information com-
plexity. As Internet shopping websites provide plenty of
information about products, support, payment methods,
and delivery channels, these benefits may make custom-
ers visit Internet shopping websites again. This leads to
the hypothesis that:
H6: Novelty positively affects a customer’s continu-
ance of purchasing behavior in Internet shopping.
Fashion involvement is defined as the degree to which
the activity of purchasing in Internet shopping enables
customers to make purchases according to their own
fashionable behavior. Shang et al. [22] assumed that
shopping is a fashionable behavior and used fashion in-
volvement to conceptualize the effects of social influence.
Their study found that fashion involvement was more
important than extrinsic factors in explaining the behavior
of online customers. Therefore, we propose that:
H7: Fashion involvement positively affects a cus-
tomer’s continuance of purchasing behavior in Internet
shopping.
4. Methodology
Based on the well-established framework for developing
measures of a construct [8], this study specifies the do-
main of the construct (i.e., Internet shopping benefits),
generates items from literature reviews, collects data,
purifies items, assesses reliability and validity, and de-
velops norms.
4.1 Data collection
This study targeted potential online users who have pur-

104 Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich, Noboru Sonehara and Hitoshi Okada
chased a product or service through Internet shopping and
intend to continue purchasing through it. The percentages
of Internet users’ survey conducted in 2006 by the Na-
tional Internet Development Agency of Korea [19] were
first used as a condition to screen our potential online
customers or potential respondents. Then the percentages
of age groups and gender of our respondents were set
equal to those of the Internet users. Doing so avoids an
excess of answers from highly educated respondents or
young respondents and ensures that the respondents will
be selected randomly.
As the web-based survey was conducted in South Ko-
rea, a Korean version of the questionnaire was used. The
questionnaire, originally written in English, was trans-
lated into Korean by bilingual speakers whose native
language was Korean and whose background was
IT-oriented. The questionnaire was then translated back
into English by another bilingual speaker whose native
language was English and whose background was also
IT-oriented. The English versions were then compared,
and no item was found to pertain to a specific cultural
context in terms of language or to a specific IT-related
context in terms of background translation.
The survey process consisted of four steps. First, the
percentages of age groups and gender were set equal to
those of the Internet users of the computer and Internet
usage survey [19]. The segments of respondents in the
database were set to these percentages. Then an invitation
to fill out an online questionnaire was electronically
mailed to registered opt-in-mail members of the partner of
‘goo Research’ of NTT Resonant Inc., Japan on March 19,
2007. Secondly, the respondents answered a pre-test
questionnaire posted on the website during March 20-23,
2007. This pre-test was to screen online users who had
purchased a product or service through Internet shopping
and might intend to continue purchasing through it.
Thirdly, if the percentage of pre-test respondents in each
age group and gender was higher than the segments set in
step 1, the system would randomly select the respondents
from among each segment. The potential respondents,
who were randomly selected, were sent the opt-in-mail
with the invitation for the post-test questionnaire attached.
Lastly, they answered the questionnaire during March
24-28, 2007. The percentages of target respondents were
recorded until they reached the segments set in step 1.
Hence, the system automatically stopped gathering the
online questionnaire when the segments were completed.
After completing all steps, 998 target responses had been
completed and matched target respondent segments set in
step 1. The respondents received a point as a reward if
they completed the online questionnaire.
To replicate the distribution of online customers of
Internet shopping in South Korea [20], sample weighting*
was applied to assign a weighted variable to each re-
sponse.
The weighted variable was based on the percentages of
gender and age group [20]. Then each response in the
dataset was weighted by their weighted variables. As a
result, the distribution of the dataset became applicable to
the distribution of online customers of Internet shopping
in South Korea. Table 1 presents the respondents demo-
graphic data.
Table 1. Demographic data of respondents (N = 998)
Category Percentage(%)
Male 54.1
Gender Female 45.9
Single 56.7
Marital
Status Married 43.3
15-19 27.3
20-29 22.3
30-39 23.9
40-49 11.1
50-59 8.6
Age
>=60 6.7
≤2,156 USD 18.2
2,157-5,390 USD 42.3
5,391-8,624 USD 14.3
≥8,625 USD 3.3
Annual
income
(1Mllion
KRW=
1,078
USD) Missing value 21.9
Secondary School 16.2
High School 30.8
Vocational School 0.3
College 10.0
Bachelor Degree 37.3
Master Degree 4.3
Education
level
Doctoral Degree 1.1
4.2. Measures
The post-test questionnaire consisted of two sections. The
first section was designed to gather demographic charac-
teristics including age, gender, education level, personal
monthly income, and Internet activities. In the second
section, the measurement items were developed from
previous studies on EC benefits for customers [26] and
the literature discussed in Section 3. In addition, new
measurement items were adapted from Hui et al.’s study
[15]. The items were modified to fit the domain of Inter-
net shopping when necessary. A 19-item scale measuring
perceived benefits and one item measuring overall cus-
tomers’ continuance of purchasing behavior in Internet
shopping were developed (see Appendix A). The scale
items of perceived benefits were classified into two major
*Sample weighting is used to correct disproportional sample sizes and
adjust the collected data to represent the population from which the
sample was drawn [3]. During a period of data collection, the population
of online customers [20] is the newest one that is suitable for doing
sample weighting.

What are the Benefits of Continued Purchasing through the Internet? 105
A Study of South Korean Consumers
categories: extrinsic benefits and intrinsic benefits. The
respondents were requested to evaluate the level of their
agreement with each scale item on a five-point Likert
scale ranging from (1) “strongly disagree” to (5) “strongly
agree”. Table 2 represents the descriptive statistics of all
scale items. Each item’s mean values ranged between
3.14 and 4.26, while the standard deviation values were
between 0.70 and 1.05. The dependent variable repre-
senting the intention to continue purchasing through the
Internet could be scaled by three items identified in [14].
4.3. Exploratory Factor Analysis
Before performing an exploratory factor analysis (EFA),
one needs a strong conceptual foundation to support the
assumption that a structure does exist [9]. Hence, it must
be certain that the data matrix has sufficient correlations
to justify the application of factor analysis. Kaiser’s
measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) was used to quan-
tify the degree of intercorrelations among the variables
and the appropriateness of factor analysis. The overall
MSA was 0.90. In addition, all individual variables’
MSAs ranged from 0.500 to 0.845. This clearly suggests
that factor analysis can be used to extract research factors
[9].
EFA was applied to the 19 benefit items by using the
principle component extraction method and an oblimin
with Kaiser Normalization rotation. The criteria used in
this analysis are outlined as follows [9]:
1. Factors with eigenvalues or latent roots of all
components should be greater than 1.0,
2. Communalities of all items should be more than
0.5;
3. The factor loadings of ± 0.50 or greater are con-
sidered necessary for practical significance; and
4. Cronbach’s alpha values of each factor extracted
and overall measure should be greater than 0.7.
The EFA extracted items into four factors that passed
all criteria. To justify the extracted factors from the factor
analysis, a reliability analysis was performed on items
classified under each extracted factor as well as the over-
all scale. Only the alpha of the fourth factor was lower
than 0.7. Consequently, these factors provide a reliable
and consistent measure of the intended dimensions and no
further elimination of items appears necessary. Table 3
shows the final factors with meaningful factor names,
loadings, communality, Cronbach’s alpha, eigenvalues,
and percentage of trace. Factor 1 with six items, factor 2
with five items, factor 3 with six items, and factor 4 with
two items were loaded. Each factor was subjectively
named from the nature of the grouped items with signifi-
cant loadings:
1. Factor 1 Intrinsic factor: I1, I2, and I3― Pleasure;
I4 and I5―Novelty; I8―Fashion involvement. I6
and I7 were dropped from this factor because their
factor loadings were less than the accepted level.
2. Factor 2 Extrinsic factor: E1, E2, and E4―Time
saving. E3 was dropped from this factor because of
its unaccepted factor loading.
3. Factor 3 Extrinsic factor: E7, E8, E9, and
E10―Social adjustment and self-enhancement.
E11 was dropped from this factor because of its
unaccepted factor loading.
4. Factor 4 Extrinsic factor: E5 and E6―Money sav-
ing.
Table 2. Descriptive Statistics of Data (N = 998)
(E1-Convenience; E2-Save time; E3- Shop/find infor-
mation easier; E4- Shop/find information more
quickly; E5- Save money; E6- Offer lower prices; E7-
Interact with other customers in EC communities;
E8-Interact with like-minded people; E9- Recom-
mendation from like-minded people; E10-Exchange
idea and compare experience; E11-To be recognized
when purchasing again; I1-Enjoy using Internet shop-
ping; I2-Be happy when using Internet shopping;
I3-Be delighted with experience of Internet shopping;
I4-Stimulate curiosity; I5-Provide customers with the
product/supplemental information that they are in-
terested in; I6- Offers options to perform task in dif-
ferent ways; I7- Opportunity to make oneself appear
fashionable; I8-Boast of being the first one who pos-
sess a product)
ItemsMean Std. Deviation
E1 4.26 0.70
E24.07 0.85
E3 3.77 0.75
E4 4.04 0.73
E5 3.68 0.88
E6 3.94 0.76
E7 3.49 0.83
E8 3.62 0.80
E9 3.65 0.76
E10 3.63 0.76
E11 3.43 0.81
I1 3.73 0.84
I2 3.36 0.76
I3 3.55 0.75
I4 3.36 0.85
I5 3.50 0.75
I6 3.33 0.76
I7 3.61 0.75
I8 3.14 1.05
Discriminant validity is the extent to which a factor is
truly distinct from other factors. Indeed, Hair, et al. [9]
suggested that average variance extracted can be used to
evaluate discriminant validity. To demonstrate the dis-
criminant validity of the constructs in this study, the
square root of average variance extracted for each factor
should be greater than the correlations between that factor
and all other factors. Table 4 shows the correlation matrix

106 Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich, Noboru Sonehara and Hitoshi Okada
of the factors. The assessment of discriminant validity
indicates that the square root of average variance ex-
tracted of all factors is greater than the correlations be-
tween that factor and all other factors.
Overall, these results provide empirical support for the
reliability and convergent validity of the items of our re-
search model.
Table 3. Component Matri x of Exploratory Fact or Analysis (N = 998)
Factor Loadings
Items
1 2 3 4
Communality
E1: Convenience 0.169 0.718 0.027 -0.012 0.610
E2: Save time 0.064 0.781 -0.032 0.038 0.644
E3: Shop/find information
easier -0.037 0.435 0.195 0.283 0.424
E4: Shop/find information more quickly 0.033 0.662 0.074 0.109 0.537
E5: Save money -0.143 0.221 -0.024 0.697 0.565
E6: Offer lower prices 0.009 0.229 0.092 0.549 0.470
E7: Interact with other customers in EC
communities -0.007 0.041 0.800 -0.040 0.638
E8: Interact with like-minded people -0.086 0.149 0.761 -0.123 0.565
E9: Recommendation from like-minded
people 0.000 0.094 0.747 -0.013 0.594
E10: Exchange idea and compare experi-
ence 0.132 -0.186 0.710 0.094 0.598
E11: To be recognized when purchasing
again 0.201 -0.178 0.385 0.365 0.440
I1: Enjoy using Internet shopping 0.596 0.342 -0.003 -0.047 0.548
I2: Be happy when using Internet shopping 0.581 -0.016 -0.086 0.495 0.666
I3: Be delighted with experience of Internet
shopping 0.551 0.010 -0.048 0.478 0.641
I4: Stimulate curiosity 0.690 0.145 0.102 -0.061 0.596
I5: Provide customers with the product
/supplemental information that they are
interested in 0.534 0.061 0.134 0.169 0.477
I6: Offers options to perform task in differ-
ent ways 0.464 0.061 0.196 0.137 0.421
I7: Opportunity to make oneself appear
fashionable 0.390 -0.072 0.376 0.092 0.435
I8: Boast of being the first one who possess
a product 0.683 0.017 0.027 -0.276 0.462
Total
Sum of squares (eigenvalues) 6.238 1.779 1.288 1.027 10.332
Percentage of trace 32.83 9.36 6.78 5.41 54.38
Cronbach’s alpha (Overall = 0.880) 0.820 0.739 0.774 0.584

What are the Benefits of Continued Purchasing through the Internet? 107
A Study of South Korean Consumers
Table 4. Correlation matrix of the factors
Table 5. Results of Multiple Regre s si o n Analysis
Unstandardized CoefficientsStandardized Coefficientst Sig.
B Beta
Intrinsic factor 0.351 0.353 13.416 0.000
Time Saving 0.259 0.258 10.330 0.000
Social adjustment &
self-enhancement 0.050 0.050 1.906 0.057
Money Saving 0.312 0.304 12.144 0.000
5. Results of Multiple Regression Analysis
A multiple regression analysis was conducted to investi-
gate the impact of perceived benefits on the intention to
continue purchasing in Internet shopping. Table 5 shows
the results of the multiple regression analysis for con-
tinuance of purchasing (R2 = 0.458). According to the
beta coefficients, the factor that has the highest impact on
the continuance of purchasing behavior is intrinsic factor
(β = 0.35; p < 0.01), followed by money saving (β = 0.30;
p < 0.01), and time saving (β = 0.26; p < 0.01). Social
adjustment and self-enhancement (β = 0.05; p > 0.05) is
statistically insignificant to the continuance of purchasing
behavior in Internet shopping. As a result, the hypotheses
H1, H2, H5, H6, and H7 were supported, and H3 and H4
were rejected.
The results showed that not only extrinsic benefits but
also intrinsic benefits influenced the online customers’
intention to continue shopping online. Surprisingly, in-
trinsic benefits have the most significant effect on inten-
tion to continue shopping online. Internet shopping im-
pressed online customers by arousing their curiosity and
offering enhanced shopping experiences. The Internet
shopping website gives consumers a different shopping
experience because the interaction between the merchant
and the consumer is more engaging and enjoyable [5].
Although Koufaris et al. [18] argued that enjoyment in
internet shopping seemingly does not influence repeat
customers to return, our positive significance of the in-
trinsic factor confirmed that online customers have an
intrinsically enjoyable experience on-line that makes
them continue purchasing through the Internet. The seond
most significant factor is extrinsic benefits in terms of
saving money. Saving time is the least significant factor.
Purchasing items through Internet shopping saved cus-
tomers’ time in shopping and finding information and
saved them money, because online prices are lower than
offline prices of the same products. This indicated that
online customers intend to continue purchasing in Internet
shopping because it can solve their problems i.e., lack of
time and lack of finances. The results also suggest that
offline customers may turn to purchasing through the
Internet to solve these problems.
Extrinsic benefits in terms of social adjustment and
self-enhancement are insignificantly related with the in-
tention to continue purchasing through the Internet. This
result suggested that it is unnecessary for online custom-
ers to interact and exchange ideas with other customers
who have similar interests or attitudes when they pur-
chased through the Internet. It seemed that support in
purchasing the items recommended by like-minded cus-
tomers did not make them purchase again through the
Internet. In addition, giving an acknowledgement to
online customers who come back to purchase again is
unlikely to be a reason for them to do so. This may be
because Internet shopping websites do not provide
enough services promoting social adjustment and
self-enhancement benefits to online customers. For ex-
ample, although they want a recommendation from
like-minded customers before making a purchase, this
option is not always provided by Internet shopping web-
sites.
Factors Intrinsic
factor Time SavingSocial adjustment & self-enhancement Money Saving
Intrinsic factor 0.680
Time Saving 0.251 0.692
Social adjustment & self-enhancement 0.419 0.254 0.689
Money Saving 0.257 0.267 0.261 0.648

108 Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich, Noboru Sonehara and Hitoshi Okada
It is interesting that online customers continued pur-
chasing through the Internet because they were given op-
portunities to boast of being the first one who possessed
the product. These perceptions were regarded as intrinsic
benefits that are abstract and difficult to evaluate in terms
of fashion involvement.
Figure 1 presents the research model and the results of
multiple regression analysis.
6. Conclusion and Implications
This paper is one of the first studies to try to determine
whether perceived benefits affect customers’ intention to
continue purchasing through the Internet. 998 samples
collected from online customers in the EC market of
South Korea were analyzed by using multiple regression
analysis. The results confirm that not only extrinsic bene-
fits (savings time and money) but also intrinsic benefits
(pleasure, novelty, and fashion involvement) have sig-
nificant positive effects on customers’ intention to con-
tinue purchasing through the Internet. The findings show
that people who consider both extrinsic and intrinsic
benefits of online purchasing were more likely to pur-
chase again in Internet shopping. Therefore, we call for
technological development to provide techniques and
services for ensuring online customer’s benefits that
minimize time and cost of purchasing, improve enjoy-
ment and pleasantness of online purchasing, and provide
means to help customers arouse their curiosity when
coming back to purchase again through Internet shopping.
Figure 1. Research results
Our findings imply that the perceived intrinsic benefits
in terms of pleasure and novelty are important for en-
couraging online customers to continue purchasing in
Internet shopping. Thus, it seems that these benefits
should be offered to online customers.
Customers found that they were delighted with their
experience of Internet shopping and their interacting with
Internet shopping stimulated their curiosity. Internet
shopping websites need to satisfy customers’ curiosity by,
for example, offering several options of payment, en-
hancing interactive and attractive interface, offering pro-
motions to customers, and displaying specific products or
content to a certain type of customer.
Online customers would come back to purchase again
if they got product or supplemental information. For
online customers who want to get product instructions,
the Internet shopping website should provide another
webpage. For example, a cosmetics online shopping web-
site could provide another webpage to instruct their cus-
tomers on how to use and apply make-up.
7. Limitations and Directions for Future Re-
search
Despite several significant findings, we acknowledge
three limitations in our study. First, our study did not fo-
cus on any products, services, or Internet shopping web-
sites. The empirical results for continuance intention may
be biased or awry. For example, the respondents may
have focused only on particular products/services or
products that are not sold on the Internet. The perceived
benefits factor influencing continuance intention in pur-
chasing through Internet shopping for a particular product,
service or Internet shopping website may be different
from those we asserted in this study. We should be cau-
tious in applying these results to an Internet shopping
website selling a particular product and service. Second,
the scope of this study is to focus on benefits in terms of
extrinsic and intrinsic benefits. There may be other fac-
tors that affect the continuance intention such as payment
modes and delivering time. Finally, the measures of per-
ceived benefits developed in this study are the first step in
exploring how customers’ intention to continue purchas-
ing in Internet shopping are influenced by their percep-
tions of benefits gained from purchasing through Internet
shopping. The measurement of social adjustment,
self-enhancement, and fashion involvement should be
further refined.
Future researchers may pursue a number of different
options. First, a longitudinal study may apply to study
developmental trends across the life span of consumer
perceptions and to observe the differences in their percep-
tions. The longitudinal study involves repeated studies
and observations of the same items over long periods of
time. Unlike cross-sectional data used in this study, lon-
gitudinal study can track the same people, and therefore
the differences observed in those people are less likely to
be the result of cultural differences across generations.
Second, data mining technique may apply to both
cross-sectional and longitudinal data in order to do cus-
tomer profiling, to predict customer preferences, and to
do trends analysis. Third, our model has been validated
R2 = 0.458
Intrinsic Factors
Extrinsic Factors
Money
Saving
Time
Saving
Pleasure,
novelty &
fashion in-
volvement
Continued
Purchasing
in Internet
Shopping
0.30
0.26
0.35

What are the Benefits of Continued Purchasing through the Internet? 109
A Study of South Korean Consumers
by and well explains South Korean online customers’
intention to continue purchasing through the Internet. To
generalize this model, it should be validated with respon-
dents from the bigger EC markets such as the USA and
China. Moreover, a comparative study of the repurchas-
ing intentions of online customers from different nation-
alities should be done on the basis of the same model. The
differences regarding the customers’ intention to continue
purchasing in Internet shopping will yield insights that
can help Internet shopping websites better retain custom-
ers in different world market segments.
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110 Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich, Noboru Sonehara and Hitoshi Okada
Vol. 39, No. 6, 2002, pp. 431-444.
Appendix A
Extrinsic benefits:
E1* Using Internet shopping is convenient.
E2* Using Internet shopping saves me time.
E3 Using Internet shopping would make it easier for
me to shop or find information.
E4* Using Internet shopping would enable me to
shop or find information more quickly than using
traditional stores.
E5* Using Internet shopping saves me money.
E6* Internet shopping offers lower prices than tradi-
tional stores for the same products.
E7* Internet shopping allows me to interact with
other customers in EC communities.
E8* I should be given chances to interact with other
like-minded people when I purchase through the
Internet.
E9* Internet shopping recommends other things to
purchase that other like-minded people appreci-
ate.
E10* Internet shopping allows me to exchange ideas
as well as compare experiences.
E11 Internet shopping recognizes me when I pur-
chase through the Internet again.
Intrinsic benefits:
I1* I enjoy using Internet shopping.
I2* I am very happy to purchase products through
Internet shopping.
I3* I am delighted with my experience of Internet
shopping.
I4* Interacting with Internet shopping stimulates my
curiosity.
I5* Internet shopping provides me with the products
and supplemental information that I am inter-
ested in.
I6 When I purchase through the Internet, Internet
shopping websites offer me options to perform
tasks in different ways.
I7 When I purchase through the Internet, it gives
me opportunities to make myself appear fash-
ionable.
I8* I like to boast of being the first one who pos-
sesses a product.
* Scales remained in exploratory factor analysis.
AUTHORS’ BIOGRAP HIES
Kanokwan Atchariyachanvanich is a postdoctoral researcher at National Institute of Informatics, Japan. She received
a BS in Information Technology from Assumption University, Thailand in 1999, an MS in Information Management
from the Asian Institute of Technology in 2001, and a PhD from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan
in 2007. Her research interests include critical factors in the success of electronic commerce and behavioral issues in
electronic commerce.
Hitoshi Okada is an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Informatics, Japan. He got his Bachelor of Public
Law (LLB) and Bachelor of Private Law (LLB) from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He completed his MA at the
Osaka School of International Public Policy at Osaka niversity and got his PhD in International Public Policy from
Osaka University, Japan. His current research topic is the law and economics of e-money and e-commerce.
Noboru Sonehara is a Professor of the Information and Society Research Division, at National Institute of Informatics
since 2004. Previously, he was Project Manager, Content Commerce Project, at NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories
from 2001 to 2004. He received a BE and ME from Shinshu University, Japan in 1976 and 1978, respectively. He re-
ceived a PhD in 1994.He received the IFS image coding excellent paper award from the Institute of Image Electronics
Engineers (IIEE) of Japan in 1993. He has been a Director of the Information and Society Research Division since
2006.