University of Twente Student Theses

Login

Targeting Silver Surfer : E-Shopping 2.0: factors that support or impede the participation of Silver Surfer

Rohrmann, Rafael Sebastian (2016) Targeting Silver Surfer : E-Shopping 2.0: factors that support or impede the participation of Silver Surfer.

[img] PDF
1MB
Abstract:Demographic change is affecting our lives in many ways. The economy, in particular, must transform itself to secure its future by conforming to new conditions. Next to demographic change, the impact of digitization has increased enormously in the past few years: e-commerce and, in particular, e-shopping are already expanding, and soon e-commerce will be at the centre of the modern economy. Although demographic change and its consequences are well known, as well as the financial power of the elderly—called Silver Surfer in online marketing parlance—what is little known is how to target them right now. The question is: What are the factors that support or affect their access to and participation in e-shopping? The aim of this research is to investigate those determining factors that support the intention of Silver Surfers in Germany to participate in e-shopping. Based on a theoretical framework, it has been assumed that factors such as usability, website structure, digital skills, knowledge, trust, privacy, service quality, frequency, interactivity and relative advantage would influence the dependent variable ‘intention to participate online.’ To measure the impact of those possible factors a online survey based on a Likert scale was created. A total of 176 Silver Surfers participated in the survey. Later on, the results of the survey were described and interpreted through both, factor analysis and regression. The results showed that initially supposed dependent variables exercise any influence on the intention to participate online. However, factor analysis showed that new composed factors do influence the intention to participate. Ultimately, this study showed that the factors ‘digital literacy,’ ‘customer service benefits’ and ‘relative advantage’ decisively influence the intentions of Silver Surfer to participate online. Moreover, a comparison with younger users has been conducted, which showed that the factors contributing to participation differ between the age groups.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/71571
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page