Future Research Directions

Future researchers may pursue a number of different options. First, developing a more appropriate measurement for IR would be highly useful. The new measurement can be employed to reevaluate the link between IR and PU. Second, to further investigate the generalizability of the model, future research should study the effects of variables, such as gender, income, computer literacy and Web access, on the structural paths hypothesized in the model. Previous research has proven gender as a moderator for IT diffusion and TAM (Gefen & Straub, 1997). Another research found that age, income, number of children, access speed, and household shopping responsibilities influence PC users' intention to shop online (Dillard, 1992). All of these evidences suggest that the Model of Consumer Acceptance of Virtual Stores can be further compared between different consumer groups. The differences between different online consumer groups regarding their perception about using virtual stores will yield insights that can help virtual stores better target the needs of different market segments. Third, each of the CSFs discussed in this study warrants more in depth study. While some CSFs such as service quality have been recurring issues in marketing and management information systems research, their implications to the virtual store phenomena require new perspective. Future research may choose to focus on one or more of the CSFs to generate more in depth knowledge that will provide both theoretical and practical applications. And finally, as we begin to understand the conceptualization of the virtual store phenomena, qualitative research will be very useful. As Yin (1989) pointed out, case studies are the preferred research method to answer the "how" and "why" questions. This study employed a quantitative research method to develop and validate a model of consumer acceptance of a virtual store; future qualitative studies on this topic can triangulate the reliability and validity of the findings of this study.