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GENERATION Y: THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIABLES IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
Abstract
To succeed in the highly competitive online environment, it is of the utmost importance to understand different attributes affecting consumers' online buying behaviour. In this context, the main purpose of the paper was to investigate the relation between features of Generation Y online buying behaviour and socio-psychological variables. The data was collected through survey questionnaire using the purposive sample of 515 Croatian Generation Y consumers from the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The empirical survey was carried out in March and April 2014. Various multivariate statistical analyses were used such as factor analysis and analysis of variance. The findings revealed that Generation Y online consumers were influenced by three major factors, namely compulsiveness, impulsiveness and functionality. Furthermore, the analysis showed significant differences between compulsiveness, impulsiveness and functionality factor, and socio-psychological variables (social status, fashion interest and binge eating). The results indicated that compulsive and impulsive consumers associated their online purchases with a higher social status, stronger fashion interest and binge eating. On the other hand, the findings showed that Generation Y consumers who primarily made their purchase online due to functionality exhibited a strong interest in fashion and linked online purchases with a higher social status. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the functionality factor and a binge eating disorder. These findings may be useful to online retailers and internet marketers to recognize the role of socio-psychological variables in an online environment in order to foster more positive attitudes towards online buying enhance the overall online shopping experience and increase online buying intentions.
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