An Empirical Study on Consumer Acceptance of Digital Products and Physical Products in Electronic Markets

Although E-Commerce has marketability as well as usefulness, there are few empirical studies on consumer acceptance using the transaction cost theory. This paper suggests that consumer product acceptance is determined by the difference of transaction cost. And the uncertainty and asset specificity which determine the transaction cost can affect the consumer acceptance of products. In addition, we focus on the different characteristics of digital and physical products in electronic markets. We found that transaction cost, uncertainty, and asset specificity have a significant effect on consumer product acceptance of digital products, while only transaction costs and uncertainty have a significant effect on consumer product acceptance of physical products. In consequence we provide companies to some guidelines of strategic planning for the development of products in electronic markets.