Vol 21 | Issue 2 | 208-223
Dr Ayub Serubugo
Faculty of Management Sciences
Durban University of Technology – South Africa
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9296-7996
serubugoa@gmail.com
Dr Soobramoney Penceliah*
Faculty of Business and Management Sciences
Cape Peninsula University of Technology – South Africa
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3109-1780
penceliahs@cput.ac.za
*Corresponding author
Abstract
Digital transformation has improved online shopping from the beginning of the 20th century. Online businesses have exponentially expanded the level of service delivery with the help of decision support systems using user digital footprint. E-consumer online behavioural data is progressively becoming a valuable asset for precise, granular online targeting. Consumers are being monitored to predict real-time demand based on browsing behavioural surplus. This paper assessed the influence of electronic consumer (e-consumer) empowerment on perceived trust, purchase intention, and the effects of data harvesting. A cross-sectional quantitative approach was used with an online survey of 400 respondents. Data was analysed using SPSS and R statistics with Structural equation modelling. The findings showed that electronic consumer empowerment influenced perceived trust, purchase intention, and the effects of data harvesting, which led to online self-disclosures used in real-time predictions. The results revealed that while some e-consumers were aware of free data exploitation, most e-consumers did not notice that their online data was being harvested and exploited by online retailers. This paper illuminated the role of e-consumer empowerment in optimising data harvesting to improve personalised customer service in the data-driven digital economy. These findings may assist digitalised companies to initiate loyalty programmes to compensate e-consumers for data resource input.
Keywords: digital transformation, online shopping, consumer behaviour, consumer data, data mining.
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