See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/264821458

How brand awareness affects online purchase intention: Considering the role
of perceived risk

Article  in  International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management · January 2012

DOI: 10.1504/IJECRM.2012.051878

CITATIONS READS

3 1,498

2 authors, including:

Nastaran Hajiheydari
University of Tehran
45 PUBLICATIONS   81 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

User Response to e-WOM in Social Networks: How to Predict a Content Influence in Twitter View project

Analyzing Social Networks Users' Behavior View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Nastaran Hajiheydari on 05 May 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

274 Int. J. Electronic Customer Relationship Management, Vol. 6, Nos. 3/4, 2012

How brand awareness affects online purchase

intention: considering the role of perceived risk

Novin Hashemi* and Nastaran Hajiheydari

University of Tehran,
14155-6311, Nasr Bridge,
Chamran Highway, Tehran, Iran
E-mail: novin.hashemi@gmail.com
E-mail: nhheidari@ut.ac.ir
*Corresponding author

Abstract: Electronic commerce is causing fundamental changes in almost all

the businesses. The consolidation of the tradition concepts like KM, CRM and
CKM with the e-commerce applications created new competition sources for
the companies. Although e-commerce is in the light of attention but still market
share of online purchase is not high. It was recommended internet retailing
websites to consider certain features, like CKM tools, and to build a familiar
brand in order to enhance customer’s trust and contribute in decreasing their
perceived risk. In this study, we explore the most common online CKM tools
and their effects on perceived risk in online purchase process and the influence
of brand awareness as an important mediating factor. The investigation has
been carried out in two different populations data in this study were gathered
through two questionnaires and were analysed using statistical analysis. Results
indicate that being familiar with the brand name influences the amount of
perceived risk by providing vital knowledge for the customers and increases
their online purchase intention eventually.

Keywords: e-commerce; customer knowledge management; CKM; online

purchase intention; OPI; perceived risk; brand awareness.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Hashemi, N. and

Hajiheydari, N. (2012) ‘How brand awareness affects online purchase
intention: considering the role of perceived risk’, Int. J. Electronic Customer
Relationship Management, Vol. 6, Nos. 3/4, pp.274–291.

Biographical notes: Novin Hashemi obtained her MA in Business

Management Field Marketing Branch from University of Tehran. She has
worked as a Business Analyst in Iranian industries and she has participated in
international conferences. Her current research interests are e-commerce,
customer knowledge management and consumer behaviour.

Nastaran Hajiheydari is an Assistant Professor of Business Management at

University of Tehran, Iran. She received her MSc and PhD in Information
Technology and System Management from University of Tehran and pursues
her research in information systems and business modelling. Her last
eight-year academic experience includes teaching in Management Faculty of
University of Tehran; as well as consulting and executive programme
development activities in Iranian public and private sector organisations. She
has published several papers in reputable journals and has been a Keynote
Speaker at several conferences, and programme/general chair of several others.

Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 275

1 Introduction

By the appearance of World Wide Web (WWW), the application of e-commerce has
emerged since the beginning of ‘90s. Yao (2004) believes that the advent of internet
caused the rapid growth of e-commerce and it is changing the nature of business as well.
So on one hand, electronic commerce and new technologies have changed customer
perceptions regarding geographical accessibility to service providers, thereby expanding
the reach of market areas (Cho, 2010). On the other hand, if companies convert data from
customers to knowledge and then, use this knowledge to build relationship with
customers, it can lead to loyalty, which entails profitability.
Therefore, companies try to improve their relationship with their valuable customers
by help of knowledge management (KM) which enables them to gain competitive
advantage by creating close and loyal customers which will not switch to rival companies
easily (Paquette, 2006). Newell (2003) suggests that the real value of the firm relies on
the value it creates for the customers and also the value that customers bring back to the
firm. In addition, attracting new customers is often more expensive than maintaining
them, and customer relationship management (CRM), if being conducted properly, is a
toll for increasing the profit. Furthermore, applying KM on CRM leads to customer
knowledge management (CKM), which simply could be defined as getting involved
knowledge from customer in an organisation’s value creation process through direct
contact (Sulaiman et al., 2011).
Today, knowledge from variety of customers could be obtained through a company
website. Thereby, e-commerce includes advantages for the firms and in order to obtain
these advantages, they should use websites which perform with high level of
e-commerce; so it is important for the companies to motivate their customers to share
their perception, needs, etc. online and, in the end, to conduct an online purchase.
Considering the capabilities included on a website, customers may not be willing to
complete a purchase process through a weak website or in contrast they might be
motivated if it is well-designed. Moreover, websites could be the first contact point
between a company and its customers. This shows the importance of the influence a
website might have on a customer. One of the capabilities on a website could be tools
which are used on it in order to manage knowledge from customers. Therefore, it is
important to notice that online purchase intention (OPI) of a customer could be
influenced by the CKM tools that a company might use on its website. Besides, the
company features could have a profound influence on the customers’ perceived risk too.
These features include factors such as brand and attracting target customers with previous
consumption experience both of which have strong effect on trust.
In this survey, by focusing on the risk perceived from the CKM tools, we aim to study
the influence of brand awareness on OPI. The remainder of this paper is organised as
follows. In Section 2, the literature was reviewed and previous studies regarding CKM,
e-commerce and CKM tools and, OPI and perceived risk were discussed. And in the end
of the section, the model used in this study and the hypothesis were defined. In Section 3,
the methodology and the measures used in the survey are explained and in Section 4
research findings are shown. Finally, in Section 5, the conclusion session ends this
article.
276 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

2 Literature review

2.1 Customer knowledge management

Spiegler (2000) in his proposed model argues that data become information when they
add value in some way, and then information becomes knowledge when it adds insight,
abstractive value, and better understanding.
In the literature, knowledge was categorised in two categories, explicit and tacit
knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). It has been argued that explicit knowledge is
documented, structured and externalised. It could be captured and shared through IT
while tacit knowledge lives in the human mind, behaviour, and perception. It develops
from people’s interactions and requires skill and practice. Tacit knowledge is
dynamically created and derived, internalised and experience-based and knowledge is the
product of the commutation of explicit and tacit knowledge (Martensson, 2000).
With knowledge the ability of the firms to enhance their product and services will
increase and they can deliver better value to their customers. Also they can solve their
issues through unification of scattered kinds of knowledge and lessons learned derived
from past experiences (Cepeda-Carrion, 2006). Furthermore, in order to improve decision
making and encourage better support, company’s corporate knowledge and information
assets should be managed so that the company would be able to provide this knowledge
to as many staff members as possible and business process (Bose and Sugumaran, 2003).
Rowley (2002) defined KM as follows: “knowledge management is concerned with
the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organization with a view
to furthering the organization’s objectives. The knowledge to be managed includes both
explicit, documented knowledge and tacit, subjective knowledge”. [Rowley, (2002),
p.269] KM cuts the cost and with better knowledge about the workplace, leads to safety
and less risk work environment (Long et al., 2005).
The importance of attracting customers and their satisfaction for every type of
businesses has been implied in previous studies. Also it was noted that fluctuations of
price and demand in business cycle could be reduced by a permanent and consistent
cooperative relationship with profitable customers and, In the long run, it could also
stabilise the business environment (Lin et al., 2006). That is why CRM is an inevitable
part of almost any business. However, not only transactional data is required for CRM
processes but also a significant amount of knowledge is needed.
CRM was proposed first along with relationship marketing concept and it is an
interactive process that achieves an optimum balance between corporate investments and
the satisfaction of customer needs to generate the maximum profit (Gebert et al., 2003).
CRM processes have been considered as semi structured and unstructured processes
meanwhile being knowledge intensive. This characteristic requires CRM to acquire,
disseminate and store customers’ related knowledge through employment of KM
techniques (Bueren et al., 2005).
Reinforcement of the KM and CRM systems is vital for the organisation. Since a
satisfactory employment of CRM and KM enables them to obtain value-added
knowledge for their customers as well as themselves (Stefanou et al., 2003). Therefore,
maintaining a good relationship with customers requires a company to continuously be in
touch with its customers, and be flexible in providing market offerings for customers’
changing needs. Deliberate management of ‘customer knowledge’ is required for this
 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 277

purpose (Davenport et al., 2001). CKM is a concept in which both CRM and KM are
conducted simultaneously in order to build a strong relationship with customers.
Three flows of information in CKM were identified:
1 Knowledge ‘for’ customers: satisfies customers’ requirements for knowledge about
products, the market, and other relevant items.
2 Knowledge ‘about’ customers: captures customers’ background, motivation,
expectation, and preference for products or services.
3 Knowledge ‘from’ customers: understands customers’ needs pattern and/or
consumption experience of products and/or services (Su et al., 2006)
At first glance, CKM might look like another name for CRM and KM but for employing
CKM properly other consideration must be done. In a table of comparison, Gibbert et al.
(2002) in their study have identified key variables and pointed out the differences in each
concept.

2.2 E-commerce and CKM tools

The emergence of the internet has fuelled the rapid growth of e-commerce and it is
causing fundamental changes in the various industries. Rarely an industry could be found
that remained untouched by the e-commerce revolution, and this, in turn, is changing the
nature of business (Yao, 2004). It has been discussed in previous studies that successful
adaptation of e-commerce can lead to improved efficiencies, growth in market share,
expansion into new markets, or simply survival in competitive markets (Ferguson et al.,
2010). E-commerce was defined as an interactive function between the customer and the
company (Wen et al., 2003) which provides the possibility to present company products
and services on global market more easily to shorten the manufacturing cycle and to
improve the spread of information (Lewis, 2001). This leads to a two-way online
communication and interaction, and assists customers in saving time and money and
provides them with more help functions.
Decision-making, e-commerce systems have many benefits usages for businesses that
make them attractive to use. In fact, e-commerce expanded the marketing reach and range
of services that customers themselves can perform without direct human assistance (i.e.,
changing address, securing a credit card or loan, learning from other customers,
personalising a service agreement, etc.). E-commerce tools also could be used to place
and accept orders, negotiate terms and prices, track order and delivery status, make and
receive payments, access and update accounts, and ask and provide product and service
supports.
Hence, extensive communication and dialogue between the members has been
provided by the e-commerce and helped them to improve, develop, and transfer
knowledge by contributing to establishment of a flexible, distinctive, and effective
knowledge system. KM not only occurs within or across firms and organisations, but it
also came about in the layer of an e-commerce community (Wang, 2010) as a
consequence, one important source for KM happens to be web-based customer data.
Nowadays, the volume of qualitive data available via corporate websites is growing and
firms are constantly looking forward to extracting and understanding user’s thought
278 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

processes, wants, needs and purchase intentions (Romano and Fjermestad, 2003) through
these data in a cost-effective way.
Previously, by applying electronic CKM model which was proposed by Su, and
online purchase process model; a framework was discussed, in which steps of the CKM
process and its accordance with online transaction process has been provided. Besides,
prevalent tools that could be used by companies and customers in each step were
introduced (Hashemi and Hajiheydari, 2011). With the help of these tools, online data
could be collected and transformed into useful knowledge for companies. In present
survey, we concentrate on three most useful CKM tools [shared data bases (SDB),
document repositories (DR) and work flow applications (WFA)]. Most of firms use one
or more of these tools on their websites and effective application of these tools could
contribute to better respond to customers’ needs and expectations. These tools were
defined as follows:
• Shared databases: they enable businesses’ partners and customers to be able to view
and update databases. For example, Cisco Systems provides its customers access to
the same internal database that is used by its employees (Lopez-Nicolas and
Molina-Castillo, 2008).
• Document repositories (knowledge repositories): they store documents with
knowledge embedded in them and may also be accessed via firms’ websites so that
external agents can gain access to important catalogues, manuals and documents to
make buying decisions. The objective is to externalise knowledge, store it in
repositories and make it explicit and accessible, for later and broader access, across
the organisation via the corporate intranet, as an example of a codification strategy
for managing knowledge. For instance, Benetton provides web users (through
http://www.benetton.com) with important documents, such as their product catalogue
photo gallery, videos showing its infrastructure, or its corporate social responsibility
policy (Lopez-Nicolas and Molina-Castillo, 2008).
• Workflow applications: These may defined as the automation of a business
process, in whole or part, during which documents, information or tasks are passed
from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules
Some companies are beginning to notify customers, by e-mail or SMS, when the
product or service provided gets to the next step in the production and delivery
processes. For example, UPS offers parcel tracking services through
http://www.ups.com (Lopez-Nicolas and Molina-Castillo, 2008).

2.3 OPI and perceived risk

According to Pavlou (2003), OPI was defined as a situation where a consumer is willing
and intending to make online transactions. Online transactions are consisted of three steps
which are information retrieval, information transfer and product purchase (Lin et al.,
2006). One of the most important influential factors on OPI is perceived risk. According
to Kim et al. (2008), consumers’ perceived risk is a consumer’s belief about potential
uncertain negative outcomes from the e-transaction (Kim et al., 2008). Basically, risk can
be associated with the product and risk associated with the place where the product
is offered, and in e-commerce the retail channel is the internet (Lopez-Nicolas and
Molina-Castillo, 2008). Internet is an open and complicated network, which has
 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 279

expanded the control of consumers. OPI was also referred to as consumer’s intention to
build an online relationship and have transactions with a web retailer (Lin et al., 2006). It
was indicated that consumers perceive higher risk when shopping online and they
perceive more different risks comparing with classic shopping setting, such as privacy
risk which may not occur in offline shopping setting (Yang and Zhang, 2009). In
behaviour literature, perceived risk is one of the costs of choice and, consumers perceive
risk as they face uncertainty and undesirable consequences due to unsuitable decision
(Lin et al., 2006) as such, it forms an integral part of overall decision-making, if choices
are made on cost-benefit basis (Conchar et al., 2004). The higher perceive risk, the lower
their shopping intention will be (Yang and Zhang, 2009). However, there are factors
which could reduce the level of perceived risk. Namely, the company which presents a
website and offer its products or services based on online channels could be of
importance since perceptions of risk in the online marketplace can be reduced by online
trust, because perceived risk also is a strong trust antecedent (Lin et al., 2006). For
instance, offering products and services online by a well known brand, due to the
previous trust built, might increase OPI of the customers and decrease the amount of risk
perceived by them.

Figure 1 Research conceptual model: indicating the relationship between brand awareness,
perceived risk and OPI

Risk
preference

Brand
awareness H3

H7 Perceived risk
Knowledge from each CKM
about tool
internet H4 H2
H1
Online
purchase
intention
H6

Internet H5
preference

Therefore, we conclude customers may or may not have the intention to purchase
products they need from an online source. There are many factors that could affect their
intention. In this study as the basis, we investigated the effect of perceived risk from
CKM tools on customers’ intention to shop online along with some main characteristics
of the consumer, using the model Lopez-Nicolas and Molina-Castillo (2008) proposed in
their study (Figure 1). Following that, by comparing the results which was extracted from
280 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

two populations our main purpose, to evaluate the effect of customers’ awareness of the
brand as a mediator variable on perceived risk, was derived.
As shown in Figure 1, below are the hypothesis defined in this research:
H1 The customer’s perceived risk associated to each CKM tool hosted on a website
will be different.
H2 The higher the customer’s perceived risk associated with a CKM tool hosted in a
website, the lower the purchase intention from that customer.
H3 The higher the user’s risk preference (RP), the higher the perceived risk associated
with a CKM tool hosted in a website.
H4 The higher the user’s internet knowledge (IK), the lower the perceived risk
associated with a CKM tool hosted in a website.
H5 The higher the user’s internet preference, the higher the purchase intention from the
user.
H6 The higher the user’s IK, the higher the user’s internet preference.
H7 Brand awareness mediates the relationship between IK and perceived risk.

3 Methodology

3.1 Sample and data collection

In order to examine the hypothesis, we conducted an experiment among online
customers. A sample of 238 university students (undergraduate, graduate and PhD
candidates) from different courses in universities of Tehran city and 400 customers
among members of E-Customers Club of Mellat bank were chosen. The sample was
selected with an attempt to concentrate on those who are knowledgeable about online
purchase and internet and the tools that have been investigated in this research. Two
self-administered questionnaires were prepared, and evaluated by a focus group in this
research which is including eight university professors and three PhD students in IT and
business fields. A number of suggestions were obtained on how to improve the
questionnaires substantially. Once the modifications were included, the questionnaires
were given to the students and sent to customers of the Mellat bank by e-mail. The survey
instrument was designed in order to evaluate the hypothesis based on literature.

3.2 Measure development and scale properties

In this survey, data were collected through two questionnaires. The questionnaires were
modified in a way that it was comprehendible by the members of each population. The
variables were measured using a five point Likert spectrum which was ranked from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Regarding the nature of the individual parameters and the internal structure of the
model, all factor loadings were significant and all of them exceeded the 0.7 level required
as a basis for research.
 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 281

3.3 Reliability
In order to examine the reliability of the questionnaires, Cronbach’s alpha was calculated
and it was more than 0.7 for each item and overall questionnaires (Table 1) which shows
acceptable reliability of them (George and Mallery, 2003).

Table 1 Research data reliability index

Variable Cronbach’s alpha (students) Cronbach’s alpha (Mellat bank)

Internet knowledge 0.750 0.915
Internet preference 0.821 0.802
Risk preference 0.828 0.788
Perceived risk from 0.776 0.744
shared databases
Perceived risk from 0.826 0.884
document repositories
Perceived risk from 0.894 0.895
workflow applications
Online purchase 0.720 0.827
intention-SHDB
Online purchase 0.851 0.886
intention-DR
Online purchase 0.875 0.806
intention-WFA
Total 0.793 0.941

3.4 Validity

Content validity was examined by the focus group including professors and PhD students
who reviewed the items and commented on them. Suggestions received from experts
were implied to improve the content and face validity and the final questionnaires were
used by the researchers.
Prior to testing the hypotheses, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on both
dependent and independent variables separately in each population and for each model
(shared database model, document repositories model and workflow application model).
All of the factor loadings in measurement models were significant exceeded cut-off value
of 0.5, suggested by Straub (1989). For the samples of more than 200 observations at a
0.05 level of significance (p < 0.05) it should also be noted that, there are suggestions in
the literature of accepting a threshold of 0.35 for factor loadings (Ryu et al., 2003). Also
all the t-values were significant (t-value > 1.96 or t-value < –1.96), providing evidence of
convergent validity.
282 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

3.5 Correlations
Due to the number of data collected which was considerable, spearman correlation
coefficient was calculated and evaluated using SPSS programme and the result was as
follows in the student society:
1 Regarding the perceived risk of each CKM tool and RP, it was found that correlation
only exists among RP and perceived risk of SDB.
2 Knowledge from internet was not correlated with perceived risk of any of the CKM
tools.
3 Regarding perceived risk from CKM tool and OPI, correlation only does not exist
among perceived risk of SDB and OPI.
4 Among knowledge about internet and internet preference, and also among internet
preference and OPI significant correlation exists.
And in the e-customer Club of the Mellat bank:
1 Regarding perceived risk from CKM tools and RP, only perceived risk of SDB and
RP were significantly correlated.
2 Correlation exists among other related variables which supposed in Figure 1.

4 Research findings

4.1 Paired test

The first hypothesis was examined using paired test in SPSS programme. Results indicate
that in the sample of the students, the amount of risk perceived from document
repositories and workflow applications is not significantly different (Sig. > 5%) and the
difference is significant among other CKM tools. However, the sig was slightly higher
than the cut of point (sig = 7%).
In the sample of electronic customers of Mellat bank, the amount of risk perceived
from CKM tools is significantly different. So the first hypothesis, (the customer’s
perceived risk associated to each CKM tool hosted on a website will be different), with a
minor connivance, was supported.

4.2 Overall model fit

In order to assess whether the models were fitted the data to a satisfactory level, the fit
indices were calculated using CFA. The indices were shown good fit of the models as all
the indices were in the acceptable range or marginally close to the recommended value
(x2/df< 3, RMSEA < 0.08, GFI > 0.8, AGFI > 0.8, NFI > 0.9, and CFI > 0.9).
 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 283

4.2.1 Path analysis

In order to test the hypothesis in this research, path analysis in LISREL programme was
used. As it is shown in the table 2, the indices indicate a good fit of the models.
Table 2 Overall model fit

CKM
Sample RMSEA NFI CFI GFI AGFI
tool
Students SDB 2.72** 0/085* 0/88* 0.92** 0/87** 0/82**
DR 2.15** 0/070** 0/91** 0/95** 0/87** 0/85**
WFA 2.40** 0/077** 0/90** 0/94** 0/88** 0/84**
Mellat SDB 3.64* 0/078** 0/94** 0/95** 0/90** 0/86**
bank DR 3.01* 0/071** 0/94** 0/96** 0/91** 0/88**
WFA 2.95** 0/070** 0/95** 0/96** 0/91** 0/88**
Recommended 3 or less 0/08 or 0/9 or 0/9 or 0/8 or 0/8 or
value for fit suggested less higher higher higher higher
indices by Hoe suggested suggested suggested suggested suggested
(2008) by Hoe by Hoe by Hoe by Ryu by Ryu
(2008) (2008) (2008) et al. et al.
(2003) (2003)
Notes: *Marginal; **accepted

4.3 Models and hypothesis analysis

Results indicate that, the second hypothesis only was not supported about shared
databases in the sample of students. The third hypothesis was not supported in both
sample groups. The forth hypothesis was not supported in the sample of the students and
it was supported in the sample of the e-customers club of the Mellat bank. The fifth and
sixth hypotheses were both supported in both sample groups.
Comparing the models from two populations, a basic difference detected. The effect
of knowledge about internet on amount of risk perceived by the customers is significant,
only where the company and products are known by customers. Hence, the seventh
hypothesis was supported based on these data.
Below this relationship was demonstrated for each model in Figures 2 and 3. In this
study, as it was mentioned in Section 4.1, we examined three distinct popular CKM tools
(shared databases, document repositories and workflow applications) and risk perceived
from them by customers. Results illuminate that perceived risk between these tools are
different from each other and it differs tremendously from student sample to bank
customer. To be more declared, bank customers’ IK leads to less perceived risk from
tools, whereas students’ knowledge about internet does not affect the amount of risk they
realise from a website. The overall model and relationships also could be found in the
Appendix.
284 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

Figure 2 The relationship between IK and perceived risk from CKM tools in student sample

IK  0.58 SHDB

IK  –0.79 SHDB 

IK  –1.44 WFA

Figure 3 The relationship between IK and perceived risk from CKM tools in Mellat Bank
Customers sample

IK  7.78 SHDB

IK  –0.79 DR

IK  7.97 WFA

5 Conclusions

There are a growing number of firms starting to organise and participate in e-commerce
communities to improve their capability and knowledge (Wang, 2010). They gather
useful data from customers through online tools and transfer them into appropriate
knowledge. A customer have complicated needs and wants which are sensitive and
changing, if a firm can understand them and make efforts to fulfil them and provide
friendly services then the customers will be more supportive to the enterprise (Liao et al.,
 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 285

2010). Therefore, companies should try to examine customer’s future expectation and
demands through their knowledge and manage this knowledge to gain more competitive
advantages which requires CKM. CKM is still passing pre maturity age with lots of
theories which needs to observe the application practicality (Sulaiman et al., 2011). But it
could be noticed that, it is becoming a common tool for marketing expansion and market
reach. Online tools also enhanced CKM applications in companies.
We should consider that despite of intensive usage of CKM tools and their
application in marketing, R&D and CRM, they may damage customer intention toward
online purchase. In other words, as the importance and widespread implementation of
CKM tools in real business environment has been proved, it should be kept in mind that
some other factors can influence customer perception regarding these tools.
In this research, we investigated perceived risk of customers from common online
CKM tools and their effect on OPI with this view that, brand awareness might influence
perceived risk since it further enhance customers’ internet trust. So we suppose that a
relationship between brand awareness and risk could be sensed, specifically a hypothesis
(H7) is defined as: “Brand awareness mediates the relationship between internet
knowledge and perceived risk.”
Findings of this research from two populations indicate our hypothesis valid.
That is to say among electric customers of Mellat bank where customers are aware of
the business they are going to deal with on the website, their knowledge about internet
might affect amount of risk they perceive from the website substantially (effect higher
than 40%), while if they will not be addressed about which company they are going to
interact with, the effect of their knowledge about internet on the amount of risk perceived
by them, might be ignored.
The survey that previously has been done in the Italy by Lopez-Nicolas and
Molina-Castillo (2008) showed that knowledge about internet among students could not
affect the risk perceived by them from workflow applications and the effect it had on
other CKM tools was low (less than 15%). That is, the effect of brand awareness is
significant enough to be considered as an important variable, that mediates the
relationship between knowledge about internet and perceived risk, and the amount of risk
perceived will eventually influence the customers’ intention to conduct an online
purchase. Managers should keep in mind that while customers might be aware of the
online procedures and have enough knowledge and experience to use them, they will not
relate their positive experience from other transactions to a new transaction on the net,
unless they see it as assuring as the previous ones.
Similarly, it was indicated in the previous studies that consumers perceive risks
associated with purchasing online and their perceptions are likely to affect purchase
intention. In addition, customers experience with a product or brand was considered as
one of the important resources that influence consumer perceived risk (Ha, 2002).
Limited research, however, has been done on risk related to branded and non-branded
retailer websites (Ward et al., 2008). Ward et al. (2008) revealed in their past study
among customers who have access to the internet in South Africa, regarding brand,
perceived risk and OPI that brand knowledge has a direct effect on a consumer’s
intention to purchase from an online retailer and that this relationship between brand
knowledge and intent to purchase online is mediated by perceived risk. However, she
further stated that the brand image dimension of brand knowledge has an influence on a
consumer’s purchase intention from both the branded and non-branded websites, whereas
286 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

the brand awareness dimension of brand knowledge does not influence purchase intention
at all. (Ibid) It was, therefore, concluded that an increased awareness of a branded
website will not increase their likelihood of purchase from it. Hence, as our research
shows, an important factor which could lead companies to a better communication and
signalling to their potential customers might have been neglected. This difference in the
results could be due to the characteristic of the samples chosen in both studies. Also it
could be inferred that, for a customer, who is searching for the slightest clue in order to
be able to trust an online retailer to do a purchase, being aware of the fact that a website
was presented by a well-known brand could be relieving and this could indirectly, as a
mediating variable, significantly affect their perceived risk and eventually, their intention
to purchase online from a website.
So we suggest that the effect of brand awareness should be considered in future
studies and it could be included as a mediator variable in the model. Since it shows the
importance of brand awareness and the effect it has on e-commerce adoption. The most
important implications of this study could be for marketing managers. They could realise
that it is vital for a company to first impose a reputation among customers, namely, in the
form of brand awareness, which in turn have significant impact on customers’ intention
toward online transactions. The benefits of building trust and a strong brand have been
proposed in previous studies. Some possible benefits of a strong brand are greater
customer loyalty and less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions and marketing
crises, larger margins as well as more favourable customer response to price increases
and decreases, greater trade or intermediary cooperation and support, increased marketing
communication effectiveness, and licensing and brand-extension opportunities (Keller,
2001). Trust is also one of the most frequently cited reasons for consumers not willing to
purchase online (Lee and Turban, 2001).
Since online consumers are required to share personal detail (such as mailing address,
telephone number), financial information (such as credit card numbers), and suffer from
the risk of products or services not matching the description on the website, and the risk
of damage during the delivery process, etc. (Sonja and Ewald, 2003), it is important to
encourage them by proper signals to complete their online shopping experience, and that
signal could be a familiar brand which reinforce trust between the company and its
customers. We imply online businesses concentrate on trust establishing for their
customers and make the brand popular in their target market prior to initiate investing on
CKM tools.
Furthermore, from this study, we offer following suggestion regarding the CKM
online tools. Embedding shared databases on a website conveys the highest amount of
perceived risk to the online customers, comparing to other online tools tested in this
survey. Therefore, it is vital for the companies to assure their customers about the
information security or, companies could consider more restricted usage of this tool to
prevent negative influence from it on customers’ perception.
Also using work flow applications on banking websites is a good risk reliever. Online
customers in banking systems need to be ensured that the processes will be carried out
properly and they should be informed about the progress of the procedures.
In the end, the research reported here has admitted limitations. Because the study was
focused on consumers’ perceived information in e-customers club of Mellat Bank and
students in universities of Tehran who are familiar with online purchase, the findings may
not be generalised to the many types of retailers in e-commerce. Moreover, the variables
investigated in our study is limited to the RP, IK, perceived risk, brand awareness,
 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 287

internet preference and OPI, there might be other factors, like demographic factors,
which could have had effects on our research model and variables.

References
Bose, R. and Sugumaran, V. (2003) ‘Application of knowledge management technology in
customer relationship management’, Knowledge and Process Management, Vol. 10, No. 1,
pp.3–17.
Bueren, A., Schierholz, R., Kolbe, L.M. and Brenner, W. (2005) ‘Improving performance of
customer-processes with knowledge management’, Business Process Management Journal,
Vol. 11, No. 5, pp.573–588.
Cepeda-Carrion, G. (2006) ‘Competitive advantage of knowledge management’, Encyclopedia of
Knowledge Management, pp.34–43, Idea Group Inc.
Cho, S. (2010) ‘Perceived risk and customer needs of geographical accessibility in electronic
commerce’, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp.495–506.
Conchar, M., Zinkhan, G., Peters, C. and Olavarrieta, S. (2004) ‘An integrated framework for the
conceptualization of consumers’ perceived-risk processing’, Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp.418–436.
Davenport, T., Harris, J. and Kohli, A. (2001) ‘How do they know their customers so well?’, MIT
Sloan Management Review, Winter, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp.63–73.
Ferguson, C., Finn, F., Hall, H. and Pinnuck, M. (2010) ‘Speculation and e-commerce: the long and
the short of IT’, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Vol. 11, No. 2,
pp.79–104.
Gebert, H., Geib, M., Kolbe, L. and Brenner, W. (2003) ‘Knowledge – enabled customer
relationship management: integrating customer relationship and knowledge management
concepts (1)’, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp.107–123.
George, D. and Mallery, P. (2003) SPSS for Windows Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference,
11.0 update 4th ed., Allyn & Bacon, Boston.
Gibbert, M., Leibold, M. and Probst, G. (2002) ‘Five styles of customer knowledge management,
and how smart companies use them to create value’, European Management Journal, Vol. 20,
No. 5, pp.459–469.
Ha, H-Y. (2002) ‘The effects of consumer risk perception on pre-purchase information in online
auctions: brand, word-of-mouth, and customized information’, Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, Vol. 8, No. 1, DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002.tb00160.x.
Hashemi, N. and Hajiheydari, N. (2011) ‘Customer knowledge management framework in
e-commerce’, in ICEME2011: Proceeding of the International Conference on E-business,
Management and Economics, Dubai, Dubai, pp.129–133.
Hoe, S. (2008) ‘Issues and procedures in adopting structural equation modeling technique’, Journal
of Applied Quantitative Methods, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.76–83.
Keller, K. (2001) ‘Building customer-based brand equity: a blueprint for creating strong brands’,
Marketing Science Review Working Paper Series, pp.1–107.
Kim, D., Ferrin, D. and Rao, H. (2008) ‘A trust-based consumer decision-making model in
electronic commerce: the role of trust, perceived risk, and their antecedents’, Decision Support
Systems, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp.544–564.
Lee, M. and Turban, E. (2001) ‘A trust model for consumer internet shopping’, International
Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.75–91.
Lewis, I. (2001) ‘Logistics and electronic commerce: an inter-organizational systems perspective’,
Transportation Journal, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp.5–13.
288 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

Liao, S., Chen, Y. and Deng, M. (2010) ‘Mining customer knowledge for tourism new product
development and customer relationship management’, Expert Systems with Applications,
Vol. 37, No. 6, pp.4212–4223.
Lin, Y., Hwan-Yann, S. and Shihen, C. (2006) ‘A knowledge-enabled procedure for customer
relationship management’, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 35, No. 5, pp.446–456.
Long, L.N., Marling, L., Bailey, M., DeLoach, R. and Secor, D. (2005) ‘Understanding the
application of knowledge management in a technology driven industry’, American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Lopez-Nicolas, C. and Molina-Castillo, F. (2008) ‘Customer knowledge management and
e-commerce: the role of customer perceived risk’, International Journal of Information
Management, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.102–113.
Martensson, M. (2000) ‘A critical review of knowledge management as a management tool’,
Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp.294–216.
Newell, F. (2003) Why CRM Doesn’t Work: How to Win by Letting Customers Manage the
Relationship, Kogan Page, London.
Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995) The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press,
Oxford, New York.
Paquette, S. (2006) ‘Customer knowledge management’, Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management,
pp.90–96, Idea Group Inc.
Pavlou, P.A. (2003) ‘Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce: integrating trust and risk with
the technology acceptance model’, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 7,
No. 3, pp.101–34.
Romano, N. and Fjermestad, J. (2003) ‘Electronic commerce customer relationship management: a
research agenda’, Information Technology and Management, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.233–258.
Rowley, J. (2002) ‘Reflections on customer knowledge management in e-business’, Qualitative
Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp.268–280.
Ryu, S., Ho, H. and Han, I. (2003) ‘Knowledge sharing behavior of physicians in hospitals’, Expert
Systems with Applications, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp.113–122.
Sonja, G.K. and Ewald, A.K. (2003) ‘Empirical research in on-line trust: a review and critical
assessment’, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 58, No. 6, pp.783–812.
Spiegler, I. (2000) ‘knowledge management: a new idea or a recycled concept?’, Communication of
the Association for Information Systems, Article 14, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.1–24.
Stefanou, C., Saramaniotis, C. and Stafyla, A. (2003) ‘CRM and customer-centric knowledge: an
empirical research’, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp.617–634.
Straub, D. (1989) ‘Validating instruments in MIS research’, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2,
pp.147–169.
Su, C., Chen, Y. and Sha, D. (2006) ‘Linking innovative product development with customer
knowledge: a data-mining approach’, Technovation, Vol. 26, No. 7, pp.784–795.
Sulaiman, S., Ariffin, M., Esmaeilian, G., Faghihi, K. and Baharudin, B. (2011) ‘Customer
knowledge management application in Malaysian mobile service providers’, Procedia
Engineering, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp.3891–3895.
Wang, J. (2010) ‘E-commerce communities as knowledge bases for firms’, Electronic Commerce
Research and Applications, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp.335–345.
Ward, S-J., Gerber, C. and Boshoff, C. (2008) The Consumer Perceived Risk Associated with the
Intention to Purchase Online, Master thesis, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch,
South Africa.
Wen, D., Yang, C., Cheng, Y., Li, J., Liu, Z. and Sun, Q., (2003) ‘Comparison of developmental
capacity for intra- and interspecies cloned cat (Felis catus) embryos’, Molecular Reproduction
and Development, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp.38–45.
Yang, Y. and Zhang, J. (2009) ‘Discussion on the dimensions of consumers’ perceived risk in
mobile service’, in Proceeding of Eighth International Conference on Mobile Business,
Dalian, China, pp.261–266.
 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 289

Yao, J. (2004) ‘E-commerce adoption of insurance companies in New Zealand’, Journal of

Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 5, No 1, pp.54–61.

Appendix

A1 CKM tools models in student sample

Figure 4 SDB model: relationship between risk preferences (RPs), internet knowledge (IK),
perceived risk from shared data bases (SDB), internet preference (IP), and online
purchase intention (OPI) (see online version for colours)

Notes: Chi-square = 307.45, df = 113, p-value = 0.00000, RMSEA = 0.085

Figure 5 Document repositories model: relationship between risk preferences (RP), internet
knowledge (IK), perceived risk from document repositories (DR), internet preference
(IP), and online purchase intention (OPI) (see online version for colours)

Notes: Chi-square = 241.23, df = 112, p-value = 0.00000, RMSEA = 0.070

290 N. Hashemi and N. Hajiheydari

Figure 6 Work flow applications model: relationship between risk preferences (RP), internet
knowledge (IK), perceived risk from work flow applications (WFA), internet preference
(IP), and online purchase intention (OPI) (see online version for colours)

Notes: Chi-square = 271.27, df = 113, p-value = 0.00000, RMSEA = 0.077

A2 CKM tools models in Mellat Bank’s customer sample

Figure 7 Work flow applications model: relationship between risk preferences (RP), internet
knowledge (IK), perceived risk from work flow applications (WFA), internet preference
(IP), and online purchase intention (OPI) (see online version for colours)

Notes: Chi-square = 372.14, df = 109, p-value = 0.00000, RMSEA = 0.078

 How brand awareness affects online purchase intention 291

Figure 8 Document repositories model: relationship between risk preferences (RP), internet
knowledge (IK), perceived risk from document repositories (DR), internet preference
(IP), and online purchase intention (OPI) (see online version for colours)

Notes: Chi-square = 331.24, df = 110, p-value = 0.00000, RMSEA = 0.071

Figure 9 Work flow applications model: relationship between risk preferences (RP), internet
knowledge (IK), perceived risk from work flow applications (WFA), internet preference
(IP), and online purchase intention (OPI) (see online version for colours)

Notes: Chi-square = 324.81, df = 110, p-value = 0.00000, RMSEA = 0.070

View publication stats