Received:
2022-12-11 | Accepted:
2023-03-17 | Published:
2023-03-30
Title
Analysis of factors influencing car purchases on the Internet by automotive customers in Germany
Abstract
This research aims to investigate various factors influencing the decision of automotive customers in Germany to buy a car on the Internet. The empirical study conducted mainly examines the influence of multiple factors such as employment status, gender, desire for advice when buying a car, price sensitivity, previous online vehicle purchasing experience, familiarity with online vehicle platforms, the intensity of general online shopping and age of the respondents on the degree of online vehicle purchasing behaviour. The scientific literature has produced only a few concrete studies in this regard. It is still being determined which factors are decisive for customers to buy their car online. Online vehicle purchasing behaviour was approximated using a Likert scale. Over 250 participants were surveyed in this process. The results were analysed by contrasting each influencing factor with online vehicle buying behaviour as part of a simple linear regression model. The T-test was then used to test each hypothesis for significance. A multivariate linear regression model was then constructed and retested with the significant influencing factors obtained. This showed that employment status, desire for advice when buying a car, having already made an online vehicle purchase, knowledge of online vehicle platforms, and general online shopping are (highly) significant and, therefore, strongly influence the online purchase decision of automotive customers in Germany. Future research should focus on comparing the results of this study for Germany and other more digital countries.
Keywords
automotive industry, automotive retail, digital transformation, customer behavior
JEL classifications
A23
, C12
, F14
URI
http://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/1071
DOI
Pages
340-361
Funding
This paper was created with the financial support of Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Business and Management. Supported by project FP-S-22-7924 "Strategický rozvoj podniku a podnikatelských přístupů v kontextu vývoje prostředí" (Strategic development of the enterprise and business approaches in the context of environmental development).
This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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