7. Conclusions
7.1. Contributions and implications Our study confirms the important role online reviews play, especially negatively distributed reviews, in determining purchase intention. It shows that the mechanism by which online reviews shape buyer's intention is by impacting their risk perception and shaping their attitude. The remarkably high proportion of variability explained in purchase intention (nearly 72%), the fact that our sample consisted of both students and members of the general population, and the simplicity of the final model involving risk and attitude, shows that our model has the potential to be robust. We found that even though perceived risk in the online transaction significantly impacts their uncertainty in the transaction, this uncertainty does not influence the purchase intention when their attitude is taken into account. In our opinion, this means that any model that attempts to understand the influence of online reviews on purchasing should take into account attitude toward the purchase. We consider this an important contribution of our study. Our study should also enrich researchers' understanding of risk perception in e-commerce. Our findings confirm our inital beliefs that the four risk perceptions are good predictors of online shoppers' overall risk perception in e-commerce. Our results appears to suggest that performance risk may be uppermost in online buyers' minds, followed by financial risk. This, however, may be influenced by product type and may be a potential source of study in the future.
