Meta-analysis for online retail performance

Abstract

With continuous rise of business value and importance of online retail business (e-commerce), academic research has not been far behind to understand this recent market phenomenon. This has led to numerous studies exploring several antecedents, consequences, and models; but without any consolidated framework to unambiguously guide researchers and practitioners. This meta-analysis, by combining and synthesizing research of past two decades, attempts to identify key constructs (which have been, so far, defined in multiple ways in different researches) that explain the details of online retail performance in more coherent manner. The authors attempt to synthesize a diverse set of 26 studies by analysing 203 correlations between different antecedents and consequences related to online retail performance. We hope that this should resolve some existing ambiguities of conflicting research findings, help identify relatively more important factors influencing online retail and provide a concise framework to researchers and practitioners to further build upon in coming times. Lastly, implications of findings and directions for future research are discussed.