| dc.description.abstract | The covid pandemic forced Norwegian consumers to adapt their purchasing habits. Even though
Norway has one of the highest rates of internet connectivity and adoption of the medium in the
world. The Norwegian OTC drugs market still lags behind comparable countries in the online
purchase channel. Most other studies that covered channel selection approached it with a focus on
the material benefits of purchase channels. The paper emphasizes consumers’ subjective attitudes
towards search channels to identify how they might affect purchase channel choice in the OTC
pharmaceutical market.
To investigate the impact of consumer attitudes towards information sources, an online survey was
constructed and answered by a sample of Norwegian consumers. After performing data processing
and principal component analysis, logistic regression was performed. The results of the analyses
implied that the perceived trustworthiness of online information sources had a positive impact on
online purchase channel adoption. Perceived convenience of information channels showed no
relationship with purchase channel adoption. In conclusion, the study showed that consumers who
perceived online information channels to be more trustworthy were more likely to have adopted
the online purchasing channel. The findings relating to the perceived convenience of information
channels suggest that it could be irrelevant for purchase channel choice | |