Abstract:
This research extended the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) with familiarity, trust, and perceived risk to examine
the consumers’ online purchase intention in Sri Lanka. Data were collected from 250 postgraduate students
enrolled in eight universities and higher education institutes in Sri Lanka. Structural equation modelling confirmed
the role of trust and familiarity as antecedents to customer intention. However, contrary to the expectations,
perceived risk was not identified as a key determinant of customer intention. Further, among the three classical
variables (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behaviour control) of the TPB model, only attitude had a
significant effect on customer intention. Amongst all the factors, trust was identified as the most influencing factor
on customer intention. The extended TPB model could satisfactorily predict the customer intention with up to 46%
variation of the customer intention.