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firms. Both consumers and companies need to implement all available systems to protect themselves and each other from unwanted consequences.
2.4.7 Online Marketing Research
The global and continuously interactive nature of the Internet makes it a very fertile platform for performing worldwide online marketing research and both
primary and secondary research can easily be conducted through this environment Karakaya and Karakaya, 1998; Kannan et al., 1998. It can be used for capturing
personal, environmental, consumer and competitive intelligence through various online data collection techniques as well as applying more current and hi-tech
methods such as virtual shop simulations Bradley, 1999; Burke, 1996. Past research about multimedia computer representations shows that these techniques
can realistically represent people, products, and situations Urban et al., 1997 and that dynamic consumer behavior can be tracked just as successfully through
computer-simulated environments as real research platforms Burke et al., 1992, thus, increasing the confidence that can be built in collected data through the
online environment.
2.5 Factors Affecting Adoption of Online Marketing by Consumers
Adoption of online marketing which has been offered by manufacturers or service providers is not easy. In fact adoption of online marketing is based on the rate of
customer internet adoption instead of traditional channels which is mainly based on customer personal characteristics website properties and service properties. It
means that basic factors which affect on online marketing adoption will be the same as internet adoption and also e-commerce adoption which focuses on the
customers’ willingness to use internet instead of traditional channels in order to purchase a product, searching for information and using a service.
2.5.1 Customer personal characteristics Sohn and Ahn 1999 showed that consumers’ knowledge affects their adoption of
ecommerce. Liang and Huang 1998 Found that customer’s experience an
important factor in online purchasing. Kim and Kwon 1999 contended that a consumer whose lifestyle is more progressive and assertive in leisure activities use
