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It’s never the same: the role of homogeneity in online services

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Abstract

This research aims to study the differences between services sold on the Internet, based on their degree of homogeneity. While travel services are mostly sold online, other customizable services do not enjoy the same success. We carry out an empirical study based on declared intentions, risk perceptions, and actual purchasing behavior. The main findings show that: the degree of homogeneity is an adequate segmentation variable for online services; homogeneous services seem more suited to e-commerce than non-homogeneous services; a relation exists between perceived risk and intention to buy services online; and the scope of some traditional classification variables needs narrowing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería de Organización, Administración de Empresas y Estadística, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ángel F. Agudo-Peregrina, Félix J. Pascual-Miguel & Julián Chaparro-Peláez

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  1. Ángel F. Agudo-Peregrina
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  2. Félix J. Pascual-Miguel
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  3. Julián Chaparro-Peláez
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Correspondence to Ángel F. Agudo-Peregrina.

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Agudo-Peregrina, Á.F., Pascual-Miguel, F.J. & Chaparro-Peláez, J. It’s never the same: the role of homogeneity in online services. Serv Bus 8, 453–464 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-014-0249-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-014-0249-7

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