Impact of product description and involvement on purchase intention in cross-border e-commerce

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of product description and involvement on purchase intention in a cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) setting from a psychological perspective. Design/methodology/approach This study proposes a research model of purchase intention in CBEC based on the involvement theory and commitment-involvement theory. The research model was tested using the covariance-based structural equation modeling technique. Data were collected from consumers on a popular CBEC platform in China. Findings A high-quality product description has no significant positive effect on purchase intention, but it has significant positive effects on product cognitive involvement, product affective involvement, platform enduring involvement and platform situational involvement. In addition, product affective involvement, platform enduring involvement and platform situational involvement all have significant positive effect on purchase intention, but this effect is not significant in the relationship between product cognitive involvement and purchase intention. Practical implications This study calls for sellers to optimize product descriptions on CBEC platforms in order to attract more buyers and generate more profits. Originality/value This study integrates two theories of involvement into the research model in the CBEC context. Based on this model, the authors analyzed how product description affects purchase intention under the joint influence of two involvement factors.