The objective of this inquiry is to develop a conceptual framework that can explain the relations between consumer effort, different risk reduction strategies, and satisfaction with the e-commerce buying process on the part of consumers. It is argued that the effort invested in the purchase of the product plays a critical role in determining how consumers respond to different aspects of e-commerce shopping. The study proposing a conceptual framework to explain how risk reduction strategies influence shopping on the internet. In terms of this scheme, e-shopping is examined in terms of the effort involved, whose impact on satisfaction with the buying process is hypothesized to be mediated by consumer risk-taking propensity to consumer involvement. According to the framework, there is a positive relation between the effort involved in reducing perceived risk and satisfaction with the process of buying in the internet.
Introduction
Perception is the result of a variety of psychological processes through which people recognize, organize, summarize and provide meaning to the received sensations, and as such is one of the main topics of scientific psychology, both historically and as a major area of study (Sim�es; Tiedemann, 1985; Sternberg, 2000). As a field of knowledge, perception has had a great influence on the study of marketing, especially with regard to consumer behavior. The study of perception has been a subject of great interest among researchers in this area (Mitchell; Mcgoldrick, 1996).
The concept of risk was introduced originally on the seventeenth century, in the context of games of chance; the probability of an event not happening, combined with a magnitude of losses and wins involved (Douglas, 1990). Risk analysis has been a borderless academic activity field covering fields such as medicine, social sciences, among others (Klein; Sterk, 2003). With respect to the marketing literature, risk perception was initially used in 1960 by Bauer and his associates from the Harvard Business School in their article entitled 'consumer behavior as risk taking' in which they make the important distinction that the risks that determine behavior are not the real risks, but the perceived risks (Bauer, 1960).
The difference between real risks and perceived risks is that the objective risk (real risk) in fact exists, but may or may not be perceived by consumers. The perceived risk (or subjective) is the risk that the consumer notices that may only exist in the individual's mind, possibly leading him to overestimate or underestimate the actual risk, in terms of its impact on consumer behavior (Sitkin; Pablo, 1 992). Bauer (1 960) was the first marketing researcher to propose, formally, that the behavior of consumers involves risk, in a way that the consumer's actions will produce consequences that the individual will not be able to anticipate with any approximation certainty, with some being undesirable.
Despite a large the amount of published studies on the topic, including many revisions (Stem et al. 1977; Ross, 1975), the majority of studies in this area have focused on risk perception in relation to product categories. The literature indicates, however, that different ways of purchasing also lead to different typologies of risk perception. This is due to the fact that the diverse ways show singular buying experiences, even when the same products can be bought, leading to the perception of particular dimensions of perceived risks (Wolfinbarger; Gilly, 2003) as shown in virtual shopping, or electronic commerce.
These risks can be inherent, the general perceived risks by the consumer towards a category of products, or handled, risks specific to a certain brand or store (Bettman, 1 973). The majority of studies in this area have focused on trying to comprehend inherent risks, not on handled risks. Even if the individual notices a high level of risk in the purchase of a certain kind of product or through a method of buying way (inherent), the individual can perceive low risk for certain brands or stores (handled). The source of this change from inherent to handled risk normally is through the information obtained by the consumer, which may vary in source or shape, as in the information search through family members and friends. It is important to stress that when there is no information, inherent risk is considered to be the same as handled risk (Beetman, 1973). The 'transformation' of inherent risk to handled risk can be initiated by a search of the consumer or stimulated by others, such as organizations trying to attract potential consumers.
Companies use strategies of perceived risk reduction to minimize the inherent risks in buying and using its brands. However, some strategies are more obvious than others, depending on the product and segment. In this way, certain strategies favored by organizations can be 'null' for some consumers but can have a positive effect on others. It is important to mention that in spite of companies' use of strategies of perceived risk reduction, in this study only the consumer's perspective was taken, with a focus on the strategies used by individuals as consumers. The ways through consumers deal with the perceived risks inherent in buying and using products, from those where there is a high risk involved such as the purchasing on-line to those where there is a low risk such as buying from trustworthy stores, through strategies of risk reduction, are still obscure. The process of transformation inherent risk to handled risk, through many strategies of risk reduction (RRS), is one that takes a lot of time and energy on the part of consumers. The individual invests time, sometimes money, as well as physical effort in the attempt to minimize perceived risks, by many strategies of risk reduction.
With the consumers' attempt to search for information, among other risk reduction strategies, buyers can notice less handled risks in the purchasing in a specific place. In other words, even if an internet consumer notices a high level of risk in buying on the net, he might or she might notice a low risk in the acquisitions of products and services in certain virtual stores (a lower handled risk). Cardozo (1 969) states the higher the effort of consumers in a making a specific purchase, the higher should be their satisfaction with the buying process. The perception of the buying effect would be influenced according to the effort invested in the product purchase. The individual would tend to notice the result in a more positive way, when the effort is high.
If consumers make a relatively high effort in a purchase and the results of this process fall below expectations, they would tend to start a process of cognitive dissonance. If there is a high investment in the buying process, the situation of 'not being satisfied' with the result tends to generate mental discomfort on the part of the consumer. Cardozo (1969) comments that when consumer initiate a process of cognitive dissonance reduction, they typically end up perceiving the results of their purchase noticing in a more positive way; in this way a high investment in the process shapes the perception of the purchase result. According to the this perspective, the involvement of the consumer with the purchase (Engel et al, 1995) as well as the individuals' propensity to assume risks (Farley, 1986) should be mediated by a number of variables, among which should be the perception of perceived risk as well as strategies of risk reduction.
This involvement of consumers is related to their level of interest in a specific product or brand and, as has been shown, the higher the involvement of the individual, the greater the perceived risk with a certain purchase. The majority of purchases are daily and common. In this circumstance, the decision process is usually very simple, demanding little time and effort. On the other hand, when the process is more complex, either in the purchase situation (for example, when buying a present for a special occasion), or in the type of product that is being bought, there is typically greater consumer involvement (Engel et al, 1995). Many studies suggest that involvement is associated with the risk perceived by the consumer in a certain purchase (Dowling, 1986; Laroche et al, 2004). However, it is important to mention that the amount of money involved on the purchase is not directly related with the amount of perceived risk: "choosing the correct toothpaste can represent a risk as huge as choosing a new television set (Schiffman; Kanuk, 1997, p. 130). Another variable that should influence the relation between the consumer's effort and satisfaction is the individual's propensity to take or avoid risks, being defined as the tendency of an individual to avoid or take risks (Sitkin; Pablo, 1992). The tendency of a consumer to be a risk hunter, an individual with type "T" (from thrill seekers) by the specialized literature (Farley, 1986) or have a repugnance to risks, considered as a small "t", can exercise an influence on this relation. These two variables, consumer involvement and consumer propensity to take risks are considered in this study to be mediators.
Despite perceived risk being a subject of study ? object of for more than nearly 50 43 years, since it was introduced into the marketing literature in 1960 by Bauer, there are still many questions to be examined in this area of study. It is the object of this study to extend our knowledge about the causes and consequences of perceived risk in the marketing area, proposing a theoretical scheme about the associations of risk reduction strategies with respect to internet purchases with consumer satisfaction, analyzing the propensity to assume risks and the involvement of the individual as mediator variables of this relation.
Would it be true to say that the higher the effort spent by the consumer on a purchase on the internet, through the strategies of risk reduction, the greater would be the satisfaction with the buying process? Considering that the consumers' effort includes the physical, mental and financial resources spent by an individual to obtain a product (Cardozo, 1 969) this would contradict the usual notion of marketing efficiency, guided by what is convenient and easy as regards consumer purchases. It is the intention of this paper to test whether or not there is an association between strategies of risk reduction and consumer satisfaction. Rather than replicating previous research, we intend to examine this association as mediated by individual differences in risk reduction and involvement on the part of consumers in relation to the buying of things on the internet which is normally perceived a high risk.
Perceived risk
As has been shown, risks can be real, even consumers are only influenced by risks they perceive. Those risks which are not perceived, no matter the chance of them happening or the dangers they pose, will not influence consumers' behavior. The real risk is the one that in fact exists, objective risk, while the perceived is the risk that an individual notices in a certain situation, subjective risk (Cunningham, 1967). Consumers are influenced by risks they notice, independently of whether the risk truly exists or not (Schiffman; Kanuk, 1 997). In order to obtain greater precision it is useful to divide risk into two types, inherent and handled risk. Inherent risk is the risk that a consumer perceives in a category of products, handled risk represents the 'results' actions on the part of the consumer to reduce or deal with inherent risk; in an important sense, handled risk is inherent risk modified by information, about the product or brand and the purchase situation. This means that when a consumer has no information or information is lacking, handled risk is the same as inherent risk (BEETMAN, 1963). Summarizing, handled risk includes the effects of the search for relevant information while inherent risk is the risk that a consumer perceives initially, before such information is looked for or searched for.
There is a typology of risks in different contexts of research, but in the recent important research, such as that by Solomon (2002) and by Shiffman and Kanuk (1997), some risks are mentioned more frequently than others, notably financial, functional, social, and psychological risks. This fact is possibly because such risks exist or can be found in buying and using different products in common purchase situations. It is important to stress that there is not a consensus in the literature about general typologies of perceived risk that influence consumer behavior. There is not a unique and consensual scheme about standardized typologies. Even among authors analyzing categories of products, different typologies of risk are found. This way, it has been hard to compare the different results from researchers. This has made the improvement of knowledge around the theme on consumer behavior area more difficult. Research on perceived risk has focused on the comprehension of decision making process related to different kinds of products and services. Some researchers have examined the perceived risks of different methods or ways of shopping such as, Cox and Rich (1963), who studied perceived risks and the decisions of purchasing over the phone and Spence et al. (1 970) who compared perceived risks of purchases via mail with ones in stores. Mitchell (1998) focused on perceived risks in traditional retail outlets, while Hawes and Lumpkin (1986) studied the level of perceived risk associated with to six different ways or methods of shopping. Electronic commerce presents special problems related to purchases compared to buying via mail and over the phone. Acquisitions over the internet can be considered, just like the latter, as a method of purchasing other than physically in stores, as a non-traditional way of buying with high technology. It is a method of buying that 'requires' its own typologies of perceived risks. Electronic commerce provides more risks with respect to consumer perceptions than does traditional retail purchases (Tan, 1999).
Strategies of risk reduction perceived as consumer efforts
The risk can be reduced to a tolerable level by two ways: reducing what is in danger, for example, reducing the gaining expectations and increasing the certainty that a loss will not happen like, for example, leading to a greater conviction that the consequences of certain action will be favorable (Ross, 1 975). Consumers develop their own strategies to reduce perceived risks, allowing them to act with a greater assurance when taking a purchasing decision (Shiffman; Kanuk, 1 997), and to use different forms of risk reduction; compared to the typologies for perceived risk in which, for each kind of perceived risk, the ways of reduction vary (Roselius, 1971). Individuals that notice a higher level of risk in a situation tend to use different strategies of risk reduction than those that notice less risk in a certain situation (Taylor, 1974). There are many forms of reducing perceived risk; consumers can search for information, among other forms, with the purpose of feeling safer in their purchase decision, or they can employ various strategies of risk reduction. In a theoretical review about perceived risk reduction strategies, Mitchell and McGoldrick (1996) identified 37 different strategies from their review of 100 articles on the topic. In addition to the strategies identified above, others are: to search for information in TV commercials or printed media, to use consumers reports, to obtain information from packages and merchandising, to ask salesman, to refer to their own previous experience, to visit or call a retailer, to buy a brand with good market reputation, to rely and use warranties, to check more brands, to spend more time searching for information, to rely on the country of origin, to refer to comments from other professionals, to go through yellow pages, to make use of a service contract, to delay the purchase decision, to buy the brand that offers a free gift or bonus, among others.
These many risk reduction strategies cited in the literature can be classified in three groups: the simplifiers, the clarifiers and a mixed group (Mitchell; McGoldrick, 1996). The simplifier strategies are the ones focused on minimizing perceived risk with a smaller consumer effort. For example, buying a more expensive brand can be considered a simplifier strategy. Or, buying a more famous brand, or even delaying the purchase.
The individual would just be searching for a way of deciding quicker, with less effort, among the many existing options. The clarifier strategies would be the ones that require a higher consumer effort for risk reduction such as a search for information on television commercial or on printed media. The individual would make a personal effort to decide among the many possible options with the intention of reducing risk. The mix would be the strategies that could either be classified as simplifiers, if used to minimize the effort; for instance, asking a family member to pick among the brands chosen by them. This same strategy could be classified as a clarifier if used in a way to amplify knowledge, and therefore to reduce risk (Mitchell; McGoldrick, 1996).
The strategy of reducing perceived risk through a search of information such as, for example, from comments of family members and friends, can be done personally, in a face to face meeting, or by available communication technologies, such as a chat by phone or through the internet. The difference is that the net propitiates people from all over the globe to realize rapidly and for almost no cost, a kind of on-line mouth to mouth. Through the net it is possible to share interests with people that the individual had never seen before, and probably will never see (Solomon, 2002). The 'virtual communities' created by the web, despite being a relatively new phenomenon, have an impact over and above individual preferences for products and services on the web. While traditional mouth to mouth transmission of information is characterized by the diffusion of products and services through interpersonal channels, word of mouth transmission through online constitutes a kind of "viral marketing" characterized by virtual messages about products and companies conceived by internet users that receive the contents through the net (Bentivegna, 2002). The use or employment of viral marketing is a strategy to get clients to sell a product in the name of the company producer. T his strategy is especially appropriate for the internet due to the fact that electronic mail is spread easily, at a low cost and high speed (Solomon, 2002).
The internet is a new channel of communication that covers a number of high speed mass media channels and involves the interaction of millions of consumers, a channel of communication that can be used by consumers as a strategy to reduce perceived risk (Bentivegna, 2002, p. 85). It is argued that besides traditional word of mouth transmission among friends and family members, consumers can, at the moment of purchasing a product or service on the net, use the information obtained by 'viral marketing' as a clarifier to minimize the perceived risks on purchases over the net. This represents a new reduction strategy of perceived risk, yet not explored by specialized literature. Some have claimed that word of mouth advertising should be more efficient than traditional magazine and newspaper advertising s, according to the results from the Jupiter Communications (Solomon, 2002), in which only 24% of the internet users actually used this way to search for information about new websites, basing specially on indications of family members and friends.
As for the other possible forms of perceived risk reduction on the virtual world, the results from a research done by Kovacs and Farias (200 1), indicates that for buying products and services on the net, the majority of users only purchase on websites that offer security devices and only shop in relevant stores on the web. The question of 'relevance' is related to receiving support in the real environment. Besides having e-commerce facilities, companies that have a physical structure in traditional retail are perceived as less risky by users since they can get in contact touch more easily physically or visit the company if there is any problem. Tan (1 999), found that the main risk reduction strategies for this way of purchasing are: using the reference group (except for the high perceived risk products, when the brand image is relied upon, followed by employing the retailers reputation, using the image of the brand itself and finally relying on warranties. Kovacs and Farias (2004) argue that marketers should always try to deal differently with consumers that normally buy through the net compared to those that do not do so. Because consumers that have never bought on the internet perceive a greater variety of risk to a greater extent than those that regularly do so, it is often helpful to make the initial purchase of persons on the internet less risky, safer, as a way to encourage them to start and then continue using the internet. The results of the study suggest that the satisfaction of risks and the 'sociability' of loss are important aspects to be worked on to encourage individuals that have never bought on the web. It is important to analyze the physical risks in relation to merchandise transportation, and more importantly the loss of future opportunities and the protection of information in order to develop risk reduction strategies not only for consumers who regularly use the internet but also for consumers who seldom if ever do so. Companies that use electronic commerce must initially focus on consumers with a higher propensity to assume risks and use the strategies of appropriate risk reduction to dimmish the perceived risks of consumers with a higher aversion to risks (Tan, 1 999). It is important to stress here that the level of involvement with a purchase has an influence on the risks perceived by consumers and on their strategies of reduction (Dholakia, 1997). Consumers who purchase a product in distinct or different situations that have a higher or lower involvement, will typically perceive risk in different ways as well as use different risk reduction strategies.
Consumer involvement
Although the first studies on consumer involvement with their purchases were conducted some time ago, the use of the concept in so-called commercial research has only taken place over last few years. Now many researchers consider involvement a key concept in the analysis of consumer purchase behavior (Karsaklian, 2000). Consumer involvement is defined as being the perceived relevance for an individual of an object based on his or her necessities, values and interests (Zaichkowsky, 1 985). Involvement can be considered as a synonym of the importance, interest or motivation of an object for a consumer (Laroche et al., 2004). It is an 'a non-observable state of motivation, of excitement and interest. It is created by an object or a specific situation and unchains behavior: certain ways of search for a product, of information process and decision taking' (Karsaklian, 2000, p. 184).
It is important to emphasize that the word object is used here in a generic sense, for any product, brand or even purchase situation (Solomon, 2002). The involvement with a product is related to the level of interest of a consumer for a certain product or brand.
If there is any perceived risk in the purchase or use of the product, the greater the perceived risk, the greater will be the involvement of the individual with the product or brand (Engel et al, 1995). The involvement with the situation of purchase typically occurs when the same object is bought in different contexts. For example, 'when you want to impress someone, you might buy a brand or product with a certain image that you think that reflects a good taste' (Solomon, 2002, p. 103), there is high involvement with the purchase situation. Engel et al. (1995) argue that involvement with a situation of purchase is increased when a social influence is noticed. When consumers feel they will be judged by a certain purchase, the involvement with the purchase situation tends to be higher. A daily purchase, with a low chance of being judged by others, involves can less perceived risks than a less frequent purchase which is judged by more others. Consumer involvement can be placed on a continuum in terms of the relevance perceived by an individual towards a product or service in a certain context, on a scale from low to high involvement, that directly affects behavior (Engel et al, 1995). An involved individual searches much more for information and evaluates in a more critical way than an individual who is less involved (Karsaklian, 2000).
Consumer involvement encourages consumers to process information where there is a perceived connection with their necessities, aims or values of a consumer, and knowledge about a product. The individual will be motivated to pay attention to the information about a product (Mitchell, 1 979). Besides involvement with a product or purchase, which is a more situational factor, individual characteristics of the consumer also influence the perception of risk; the propensity or aversion to assume risks will be analyzed in this study as a mediator variable. Between the two extremes, of a high propensity to risk to a small or low propensity to risk, individuals can be placed on a spectrum of assuming or avoiding risks, that has consequences for how they react to perceived risks.
The involvement and the propensity to assume risks
The propensity to assume risks is an individual characteristic. This is in contrast with the claim of Bateson and Hoffmans (2001) that all consumers prefer not to take risks and that as a result will always they will try to reduce risks during the purchasing process. It is our contention that only some consumers like to avoid risks when buying things and that, m agreement Engel et al. (1995), there are a few consumers with the tendency to take risks, named in the literature as "T" type. The "T" type comes from the expression thrill seekers, or emotion hunters, also named as big "T", being the opposite to small "t", consumers that have an aversion to risks (Farley, 1986). This market segment named big "T" can be characterized by the continuous necessity for stimulus, above that of the average consumer. To prevent themselves from getting bored, risk hunters are predisposed to buy adventures, are more creative and outgoing. The objective in their lives is success and competency; in contrast consumers who avoid taking risks, mention happiness as their life objective. Around 25% of the American population is part of the big "T" segment (Engel et al, 1995, p. 442).
The majority of persons in this group are males, who typically have a high need for searching for stimuli and also a high level of testosterone (Farley, 1986, p. 48). The consumer personality type "T" seems to be more common among younger persons, from 16 to 24 years old, declining with their; 'However, we still expect people with the personality type "T" to look for more stimulus than other people during their lives" (Farley, 1986, p. 48). This segment is recognized by their adventure spirit, to be more open to new ideas, with some chance of risk, and to have more schooling and a higher income than the average population (Engel et al. , 1995). Kovacs and Farias (2002) showed that, with respect to internet purchase, users that have bought through the web have a series of characteristics typical of "T" type consumers. They are consumers that seem to like the challenge of buying in a non traditional way. On the other hand, consumers that have never bought on the web indicate a lack of trust in the security system and are more inhibited in their s the greater purchases through the internet. The majority of these respondents say they would purchase through the net if they had total trust in the information transmitted.
This suggests that companies that operate intend to operate in e-commerce can obtain competitive advantages if they understand the singularities of the small "t" and big "T" segments, applying specific strategies to each group, identifying the particular needs of each. Companies that have as their target-consumers the small "t" segment can 'elaborate' their websites in a clearer and more standardized way because their consumers prefer precision, less variety and appreciate simplicity. To also reducing perceived risk in their own way due to the fact that they are individuals that have a high necessity for feeling safe in their transactions. The use of warranties, as payment 'devolution' if the consumer is not satisfied, could be an option for this group; it may make them feel safer in their purchases. Clear objective information is more important to this group of consumers who are suspicious of change and wedded to is highly to what seems familiar (Kovacs; Farias, 2002). However, for companies that wish to capture consumers from the big "T" segment, the creation of interactive and non-standardized websites that allow a greater flexibility of choice and even creativity for the consumer may be desirable as persons in this group are more emotional and can get bored more easily. For persons in this group 'purchasing options' can be built inside the website, considering that this group is highly attracted by stimuli, having a preference for complexity and unpredictability. Perceived risk is a function of such variables, according to Ross (1975), as differences in products, in situations, whether for example, the purchase is for oneself or for others and intrapersonal variables, such as personality. Ross (1975) concludes his critical review of studies into perceived risk by stating that the literature needs better research that simultaneously deal with these variables.
Consumer satisfaction
The consumers' satisfaction is considered one of the pillars of the marketing concept. Companies, nowadays, are even more dedicated to the client and the majority of these companies stress the need to satisfy the consumer, especially due to competition, and the need for constant growth. What is the best way to achieve satisfaction is a question investigated by many researchers of this area. The answer for this question is not clear probably because the satisfaction concept is subjective, with different patterns for distinct individuals. Since the beginning of the twentieth century until today, consumer satisfaction has been studied from different angles, concentrating on different aspects of consumer behavior. During this period, the satisfaction concept has been the subject of theoretical discussions, stimulated in the 1970's by the appearance of the 'consumer defense' movement (Chauvel, 1999).
Consumer satisfaction is considered a major goal of the marketing activities and serves as a link between the purchase and consumption process, culminating in postpurchase phenomenon, such as attitude change, purchase repetition and brand loyalty (Farias, 1998). The satisfaction of consumer needs and desires has long been regarded as a crucial factor for organization success. This is because it directly influences such behaviors as brand loyalty, positive word of mouth communication, purchase repetition, and consequently greater market-share and even profitability (Oliver, 1997). According to Engel et al. (1995), satisfaction is the extent to which people feel positive from the comparison of the performance (or result) of a product or service in relation to what they expected expectations. However, there in the literature there are a variety of meanings for the satisfaction concept. Satisfaction is defined as being: "a response of filling to the needs/desires of the consumer. It is the judgment that the characteristics of a product or service, or both for themselves, will provide (or are providing) a pleasant level of filling to the consumers needs" (Oliver, 1997, p. 13). For Mowen (1995, p. 511), satisfaction is "a general attitude referent to a product or service after its purchase and use. It is the post-purchase evaluation resultant of a specific purchase selection". The imprecision of content and meaning for the satisfaction concept is evident from the large number of contexts in which it is used (Oliver, 1997).
Despite imprecision in the construct, the objective of organizations with a marketing focus still remains that of consumer satisfaction. The gaining of profits through the satisfaction of consumers' needs or desires is the main purpose of the market activities of companies (Bagozzi, 1 975). Such satisfaction can be considered to be the result of the comparison of performance and expectation in which, before a purchase, shoppers create performance expectations, that can be confirmed or not. The comparison of perceived performance with expectations is a 'judgment' of the experience, whether or not it was better or worse than expected, which can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction, indifference or satisfaction (Hill, 1986; Eegei et al. 1995).
From a company's perspective, consumer satisfaction seems to derive from three sources; the cost of new clients versus old clients, the competitive demand for satisfaction, and the value of the client's life cycle. If the organization wants consumer satisfaction, it must know the characteristics requirements and the preferences of its specific customers, and it must avoid or deal effectively with consumers' dissatisfactions. This is mainly because the cost of losing a consumer is higher than that maintaining one; therefore it is important to adopt retention strategies that work. It is claimed by some that that nowadays it costs three to five times less to keep a client than to obtain a new one (Bateson; Hoffman, 2001). Another reason for the importance of keeping existing clients maintaining is the greater competition in almost all sectors of the economy. As consequence of the rise in competition, companies are finding that getting new clients is becoming getting more expensive each time. Besides, a company with high levels of client satisfaction makes the organization more resistant to the efforts of their competitors to raise their market share. The value of clients to a company in a general way becomes more profitable the longer the clients spend buying from a specific company (Bateson; Hoffman, 2001).
The incorporation of new variables in a dynamic environment demands constant updating and practical and theoretical improvement to this construct, which should in turn lead to a better understanding of consumer behavior (Farias; Santos, 1999). In the case of a recent 'new way' of buying shopping, as in the case of electronic retailing outlets, the results of relevant studies can improve our grasp of how the satisfaction of consumers can be enriched by theory, especially when new variables are added that have yet not been considered in this field of knowledge. The ability to measure the satisfaction of consumers with electronic commerce is essential for the success of companies located within the electronic environment. Certainly, consumers must be satisfied with their purchasing experiences on the internet if they are to buy more products and services on-line (Schaupp; B�langer, 2005). In the next section we present a theoretical scheme which seeks to contribute to our understanding of this topic which incorporates a number of new and more relevant variables.
Proposed theoretical scheme and final considerations
Based on this literature review, we present the theoretical scheme given in figure 1 . It is consistent with the main findings reported especially those regarding the risk reduction strategies of clanfiers and simplifiers (Mitchell; McGoldrick 1996), takes consumer effort into account and has consumer satisfaction with the purchasing process as major dependant variable. It is argued that imagined the greater the consumers effort to transform inherent risks into handled risks, the greater their satisfaction. The mediator variables proposed for this scheme are the customer propensity to assume risks and customer involvement with the product (for example, products that demands for more decisions, such as color, size, among others). The argument is that the more risks that are perceived, the bigger the effort of consumers to use risk reduction strategies, leading in this way to an association between their use and customer satisfaction.
From this theoretical scheme it is possible to generate a number of testable propositions that can guide future research in this area. The hypotheses presented can provide a framework for the research, identifying what are relevant and irrelevant facts, suggesting the best way forward for research and providing a structure to organize the resultant conclusions (Cooper; Schindler, 2003). Based on this investigation, the following hypotheses are suggested: P1 : Strategies of risk reduction that consumers use in the virtual environment are positively related consumer satisfaction with the purchasing processes involved. P2: Consumer involvement with the product and the purchase has a positive effect or impact on the relations between strategies of risk reduction and consumer satisfaction with purchases done through the internet. P3: The individual's propensity to assume risks has a positive impact or effect on the relation between strategies of risk reduction and consumer satisfaction on purchases done through the internet. Based on these propositions, future research can be developed, hopefully improving our comprehension of consumer behavior and perhaps providing a new perspectives on it.
[Reference]
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[Author Affiliation]
Michelle Kovacs
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil
Salom�o Farias
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil
Francisco Moura
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil
Anderson Souza
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil
[Author Affiliation]
Contact email addresses: son_ander@hotmail.com michellekovacs@gmail.com saf@ufpe.br
Anderson Souza
Michelle Kovacs
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Avenida dos Reitores
s/n N�cleo de Hotelaria e Turismo
Cidade Universit�ria
50670-901 -Recife, PE
Brazil
Salom�o Farias
Francisco Moura
Universidade Federai de Pernambuco
Av Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235
Cidade Universitaria
50670-901 -Recife, PE
Brazil
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