JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Abstract

Online legal services refer to electronic or digital legal services (in the form of software, apps, web pages, etc.) that can increase common people understanding of legal issues, access to legal information and social participation in legal related matters. By automating tasks traditionally performed only by lawyers and by making legal services available on the Internet, online legal services make the access to justice more affordable and accessible to all. In this modern context, where common consumers have the opportunity buy and use legal services completely on the internet and without the help of a traditional lawyer, it is necessary to investigate how consumers behave when they shop for legal services online.

In accordance, the purpose of the research is to understand the consumer buying behaviour in online legal services, based on empirical research, contributing to the literature about online legal services; and to provide managerial implications for legal services companies about how to improve their marketing strategies and build their consumer relationships, based on the empirical findings. Therefore, the study delves into the minds of consumers to uncover their needs, motivations and intentions about online legal services, and it is the first study to investigate the consumer buying behaviour in online legal services.

The research is planned focusing on the theories of consumer buying behaviour, technology acceptance and on prior research of online legal services. The empirical research is conducted using a survey questionnaire, employing a mixed-method approach. Brazil was chosen as the field for the research, because it is the world’s fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous, where legal services are highly demanded and where online legal services have potential to be widely utilized, although not much is known about the consumer behaviour towards them. The sample studied is 419 potential consumers of online legal services. To process the data, the author makes statistical analysis of each quantitative reply, qualitative thematic content analysis for each qualitative answer, and deeply analyse the final results of the research, developing a framework for the consumer buying behaviour in online legal services.

The empirical findings show that the consumers of online legal services behave motivated by Price, Legal problem-solving capability, Convenience (Perceived ease of use), Speed, Safety, Quality and Trustability and that consumers have an overall positive attitude about online legal services, even though negative attitudes were also identified. Utilitarian needs and motivations, behavioural intention, attitude, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, information search, evaluation of alternatives, social influence, facilitating conditions, trust, perceived risk, and price value; influence and characterize the buying behaviour in online legal services and lead to the consequent consumer purchase decision. Furthermore, the buying process in online legal services follows the Five-stage buying process, but the consumer might deviate during it, because of, among other reasons, social influence and the lack of trust.