Measuring consumer attitudes about self-service technologies dimensions: an exploratory investigation

The world is getting smaller. Today, people from a small town in Mexico can find, evaluate, buy, receive, try, return or re-buy a product directly from a company located anywhere on earth. All this from the convenience of their homes - and in less than a week! Truly, they are entering the age of global digital relationships - based on information transactions between customer and companies -, where higher product quality, a wider array of information, novelty, lower costs, greater selection, and global relationships are some of the advantages offered via the Internet. Although disadvantages exist, the alternatives seem almost infinite. In the midst of many trends taking place at this historic moment – such as deregulation of industries, privatization of state-owned enterprises, geographical diversification of powerful companies and massive destruction of small ones -, there are two forces that are shaping today’s economic landscape: information technology and globalization.1 By “shaping”, we mean that we are learning to harness them, to learn from them and to channel them. They are taking form, and we are trying to contribute in a small way forming them.