Website usability,consumer satisfaction and the intention to use a website: The moderating effect of perceived risk

This paper analyzes the influence of website usability on both consumers' satisfaction and intention to use a website, as well as the impact of satisfaction on usage intentions. Additionally, we study the moderating effect that consumer risk perceptions may have on the influence of website usability. Results show that website usability affects satisfaction which in turn affects intention to use. Contrary to expected, usability does not directly affect intention to use but has an indirect effect through consumer satisfaction. Finally, the usability effect on consumer satisfaction is moderated by perceived risk.     

The moderating effect of individual level collectivist values on brand loyalty

In today's dynamic business environment the success of a firm often depends on its ability to create brand loyalty. While there is a large body of research exploring brand loyalty and its antecedents, little has been done to examine how the relationship between these antecedents and brand loyalty is moderated by consumer differences in individual level collectivist values. This understanding is important however as consumers high in individual level collectivist values have been found to make different brand choices than consumers low in individual level collectivist values. We develop and test theory that suggests consumer differences in individual level collectivist values have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived value, perceived quality, brand trust and brand loyalty. The results show that consumers high in individual level collectivist values are significantly more loyal to a focal brand, especially when brand trust and perceived quality are at relatively low levels.     

CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE INTERNET‐ENABLED LOGISTICS SUPPLY CHAIN: WEBSITE DESIGN ANTECEDENTS AND LOYALTY EFFECTS

This article extends the existing research on logistics customer service‐loyalty relationships to the online logistics supply chain environment by examining potential website determinants of logistics customer service quality. A structural equation analysis of 373 online shopping transactions suggests that perceived quality of all logistics customer service activities (perceived cycle time, in‐stock availability, and customer responsiveness) varies inversely with: (1) perceived ease of use, and (2) content vividness of the website; and positively with product information content. However, only retailer customer responsiveness assessment was found to have any significant influence on consumer intended loyalty behavior in Internet‐enabled supplies chains.     

The Impact of Website Quality on Information Quality,Value, and Loyalty Intentions in Apparel Retailing

This study investigated relationships among website quality, perceived information quality, perceived value, and loyalty intentions in the context of apparel online shopping. Analysis of data using structural equation modeling showed that among the website quality dimensions, interactivity, online completeness, ease of use, and entertainment significantly influence perceived information quality. Perceived information quality affects perceived value and loyalty intentions and perceived value influences loyalty intentions toward apparel retail websites. The post-hoc test revealed that entertainment and trust affect perceived value. Online completeness and entertainment were found to influence loyalty intentions. Strategic suggestions are provided for e-retailer improvement of website information quality, such as utilizing entertaining and engaging devices and designing their websites for consumer comprehension and enjoyment during the shopping experience.     

Building consumer loyalty through e-shopping experiences: The mediating role of emotions

In the retail sector, it has become necessary for retailers to differentiate themselves using new strategies, such as managing shopping experiences. The retailer can benefit from applying these experiences in order to gain loyal customers. The purpose of this research is to advance in the analysis of the different dimensions of the e-shopping experience, identified from a literature review, and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. In addition, this study highlights the importance of emotional experience, analyzing the mediating effect of emotional experience on the relationship between online experiences and consumers’ loyalty. The empirical research is based on a sample of 496 consumers. The results reveal that using different experiences could influence loyalty in two different ways: directly affecting attitudinal loyalty (especially when website trustworthiness is low and consumers experience more uncertainty) and indirectly affecting behavioral loyalty through emotional experience.     

Factors that Influence Consumers’ Attitudes toward Internet Buying in Nigeria

The study used previously validated measurement instrument to investigate, in a Nigerian context, the extent to which some specific factors like perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived integrity, constrained consumer’s product need, personality, perceived ease of use, perceived usability, perceived usefulness, and previous experience in Internet buying predict consumers’ attitude towards Internet buying in Nigeria. The survey research was adopted and the population of the study consisted of postgraduate management students form University of Benin, Benson Idahosa University, Ambrose Ali University, and Graduate MBA Students from the University of Benin. Data were analyzed using regression, t test and ANOVA. The research findings were: perceived privacy, constrained product need, consumers’ previous online experience and perceived usability exert strong predictive influence on consumers’ attitude towards internet buying in Nigeria. In view of the findings, a modified model that addresses the key factors influencing consumers’ attitude towards Internet buying in Nigeria is proposed.     

Internet banking loyalty: evaluating the role of trust,satisfaction, perceived risk and frequency of use

This paper analyses the role of satisfaction, trust, frequency of use and perceived risk as antecedents of consumer loyalty to banking websites. While the literature usually focuses on the direct effects of these variables, special attention is paid here to evaluate their moderating effects on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. The results from a sample of 254 Spanish users of Internet banking services show that while satisfaction correlates positively with loyalty, the effect is significantly less intense with high levels of perceived risk. The results are similar for trust, which correlates more positively with high levels of perceived risk, but also when Internet banking is used less frequently. Managerial implications from these results are provided.     

The development of a consumer value proposition of private label brands and the application thereof in a South African retail context

Private Label Brands are of strategic importance to retailers worldwide. However, there is a dearth of knowledge, particularly in emerging markets, as to the manner in which consumers cognitively assess these brands. At the heart of the issue is a gap in knowledge as to how consumers formulate a value proposition in their minds and the effect of loyalty to existing brands. This paper assumes a positivist, hypothetico-deductive approach by attempting to address the question: What are the key drivers of perceived value of private label branded breakfast cereals, taking price, perceived risk and perceived quality into account? Moreover, the study considers how various attributes of brand image contribute to the perception of brands and the extent to which loyalty to established national brands inhibits purchasing intent of private label merchandise. A conceptual model was developed, and tested by means of Partial Least Squares path analysis, using a sample of 482 respondents. The outcome reflects that consumers take cognisance of value through price, risk and quality cues, but that loyalty to existing brands has a minimal effect in the final stage of the model. Moreover, both in- and out-of-store influences were found to play a significant role in the determination of product quality. Retailers therefore possess a number of levers at their disposal to influence perceived value, most notably price, product quality and the perceived risk portfolio, as well as packaging, shelf placement, store environmental factors, etcetera.     

The Effects of Native Ads on Consumer Brand Engagement: The Moderating Role of Website Credibility

Abstract

This research examined the effect of native ads on consumer brand engagement – specifically, how source disclosure of ad sponsors affected consumers’ perceived ad deceptiveness as well as their attitude toward the company and the brand. It also explored the moderating role of website credibility. One hundred and ten college students in South Korea participated in the experimental study, which found that high source disclosure of ad sponsors positively affected perceived deceptiveness. The effect of source disclosure on perceived deceptiveness was moderated by website credibility. Perceived deceptiveness negatively affected consumers’ attitude toward the company and the brand. The mediating role of perceived deceptiveness between source disclosure and consumer brand engagement was confirmed only when website credibility was high. The paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings as well as suggestions for future research in this area.     

Business Unethicality as an Impediment to Consumer Trust: The Moderating Role of Demographic and Cultural Characteristics

The article reports the findings of a study conducted among 387 consumers regarding their perceptions of the unethicality of business practices of firms and how these affect their response behavior, in terms of trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. The study confirmed that high levels of perceived corporate unethicality decrease consumer trust. This in turn reduces consumer satisfaction, which ultimately has negative effects on customer loyalty. It was also revealed that, although both consumer gender and urbanity have a moderating effect on the link between perceived unethicality and trust, the age group and level of education of the consumer did not exhibit such an effect. With regard to consumer cultural characteristics, both high uncertainty avoidance and low individualism were found to increase the negative impact of business unethicality on trust, as opposed to power distance and masculinity that did not have any moderating effect on this relationship. Implications for managers are extracted from the study findings, as well as directions for future research.     

Loyalty program structure and consumers' perceptions of status: Feeling special in a grocery store?

Loyalty programs are business practices increasingly pursued by companies in order to achieve customer loyalty. Recent studies have focused on the relationship between loyalty program structures (i.e., number and size of hierarchical tiers) and status levels (i.e., exclusivity) perceived by members. The current study examines two potential moderators of this relationship between program structure and perceived status. Specifically, the aim of our research was to test whether loyalty program structure affects status perceptions in more and less exclusive industries, and among consumers with more and less positive attitudes toward loyalty programs.An experimental design based on different scenarios was used. Two industries and three loyalty program structures were examined. In the airline industry, which is higher in perceived exclusivity, perceived status in the top tier of the loyalty program increased as the number of customers in the top tier decreased and as the number of tiers increased. Notably, however, loyalty program structure had no effect on perceived status in the supermarket industry, which is lower in perceived exclusivity. Moreover, even in the airline industry, status effects were only observed among respondents with a positive attitude toward loyalty programs. Those with neutral or negative attitudes toward loyalty programs were unaffected by the structure of the loyalty program. Thus, the effect of loyalty program structure on consumers' perceived status varied systematically across industries and across individuals.     

基于TAM的消费者网络团购态度影响的实证研究

伴随着团购网站Groupon在美国的巨大成功,从2010年3月开始,国内掀起了空前的团购热潮,在不到一年的时间里,已由"百团大战"上升到"千团大战"。团购网站如何在这场声势浩大的角逐之中吸引消费者,取得长足发展成为了当前最应该关注的问题。而消费者对网络团购的态度直接决定了其是否会进行网络团购以及选择哪家团购网站。因此有必要对网络团购态度的影响因素进行研究,识别出影响消费者网络团购态度的主要因素。本研究以参加过网络团购或未参加过但对网络团购有了解的人群为调研对象,结合SPSS13.0和AMOS17.0对数据进行了分析和模型检验,以此探讨影响消费者网络团购态度的因素。实证结果表明:感知网络团购有用、感知网络团购易用及感知网络团购风险是影响消费者网络团购态度的关键因素;除娱乐导向外,其他购物导向均会显著影响感知有用或感知风险变量;而人口统计特征对网络团购态度无显著影响。     

Developing Consumer-Based Service Brand Equity via the Internet: The Role of Personalization and Trialability

The commercialization of the Internet has provided opportunities for building service brands in the minds of consumers. Services are characterized as intangible, heterogeneous, inseparable, and perishable features that often engender high information costs and, hence, low perceived value to potential consumers. When a service is available via the Internet—a medium that can subdivide and rebuild the service into personalized offerings—potential consumers become better informed in advance of what the service provides. The Internet also permits most services to be trialable before consumption. These new features, empowered by the Internet, have important implications for what we call consumer-based service brand equity (CSBE), the value that potential consumers assign to a service brand. This article investigates the effects of service personalization and trialability on the development of CSBE of Internet banking service, a typical service available via the Internet. Results from a laboratory experiment indicate that both service personalization and trialability have significant positive influences on the development of the CSBE of an Internet banking service brand. While personalization was found to indirectly influence CSBE development by mediating the perceived benefits of the brand, trialability exerted both a direct and an indirect effect. Trialability developed the brand's CSBE by first mediating the information through gathering cost savings and then the perceived benefits of the brand. Implications of the study's results are discussed.     

Impacts of product,store and retailer perceptions on consumers’ relationship to terroir store brand

This research shows that consumers’ relationship to terroir store brand, measured through attachment and two facets of brand loyalty (attitudinal and behavioral) is respectively influenced by their perceptions of the product, retailer and store. More specifically, the perceived authenticity of the products of the terroir store brand and its perceived value have a positive and significant influence on the attachment and behavioral loyalty of the regular buyers of this store brand and a positive and significant influence on the attachment of its occasional buyers. Trust in the retailer has a positive and significant impact on the behavioral loyalty of the regular buyers of this terroir store brand while perceived image of the store has only a positive and significant impact on the attitudinal loyalty of its occasional buyers.     

Unraveling customer repurchase intention in OFDL context: An investigation using a hybrid technique of SEM and fsQCA

This research proposes a conceptual model based on the stimulus-organism-response (S–O-R) theoretical framework which links perceived website/app quality and image (stimuli) to satisfaction and trust (organism) which in turn influence customer repurchase intention (response). The data was collected from 680 consumers via Amazon MTurk. Following Covariance based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) analysis to validate the proposed model, fuzzy set/Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) technique was also performed. According to the findings, perceived website/app quality has a direct impact on both satisfaction and trust in online food delivery services. Additionally, customer familiarity moderates the relationship between website/app quality and repurchase intention. Next, customer reviews moderate the association between repurchase intention and trust. Holistically, this study offers significant implications for academicians, managers and policymakers. Academically, this study contributes to online food delivery literature. Practically, the results provide guidelines to marketers, managers and policymakers interested in devising marketing strategies to promote customer's repurchase intention in online food delivery context.     

Customer perceived value,satisfaction, and loyalty: The role of switching costs

It is a marketplace reality that marketing managers sometimes inflict switching costs on their customers, to inhibit them from defecting to new suppliers. In a competitive setting, such as the Internet market, where competition may be only one click away, has the potential of switching costs as an exit barrier and a binding ingredient of customer loyalty become altered? To address that issue, this article examines the moderating effects of switching costs on customer loyalty through both satisfaction and perceived‐value measures. The results, evoked from a Web‐based survey of online service users, indicate that companies that strive for customer loyalty should focus primarily on satisfaction and perceived value. The moderating effects of switching costs on the association of customer loyalty and customer satisfaction and perceived value are significant only when the level of customer satisfaction or perceived value is above average. In light of the major findings, the article sets forth strategic implications for customer loyalty in the setting of electronic commerce. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Do Consumption Goals Matter? The Effects of Online Loyalty Programs in the Satisfaction‐Loyalty Relation

This study investigates the effects of online loyalty programs in the customer satisfaction‐loyalty relationship. It is proposed that loyalty programs may induce loyalty toward programs (program loyalty), which may then influence loyalty toward stores (store loyalty). According to the results of a two‐wave survey, consumption goals matter in the effects of program loyalty on online store loyalty. For consumers with hedonic goals, hedonic program loyalty (e.g., free gifts) has a significant effect on online loyalty. For consumers with utilitarian goals, however, utilitarian program loyalty (e.g., coupons) has a significant influence on online loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.     

A cross-cultural study of the perceived benefits of a retailer loyalty scheme in Asia

The aim of this paper is to explore loyalty, loyalty schemes, and loyalty cards, as well as the internationalisation of loyalty schemes. We focus on loyalty schemes in Asia to define the primary objective of our study: to assess the impact of perceived benefits on the feelings of participants of a specific retailer's loyalty scheme, as well as customer loyalty towards the retailer. A literature review of loyalty schemes and loyalty cards is undertaken as well as the internationalisation of these cards. A survey was conducted in five Asian countries in which Toys’R’Us operates, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand. Data was collected among members of the Toys’R’Us Star Card loyalty programme. Structural equation modelling was used to build a model that can be used to explain the simultaneous structural relations between perceived benefits, emotional feelings, and loyalty behaviours. Invariance testing was applied in order to test whether the model holds across the five countries. Our findings suggest that perceived benefits have a weak direct effect on loyalty behaviours. However, perceived benefits have a much stronger effect on feelings, which in turn have a strong effect on loyalty behaviours. We also found subtle differences between the countries in the study, which could either be attributed to cultural differences, to marketing practices, or to both, which can only be ascertained through further research.     

Influence of retailers’ commitment to sustainable development on store image,consumer loyalty and consumer boycotts: Proposal for a model using the theory of planned behavior

This research has a twofold objective: first, to propose a tool for evaluating retailers’ commitment to sustainable development as perceived by consumers (RCSD); second, to test a conceptual framework adapted from the Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) model and to study the impact of RCSD on the retailer’s image, consumer loyalty and boycotts. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The study confirms the link between RCSD and the consumers’ positive image toward the retailer and suggests that sustainable development practices can help retailers build a good image among consumers. But there is no link between RCSD and consumer loyalty, showing that sustainable development is not a purchase criterion for consumers.