An empirical investigation of the impacts of website quality on consumer loyalty: a case of baby boomers
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Laura Egeln (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Kittichai Watchravesringkan
Abstract: Online shopping has become increasingly popular with sales of $263 billion in 2013 an increase of 36% as compared to 2011 (www.Shop.org). However, consumer behavior that happens in the online channel is still under-researched due to the constant change that occur in the online channel (e.g., technological advances). The relationship between website quality, satisfaction, trust, and loyalty are not well understood. However, such relationships among website quality, satisfaction, trust and loyalty on an online environment are sparse, indicating a need to further understand whether such relationships exist in an online shopping environment. Such relationships are important because they may aid in better understanding online consumers’ decision-making process. In addition, while most studies relating to online retail focus on younger users because they are first to adopt technology, online shopping behavior of the baby boomers is not well understood. This study attempts to provide an update and further extends consumer behavior literature by simultaneously examining factors that influence consumer loyalty in the online environment specific to the baby boomer cohort. Thus, the purpose of the study is to propose and empirically examine an integrative model of consumer loyalty within an apparel online shopping context with baby boomer online users. Specifically, the study seeks to 1) examine the associations between website quality dimensions and overall perceived website quality; 2) examine the relationship among overall perceived website quality, consumer satisfaction, and trust; and 3)examine the associations between consumer satisfaction, trust, and consumer loyalty. The study’s conceptual framework is derived from four different research streams; website quality (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2003), satisfaction (Oliver, 1981), trust (McKnight, Choudhury, & Kacmar, 2002), and loyalty (Dholakia & Zhao, 2010). Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire from an online panel called Amazon Mechanical Turk (mturk.com), which consists of panel members who agree to complete human intelligence tasks (HIT) that are requested by requestor. The survey was comprised of two qualifying questions indicating that those who participated in the final survey were a baby boomer and had purchased apparel online in the past six months. The study’s final sample consisted of 169 responses. The majority of participants were female (73%), employed full-time (56%), and had an annual household income of $30,001 - $60,000 (32%). A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed on website quality items (e.g., system quality). As a result, two factors were chosen for system quality (i.e., web appearance and interactivity); two factors were selected for information quality (i.e., security and informativeness); and two factors were chosen for service quality (i.e., fulfillment and responsiveness). Confirmatory factor analysis via LISREL 8.8 using maximum likelihood estimation was subsequently performed to confirm the factor structure of website quality. To test all hypothesized relationships, we followed a two-step structural equation modeling approach. Results revealed that system quality dimensions (web appearance and interactivity) did not positively impact overall perceived website quality. The information quality dimension of informativeness did positively impact overall perceived website quality but information quality dimension of security did not positively impact overall perceived website quality. Service quality dimension of fulfillment did not positively impact overall perceived website quality but service quality dimension of responsiveness did positively impact overall perceived website quality. In addition, results also showed that overall perceived website quality positively impacts trust, which in turn, influences loyalty in terms of WOM, repatronage intentions, and share of wallet. Furthermore, overall perceived website quality was found to positively influence satisfaction, but satisfaction was not found to positively influence trust. However, we only found that satisfaction positively influenced WOM and share of wallet but not repatronage intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided. Limitations and future research directions are addressed.
An empirical investigation of the impacts of website quality on consumer loyalty: a case of baby boomers
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Created on 8/1/2015
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2015
- Keywords
- Baby Boomers, Consumer Behavior, e-Commerce
- Subjects
- Web sites $x Design $x Psychological aspects
- Electronic commerce $x Psychological aspects
- Clothing trade
- Baby boom generation
- Consumer behavior
- Consumer satisfaction
- Customer loyalty