E-service quality perceptions: an empirical analysis of the Chinese e-retailing industry

Abstract

China will become the largest online retail market in the world in the near future. Chinese consumers may have their own patterns of online consumption and behaviour that are different from those of consumers in the West. However, most research on consumer behaviour and e-service quality relies on theoretical frameworks developed in Western societies. The aim of this paper is to propose and empirically verify a conceptual framework for how customers judge e-service quality in the context of the Chinese e-retailing industry. Meanwhile, the key dimensions of e-service quality are searched with a survey to understand the e-service quality perceptions of Chinese consumers to enhance their e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. The empirical results suggest that e-retailers should pay more attention to process quality and service recovery in the context of Chinese culture and Chinese personality with high uncertainty avoidance taking consideration of service guarantee as one aspect.

How does information technology-based service degradation influence consumers’ use of services? An information technology-based service degradation decision theory

“…Yang et al (2005) examined the factors that affect user satisfaction from Web portals that present information about products or services. Zhang et al (2015) discuss eservice quality in the retail industry. degraded then customers' perception for the quality of the service will be negatively affected and therefore these factors can inform our study.…”

“…Yang et al (2005) examined the factors that affect user satisfaction from Web portals that present information about products or services. Zhang et al (2015) discuss e-service quality in the retail industry.…”

“…legal structures in the Internet), website quality, information quality, service level (e.g. on time delivery), empathy and trust to the vendor Xu et al (2011) Perceived sacrifice, service quality, perceived service outcome, live help technology and product knowledge Connolly et al (2010) Efficiency, system availability, privacy, responsiveness, contact and perceived value Papadomichelaki and Mentzas (2012) Ease of use, trust, functionalities, reliability, content, appearance and user support Zhang et al (2015) Convenience, information accuracy, security, functionality, delivery accuracy, failure prevention, failure recovery and service guarantee Chuang et al (2016) Reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangible, environment quality, delivery quality and outcome quality Sun et al (2012) Cognitive capital (i.e. shared language), relational capital (i.e.…”

“…or "They said they would fix it." Tolerating Recovery failure (Funches et al, 2009) Recovery action Smith et al, 1999) Recovery expectations and performance (Hess et al, 2003;McCollough et al, 2000) Failure recovery (Zhang et al 2015) Customer service Customer service as a factor is evident by discussions concerning the politeness, but also efficiency of the customer service, such as "The employees were very polite regardless that they did not find any solution" or "It was not worth calling the customer service anymore: they would not find a solution and I would simply lose time." Tolerating Customer Service (Luo et al, 2012;Papadomichelaki and Mentzas, 2012) Contact (Connolly et al, 2010;Parasuraman et al, 2005) Provider credibility Degradation incidents challenge the user's perception of the provider credibility and whether the provider is reliable.…”

Measuring Service Quality Perceptions of Indian E-retailers: An Evaluative Study

“…Those who have an interest and do online shopping and have an experience of service failure were selected for the study. Questionnaire was framed based on the framework given by Zhang et al 50 The scale items have been adapted to suit the requirements of online Indian consumers. This study is analytical and causal in nature.…”