How Online Trust and Online Brand Equity Translate Online- and Omni-Channel-Specific Instruments into Repurchase Intentions

Abstract

This study examines omni-channel retailers’ online activities, which previous brick-and-mortar firms’ find challenging, but they are increasingly competing with online players. Therefore, the role of major online-specific instruments such as online aesthetic appeal and omni-channel-specific instruments such as online-offline integration is studied. A framework is proposed in which online trust, as a key mediator in online studies, translates instruments into repurchase intentions. However, the authors also study online brand equity, believing in its strength for repurchasing in competing, reciprocal mediation. They test indirect effects of the instruments in a sequential mediation study and reciprocal effects of trust and brand equity in a cross-lagged panel study based on longitudinal data of consumer evaluations of fashion retailers. Importantly, cross-channel repurchase intention is differentiated. The results provide new empirical evidence of a different relative importance of the instruments and of online trust versus online brand equity. The findings have direct implications for managers interested in understanding which instruments most affect consumer outcomes.