Investigating the complex drivers of loyalty in e‐commerce settings

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived service quality, satisfaction and trust determine loyalty in e‐commerce settings at the level of construct dimensions.Design/methodology/approachA survey method approach was used in this study. To test the dimensionality of the perceived service quality, all the 20 items were analyzed using oblique rotation and varimax rotation. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equations modeling.FindingsEmpirical results indicate that only assurance does appear to play an imperative role in building trust as suggested by many authors. Of particular interest is the finding that word‐of‐mouth (WOM) is an antecedent of trust and intention. It becomes clear that WOM is a relatively important driver of trust and intention in e‐commerce settings.Research limitations/implicationsThe study may also be delimited to Qatar only. Further research could complement it by exploring the study variables and other variables not mentioned in depth here.Practical implicationsSatisfaction, which contributes considerably to loyalty, can be increased by providing an attractive user interface, and an easy to use and interesting system. Specifically, the positive word‐of‐mouth decreases the need for marketing expenses and can increase revenue if new customers are attracted. Online retailers should direct their before‐ and after‐sales service mechanisms towards developing consumers' willingness to get engaged in positive WOM in favour of the company and its services.Originality/valueThe major contribution of the study is that it is the first attempt to investigate the impact of word of mouth on trust and intention ahead of previous studies.

Antecedents of Customer E-loyalty With the Effect of Trustworthiness in Malaysia Context

“…Trust mediates the relationship between interactivity and e-loyalty ). The finding of Ribbink et al (2004) and Kassim and Ismail (2009) identified that customization insignificantly affects trust in online buying. Deriving on this evidence, this paper implies that trustworthiness mediates the relationship between customer interface quality and customer e-loyalty.…”

“…As stated in literatures, the element of interactivity (Ng & Matanda, 2008), customization (Kassim & Ismail, 2009;Tarafdar & Zhang, 2008), and convenience (Chang & Chen, 2008) positively impact customer e-loyalty. Accordingly, SERVQUAL also influenced e-store loyalty in e-retailing (Ponirin et al, 2009).…”

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

“…Oliver's [143] definition comprises both of these types of features: he presented a loyalty framework based on a cognition-affect-conation-action historical pattern. According to Oliver [143,145], loyalty is -a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour.‖ Another conceptualization of loyalty used by e-loyalty researchers is that of Neal [138, p. 21], who defines customer loyalty as -the proportion of times a purchaser chooses the same product or service in a specific category compared to the total number of purchases made by the purchaser in that category, under the condition that other acceptable products or services are conveniently available in that category.‖ The existence of various definitions denotes that loyalty remains a research topic under constant inquiry and their elements provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to grasp the multiple aspects attributed to loyalty. E-loyalty draws its definitions from classical customer behaviour theory, but can any approach be particularly preferred in an e-commerce setting?…”

“…Oliver [143,144,145] provides a detailed approach that considers satisfaction a variable that crucially affects loyalty, with satisfaction being just one antecedent of loyalty among others. He provides a series of six scenarios on the relationship of satisfaction to loyalty, which is not analysed here.…”

“…From the adapted instruments, the study by Zeithaml et al [233] appears to have significantly influenced e-loyalty literature, as 49 authors have adapted this instrument to measure e-loyalty. Second comes Oliver [143,144,145], whose customer satisfaction theories have been used as a basis to form an e-loyalty instrument in 11 studies.…”