Effects of reputation and website quality on online consumers' emotion, perceived risk and purchase intention

Abstract

Purpose -This research extends Mehrabian and Russell's Stimulus-Organism-Response model to include both external (i.e. reputation) and internal source of information (i.e. website quality) as stimuli which affect consumers' response systems. The purpose of this paper is to test a more comprehensive model consisting of reputation and website quality (stimuli), cognition and emotion (organism) and purchase intention (response). Design/methodology/approach -In total, 219 usable questionnaires were obtained at a large Midwestern university through online survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for data analyses. Findings -Reputation had a significant positive effect on consumers' emotion and significant negative effect on perceived risk. All four website quality dimensions had significant negative effects on perceived risk and significant positive effects on emotion, except for customer service. Perceived risk had a significant negative effect on consumers' emotion, and both perceived risk and emotion had a significant impact on purchase intention. Research limitations/implications -This research employed convenience sampling, which resulted in a majority of female respondents. The results may be generalized to a limited extent. Originality/value -This study allows for empirical examination of the different effects of various components of retail websites on emotion, perceived risk and behavioral intentions. This research will add value to the related literature by filling the void of previous research and also will provide practical implications for online retailers on designing and maintaining positive consumer response. Strength of the research lies in its ecological validity, since respondents were not simply all reacting to the same single stimulus.

Research on the Influence of Web Experience on Consumers’ Purchasing Intention

“…Through the analysis of the data provided by 219 questionnaires, it is found that web experience has a negative correlation with consumer's perceived risks and a positive correlation with customer's emotional factors. Perceived risks have a negative impact on emotional factors, and perceived risks, emotional factors have a strong impact on purchase intention (Kim, 2013). In Ghalandar's empirical research, he analyzed the relationship between the online purchase intention of the user and the experience of the web, and it shows that the user's understanding and experience of the computer network also affect the purchase intention, the overall web experience has a significant inpact on purchase intention (Ghalandar, 2012).…”

Investigating E-Servicescape, Trust, E-WOM, and Customer Loyalty

“…Similarly for e-servicescape, the stimuli are the website environment and service factors. Kim and Lennon (2013) investigated reputation and website quality as the stimuli, cognition and emotion as the organism, and purchase intentions as the response and found that reputation influenced individuals' emotions. The SOR model has also been used to research website characteristics, consumers' emotional responses, and buying behavior (Mummalaneni 2005).…”

Determinants of clothing repurchase through mobile devices

“…First, a firm's reputation is an external information source that acts on the consumer responses and future intentions (Kim and Lennon, 2013). It shows the reliability of the firm's commitments, makes consumers recognize its work, and it is critical in the development of trust in the initial stages and maintaining it in the future (Kim and Prabhakar, 2004).…”

“…In the mobile context, research stressed the importance of reputation as it relates to consumer trust (Casaló et al, 2007), which is considered the most important factor in its development (Davis, Sajtos, and Chaudhri, 2011). In the case of clothing, consumers tend to have more positive emotional experiences with those companies with the best reputation, in addition to seeing a reduced perceived risk on the web (Kim and Lennon, 2013;Kim, Yang, and Kim, 2013).…”

“…In the mobile context, in its infancy, privacy and security policies are crucial for companies to win consumer's trust (Davis et al, 2011;Urban, Amyx, and Lorenzon, 2009). In the textiles and clothing industry, several authors have noted that aspects related to security and privacy policies play an important role in the purchasing (Ha and Stoel, 2012;Kim and Kim, 2004), in improving the emotions experienced with the seller and in reducing the perceived risk by users of the website (Kim and Lennon, 2013 Rao and Troshani, 2007;Li, Dong, and Chen, 2012). The experiential characteristics of a mobile website are a determining factor in the use of it by the consumer (Ballantine, 2005;Dholakia and Zhao, 2009;Sánchez-Franco and Rondán-Cataluña, 2010;Wang and Li, 2012).…”