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ABSTRACT
The primary objective of this article is twofold: (i) constructing a scale for measuring e-service quality, and (ii) examining the effects of the dimensions of e-service quality on the various types of customer loyalty. By conducting exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, we found that e-service quality is measured on six dimensions: information quality, website usability, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and personalization. Furthermore, the study identifies the influence of the individual dimension of e-service quality on the different types of service loyalty. Structural analysis reveals that assurance is the most important factor affecting 'price tolerance', while reliability is the factor with the greatest influence on 'preference loyalty'. The dimension of responsiveness is the only one having significant negative impact on 'complaining behavior'. Online retailers are provided with tactical strategies on how to immunize online shoppers' loyalty against switching behavior and price sensitivity. Limitations and directions for future research are offered.
Keywords: service quality, loyalty, online shopping, SERVQUAL, structural analysis
1. Introduction
With the rapid growth of business to consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce), electronic retailers realized that regardless of their business type and product offerings, they are requested to deliver superior service quality over the web, here termed e-service quality. Delivering high quality service is considered an essential strategy for business success and survival (Reichheld & Schefter 2000; Zeithaml et al. 1996).
Initially, companies focused on establishing appealing websites to interact and communicate with online shoppers. Therefore, a number of attempts have been made to understand e-service quality in terms of web interactivity (e.g., Aladwani & Palvia 2002; Loiacono et al. 2007). Such approaches on measuring e-service quality using cues that emerge from interacting with the website were found to be insufficient and inappropriate to measure the quality of the online service experience (Wolfinbarger & Gilly 2003). According to industry analyst Datamonitor, US companies lost over $6.1 billions in online sales in 1999 due to failing to implement effective e-service solutions (Bnet, 2000). This means that e-retailers struggle in delivering quality service and lack an accurate measurement tool to diagnose the weakness factors in their e-service delivery systems.
What makes measuring the quality of e-service difficult and complicated in the context of e-retailing? Electronic retailing (in contrast to traditional retailing) is not a...