The effect of e-service quality on Jordanian student’s e-loyalty: an empirical study in online retailing
| Pages | 902-923 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-12-2017-0598 |
| Published date | 13 May 2019 |
| Date | 13 May 2019 |
| Author | Rami Mohammad Al-dweeri,Antonia Ruiz Moreno,Francisco Javier Llorens Montes,Zaid Mohammad Obeidat,Khaldoon M. Al-dwairi |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
The effect of e-service quality on
Jordanian student’s e-loyalty: an
empirical study in online retailing
Rami Mohammad Al-dweeri
Department of Marketing, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
Antonia Ruiz Moreno and Francisco Javier Llorens Montes
Department of Business Organization, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
Zaid Mohammad Obeidat
Department of Marketing, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, and
Khaldoon M. Al-dwairi
Department of Library and Information Management,
Al-Balqa’Applied University, Al-Salt, Jordan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of e-service quality, its effects on
e-satisfaction and e-trust and its impact on behavioural and attitudinal loyalty in Jordanian youth users of
online retailing.
Design/methodology/approach –The scale proposed in this study has been specifically constructed using
the four models most recognised for measuring e-service quality: E-S-QUAL, WebQual, eTransQual and
eTailQ. The dimensions used in this study are efficiency, privacy, reliability, emotional benefit and customer
service. The research model was statistically tested by students in Jordan, using Amazon.com.
Findings –It is found that privacy, reliability, emotional benefit and customer service are important
elements to measure the e-service quality, but efficiency is not. E-trust was found to be an antecedent of
e-satisfaction, and behavioural loyalty an antecedent of attitudinal loyalty.
Originality/value –The contribution of this study is thus the investigation of the causal relationship
between the e-service quality dimensions, e-satisfaction, e-trust, behavioural loyalty and attitudinal loyalty,
where it is necessary to consider the subject in more depth and to examine e-service quality dimensions based
on a proposed model constructed from the four most common models.
Keywords E-satisfaction,Attitudinal loyalty, Behavioural loyalty, E-trust, E-service quality, Online retailing
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
With the fast growth of the internet and e-commerce, more customers nowadays engage in
online shopping. As a result, firms depend on online marketing to sell their products
through websites, and to obtain a competitive advantage (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Over the
last years, many retailers have added an online channel so becoming multichannel retailers
(Frasquet et al., 2017). In recent years, service quality and e-service quality have been among
the most important research areas in marketing due to their apparent influence on the
financial performance of the firm (Kim and Lennon, 2017; Zahedifard et al., 2014), in addition
to gaining a competitive advantage through superior electronic services (Yarimoglu, 2015).
Generally, the literature implies that the greater the e-service quality, the greater the
electronic customer satisfaction (Hsu and Hsu, 2008; Ou et al., 2011). In addition, it was found
that e-service quality also increases customers’e-trust in the service provider (Mohd Kassim
and Ismail, 2009). Moreover, considering that e-trust was found to be a main predictor of
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 119 No. 4, 2019
pp. 902-923
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-12-2017-0598
Received 27 December 2017
Revised 24 June 2018
3 September 2018
Accepted 31 October 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
This research was supported by Erasmus Mundus. The authors thank the Dunia Beam project, which
provided financial support that greatly assisted the research.
902
IMDS
119,4
online shopping (e.g. Cristobal et al., 2007), significant links were also found between it and
e-loyalty (e.g. Frasquet et al., 2017; Chung and Shin, 2010; Kantsperger and Kunz, 2010).
However, the causal relationship between e-service quality, e-satisfaction, e-trust and
e-loyalty has also been debated in recent years. Previous studies showed that e-service
quality did not have a consistent impact on e-loyalty (Ou et al., 2011; Ghane et al., 2011; Ho
and Lee, 2015; Kao and Lin, 2016; Swaid and Wigand, 2009; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003;
Yaya et al., 2011), which implies that this relationship could be influenced by other variables.
As a result, some studies analysed the relationship between the four constructs (e-service
quality, e-satisfaction, e-trust and e-loyalty). However, Ho and Lee (2015) discussed this
relationship but, instead of e-service quality, they examined information quality, while
Ghane et al. (2011) and Ziaullah et al. (2014) focussed on this relationship without
considering the two kinds of loyalty, behavioural and attitudinal. Consequently, there is a
lack of empirical studies examining the causal relationship between e-service quality,
e-satisfaction, e-trust and e-loyalty all together. Although previous links have been found
between these constructs and e-loyalty individually (Ghane et al., 2011), a comprehensive
examination of all the direct and indirect effects that e-service quality, e- satisfaction and
e-trust have on e-loyalty and on each other is needed.
In addition, limited research attention has been given to examining the influence of this
sequence on different types of loyalty (Ziaullah et al., 2014). Generally, customer loyalty is
the definitive aim of relationship marketing, and particularly in electronic transactions, to
avoid customers switching to other companies (Cheng, 2011). In addition, loyalty will
encourage customers to pay higher prices and spread positive word of mouth about the firm
(Dowling and Uncles, 1997; Romadhoni et al., 2015). Fandy and Chandra (2008) note that
customer e-loyalty is a dynamic concept that is influenced by a number of factors, one of
which is the e-service quality. However, when examining the influence of the e-service
quality on e-loyalty, all of the previous studies considered e-loyalty to be a single construct,
with no regard to the different types of e-loyalty (e.g. Ho and Lee, 2015; Kao and Lin, 2016).
Consequently, there is another gap in the literature in examining this causal relationship
and taking into consideration those two aspects of e-loyalty: behavioural and attitudinal.
The literature has highlighted important differences between these two types of loyalty that
can have important implications for businesses (Russell et al., 2007). For example,
behavioural loyalty often leads the customer to make repeat purchases from the firm and its
website (Cheng, 2011). On the other hand, attitudinal loyalty does not really mean that the
customer actually purchases from the website, despite having a positive attitude towards it
(Kang et al., 2015). In this case, the customer could feel positively about the brand or the
website, leading to positive word of mouth and referrals to friends; however, actual
behavioural loyalty could be hindered due to a lack of ability to afford the brand or to shop
there themselves. As a result, in many cases, one type of loyalty could exist without the
other (Russell et al., 2007). Therefore, online companies must take into account not only that
users revisit websites, but also that they recommend them to other users, and that this is
gaining more importance, especially in the era of social media.
The contribution of this study is thus the investigation of the causal relationship between
the e-service quality dimensions (efficiency, privacy, reliability, emotional benefit and
customer service), e-satisfaction, e-trust, behavioural loyalty and attitudinal loyalty, where it
is necessary to consider the subject in more depth and to examine e-service quality
dimensions based on a proposed model constructed from the four most common models.
Consequently, this comprehensive examination of the e-service quality will allow for a better
examination of these factors and their direct and indirect relationships. Moreover, while the
concept of service quality has been examined in a number of contexts, limited research
attention was given to examining it in the e-retailing context (Ou et al., 2011; Ghane et al.,
2011) and in the middle east context (Al-dweeri et al., 2017). Because customers of electronic
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Effect of
e-service
quality
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