Comfort Your Online Customer: Quality, Trust and Loyalty on the Internet
Abstract
In e‐commerce, loyal customers are considered extremely valuable. Loyalty is generally attributed to satisfaction with the quality of service. Since online transactions involve many uncertainties for the customer, trust is a condition for exchange. Trust in the electronic medium – here called “e‐trust” – is believed to increase online customer loyalty, but empirical confirmations are scarce. The present study empirically investigates the roles of service quality, satisfaction and trust in an e‐commerce context. In the study, e‐trust is found to directly affect loyalty. The e‐service quality dimension of assurance, i.e. trusting the merchant, influences loyalty via e‐trust and e‐satisfaction. Other e‐quality dimensions, such as ease of use, e‐scape, responsiveness, and customization influence e‐loyalty mainly indirectly, via satisfaction. Managerial implications and suggestions for further research are provided.
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Trust has a much less significant effect on customer e-loyalty than in other related studies.
“explain the somewhat unexpected results in the literature that trust has a much less significant effect on customer e-loyalty 1 (e.g., Ribbink et al. 2004) than in other related studies (e.g., Flavian et al. 2006; Gefen 2002; Li et al. 2006; Qureshi et al. 2009).”
From Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms1 (2014) · cites this paper as Ribbink et al. 2004
Customers satisfied with prior exchange processes with an online vendor will be more likely to trust the vendor (Flavian et al. 2006; Li et al. 2006; Ribbink et al. 2004).
“in particular, customers satisfied with prior exchange processes with an online vendor will be more likely to trust the vendor (Flavian et al. 2006; Li et al. 2006; Ribbink et al. 2004).”
From Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms1 (2014) · cites this paper as Ribbink et al. 2004
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- Authors
- Ribbink, D., van Riel, A. C. R., Liljander, V., & Streukens, S.
- Affiliations
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Hanken School of Economics (FI)
- Venue
- Managing Service Quality: An International Journal
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2004-12-01
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 446-456
- ISSN
- 0960-4529 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2098440369
- Cited by
- 872
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 60 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 55 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 47 · 2015: 56 · 2014: 65 · 2013: 58 · 2012: 51
- FWCI
- 25.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Managing Service Quality (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Customer Service Quality and Loyalty
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Keywords
- online trust, online customer loyalty, e-service quality, customer satisfaction, e-satisfaction, assurance, e-commerce
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