website quality elements and online shopper behaviour

119 Pages·2016·2.98 MB·English

WEBSITE QUALITY ELEMENTS AND ONLINE SHOPPER
BEHAVIOUR: ADAPTING THE UNIFIED THEORY OF
ACCEPTANCE AND USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO FASHION
RETAILERS’ WEBSITES

Luisa Cavallero

Dissertation submitted as partial requirement for the conferral of
Master in Marketing

Supervisor:
Prof. Doutor Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro, Prof. Auxiliar com agregação, ISCTE Business
School, Departamento de Marketing, Operações e Gestão Geral

September 2016
Acknowledgements

Working on this dissertation was a great experience and I would like to express my gratitude to
all of those who continuously supported me during this research.
First, this dissertation wouldn’t be possible without the help of Prof. Sandra Loureiro, my
supervisor, whom I thank for her availability, patience and assistance throughout this process.
Thanks to her vast experience and knowledge, as well as to her accessibility and openness, the
elaboration of this thesis contributed immeasurably to my knowledge and personal development.
Her advice always gave me the inspiration that enabled me to build my research ideas and to
continue with my dissertation. I really appreciated the opportunity to work under her direction.
Also, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents and my brothers, and my friends,
who have accompanied me in my academic journey and have given me the comfort and courage
to pursue my goals. Lastly, I would like to thank my Portuguese friends for helping with the
translation of my questionnaire and all those who answered it. Your help was extremely
appreciated.

i
Abstract

Companies in the fashion industry are increasingly establishing their presence online, in the form
of online platforms, such as websites. However, some brands are more successful than others in
selling fashion clothing online. In this perspective, the two main objectives of the dissertation are:
(i) to adapt and extend the UTAUT model in the context of online shopping for fashion clothing;
(ii) to compare the adapted model in two regions of Portugal and Italy. By testing the adapted
model in two regions of Portugal and Italy, the study gives insights into online consumer
behaviour when using fashion websites. Results are based on a survey of 312 Internet users who
are familiar with fashion websites. Findings reveal that perceived website quality is the strongest
predictor of online behaviour, having a positive impact on customer satisfaction, website trust
and word-of-mouth. Besides, the present study explores whether online shoppers are or are not
influenced by other customers’ reviews and finds evidence that online customer reviews do not
impact consumers’ perceptions of online shopping usefulness.
Key-words: Website quality, Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology
(UTAUT), Trust, Online customer reviews, Satisfaction, Word-of-mouth.
JEL: M31 Marketing
JEL: L81 Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

ii
Resumo
As empresas na indústria da moda estão cada vez mais a estabelecer a sua presença online, sob a
forma de plataformas online, tais como websites. No entanto, algumas marcas são melhor
sucedidas do que outros na venda de roupas de moda. Nesta perspetiva, os objetivos principais da
dissertação são: adaptar e estender o modelo UTAUT ao contexto de compras online para a roupa
da moda; comparar o modelo adaptado em duas regiões de Portugal e de Itália. Ao testar o
modelo adaptado em duas regiões de Portugal e Itália, o estudo permite obter informação sobre o
comportamento do consumidor online ao usar sites de moda. Os resultados são baseados em uma
pesquisa com 312 usuários de Internet que estão familiarizados com websites de moda. Os
resultados mostram que a qualidade percebida do website é o mais forte determinante do
comportamento online, tendo um efeito positivo na satisfação do cliente, na confiança e no passa-
palavra. Além disso, o presente estudo investiga se os compradores online são ou não
influenciados pelos comentários de outros clientes e encontra evidência que os comentários de
clientes não têm efeito significativo na perceção dos consumidores online.

Palavras-chave: Qualidade do Website, Teoria Unificada de aceitação e uso de tecnologia
(UTAUT), Confiança, Comentários online dos clientes, Satisfação Passa-palavra.
JEL: M31 Marketing
JEL: L81 Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

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Table of contents
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................... i
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... ii
List of tables ............................................................................................................................................ vi
List of figures ......................................................................................................................................... vii
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Theme of the dissertation .............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Objectives of the dissertation ......................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Structure of the dissertation........................................................................................................... 3
2. Literature review.................................................................................................................................. 3
2.1 Fashion consumption ..................................................................................................................... 3
2.1.1 Consumer motivations for fashion consumption....................................................................... 4
2.1.2 Behavioural mechanisms of fashion consumption .................................................................... 5
2.1.3 Models of fashion consumption ............................................................................................. 6
2.2 Shopping and the consumer decision-making process .................................................................... 7
2.3 Online shopping ............................................................................................................................. 9
2.3.1 Advantages of online shopping ................................................................................................ 9
2.3.2 Disadvantages and perceived risks of online shopping ........................................................... 12
2.4 Website quality dimensions: technical quality and information quality ......................................... 14
2.5 Online customer reviews .............................................................................................................. 16
2.6 The role of performance expectancy ............................................................................................ 19
2.7 The moderating impact of previous online experience ................................................................. 21
2.8 Relationship outcomes of website quality .................................................................................... 22
2.8.1 Customer satisfaction, website trust & recommendation adoption ........................................ 23
2.8.2 Word-of-mouth behaviour ..................................................................................................... 25
3. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 27
3.1 Research context: Italy and Portugal ............................................................................................ 27
3.2 Data collection ............................................................................................................................. 29
3.3 Sample profile .............................................................................................................................. 32
4. Data treatment and Results ............................................................................................................... 33
iv
4.1 Descriptive statistics ..................................................................................................................... 33
4.2 Regression Analysis results ........................................................................................................... 39
4.2.1 Determinants of Performance Expectancy.............................................................................. 40
4.2.2 The moderating impact of previous online experience on perceived website quality ............... 44
4.2.3 Relationship outcomes of website quality .............................................................................. 46
4.4 One-way ANOVA and non-parametric tests .................................................................................. 54
5. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 56
5.1 Discussion of results ..................................................................................................................... 56
5.2 Managerial implications ............................................................................................................... 59
5.3 Limitations and future research .................................................................................................... 62
6. References ......................................................................................................................................... 63
7. Appendixes ........................................................................................................................................ 71
Appendix A: Sample profile & Descriptive statistics ............................................................................ 71
Appendix B: Regression analysis results.............................................................................................. 77
Appendix C: Regression analysis results for the Portuguese sample.................................................... 86
Appendix D: Regression analysis results for the Italian sample ........................................................... 94
Appendix E: One-way ANOVA and non-parametric tests .................................................................. 102
Appendix F: Questionnaire ............................................................................................................... 106

v
List of tables
Table 1. Companies in the online environment
Table 2. Pros and cons of e-commerce
Table 3. Items and scales employed in the questionnaire
Table 4. Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents
Table 5. Descriptive statistics for Technical Quality (TQ)
Table 6. Descriptive statistics for Product Information (PI)
Table 7. Descriptive statistics for Information Quality of customer reviews (IQ)
Table 8. Descriptive statistics for Source Credibility (SC)
Table 9. Descriptive statistics for Customer Satisfaction (S)
Table 10. Descriptive statistics for Website Trust (T)
Table 11. Descriptive statistics for Social Influence (SI)
Table 12. Descriptive statistics for Performance Expectancy (PE)
Table 13. Descriptive statistics for Word-of-mouth Behaviour (WM)
Table 14. Descriptive statistics for Recommendation Adoption (REC)
Table 15. Descriptive statistics for Internet Experience (IEX)
Table 16. Descriptive statistics for User Online Experience (UEX)
Table 17: Determinants of Performance Expectancy
Table 18: Influence of experience on Performance Expectancy
Table 19. Determinants of Performance Expectancy together with experience
Table 20. Experience influences Technical Quality
Table 21. Experience influences Product Information
vi
Table 22. Experience influences Information Quality of customer reviews
Table 23. Performance Expectancy and Customer Satisfaction
Table 24. Performance Expectancy and Website Trust
Table 25. Performance Expectancy and Recommendation Adoption
Table 26. Performance Expectancy and WOM Behaviour
Table 27. Perceived Website Quality and Customer Satisfaction
Table 28. Perceived Website Quality and Website Trust
Table 29. Perceived Website Quality and WOM Behaviour
Table 30. Perceived Website Quality and Recommendation Adoption
Table 31. Online drivers of Website Trust
Table 32. Website Trust and Recommendation Adoption
Table 33. Performance Expectancy, Customer Satisfaction, Website Trust and Recommendation
Adoption as drivers of WOM Behaviour
List of figures
Figure 1. Stages in consumer decision-making
Figure 2. Conceptual model
Figure 3. Hofstede dimensions for Italy and Portugal
Figure 4. Determinants of Performance Expectancy
Figure 5. The impact of experience on perceived website quality
Figure 6. Relationship outcomes
Figure 7. Means plot for Customer Satisfaction
Figure 8. Means plot for WOM Behaviour
vii
Figure 9. Means plot for Product Information
viii
1. Introduction
1.1 Theme of the dissertation
Fashion consumption is without any doubt one of the oldest phenomena in human history; it has
been theorized and analysed by art historians, sociologists, anthropologists as well as
philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, who identified novelty as the main driver of fashion (Fang
et al., 2012). In more practical terms, fashion is an enormous business and has an economic
impact of global proportions. The apparel market size is expected to grow even more rapidly in
the coming years than it has in the recent past. Since the fashion industry is highly competitive
and requires companies to be flexible and react quickly to new trends, marketing is necessary to
satisfy the needs of contemporary consumers.
The way fashion is consumed has radically changed over the last two decades, with the
introduction of new technologies and the Internet. When applied to the retailing industry, the
Internet has been defined as the latest disruptive innovation (Christensen & Tedlow, 2000). As a
consequence, e-commerce, which uses websites to transact the sale of products and services
online (Kotler & Keller, 2012), has skyrocketed with global retail sales projected at 1.5 trillion
U.S. dollars for 2018 (Statista, 2016). Table 1 shows the two main types of online retailers,
according to Kotler and Keller (p: 439-440).
Table 1. Companies in the online environment.
Company Description Example
Brick-and-click A company that has an established physical Procter&Gamble,
company presence and adds the internet as a new Zara
distribution channel. Requires a multi-
channel strategy.
Pure click company A company that only has an online presence, Amazon.com,
without any physical store. Requires an Asos.com
online strategy.
Source: adapted from Kotler and Keller, 2012
Despite the challenges of selling consumer goods such as apparel online, clothing and shoes
represent one of the most popular online shopping category in Europe, particularly in Germany,
Great Britain, Finland and Denmark (PR Newswire, 2012).
1