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MASTER'S THESIS
Customer Satisfaction
Service Quality in Online Purchasing in Iran
Rana Mostaghel
Supervisors:
Dr. Amir Albadvi
Dr. Moez Limayem
Referee:
Dr. Aghdasi
Prepared by:
Rana Mostaghel
Tarbiat Modares University Faculty of Engineering
Department of Industrial Engineering
Lulea University of Technology
Division of Industrial Marketing and E-Commerce
MSc Joint PROGRAM IN MARKETING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
2006
John E. G. Bateson
Abstract
The findings of this research are mostly useful to those (managers, web
designers, etc.) who intend to penetrate the Iranian market with least cost,
time and energy. The results indicate the most important web quality factors
through Iranian online shoppers perspective. In the last few years, a
significant growth has been noticed in the Internet- based services in the pure
Internet businesses as well as the traditional enterprises, which are
developing their online services. One of the key challenges of online
businesses is how they manage service quality, which holds a significant
importance to customer satisfaction. In addition of success stories we should
be aware of problems; in year 2000 nearly 900 US online firms were shut
down, 31% of them were online retailers (Minjoon Jun, 2004). The purpose of
this research is to rank the quality factors perceived to be most important in
relation to the use of online shops. The questionnaire utilized was based on
the SERVQUAL instrument that identifies five quality dimensions in service
environments.
Acknowledgements
First of all I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my
supervisors, Dr. Moez Limayem at division of Industrial Marketing and
Electronic Commerce of Lule University of Technology, Sweden, for his
intelligent guidance and helpful advice during the whole process, and Dr. Amir
Albadvi at division of Industrial Engineering and Electronic Commerce of
Tarbiat Modares University, Iran, for his very helpful supports.
I would like to thank all the participants who contributed to my work, not
just for their responses, but also for the good suggestions they made and their
kind help.
Rana Mostaghel
Fall-2005
Table of Content
CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................................................. 9
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 9
1.
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 9
1.1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................... 9
1.1.1
E-commerce ...................................................................................................................... 10
1.1.2
Online Retailing................................................................................................................ 10
1.1.3
E-commerce in Iran .......................................................................................................... 15
1.1.4
Customer Satisfaction....................................................................................................... 15
1.1.5
Service Quality ................................................................................................................. 17
1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................ 18
1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTION ....................................................................... 21
1.4 DEMARCATION............................................................................................................................ 21
1.5 DISPOSITION OF THE THESIS ........................................................................................................ 21
CHAPTER 2 ........................................................................................................................................... 23
LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................................... 23
2.
LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................. 23
2.1 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION .......................................................................................................... 23
2.1.1
What we need to measure? ............................................................................................... 28
2.1.2
Techniques to measure customer satisfaction................................................................... 30
2.1.3
Virtual organizations and customer satisfaction .............................................................. 31
2.2 DIMENSIONS AND DETERMINANTS OF SERVICE QUALITY ............................................................ 33
2.2.1
Conceptualization of e-services ........................................................................................ 37
2.2.2
E-service quality ............................................................................................................... 39
2.3 MEASURING ELECTRONIC SERVICE QUALITY.............................................................................. 41
CHAPTER 3 ........................................................................................................................................... 44
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 44
3.
METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................... 44
3.1 RESEARCH PURPOSE ................................................................................................................... 44
3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH ................................................................................................................ 46
3.2.1
Quantitative Approach...................................................................................................... 46
3.2.2
Qualitative Approach........................................................................................................ 47
3.3 RESEARCH STRATEGY ................................................................................................................. 48
3.3.1
Survey ............................................................................................................................... 49
3.3.2
Pilot test............................................................................................................................ 49
3.4 SAMPLE SELECTION .................................................................................................................... 49
3.5 DATA COLLECTION ..................................................................................................................... 52
3.6 DATA ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................... 53
3.7 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ....................................................................................................... 53
3.7.1
Validity ............................................................................................................................. 53
3.7.2
Reliability.......................................................................................................................... 54
3.8 FRAME OF REFERENCE ................................................................................................................ 55
3.8.1
Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality ...................................................................... 56
3.8.2
Different tools for measuring Online Service Quality ...................................................... 56
3.8.2.1
3.8.2.2
3.8.2.3
3.8.2.4
3.8.2.5
3.8.3
3.8.4
SERVQUAL..........................................................................................................................56
WebQUAL ............................................................................................................................57
E-SERVQUAL......................................................................................................................57
E-SEQUAL ...........................................................................................................................58
E-S-QUAL.............................................................................................................................58
CHAPTER 4 ........................................................................................................................................... 63
RESOURCES.......................................................................................................................................... 81
APPENDIX I: QUESTIONNAIRE....................................................................................................... 86
APPENDIX II: TABLES ....................................................................................................................... 91
List of Tables
Table 1: Top 40 E-retailers according to their satisfaction score.......................................................... 12
Table 2 : Top 100 Internet retail companies .......................................................................................... 14
Table 3 : These firms lost money before paying overhead costs during the 1999 to 2000 ..................... 20
Table 4: research strategies ................................................................................................................... 48
Table 5:Reliability Statistics................................................................................................................. 55
Table 6: Satisfaction of respondents with the equipment they use ......................................................... 67
Table 7: The use of the web .................................................................................................................... 68
Table 8: Websites ranked by frequency of visits..................................................................................... 68
Table 9: the top five with highest scores of importance ......................................................................... 68
Table 10: The bottom five with lowest scores of importance.................................................................. 69
Table 11: The top ten of service quality factors with highest scores of importance............................... 72
Table 12: The bottom ten of service quality factors with lowest scores of importance .......................... 73
Table 13: The top ten with highest score on importance from Iranian and American perspective ........ 74
Table 14: The bottom ten with lowest scores of importance from Iranian and American perspective... 75
Table 15: Ranked SERVQUAL factors according to their importance mean......................................... 77
Table 16: Paired Samples Test........................................................................................................... 77
Table 17: Number of respondent by gender ........................................................................................... 91
Table 18: Number of respondents by Field of education........................................................................ 91
Table 19: Number of respondents by age .............................................................................................. 91
Table 20: importance of and satisfaction with aspects of web quality ................................................... 92
Table 21: Importance of SERVQUAL factors......................................................................................... 93
List of Figures
Figure 1: Correlation between customers' expectations and customer satisfaction............................... 17
Figure 2 : A conceptual model of service quality ................................................................................... 18
Figure 3: Dependence between quality, satisfaction and profitability ................................................... 20
Figure 4 : Customer satisfaction continues improvement ...................................................................... 27
Figure 5 : The circle of satisfaction ....................................................................................................... 27
Figure 6: The Principle of pre-study ...................................................................................................... 28
Figure 7: Customer satisfaction measurement method .......................................................................... 29
Figure 8: Measuring customer satisfaction............................................................................................ 29
Figure 9 : A Research Model for the Antecedents and Customer Satisfaction of Cyber Shopping Store
(CSS)....................................................................................................................................................... 30
Figure 10: Customer contact customer focus matrix .......................................................................... 32
Figure 11 : The e-service offering .......................................................................................................... 41
Figure 12: Relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction based on SERVQUAL...... 59
Figure 13: Pie chart; number of respondents by gender........................................................................ 66
Figure 14: Bar chart; number of respondents based on their educations field..................................... 66
Figure 15: Bar chart; number of respondents by age. ........................................................................... 67
Chapter 1
Introduction
1. Introduction
The background of the selected area is introduced in the first chapter. Then,
the problem area will be next discussed to provide a deeper understanding about the
research area for reader. The problem discussions end with a research problem and a
specific research question. In the end of this chapter the contribution of this research
is also presented.
1.1 Background
The background of the research area is provided in this section. It contains the
general idea of e-commerce and online retailing as one of the major sectors in ecommerce in the company of a list of top 40 e-retailers who have the most satisfaction
scores in the world (Foresee, spring 2005). Likewise, a brief introduction of ecommerce situation in Iran is brought here. This section also describes the importance
of service quality and it's relationship with customer satisfaction.
9
1.1.1 E-commerce
There are many definitions for e-commerce. What Vladimir Zwass in 1996
believed is: "Electronic commerce is the sharing of business information, maintaining
business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of
telecommunications networks". Is not very far from what Jelassi in 2005 said:
"Electronic commerce, or
can be thought of as a subset of it. Electronic commerce deals with the facilitation of
transactions and selling of products and services online, i.e. via the Internet or any
other telecommunications network" (Tawfik Jelassi & Albrecht Enders, 2005). This
was an academic definition for e-commerce, what practitioners believe is: "Ecommerce is often referred to as e-business and it is generally classified into four
types: B2B: business-to-business; B2C: business-to-consumer; C2C: Consumer-2Consumer; C2B: consumer-to-business" (Christian N.Madu and Assumpta A. Madu,
2002).
According to the Forrester, the research organization (www.forrester.com), the
fast growth of e-commerce in the developed countries and the value added which they
gain through it; Woke up the lagged countries completely and make them revise their
marketing and commerce strategies; in order to compete in the world markets, This
organization also predicts that e-commerce in the world will rise from 354 million
USD in 2001 to 10 trillion USD in 2005.
companies would lead us to better understanding of their strengths and powers. Larry
Freed has provided an Internet Retailers list of top 40 Retailers by sales volume in
Table 1 which shows whose online revenue was greater in 2004 (Larry Freed,
ForeSee Results, Spring 2005). Customers are lifeblood of an organization, so their
satisfaction is the top goals of the firms. In table 1 top 40 e-retailers are ranked by
their satisfaction score.
11
12
13
Source: Richard A. Feinberg, and Rajesh Kadam and Leigh Hokama, 2002
14
59th, based on
telecommunication infrastructures Iran has the 56th place and for the e-commerce
58th. Obviously E-commerce is something new for this country; however its
expected to grow steadily in the near future.
Being the follower in this field, we should utilize the opportunities and avoid
the risks. By analyzing the success stories and finding their critical success factors,
and also studding the trend of on line retailers which have been vanished, we will be
in a better position to set our policies and strategies. There are many researches which
have been done in the field of online retailing around the world, while many retailers
launch their websites it is time to lead them in the appropriate way. Academicians
should localize the foreigners results to help Iranian firms to reach the world
standards.
Here is some of the Iranian online retailers: www.cdkadeh.com , www.aftab.ir
, www.namabazar.net , www.softcity.ir, www.ketabak.com, www.iranebooks.com,
www.gooyabooks.com,
www.mohammadbook.com,
www.jahantasvir.com,
15
of the cost of acquiring a new customer; retaining a current employee costs one tenth
of hiring and training a new one.
These facts; highlights the crucial role of satisfying customers which brings
employee satisfaction; hence, the profit maximization of the company.
Therefore, organizations need to understand that to what extend their
customers would be satisfy. Customer satisfaction in marketing context has specific
meanings: Anders Gustafsson, Michael D. Johnson, & Inger Roos (2005) brought
customer satisfaction definition as customer's overall evaluation of the date. This
satisfaction has positive influences on retaining customers among different variety of
services and products. In service based enterprises; service quality directly affects
customer satisfaction.
Ingrid Fecikova, (2004) interpreted satisfaction as a feeling which results
from a process of evaluating what was received against that expected, the purchase
decision itself and/or the fulfillment of needs/want.
Satisfaction refers to achieving the things we want. If satisfaction interprets as
"not going wrong" the firm should decrease complaint which by its own is not
sufficient. In order to satisfy customers, company should improve its services and
products. Figure 1 illustrates correlation between customers' expectations and
customer satisfaction. Customers with less expectation are more satisfied: companies
by adding innovative features would easily increase customer satisfaction. In contrast,
when customers are unaware of improvements but critical of losses in existing quality
are less satisfied and expect more.
16
Jochen Wirtz
follows : repeat purchase; loyalty; positive word-of-mouth and Increased long term
profitability.
Therefore, companies should measure their customers' satisfaction to fortify
their strengths and improve their weaknesses.
17
18
an organization centered on
quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success
through customer satisfaction and benefits to all members of the organization and to
society (ISO 8402). The achievement of true customer satisfaction involves:
customer oriented culture; an organization that centers on the customer; employee
empowerment; process ownership; team building; and Partnering with customers and
suppliers.
In the other words:
Customer
satisfaction as discussed above leads to profitability and service quality is the main
factor of it, especially in online trading, so it is clear that service quality indirectly
affects the stakeholders benefits.
19
20
For keeping online retailers alive with logical profits; retaining customers
must be the foremost aim. Customer satisfaction, as we discussed before, has the most
important effect on customer stickiness and in order to narrowing down we focus on
service quality as one of the customer satisfactions factors.
To understand the most important dimensions of service quality that affect customer
satisfaction in online purchasing in Iran.
Research Question
Based on above stated research problem the following research question has
been developed:
Q1. What are the most important service quality factors in online purchasing through
Iranian perspective?
Q2. Does environment effect the customers exceptions from service quality factors?
1.4 Demarcation
Since the aspects of chosen problem area are many, the researcher has tried to
narrow down the focus. The aim of the research is to find the most important service
quality dimensions that affect customer satisfaction in online purchasing in Iran. In
the literature part, we will introduce theories related to service quality and satisfaction
in order to give a clear idea about the specific area to the reader and to explain the
proper context of the study.
previews studies related to the topic will be presented. Methodology is fully brought
in chapter three which would be ended by frame of reference that shows the exact
road map of the study. Chapter four presents the data which is gathered through the
online survey. And last but certainly not least, chapter five is about the data analyzing
and will be finished by conclusion and further studies.
22
Chapter 2
Literature review
2. Literature review
This chapter will give an overview of literature and models that are related to
the research problem presented in the previous chapter. This chapter will introduce
the concepts of customer satisfaction, service quality, relation between customer
satisfaction and service quality, traditional service quality dimensions, online service
quality dimensions and service quality model of online retailing in order to give a
clear idea about the research area.
25
Although buyers may skip or reverse some stages, basically they pass
sequentially through all five stages in buying a product.
26
27
28
misunderstanding a question, etc. After a simple pre-study the companies can find
support for their assumptions and simultaneously create a new, more effective,
questionnaire. If we have a set of customer demands and expectations we can translate
them into technical product features by using, e.g. the QFD methodology. Very
important also is determining the specific features, which mean a limited number of
critical measures in order to avoid information overload. There are various methods
(various approaches) for (to) the measurement of customer satisfaction.
The following figure illustrates some different kind of customer satisfaction
measurement. (Figure 7 and Figure 8)
29
Logistic support
Technical
characteristics
Information
characteristics
Customer Satisfaction
Homepage
presentation
Product
characteristics
Figure 9 : A Research Model for the Antecedents and Customer Satisfaction of Cyber
Shopping Store (CSS)
Source: Ho and Wu 1999
30
32
determinants such as understanding the customer and access are also relevant to the ecommerce marketplace. A Web site must be available at all times and does not have
opening and closing hours like a normal high street bank or shop. To understand the
customer, a clever Web site has cookies which recognize repeat customers and do this
by asking a new customer to register some kind of user word like an e-mail address
which they enter on each occasion that they access the Web site. In this way,
customers can be sent information by e-mail or offered purchasing suggestions on reentering a Web site depending on what they have previously bought. The aim is to
meet the customers needs and provide the kind of personalization that a regular
customer would get from contact personnel in a BAM environment. Communication
is difficult on the Internet because the interaction between the Web site and the
customer is often one way, the Web site providing information to the customer. It is
only if a Web site offers a telephone number or e-mail address that the customer
communicates with the company directly, and in most cases, e-mail queries receive
standard e-mail replies that may not respond directly to the query. In a similar way,
courtesy and competence can be said to be almost non-existent during the Web site
experience. The customer will generally navigate a Web site if it is easy to use but he
or she will not be able to judge what the personnel are like behind this interface or if
they have the required skills to perform a service. It is only through the customer
service option that this can be assessed and even then, an automatic reply e-mail
message is often devoid of human characteristics.
Tangibles are for the most part irrelevant for measuring service quality in ecommerce as the customer only interacts with the Web site. Therefore, the customer
cannot have opinions about the physical properties used to deliver a service. Most ecommerce companies either have their own warehouses for fulfilling orders for
products to be sent out, or ensure suppliers do this directly. The activity may take
place far away from where the customer is sitting and so is not applicable.
Responsiveness and reliability are, however, applicable because they relate to what
the company promises. Reliability could be judged, for example, by the correct
product being received by the customer within 48 hours. This is important for any
business and relates to the whole interaction between the interface and the back-end
processes of fulfillment. Responsiveness as such is slightly more indiscernible,
especially whilst directly interacting with the Web site. If the customer has a problem,
35
the customer service option of telephone or e-mail is how to report this and it is here
that the companys ability to respond well and at a reasonable speed is judged. This is
also relevant if fulfillment is part of the service and the customer has to send back an
item or it is late arriving.
Parasuraman et al. (1988, 1988) subsequently reduced these ten determinants
to five, the following first three being the original ones and the other seven original
ones categorized into (4) and (5): (1) Tangibles; (2) Reliability; and (3)
Responsiveness; (4) Assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees); and (5)
Empathy (caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers).
These five determinants were used in their SERVQUAL measurement
instrument (1988b). Johnston et al. (1990) carried out similar research using empirical
data in ten UK service organizations which resulted in 12 determinants, some of
which were similar to the ten determinants of Parasuraman et al. (1985): (1) Access;
(2) Appearance/aesthetics; (3) Availability; (4) Cleanliness/tidiness; (5) Comfort; (6)
Communication; (7) Competence; (8) Courtesy; (9) Friendliness; (10) Reliability; (11)
Responsiveness; and (12) Security.
Four out of the five new determinants, appearance, cleanliness, comfort and
friendliness, refer to service delivery within a physical sense and are therefore not
relevant to the Internet experience. The fifth new determinant, availability, is very
relevant because it can refer to the availability of a Web site, just as much as to the
availability of what service or product the e-business is offering and whether customer
service contacts can help. The empirical research carried out by Johnston et al. (1990)
was only on management perceptions of service and not from the customers
perspective; therefore Johnston and Silvestro (1990) carried out further research
taking
account
of
the
latter
and
added
five
more
determinants:
(1)
customer
loyalty
and
provoke
increased
positive
word-of-mouth
communication. Looking at this in terms of a Web site, service failure will most likely
be due to the system crashing and could be caused by the company or customer. If
there is a consistent problem accessing the Web site or while using it, then a customer
should complain but they are more likely to click to another competitors Web site
rather than spend time complaining and therefore service recovery becomes
immaterial. However, if there is a problem with billing or fulfillment, recovery does
become an issue (i.e. to replace a damaged product or an incorrectly delivered
product).
customers receive, the benefits of using the service. Gronroos et al. (2000) propose
that for services offered on the Internet the traditional service concept, consisting of
the core service, facilitating and supporting services, needs to be extended with a
fourth factor, the user interface. As noted by Gronroos et al. (2000), it is often
difficult to differentiate between facilitating and supporting services. A term that has
been coined to more generally denote services that are not part of the core service is
supplementary services (Anderson and Narus, 1995). Facilitating and supporting
services are both closely connected with the core service. For an online bookseller
facilitating services could be search facilities, an invoice archive and secure payment
methods. Book reviews and personal recommendations could be interpreted as
supporting services. In addition, independent, though related products that are neither
facilitating nor supporting the core service can be offered through the portal site. In
the case of a medical portal, we could think of self-contained products, such as
specialized financial services, insurances, a travel agency, an option to purchase
medicine online, etc.
Szymanski
and
Hise
would
suggest
preserving
the
adjective
39
standard (Zeithaml et al., 2000) Empirical studies have demonstrated that consumer
benefits of using SST include convenience (Meuter et al., 2000; Reichheld and
Schefter, 2000; Szymanski and Hise, 2000; Zeithaml et al., 2000), saving time and
money (Meuter et al., 2000), avoiding interpersonal interaction (Dabholkar, 1996;
Meuter et al., 2000), and being in control (Dabholkar, 1996; Zeithaml et al., 2000).
Features of the user interface, such as site design (Szymanski and Hise, 2000) and
ease of use (Dabholkar, 1996; Meuter et al., 2000; Zeithaml et al., 2000), affect
service quality perception and satisfaction. However, Meuter et al. (2000) found that
technology was only mentioned in the context of dissatisfying incidents. Similarly,
financial security and other assurance aspects may also affect e-satisfaction only in
the case of problems (Szymanski and Hise, 2000; Zeithaml et al., 2000).
business, either by individual companies or consulting firms that sell the scales to
businesses. Many of these measures are ad hoc and have not been validated,
potentially leading to poor managerial decisions. Academic researchers are starting to
work in this area, but no comprehensive scale has been published that captures the
dimensions and attributes in a rigorous and psychometrically sound way. This leads to
confusion when manager are trying to improve electronic service, for service
components must be fully understood from the customers point of view to improve
perceptions. The scales and measures developed by consulting firms and businesses
differ in their dimensions and attributes, and most academic work has focused on a
limited set of variables rather than a full view of electronic service quality ( Valarie A.
Zeithaml, 2002).
The dimensions of e-service quality Parsu, Arvind and Valerie Zeithmal have
focused on conceptualizing and measuring e-SQ, and particularly in determining the
dimensions of the construct. They used a three-stage process involving exploratory
focus groups followed by two phases of empirical data collection and analysis. Their
research indicates that e-SQ has seven dimensions that form two scales: a core e-SQ
scale and a recovery scale. Four dimensions efficiency, reliability, fulfillment, and
privacy form the core e-SQ scale that can be used to measure customer perceptions
of service quality. These dimensions and their definitions are: (1) Efficiency refers to
the ability of the customers to get to the Web site, find their desired product and
information associated with it and check out with minimal effort. (2) Fulfillment
incorporates accuracy of service promises, having products in stock and delivering the
products in the promised time. (3) Reliability is associated with the technical
functioning of the site, particularly the extent to which it is available and functioning
properly. (4) The privacy dimension includes assurance that shopping behavior data
are not shared and that credit card information is secure.
They call this the core e-SQ scale because these are the main dimensions that
consumers want in shopping on the Internet. Most consumers use the Web for its
shopping facilitation, and do not expect the personal interaction and warmth that they
expect from traditional service firms.
They found, however, that three other dimensions become salient when online
customers run into problems responsiveness, compensation and contact. They
42
43
Chapter 3
Research Methodology
3. Methodology
This chapter will present detailed idea about the research will be conducted.
This includes the purpose of the research, research approach, research strategy,
sample selection methods, data collection methods and data analysis methods. At the
end of this methodology part validity and reliability issues will be discussed to follow
the quality standards of the research. Then frame of reference which brings a
thorough road map of study is provided next.
classification system defines all the various that must be considered (Cooper &
Schindler, 2003).
Research can be classified in terms of their purpose. Accordingly, Saunders,
Lewis & Thornhil (2003) mentioned that they are most often classified exploratory,
descriptive or explanatory while Cooper and Schindler (2003) categorized in
descriptive and causal. This way the essential difference between descriptive and
causal studies lies in their objectives. If the research is concerned with finding out
who, what, where, when, or how much, then the study is descriptive. In a causal
study, we try to explain relationships among variables.
Exploratory research is useful when the research questions are vague or when
there is little theory available to guide predictions. At times, research may find it
impossible to formulate a basic statement of the research problem. Exploratory
research is used to develop a better understanding (Hair, Babin, Money & Samoel
2003). Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out what is happening, to
seek new insight, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light. It is
particularly useful if researcher wish to clarify the understanding of a problem. There
are three principle ways of conducting exploratory research: a search of the literature,
talking to experts in the subject, conducting focus group interviews (Saunders, Lewis
& Thornhill 2003)
In contrast to exploratory studies more formalized studies are typically
structures with clearly stated hypotheses or investigative questions. Formal studies
serve a variety of research objectives:
-
For example, which brands are most preferred? What advertisements are most
effective? These are the questions that can be answered by descriptive research.
Descriptive research designs are usually structured and specifically designed to
45
46
47
Strategy
Experiment
Survey
Archival analysis
History
Case study
Most important condition for selecting research strategy is to identify the type
of research question being asked. Who, What, Where, How and Why are
the categorization scheme for the types of research questions. Two possibilities need
to investigate by asking the What question. First, some types of what questions are
justifiable for conducting an exploratory study and the goal is to develop pertinent
hypotheses and propositions for further inquiry. Any of the five research strategies
can be used in that situation- exploratory survey, exploratory experiment, or an
exploratory case study. The second type of what question is actually form a how
many or how much line of inquiry and the outcomes from a particular situation.
48
The survey or archival analysis is more favorable than other strategies. If the
researcher needs to know the how question, the better strategy will be doing history
or a case study.
Since question in this study is based on what question and this what question
is actually form a how many and investigator has no control over the actual
behavioral events, Survey is found to be a more appropriate approach in order to gain
a better understanding of the research area. Survey is more appropriate for
quantitative study.
3.3.1 Survey
The survey strategy is popular and common strategy in business research that
is usually associated with the deductive approach. Survey allows the collection of
large amount of data from a sizeable population in a highly economical way.
Questionnaire, structured observation and structures interviews are often falls into this
strategy (Thornhill et. al., 2003). In this study a survey has been done.
According to Samuel et. al., 2003 most non-probability sampling methods are:
Convenience sampling
Convenience sampling involves select sample members who can provide
required information and who are more available to participate in the study.
Convenience samples enable the researcher to complete a large number of interviews
50
cost effectively and quickly but they suffer from selection bias because of difference
of target population (Hair et. al., 2003).
Judgment sampling
Researchers judgment is used to select sample element and it involves for a
specific purpose. Group of people who have knowledge about particular problem they
can be selected as sample element. Sometimes it referred as a purposive sample
because it involves a specific purpose. Judgment sampling is more convenience and
low cost involvement. (Hair et. al., 2003)
Quota sampling
Objective of quota sampling is to have proportional representation of the strata
of the target population for the total sample and the certain characteristics describe the
dimensions of the population (Cooper & Schindler 2003). In quota sampling the
researcher defines the strata of the target population, determines the total size and set
a quota for the sample elements from each stratum. The findings from the sampling
cannot be generalized because of the choice of elements is not done using a
probability sampling methods (Samouel et. al. 2003).
51
The questionnaire was divided into three parts in order to let responders more
time to concentrate on each question.
procedure used to collect primary data from individuals. The data sought can range
from beliefs, opinions, attitudes and lifestyles to general background information on
individuals such as gender, age, education and income as well as company
characteristics like revenue and number of employees. Surveys are used when the
research involves collecting information from a large sample of individuals (Samuel
et. al., 2003).
The questionnaire was developed based on research question and frame of
reference. The logical structure of questionnaire followed the order of service quality
dimension in the frame of reference. For understanding the importance and
52
satisfaction of each service quality dimension a 5-scale was used (1=very unsatisfied,
3= neutral, 5= very satisfied).
Once came up with the first draft of questionnaire, ten questionnaires were
handed out to the students of TMU and they were asked whether the questions made
sense to them and were they easy to understand. After refining questions, the wellimproved questionnaire was developed.
3.7.1 Validity
Validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they
appear to be about (Saunders et. al., 2003). Validity defined as the extent to which
data collection method or methods accurately measure what they were intended to
measure (Saunders et. al., 2003). Cooper & Schindler (2003) believe that validity
refers to the extent to which a test measures what we actually wish to measure. There
are two major forms: external and internal validity. The external validity of research
findings refers to the datas ability to be generalized across persons, settings, and
53
Numbers of different steps were taken to ensure the validity of the study:
Data was collected from the reliable sources, from respondents who are more
experienced to using online shopping;
Survey question were made based on literature review and frame of reference
to ensure the validity of the result;
Questionnaire has been pre-tested by the responded before starting the survey.
Questionnaire was tested by at least ten persons;
Data has been collected through two weeks, within this short period of time no
major event has been changed with the related topic.
3.7.2 Reliability
According to Saunders et. al., 2003, reliability refers to the degree to which
data collection method or methods will yield consistent findings, similar observations
would be made or conclusions reached by other researchers or there is transparency in
how sense was made from the raw data. Cooper & Schindler (2003) have defined
reliability as many things to many people, but in most contexts the notion of
con83sistency emerges. A measure is reliable to the degree that it supplies consistent
results. Reliability is a necessary contributor to validity but is not a sufficient
condition for validity.
Reliability can be assed by the following questions (Easterby-Smith et al.,
2002: p.53):
(1) Will the measures yield the same results on other occasions?
(2) Will similar observation be reached by other observers?
(3) Is there transparency in how sense was made from the raw data?
SPSS software offers Reliability Analysis Statistics: Reliability analysis
allows you to study the properties of measurement scales and the items that make
them up. The Reliability Analysis procedure calculates a number of commonly used
measures of scale reliability and also provides information about the relationships
between individual items in the scale. Intraclass correlation coefficients can be used to
compute interrater reliability estimates.
54
Statistics: Descriptive for each variable and for the scale, summary statistics
across items, inter-item correlations and covariances, reliability estimates, ANOVA
table, intraclass correlation coefficients, Hotelling's T2, and Tukey's test of additivity.
Models. The following models of reliability are available:
Numbers of different steps were taken to ensure the reliability of the study:
Questionnaire was divided into three parts in order that responders could
concentrate more on each question;
The theories that have been selected for the study was clearly described and
research question has been formulated based on the previous theory. Data has
been collected based on the frame of reference that was drawn from the
discussed theories. The objective is to make sure that if another investigator
will follow the same procedures and used the same questionnaires objects, the
same conclusions would be made.
Alpha Cronbach test has also been taken for the 50 items (service quality
factors) and as table 4 shows the result was 0.960 which is more than .8 and
confirmed the reliability of the questions.
N of Items
50
question focus on what are the most important service quality dimensions which
affect customers satisfaction in online purchasing in Iran.
providers.
(G.S.
Sureshchandar,
Chandrasekharan
Rajendran
R.N.
Anantharaman, 2002)
A basic agreement emanating from the wide range of literature on service
quality and customer satisfaction is that service quality and customer satisfaction are
conceptually distinct but closely related constructs (Parasuraman et al., 1994;
Dabholkar, 1995; Shemwell et al., 1998).
3.8.2.1 SERVQUAL
By the use of SERVQUAL scale it is possible to compare customers
expectations and their perceptions of actual performance (Parasuraman and Zeithaml,
1990). This scale has been developed for the service sector and has five generic
dimensions or factors: (1) Tangibles: Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of
personnel; (2) Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and
accurately; (3) Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service; (4) Assurance (including competence, courtesy, credibility and security):
Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and
56
3.8.2.2 WebQUAL
WebQUAL (Barnes et al, 2001) is an on-line questionnaire which is applied to
assess customers perceptions of the quality of Web sites. The questionnaire is
completed by customers and the qualitative customer assessments are converted into
quantitative metrics that are useful for management decision-making. WebQUAL
allows comparisons to be made between E-Commerce environments in the same
domain, or for the same E-Commerce environment over time. WebQUAL has been
iteratively developed through its application to a number of domains, from university
Web sites, through to auction sites, book store Web sites, and even Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP) sites on mobile phones. One of the major influences in
its development has been the communications theory and, therefore, WebQUAL is
particularly suited for assessing the information quality of information-intensive ECommerce environments. The WebQUAL instrument is being iteratively refined by
applying and adapting it to a variety of E-Commerce domains.
3.8.2.3 E-SERVQUAL
E-SERVQUAL (Zeithaml et al, 2002) is a conceptual model of service quality
for E-Tailing environments. It is based on the traditional (off-line) service quality
framework called SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, et al. 1994) and has been derived from
an exploratory research involving focus groups and two phases of empirical data
collection and analysis. This process produced seven service quality characteristics:
efficiency, reliability, fulfillment, privacy, responsiveness,
compensation, and
contact. These characteristics represent the criteria customers use to evaluate on-line
services. For example the characteristic responsiveness has the criteria: ability to get
answers to questions, quick delivery and updates on status of order. E-SERVQUAL
can be used as a framework by marketing managers to assess the service quality of ETailing environments.
57
3.8.2.4 E-SEQUAL
E-SEQUAL (Dawson et al., 2003), is a service quality framework that is
empirically grounded and integrates e-CRM and HCI strategies for the effective
design and development of E-Tailing environments. E-SEQUAL can provide
guidance to E-Businesses regarding integration of front- and back-end business
processes, and across different customer touch points such as phone, fax, e-mail, and
so on. It can be applied as an evaluation instrument to guide Web designers,
marketing professionals, developers and usability professionals to come up with
requirements for integrating customers expectations of service quality, value and
usability into the design of E-Tailing environments.
3.8.2.5 E-S-QUAL
E-S-QUAL (Parasuraman,A., Zeithaml, Valarie A, Malhotra, Arvind; 2005) is
for measuring the service quality delivered by Web sites on which customers shop
online. Two stages of empirical data collection revealed that two different scales were
necessary for capturing electronic service quality. The basic E-S-QUAL scale
developed is a 22-item scale of four dimensions: efficiency, fulfillment, system
availability, and privacy. The second scale, E-RecS-QUAL, is salient only to
customers who had non-routine encounters with the sites and contains ii items in three
dimensions: responsiveness, compensation, and contact. Both scales demonstrate
good psychometric properties based on findings from a variety of reliability and
validity tests and build on the research conducted on the topic.
has been widely used by academics and practitioners to measure service quality.
Therefore, this model has been used as a point of reference in this Thesis.
Tangibles
Reliability
Service Quality
Dimensions
(SERVQUAL)
Responsiveness
Customer
Satisfaction in
Online
Purchasing
Assurance
Empathy
Figure 12: Relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction based on SERVQUAL
high-speed interface, older people do not want blinking texts that are hard to read or
animations that distract from the use of the Web site (Houtman, 2002). Although a
number of Web sites offer users the opportunity to customize the Web site to their
needs, this customization process is mostly aimed at the content of the Web site and
not at the graphics, animations and sounds.
Reliability
Some of the aspects in the reliability factor have to do with doing what is
promised and doing it at the promised time. Although many organizations seem to
think that the major reason why customers shop via the Internet is because of the low
prices, this does not always need to be the case. Some organizations found out the
hard way that there are also a lot of customers shopping via the Internet because of
convenience considerations (Riseley and Schehr, 2000). If customers cannot trust an
organization to do what they ask, those customers will be dissatisfied. Price line, for
example, ran into big problems by the end of 2000 because of its focus on the lowest
prices. People could buy a plane ticket at a very low price, but because of possible
inconvenient flying times there was a big risk for customers. This resulted in
dissatisfied-customers who were happy to trade off Price lines discounts for the
convenience of a competitor (Riseley and Schehr, 2000).
Responsiveness
One of the aspects in the responsiveness factor is gives prompt service. The
amount of time it takes to download a Web page appears to be of great importance to
the users of the Internet. Research in 1999 found that fewer than 10 percent of users
leave a Web site if page response time is kept below 7 s. However, when it rises
above 8 s, 30 percent of users leave. When delays exceed 12 s, a staggering 70 percent
of users leave a Web site (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). It can be assumed that people
expect Web sites to be even quicker than in 1999 because of the technological
advances. Thus, it is very important for organizations to have a Web site that is quick,
but on the other hand users expect Web sites to be visually appealing. As the number
and size of animations, pictures and sounds increase to make a Web page more
visually appealing, the time it takes to download that Web page will also increase,
60
which is judged negatively by users. Hence, there is a trade-off between the looks of a
Web site and the speed of that site. Organizations will have to try to find the right
balance between good looks and speed. The trade-off between looks and speed is
complicated by companies demand that their Web sites convey the corporate image
(Manning et al., 1998). The design department of a company wants Web pages to be
easily recognizable as belonging to that company. In their view, Web pages have to
display company and product logos as well as other graphics that underscore the
corporate identity. These graphics add to the overall size of Web pages and thereby
increase the download time for Internet users. It is questionable whether users are
willing to accept slower pages in return for more logos and graphics that do not
improve the functionality of the Web site (although they might improve the visual
appeal).
Assurance
One of the aspects in the assurance factor is knowledge to answer questions.
Customers expect to find everything they want on a Web site. In a bricks and mortar
store, people feel comfortable with a limited inventory. On the Internet, people are not
satisfied if they cannot find everything they want. Web shops need to have great depth
of inventory and rich and relevant product information (Dayal et al., 2002). Two other
aspects in the assurance factor are employees can be trusted and feel safe in your
transactions with employees. First, there is the risk for users to share personal
information with an organization they do not know. Research on this topic (Statistical
Research Inc., 2001) shows that at least 50 percent of users are very concerned about:
misuse of credit card information given over the Internet; selling or sharing of
personal information by Web site owners; and cookies that track customers Internet
activity. Second, the same research shows that two-thirds of active Web users
typically abandon a site that requests personal information and one in five has entered
false information to gain access to a Web site. Aspects in the assurance factor that
could be very important in e-business are (Daughtrey, 2001):
62
Chapter 4
Empirical Data Presentation
4.
survey. At first we give an overview of the website which uploaded the questionnaires
that means the sample population and after that the data will be presented according
to the research questions and the variables identified in the frame of reference.
63
every aspect we ask the respondent to indicate the importance of that aspect and at the
same time we ask for their satisfaction with that aspect. The structure of the questions
is based on the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al., 1990). The aspects have been
defined according to the categories of the model developed by Cox and Dale (2001,
2002) and are as follows:
clarity of purpose;
design;
communication;
reliability;
service and frequently asked questions;
accessibility and speed;
product or service choice;
64
order confirmation;
product purchase;
user recognition;
extra service; and
Frequent buyer incentives.
For each of these categories a number of aspects have been defined in the
questionnaire.
The questionnaire has been discussed with experts in the field of e-commerce
and a pilot study has been conducted amongst a small number of students. This lead to
an improved questionnaire which has been used for the research presented in this
paper.
I divided questionnaire into 4 parts in order to have better results. The first part
has 19 questions and was about the respondents personal information. The other three
questionnaires were about different aspects of service quality based on SERVQUAL.
65
Pie chart in figure 13 shows that more than half of responders were male.
About 730 had replied the questionnaires out of which only 245 were female. Please
find table 13 in appendix II which provides clear statistics.
Field of education
500
Frequency
400
300
200
100
0
Engineering
social science
Medicine
Law
Accounting
Management
Marketing
Others
Field of education
Figure 14: Bar chart; number of respondents based on their educations field.
66
The majority of sample was 31 to 35 years old, figure 15 shows about 260
persons were more than 35 years old. Iran is a young country and they supposed to be
the nerdiest group but to our surprise very small number of respondents (12 persons)
were less than 21 years old.
Age
400
Frequency
300
200
100
0
<21
21-25
26-30
31-35
>36
Age
Table 6 shows the respondents use of the Internet in terms of the quality of
their own equipment. They are absolutely satisfied with their PCs (Personal
computers) and also feel fine about printing over the web but dissatisfied with
connection speed and downloading from the web. Overall the respondents are rather
satisfied with their hardware but it seems they have problem with the Internet Service
providers (ISP) and/or telephone lines .
Table 6: Satisfaction of respondents with the equipment they use
PC
Printing from the web
Connection speed
Downloading from the web
Mean
4.098
3.426
2.920
2.865
67
mean
3.538
3.812
3.632
17.589 min
58.797 min
~ 15 visits
Note: If not indicated otherwise, on a five-point scale from very difficult to very easy
It is interesting to note that the types of Web sites that are used most often by
respondents are: search engines and the web sites that are less frequently used are:
Secondhand shops (see table 8).
Mean
3.906
2.527
2.433
2.118
1.972
1.567
Search Engines
Music Stores
E-shops
Book Stores
Movie Stores
Secondhand Products
Note: On a five-point scale from never to once a day or more
Table 9 shows that, top five and table 10 shows the bottom five of the
importance (expectations) and the satisfaction (experiences) are brought based on
predefined aspects related to the quality of web sites. Service quality factors have
been ranked by their importance score.
Table 9: the top five with highest scores of importance
Service quality factors
1
2
3
4
5
Access is fast
Information is found with a minimum of clicks
24 x 7 x 365 user accessibility
Brand image is important
Finding your way on the web site is easy
Importance
mean
Satisfaction
mean
4.294
4.186
4.156
4.105
4.104
3.648
3.651
3.980
3.840
3.635
68
Importance
mean
Satisfaction
mean
3.558
3.506
3.482
3.469
3.338
3.817
3.652
3.714
3.648
3.600
Comparing the importance scores in different rows, it is understood that all the
service quality factors are important and have very tiny differences with each other
which is a proof to their tight solidarity.
Respecting Iranian society and technical facilities for Internet users it was
expected that top service quality factors based on their importances scores weighted
for basic factors such as speed of connection, safekeeping strategies, etc. which are
available in table 9 and is an absolute proof to our expectation. A complete analysis
of these tables could be found in the next chapter.
69
Chapter 5
Data Analysis and conclusion
5. Data Analysis and conclusion
Collected quantitative data has been presented in the previous chapter.
Chapter 6 brings the analyzed data according to the research question which tries to
rank the service quality dimensions based on Iranian online shoppers perspective.
The ranked service quality factors between Iranian online shoppers (target
population) are compared with the American students (a research was done by
Iwaarden & Wiele, 2003). Finally, we have the conclusion and a discussion about
possible areas that further research could be conducted.
71
Table 11: The top ten of service quality factors with highest scores of importance
Service quality factors
Access is fast
Information is found with a minimum of clicks
24 x 7 x 365 user accessibility
Brand image is important
Finding your way on the web site is easy
The privacy policy is accessible
The security policy is accessible
There are well programmed search options
Instructions are directly available
A standard navigation bar, a home button and back/forward button
are available on every page
Importance
mean
Satisfaction
mean
Delta
S-I
4.294
4.186
4.156
4.105
4.104
4.073
4.035
3.979
3.968
3.648
3.651
3.980
3.840
3.635
3.566
3.392
3.718
3.677
-0.65
-0.54
-0.18
-0.26
-0.47
-0.51
-0.64
-0.26
-0.29
3.957
3.902
-0.06
The bottom ten aspects seem to relate to extra services such as A customer
platform is provided for exchange of ideas or Web site animations are meaningful
and information such as Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed or An email
address for queries and complaints is provided. Apparently respondents do not find
these extras very important in their use of the Internet.
It seems that Customer Relationship Management; some how, does not play a
big role in attracting customers and make them stick to websites by this time. They
mostly care about speed of connection and safekeeping and safety of their visits and
shopping.
The gaps between experiences and expectations (satisfaction minus
importance) (see table 12) are widest for the aspects that respondents perceive as most
important. The aspect with the largest gap is access is fast (satisfaction score 3.648
and importance score 4.294). In the top ten aspects there are no aspects with a positive
delta, meaning that for every aspect the experience is less than expected. In the
bottom ten aspects there are seven aspects with a (very small) positive delta: An
email address for queries and complaints is provided, Different payment options are
stated clearly, The home page features options for new and registered users, A
customer platform is provided for exchange of ideas , Web sites that focus on brand
awareness have a store locator, The user is invited into a frequent buyer program,
Links are provided to pages on related products and services, The user can make a
purchase without web site registration. Respondents are quiet satisfied with these
features of the web sites.
72
Table 12: The bottom ten of service quality factors with lowest scores of importance
Service quality factors
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
Importanc
e mean
Satisfaction
mean
Delta
S-I
3.632
3.606
3.605
3.579
3.559
3.558
3.506
3.482
3.469
3.338
3.513
3.497
3.760
3.704
3.574
3.817
3.652
3.714
3.648
3.600
-0.12
-0.11
0.15
0.13
0.01
0.26
0.15
0.23
0.18
0.26
In conclusion, respondents believe that all the aspects of web quality are
important (Importance mean starts from 3.338) but the Access is fast is the most
important factor among the others and they are not satisfied with current connection
speed but feel pretty fine with extra services.
73
Table 13: The top ten with highest score on importance from Iranian and American perspective
Iranian perspective
American perspective
1
Access is fast
Finding your way on the Web site is easy
5*
Access is fast
1*
19*
23*
20*
10
8*
Lets see the American perspective factors states in which position of Iranians
list: the two first factors as are shown in table 13 are placed in 5th and 1st Persian list
respectively. A complete overview of the order is presented before final purchase
decision placed in 19th; Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed is in 40th;
The registration process is simple hold the 23rd place; Access to anticipated
delivery times is available at all times is in place 20th; All relevant order
confirmation details sent by e-mail is in 38th; Order cancellation and returns details
are confirmed within three days holds 37th; Order-tracking details are available
until delivery is in 33rd; and There are well programmed search options is the 8th
factor through Iranians perspective. In overall, only three factors are selected in top
ten through both groups and the rest of factors are in 19th to 40th position of Iranians
74
40*
38*
37*
33*
list (the right column of table 13 shows the positions of Americans perspective
factors in table 20).
In table 14 the bottom ten with lowest scores of importance are provided. As
the grey color says there are four common aspects that they both less care about
websites: Web site animations are meaningful, A customer platform is provided
for exchange of ideas, The user is invited into a frequent buyer program and
Links are provided to pages on related products and services.
These extra services may have the first attraction but customers give them last
priority among the other web quality factors. For instance, many web designers
believe that meaningful animations bring spirit to a web site but as we have figured
out by statistics customers do not really expect this feature.
A frequent buyer program is set up by many managers and they suppose that
online buyers are impresses by these services; however, our studies have proved that,
compared with after services, customers do not pay much attention to these services.
Table 14: The bottom ten with lowest scores of importance from Iranian and American perspective
Iranian perspective
American perspective
41 Web site animations are meaningful
Searches on related sites are provided
35*
42
6*
43
7*
25*
29*
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
75
49*
41*
46*
48*
4*
What is interesting here is that three aspects which are: The security policy is
accessible, The privacy policy is accessible and Brand image is important
available in the top ten column of Iranian perspective and also in bottom ten column
of American perspective. It shows Iranian responders need to know more about the
security of their visits and shopping. Brand image give buyers a kind of guarantee for
what they deal, from this point of view we understand that how much Iranian cares
about the safety aspects while American shoppers show very less attention to these
policies. Please consider the right column of table 14 that shows the positions of
Americans perspective factors in table 20.
In Iran people face many problems when they buy or sell something, one of
the reasons is that the policies, instructions and laws are not very clear for both sides.
Again in online shopping Iranian afraid of same problem, they seek for guarantees,
clear security policies in order to reduce their risks of purchasing.
76
Responsiveness is the next thing they do care about; how websites give
prompt services. Online shoppers expect good responses when they contact web sites
through e-mail or phone call.
And after all of the other web quality factors they want is personal attention
which Empathy refers to. Customization has the last priority among the other aspects
through Iranian online shoppers.
Importance mean
4.00617
3.81200
3.76427
3.75300
3.67750
What should be noticed here is the very little difference between importance
scores of SERVQUAL factors. Respondents expect a web site to provide all of the
web quality factors (the last factor has 3.67750 score) but above all a web site should
function properly.
In order to compare the satisfaction and Importance scores a hypothesis has
been conducted: H0: 1 = 2, H1: 1 2 and through t-test we reached to table 17.
As both lower and upper Interval of the difference has the same, plus, sign so we
understand that people are not satisfied with what they have experienced.
Table 16: Paired Samples Test
Mean
Importance
mean .089324
Satisfaction
mean
Note: degree of freedom (df): n-1
Paired Differences
Std.
95% Confidence
Std.
Error
Interval of the
Deviation
Mean
Difference
Lower
Upper
.026343
.152305
df
Sig. (2-tailed)
Pair 1
.221611
.031341
2.850
49
77
.006
78
Second, 24 hours user accessibility factor indicate that websites are expected
to be available all the time and all the days of the week. Managers should insist on
reputation of website and try to avoid the non responding situations. If anything
happened that made the website down for a while; relevant information about the
problem and the time it would be backed should be provided.
Third, assurance dimension implies that customers should be aware of privacy
limits and security policies. Managers should allocate specific space for introducing
protection and privacy policies that are accessible for customers and give a thorough
understanding about the way website is kept secure.
79
This research needs further analysis. While this research yields a number of
very interesting results, we believe that there are a number of things that should be
done to confirm our results as well as to expand our hypotheses.
Firstly, with the number of Internet users now over one billion, a small group
of online users in Tehran is not enough. Hence, research with larger samples that pose
the same or similar questions would be appropriate.
Secondly, various languages, religions, cultures and a host of other factors
may be important to user's impression of the quality of a web site.
At the end, in this competitive market, service quality is one of the key
elements which bring value added for companies. Online retailers are focusing on
making their websites more appealing in order to increase their stickiness.
Practitioners need to understand the factors that make people to visit a website; spend
some time and make them purchase online. Researchers all around the world are
talking about "loyal customers": they spread the good word-of-mouth, not to shift to
competitor easily, spend more money and are cheaper to attract. Practitioners should
be aware of all factors which are affecting the behavior of their customers.
Respecting this critical issue for e-business, we believe more studies are
needed to fulfill our e-world with superior facilities and make life easier and better.
80
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Appendix I: Questionnaire
1. Please indicate your field of study [tick four boxes maximum]?
Engineering
Marketing
Social Science
Law
Medical
Management
Accounting
other
< 21
3.
21-25
26-30
31-35
> 35
4.
Female
Please indicate the extent to which you visit the following web sites?
never
Book stores
Music stores
Movies stores
Secondhand Products
Search engines
E-shops
once a
year
Once a
month
Once a
week
Once a day
or more
Very
dissatisfied
5.
6.
7.
neutral
Very
satisfied
12. On average per internet visit what time do you spend on a specific web site? [minutes]
<1
1-5
26-15
>30
61-120
>120
11-20
>20
16-30
13. On average per internet visit what time do you stay on the web? [minutes]
<15
15-30
31-60
<2
2-5
6-10
86
Left
Please indicate on a five
point scale the extent to
which you find the
following statements
important
Right
Please indicate on a five
point scale the extent to
which you are satisfied
or dissatisfied with the
following statements
1= not important
2=
3=neutral
4=
5=very important
Very dissatisfied=1
=2
Neutral=3
=4
Very satisfied=5
Clarity of purpose
1. The purpose is clear
4.
3.
Design
5.
6.
Navigation is consistent
and standardized
87
Communication
Reliability
88
Order confirmation
Product purchase
89
User recognition
are retained
Extra service
90
Missing
Female
Male
Total
System
Total
Frequency
245
482
727
3
Percent
33.6
66.0
99.6
.4
730
100.0
Frequency
408
19
9
7
28
17
35
207
730
Percent
55.9
2.6
1.2
1.0
3.8
2.3
4.8
28.4
100.0
Frequency
12
30
92
334
260
728
2
730
Percent
1.6
4.1
12.6
45.8
35.6
99.7
.3
100.0
Engineering
Medicine
Social Science
Law
Accounting
Marketing
Management
Others
Total
Missing
<21
21-25
26-30
31-35
>36
Total
System
Total
91
Access is fast
Information is found with a minimum of clicks
24 x 7 x 365 user accessibility
Brand image is important
Finding your way on the web site is easy
The privacy policy is accessible
The security policy is accessible
There are well programmed search options
Instructions are directly available
A standard navigation bar, a home button and back/forward button
are available on every page
The user can customize the web site and the information is retained
(e.g. seat and meal preferences
Colors, pictures and images are consistent, relevant and clear
Navigation is consistent and standardized
Graphics and animations do not detract from use
Full details of product or service pricing are available
Opening of new screens is kept to a minimum
The web site offers free shipping and handling within a set of rules
Terms and conditions of sales are accessible
A complete overview of the order is presented before final purchase
decision
Access to anticipated delivery times is available at all times
Queries or complaints are resolved within 24 hours
User feedback is sought to measure customer satisfaction
The registration process is simple
Page availability information is given on entry
The web site contains company details
Information is provided to Frequently Asked Questions and answers
The Frequently Asked Questions and answers contain links that take
the user to the relevant page(s)
The number and type of links are meaningful
Scrolling through pages and text is kept to a minimum
The purpose is clear
Full product or service characteristics are available
Registration process details are retained
Order tracking details are available until delivery
Required stock information is available throughout the buying
process
Searches on related sites are provided (e.g. a flight/hotel search on
travel sites )
External validation of trustworthiness is important
Order cancellation and return details are confirmed within three days
All relevant order confirmation details are sent by e-mail within 24
hours
Forms to enter personal details are self explanatory
Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed
Web site animations are meaningful
It is easy to print from the web
Importanc
e mean
Satisfaction
mean
Delta
S-I
4.294
4.186
4.156
4.105
4.104
4.073
4.035
3.979
3.968
3.648
3.651
3.980
3.840
3.635
3.566
3.392
3.718
3.677
-0.65
-0.54
-0.18
-0.26
-0.47
-0.51
-0.64
-0.26
-0.29
3.957
3.902
-0.06
3.956
3.858
-0.10
3.950
3.919
3.913
3.890
3.881
3.812
3.616
3.807
3.767
3.689
-0.14
-0.30
-0.11
-0.12
-0.19
3.875
3.865
3.841
3.591
-0.03
-0.27
3.853
3.831
3.824
3.813
3.811
3.789
3.778
3.822
3.75
3.682
3.550
3.827
3.784
3.594
-0.03
-0.08
-0.14
-0.26
0.02
-0.01
-0.18
3.765
3.660
-0.10
3.758
3.756
3.733
3.728
3.723
3.721
3.691
3.773
3.541
3.633
3.937
3.689
3.888
3.9
0.02
-0.21
-0.10
0.21
-0.03
0.17
0.21
3.688
3.619
-0.07
3.678
3.676
3.674
3.780
3.571
3.727
0.10
-0.10
0.05
3.673
3.667
3.646
3.632
3.606
3.851
3.658
3.541
3.513
3.497
0.18
-0.01
-0.10
-0.12
-0.11
92
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
3.605
3.579
3.559
3.558
3.506
3.482
3.469
3.338
3.760
3.704
3.574
3.817
3.652
3.714
3.648
3.600
0.15
0.13
0.01
0.26
0.15
0.23
0.18
0.26
3.76427
3.853
3.646
3.579
3.673
3.831
3.865
3.691
3.674
3.890
3.811
3.723
3.721
3.875
4.294
3.338
4.00617
4.104
4.186
3.919
3.979
3.968
3.881
3.67750
3.469
3.678
3.957
3.606
3.81200
4.035
4.073
3.676
3.778
4.105
3.789
3.482
3.558
3.75300
3.758
93
3.765
3.824
3.813
3.605
94