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E-commerce
E-commerce brand brand
The effect of perceived brand leadership on
consumers’ satisfaction and repurchase
intention on e-commerce websites
Weisheng Chiu
Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, Received 8 October 2018
Revised 17 December 2018
Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and 14 January 2019
16 January 2019
Heetae Cho 27 January 2019
Department of Physical Education and Sports Science, Accepted 10 March 2019

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of perceived brand leadership of an
e-commerce website on satisfaction and repurchase intention. Moreover, the different roles of gender and age
were explored in the proposed model.
Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was administered to Chinese consumers (n ¼ 476) who
have purchased products on e-commerce websites. Using SmartPLS 3.0 software, a partial least squares
structural equation modeling analysis was conducted in this study.
Findings – The results showed that all factors of perceived brand leadership (i.e. quality, value,
innovativeness and popularity) have positive influences on satisfaction, and in turn satisfaction significantly
affects repurchase intention. Also, value and popularity have positive influences on repurchase intention.
In addition, gender differences were found in the proposed model. More specifically, the influence of quality
on satisfaction was stronger for male consumers, while the impact of popularity on satisfaction was stronger
for female. In terms of age differences, the influence of quality on satisfaction was stronger for the consumers
over 40 years old as compared to the younger consumers (i.e. the 20s). Moreover, the influence of
innovativeness on satisfaction and repurchase intention was stronger for the 20s consumers as compared to
the consumers who are over 40 years old.
Originality/value – This study attempts to apply the concept of brand leadership to the e-commerce setting
by addressing differential consumption decision-making process. In addition, different gender and age groups
reveal unique preferences and consumption patterns.
Keywords China, Consumer behaviour, Satisfaction, Repurchase intention, Brand leadership,
Online shopping website
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The digital development has changed the way consumers behave. According to a survey
from UPS and Comscore, it was found that consumers make most of their purchases online
instead of in-store for the first time (UPS, 2016). Moreover, the global e-retail sale accounted
for 10.2 percent of all retail sales worldwide in 2017, and this number is expected to reach
17.5 percent in 2021 (Statista, 2018). The average growth rate of e-retailer sales from 2013 to
2017 in the USA was 14.6 percent, which is much higher than the number of physical store
retail sales (2.6 percent) (CBRE, 2018). Given the phenomenon, the sales of brick-and-mortar
retailers have increasingly declined in the recent years. More specifically, some “under
attack” categories, such as electronic and appliance, sporting goods, books, music and
shoes, are severely influenced by e-commerce (Richter, 2018). As such, it is not surprising
that many companies and retailers have been moving to cyberspace in order to expand their
business and gain sale revenue. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing
and Logistics
Due to the intensification of online shopping, the e-commerce war has become increasingly © Emerald Publishing Limited
1355-5855
intense, particularly among the best-known e-commerce websites in the USA, such as DOI 10.1108/APJML-10-2018-0403
APJML Amazon, eBay, BestBuy and Target. These e-commerce websites offer a straightforward and
economical way for manufacturers or retailers to distribute their goods more effectively and
reach potential consumers (Singh, 2002). Meanwhile, consumers have more choices and better
deals on different e-commerce websites (Devaraj et al., 2002). As such, from the standpoint of
the consumer and business, it is essential for e-commerce managers and academics to
understand this virtual distribution channel (Escobar-Rodríguez and Bonsón-Fernández,
2017). Moreover, since consumers have become more tech-savvy, e-commerce managers and
academics need to comprehensively understand consumers’ needs and factors influencing
their decision to choose and shop on e-commerce websites.
Generally, there are two stages of understanding online consumption behavior. The first
stage concerns about how to encourage people to purchase online; and the second stage is to
encourage them to repurchase, which is essential to the success of an e-commerce website
(Zhang et al., 2011). It costs less time and effort to retain existing customers than to acquire new
customers. These repeat customers spend more money on their purchases and generate more
profitability than new customers (Patel, 2014). As such, how to retain existing customers to
make repurchases becomes a major concern for e-commerce websites than ever before ( Johnson
and Hult, 2008). However, it has been argued that the repurchase rate is the most overlooked
indicators for e-retailers (Sutto, 2016). Moreover, it should be noted that only 32 percent of
customers repurchase on the same e-commerce website in their first year (RJMetrics, 2015). It is,
therefore, essential to identify the factors influencing online consumer repurchase behavior.
Previous studies have examined a range of factors influencing online consumer
repurchase intention on e-commerce websites. These include perceived value (Wu et al.,
2014; Lee et al., 2011), website quality and functionality (Sharma and Lijuan, 2015; Lee et al.,
2011), innovativeness (Ghazali et al., 2018) and popularity (Hsiao et al., 2010). These factors
primarily explored consumers’ perceptions and attributes toward certain e-commerce
websites. However, there have been few attempts to comprehensively examine consumers’
perception of comparing different e-commerce websites’ value, attributes or features and to
investigate their preferences for certain e-commerce websites. These characteristics, of the
e-commerce website are the influential factors at the browsing stage and have significant
influences on actual purchasing behavior (Mallapragada et al., 2016).
Studies have found that the extent to which consumers perceived a brand or service to be
a leader is likely to affect their decision-making behavior (Chang et al., 2016; Kumar and
Jayasimha, 2019). More specifically, consumers may prefer the leading brand or service not
only because it provides better quality or value, but also because it represents consumers’
self-image (Chang and Ko, 2014). Nowadays, more e-commerce platforms allow consumers
to easily browse and compare different e-commerce platforms before making a purchase.
As such, these e-commerce websites focusing on attributes can create “branded” shopping
experience for consumers (Mohseni et al., 2018). Meanwhile, consumers are becoming more
conscious of the value of e-commerce websites and evaluate different attributes and services
provided by e-commerce websites (Mallapragada et al., 2016).
However, the role of consumers’ perceived leadership of an e-commerce website in their
experience and repurchase behavior is still unknown. Therefore, the primary purpose of this
study was to investigate the influence of perceived brand leadership of an e-commerce
website on satisfaction and repurchase intention based on the Cognitive-Affective
Processing System (CAPS) (Mischel and Shoda, 1995) and Expectation-Confirmation
Theory (ECT) (Oliver, 1980). In addition, the difference in gender and age has shown to
cause behavioral differences toward online shopping in previous studies (Bae and Lee, 2011;
Wan et al., 2012). Thus, this study further aimed to explore the differences of gender and age
in the relationships between perceived brand leadership of an e-commerce website on
satisfaction and repurchase intention. The findings of this study could provide a better
understanding toward online shoppers’ behavior (Hernández et al., 2011).
Literature review and hypothesis development E-commerce
E-commerce brand brand
A brand is generally identified as a name, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of
them for a specific product or service that differentiates such product or service from its
competitors (Keller et al., 2013; Aaker, 1996). In the online marketplace, the company
brand is considered a point of recognition when consumers feel uncertain or concern about
the service ( Javalgi et al., 2005). For many e-retailers, their company names are regarded
as brands (Tsai et al., 2006; Chen, 2018). That is, the service provided by an e-retailer
represents the brand which distinguishes itself from other competitors. In the online
shopping context, consumers would evaluate the e-commerce websites’ information or
characteristics, such as corporate reputation and trustworthiness, and brand names,
when they decide to make a purchase. As such, the e-commerce website with a strong
brand name could attract new consumers who desire a pleasurable shopping experience
(Mohseni et al., 2018; Tsai et al., 2006). For example, some online consumers stick
with and purchase repeatedly on a particular e-commerce website (e.g. Amazon) as it has a
strong and positive brand reputation (MarketingChart, 2018). Therefore, this study
regarded the e-commerce website as a brand, which differentiates its services and
functionalities from other e-commerce websites. For example, Alibaba, the largest
e-commerce brand in China, launches different support services, such as developing its
own instant communication tool for better seller–buying interaction and reimbursement
of any product with full refunds within seven days. Therefore, this study examined
consumers’ perception toward the e-commerce brand and explored how it affects their
decision-making process.

Cognitive-affective model and perceived brand leadership

CAPS described the cognitive-affective process and explained how cognitive and affective
factors influence individuals’ decision making and behaviors (Mischel and Shoda, 1995).
Additionally, Mischel and Shoda (1995) emphasized the situational context as an important
variable to explain consistency and inconsistency in human behavior. Accordingly, the
consistency of behavior lies in exposing individuals to similar situational features
repeatedly within the same environmental context. Olarte-Pascual et al. (2016) outlined that
when positive emotions are elicited by situational features, the products are evaluated
favorably. In contrast, products that are surrounded by situational features that elicit
negative emotions they are evaluated negatively. It indicated that cognitive and affective
processes occur through an interlocked dual framework that is later translated into behavior
(Chiu et al., 2018).
Online consumers’ perceived brand leadership encompasses the cognitive appraisal and
affective state (Kim and Lennon, 2013). In other words, online consumers evaluate a product
and its brand while possessing an emotional attachment to it. Aaker (1996) initially
proposed the concept of brand leadership which refers to the continuous process of a brand
to achieve excellence (Aaker, 1996; Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2012). It has been identified as
a critical association of brand attributes because it not only creates assets but is necessary
for the success of a brand (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2012). Moreover, it reflects a firm’s
competitive advantages over other competitive brands within the industry. Brand leaders in
a specific industry may play a significant role in influencing other brands in invisible
(e.g. firm’s vision and goals) and visible forms (e.g. product features) (Chang and Ko, 2014).
For example, in the mobile phone industry, brands such as Apple and Samsung
continuously launched new smartphones with cutting-edge features and functions in order
to be the “leader” within the industry. A firm’s smartphones with leading features and
functions may devalue the brand equity of other firms. From the perspective of consumers,
brand leadership can cultivate loyal consumers.
APJML Accordingly, Chang and Ko (2014) defined the concept of brand leadership as
“consumers’ perception about the relatively distinctive ability of a brand to continually
achieve excellence through sufficient combinations of trendsetting and brand positioning
with an industry segment” (p. 67). It must be noted that the definition of brand leadership is
conceptualized from consumers’ perception toward the brand which captures the brand
equity from the perspective of consumer mind-set (Keller et al., 2013). In this study, brand
leadership is not assessed by various indicators of the brand market performance, such as
price premium, price elasticity, market share, expansion success or profitability (Keller et al.,
2013). Although the performance of a brand might antecedently influence consumers’
perception, this study focused on consumers’ behavior influenced by the consumers’
perception toward the brand (i.e. brand leadership).
Furthermore, Chang and Ko (2014) conceptualized four salient dimensions of brand
leadership perceived by consumers: quality, value, innovativeness and popularity. Based on
their conceptualization, quality is defined as “consumers’ judgment about a product’s
relative superiority in a market”; value denotes “consumers’ evaluation of a product’s
relative financial value based on what they give and receive”; innovativeness is defined
as “consumers’ perception about a brand’s relative capability to be open to innovative ideas
and work on new solutions”; and finally, popularity refers to “consumers’ perception about a
brand’s relative popularity reflected by brand awareness and consumption” (Chang and Ko,
2014, p. 67). These dimensions play a significant role in the consumer decision-making
process (Kardes et al., 2014). Particularly in the steps of information search and evaluation of
alternatives, brand leadership ultimately influences consumers’ decision to purchase
products/services.

ECT, satisfaction and repurchase intention

This study employed ECT (Oliver, 1980) to explain the cognitive appraisal and its
influence on the affective state in a purchase process. ECT is a conceptual model that aims
to seek out the function of expectation in relation to customers’ satisfaction (Kim et al., 2009;
Oliver, 1980), which consists of a two-stage process. The first stage is a pre-purchase
stage where expectations are formed prior to purchasing the product. The expectation
involves the consumer’s belief of what they will be receiving (Kim et al., 2009). Thereafter, at
the post-purchase stage, there are three steps involved. First, there is the initial perception
upon receiving the product followed by a judgment formed by the comparison between
the perception of the pre-purchase stage and the perception of the initial use of the product
(Kim, 2012). This then determines the satisfaction level of the service provider, service
and product purchased. Finally, the level of consumers’ satisfaction either allows them to
form repurchase intention or deter from subsequent purchase from the service provider
(Cao et al., 2018).
Past studies have viewed satisfaction as a central tenet of interest in various fields
related to marketing (Kim, 2012). Consumers’ satisfaction is a positive psychological state
that results from the evaluation of a purchase experience (Dai et al., 2015). According to
ECT, customers’ satisfaction is influenced by the past experience, which is crucial in
encouraging, retaining consumers’ purchasing behavior and determining their intention to
repurchase (Oliver, 2014; Kassim and Abdullah, 2010). Carlson and O’cass (2010) also
mentioned that satisfied consumers show favorable intention such as website revisits and
repurchase intention. From a theoretical perspective, ECT has proven to hold a strong
predictive ability to illustrate the relationship between customers’ satisfaction and
repurchase intention (Kim, 2012). Furthermore, ECT has been applied in diverse academic
fields, such as tourism (Escobar-Rodríguez and Bonsón-Fernández, 2017; Hsu et al., 2012)
and mobile data services (Kim, 2010). This study broadens the usage of ECT by applying in
the field of e-commerce.
Conceptual framework E-commerce
Based on CAPS, perceived brand leadership plays an influential role in consumers’ brand
decision-making behavior and affective attitude (Chang et al., 2016; Kumar and Jayasimha,
2019). In addition, when service providers fulfill online consumers’ satisfaction, the
repurchase intention is highly likely to occur. Also, many studies found the influences
of different service/product attributes (e.g. perceived quality and value, innovativeness
and popularity) on consumers’ satisfaction (Collier and Bienstock, 2006; Wu et al., 2014;
Sharma and Lijuan, 2015; Lee et al., 2011). Accordingly, the following hypotheses
were established:
H1a. Perceived quality of website has a positive influence on satisfaction.
H1b. Perceived value has a positive influence on satisfaction.
H1c. Perceived innovativeness has a positive influence on satisfaction.
H1d. Perceived popularity has a positive influence on satisfaction.
In a similar vein, online consumers’ valued dimensions of brand leadership (e.g. a well-
curated content and functions of a website) can increase not only online consumers’
satisfaction but also repurchase intention. For example, Chang et al. (2016) found that
perceived brand leadership has significant influences on consumers’ word-of mouth
(WOM) intention in different service settings. As such, this study established the following
hypotheses to examine the influence of four dimensions of brand leadership (i.e. quality,
value, innovativeness and popularity), on repurchase intention:
H2a. Perceived quality of website has a positive influence on repurchase intention.
H2b. Perceived value has a positive influence on repurchase intention.
H2c. Perceived innovativeness has a positive influence on repurchase intention.
H2d. Perceived popularity has a positive influence on repurchase intention.
In line with ECT, consumers’ satisfaction obtained from the previous purchase significantly
affects their future intention to repurchase (Oliver, 2014; Kassim and Abdullah, 2010;
Gong et al., 2018). Meanwhile, repurchase intention has been highlighted as the main
consequence of satisfaction, especially in the context of online shopping (Hsu et al., 2012;
Kuo et al., 2009). Therefore, the following hypothesis was proposed:
H3. Satisfaction has a positive influence on repurchase intention.

Gender difference
Behavioral differences have been identified between genders in the perception of
technology usage. Sanchez-Franco et al. (2009) found that the gender difference starts from
stimulus processing. Specifically, males rely on the right hemisphere to selectively filters
information while the left hemisphere allows females to be attentive to details and intricacy
(Richard et al., 2010). This gender-based processing translates into gender-based behavior.
Particularly, in online shopping, it has been noted that gender difference exists in terms
of perception and behavior (Richard et al., 2010; Sanchez-Franco et al., 2009; Chiu et al., 2018).
Mpinganjira (2014) mentioned there are various underlying motivations that generate
shopping behavior. However, they are fundamentally based on two types of shopping
motives which are adopted by male and female. Men are found to possess utilitarian motive
(Hernández et al., 2011; Rodgers and Harris, 2003), while women are found to possess
hedonic motive toward shopping (Chiu et al., 2014). In addition, male individuals are more
task-oriented and are receptive to purchase on e-commerce websites for its utility purpose
APJML (Cha, 2011). This is consistent with the finding by Reibstein (2002) that claimed online
consumers to be those who pursue utilitarian values than hedonic values.
Furthermore, female individuals are reported to experience greater anxiety when it
comes to technology (Riedl et al., 2010). Past studies have found that women are attentive
to risks found in e-commerce websites and purchases (Kim et al., 2013; Madan and Yadav,
2017). As a result, this insecurity may lead women to spend less money online compared to
men. It indicates familiarity positively increases perceived ability. Hence, since men have
higher perceived ability, they adopt e-commerce more than women (Naseri and Elliott, 2011).
This may, in turn, affect the level of satisfaction and repurchase intention. Thus,
e-commerce experience increases the level of familiarity, which reduces uncertainty. When
consumers’ certainty increases, satisfaction is expected to increase. For this reason, it may
be faster for male individuals to be satisfied. As a result, they may not hesitate to return to
the service provider to purchase again.
Based on the above findings, it can be deduced that it is necessary to demonstrate
the influencing role of gender in e-commerce (Wan et al., 2012; Rodgers and Harris, 2003).
To further understand its different roles of gender in e-commerce shopping, the hypothesis
was proposed:
H4. Relationships between four underlying factors of brand leadership (i.e. quality,
value, innovativeness and popularity), satisfaction and repurchase intention will be
different between male and female consumers.

Age difference
The traditional literature in the IT field outlines the importance of user’s age with regards to
understanding their behavior (Bigne et al., 2005; Venkatesh et al., 2003). It has been
suggested that younger individuals acquire computer skills faster, resulting in greater
experience with the Internet in comparison to older individuals (Hernández et al., 2011;
Wan et al., 2012). With younger individuals being more literate and proficient in web usage,
it comes with ease to perceive e-commerce sites as their choice when they need to purchase a
product (Zhou et al., 2007). Consequently, younger individuals perceive the Internet to be
important and useful while older individuals who are more skeptical about its functions
perceive it to pose risks (Lian and Yen, 2014). Therefore, age is included in some studies as a
variable in studying online shopping behavior.
The lack of IT skills in older individuals results in limited experience and low
self-efficacy. In support of this, it was found that with an increase in age, it takes longer to
train users to be familiar with a computer (Hernández et al., 2011). As a result, older
individuals do not perceive the Internet to be an ideal shopping experience, making offline
channels a place of satisfaction for them (Falk et al., 2007). The lack of e-commerce
usage impedes their participation in it. In addition, past studies have found that older
individuals perceive a higher level of hedonic benefit through in-store shopping than
younger individuals (Dholakia and Uusitalo, 2002). Older individuals enjoy the social
experience and the hands-on experience of the intended buy before purchasing them.
Moreover, Zickuhr and Madden (2010) noted that while younger individuals invest a
significant amount online, older individuals are becoming more active. Akman and Mishra
(2010) found that older individuals recognize the ease of use and purchase items online.
This proposes that older individuals are a potential market for online shopping in the near
future. Furthermore, Wan et al. (2012) stated age difference might be more complex,
which highlighted that older individuals possess more buyer experience even though it is
through the traditional medium, in-store shopping, as compared to younger individuals.
Therefore, older individuals are more experienced at evaluating services and products
offered by e-commerce websites (Madan and Yadav, 2017). Based on empirical and E-commerce
theoretical evidence, this study established the following hypothesis and a research model brand
(Figure 1):
H5. Relationships between four underlying factors of brand leadership (i.e. quality,
value, innovativeness and popularity), satisfaction and repurchase intention will be
different between age groups (20s, 30s and over 40 years old).

Methods
Research context
The research context of this study is China, the largest and fastest growing e-retail market
in the world. According to China Ministry of Commerce, e-retail sales reached 7.18 trillion
yuan ($1.149 trillion) in 2017 and increased 32 percent as compared to 2016 (China Ministry
of Commerce, 2018). These numbers were generated by the tremendous base of Chinese
online buyers. A report by the China Internet Network Information Center stated that the
number had reached to 771m by the end of 2017, and 69.1 percent of these internet users
were online consumers (CNNIC, 2018). Meanwhile, there are many e-commerce platforms
offered to Chinese online consumers. Among these e-commerce platforms, Taobao, Tmall
and DJ.COM are the top three e-commerce brands and account for near 90 percent of e-retail
sales in China (China Ministry of Commerce, 2018). Given the situation, China, was selected
as the research context for this study.

Survey instrument
The survey instrument was comprised of four sections, including the perception of brand
leadership, satisfaction and revisit intention, and demographic information. First, the
perceived brand leadership scale developed by Chang and Ko (2014) was adopted and
modified to measure consumers’ four dimensions of perceived brand leadership: quality,
value, innovativeness and popularity. Second, satisfaction toward the online shopping
platform was measured with three items derived from Janda et al.’s (2002) online consumer

Quality
H1a

H1b Satisfaction
H1c
Value
H1d

H3

H2a
Innovativeness
H2b
Repurchase
H2c intention
H2d

Popularity
Figure 1.
Research model
Brand Leadership
APJML satisfaction scale. Third, the scale of repurchase intention was modified from Chiu et al.
(2014) to assess consumers’ repurchase intention through the online shopping website.
Finally, demographic information included gender, age, daily internet usage, favorite
e-commerce website and frequency of purchase on the selected e-commerce website.
Next, content analysis was conducted by three sport management professors to assess
whether these items are clearly representative to their construct. Moreover, as these items
were originally written in English, the back-translation procedure (Brislin, 1970) was
conducted to translate these items into Chinese. The Chinese version of the survey
instrument was carefully reviewed by two sport management professors (among previous
panel members), who are native Chinese speakers, to ensure the validity of questionnaire
items. The format of all items was a five-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree
(1) to strongly agree (5). Finally, demographic information included gender, age, daily
internet usage, and frequency of purchase on the online shopping platform.

Participants and procedure

Prior to data collection, a pilot study was carried out on 50 undergraduate students using
convenience sampling to assess the translated Chinese survey items’ internal consistency,
ensuring clarity and contextual relevance. All survey items had an appropriate level of
internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α and item-to-total correlations). It should be
noted that these responses were excluded in the following data analysis. After a few minor
amendments, the survey was finalized.
In this study, an online survey was conducted using Sojump (www.sojump.com), a Chinese
survey company, to collect data from its paid members, comprising 2.6m individuals with
diverse demographic and geographic backgrounds. This survey company applied several
protocols to ensure the quality of the online sampling. First, all panel members were registered
by verifying real names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Second, samples were selected
from nationwide panels. Third, respondents’ IP address was checked to avoid repeated
responses. Fourth, e-mail and social network services (e.g. QQ, WeChat) were used to contact
potential respondents. Moreover, respondents who completed their questionnaires too quickly
and/or answered questions in the same pattern would be detected and removed by the
survey system.
In order to maintain the robustness of this study, the online survey explained the
research purpose, definitions of variables (i.e. quality, value, innovativeness, popularity,
satisfaction and repurchase intention) and instructions on filling out the questionnaire.
Moreover, respondents were asked with a question at the beginning of the questionnaire
(What is your favorite e-commerce website?). After respondents write down their favorite
online shopping platform, they had to fill out the questionnaire under the scenario of their
selected online shopping platform.
Consequently, total 500 questionnaires were collected. After eliminating 24 invalid
responses, 476 questionnaires were used for the data analysis. Of the total number of
respondents, 45.6 percent (n ¼ 217) were male and 54.4 percent (n ¼ 259) were female. The
majority of respondents were aged between 20 and 29 years old (n ¼ 193, 40.5 percent) and
between 30 and 39 years old (n ¼ 175, 36.8 percent). Most respondents (n ¼ 173, 36.3 percent)
spend 4 to 6 h a day on the Internet, followed by below 4 h (n ¼ 164, 34.5 percent), and over 6 h
(n ¼ 139, 29.2 percent). Moreover, respondents purchase average 6.23 times (SD ¼ 4.73)
per month on the selected e-commerce website. According to the results of cluster analysis,
three groups of purchase frequency are revealed: 1–7 time(s) (n ¼ 351), 8–16 times (n ¼ 106),
and 17–30 times (n ¼ 19). Finally, among e-commerce websites, respondents prefer to shop on
Tmall (n ¼ 201, 42.2 percent), and followed by Taobao (n ¼ 172, 36.1 percent), DJ.COM (n ¼ 96,
20.2 percent), Amazon China (n ¼ 4, 0.8 percent) and Suning (n ¼ 3, 0.6 percent). It must be
noted that the distribution of these e-commerce brands was fairly consistent with the e-retail
sale in China (China Ministry of Commerce, 2018). Moreover, the gender and age E-commerce
characteristics of this sample were similar to the distribution of a report from China brand
e-commerce Research Center, showing that 52.6 percent of online consumers are female and
consumers between ages 17 and 36 make up 66.5 percent of online shoppers (China
e-commerce Research Center, 2016). As such, it can be presumed that the sample of this study
represented to some extent the current demographic characteristics of Chinese online
consumers. More detailed information is reported in Table I.

Data analysis
Because the research data were collected from a single survey method, common method
(CMV ) bias was examined using Harman’s single factor test (Mackenzie and Podsakoff, 2012).
The result revealed that a single factor was less than 50 percent, indicating CMV is not a
concern in this study. Then, partial least squares structural equation modeling
(PLS-SEM) was employed by SmartPLS 3.0 (Ringle et al., 2015) to validate the measures
and test the hypothesized research model. Finally, a partial least squares-multi group analysis
(PLS-MGA) was carried out to explore the difference of gender and age in the proposed model.

Results
Measurement model assessment
Following the guideline of Hair et al. (2017), indicator reliability (factor loadings), convergent
validity (average variance extracted, AVE), internal consistency reliability (i.e. composite
reliability, CR, and Cronbach’s α coefficients in Table II), and discriminant validity of
the constructs were examined to evaluate the reflective measurement model. As reported
in Table II, factor loadings of the measures were highly significant ( p o 0.01), ranging from
0.691 to 0.817 and AVE values were all greater than 0.50, supporting convergent validity

Characteristics n %

Gender
Male 217 45.6
Female 259 54.4
Age
20–29 193 40.5
30–39 175 36.8
Over 40 108 22.7
Daily internet usage
Below 4 h 164 34.5
4–6 h 173 36.3
Over 6 h 139 29.2
What is your favorite e-commerce website?
Tmall 201 42.2
Taobao 172 36.1
DJ.COM 96 20.2
Amazon China 4 0.8
Suning 3 0.6
Frequency of purchase on the selected e-commerce website (per month) (M ¼ 6.23, SD ¼ 4.73)
1–7 time(s) 351 73.7
8–16 times 106 22.3 Table I.
17–30 times 19 4.0 Demographics
Note: n ¼ 476 of respondents
APJML (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Moreover, the constructs revealed excellent reliability as the
Cronbach’s α coefficients of all constructs were appropriately high, surpassing 0.70
(Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994) and the values of CR exceeded the criterion (0.60), as
suggested by Bagozzi and Yi (1988).
Discriminant validity was assessed by the Fornell–Larcker criterion approach (Henseler
et al., 2009). This approach assesses if the square root of each construct’s AVE is higher than
its highest correlation with any other construct (Fornell and Larcker, 1981; Chin, 2010; Hair
et al., 2017). As reported in Table III, the inter-construct correlations (from 0.348 to 0.628)
were less than the square roots of every construct’s AVE (ranging from 0.734 to 0.982); this
ensures discriminant validity of measures.

Structural model assessment

Before evaluating the proposed model, potential collinearity issues of the structural model
were assessed using the variance inflation factor (VIF). It found all VIF values ranged from
1.568 to 2.276, which were much lower than 5, suggesting there were no significant issues of
collinearity. Next, PLS algorithm procedures were employed to examine the structural
model relationships (the path coefficients) and test the hypothesized relationships
between the constructs. The significance of relationships was examined by performing a
bootstrapping algorithm (using 5,000 resample). Table IV reported path coefficient,
standard deviation and t-value for each path.

Constructs Items Factor loading CR AVE Cronbach’s α

Quality QUL1 0.810 0.805 0.580 0.839

QUL2 0.751
QUL3 0.721
Value VAL1 0.784 0.817 0.598 0.872
VAL2 0.774
VAL3 0.763
Innovativeness IN1 0.694 0.777 0.539 0.770
IN2 0.810
IN3 0.691
Popularity POP1 0.780 0.817 0.598 0.863
POP2 0.739
POP3 0.799
Satisfaction SAT1 0.779 0.817 0.598 0.863
SAT2 0.737
SAT3 0.802
Table II. Repurchase intention INT1 0.751 0.826 0.612 0.883
Construct reliability INT2 0.778
and validity INT3 0.817

Constructs 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Quality 0.761
2. Value 0.348 0.774
3. Innovativeness 0.633 0.416 0.734
4. Popularity 0.578 0.515 0.446 0.773
5. Satisfaction 0.645 0.524 0.556 0.611 0.773
Table III. 6. Repurchase intention 0.508 0.505 0.437 0.628 0.593 0.782
Discriminant validity Note: Italic diagonal elements are the square root of AVE; values below the diagonal are squared correlations
Hypothesis Paths Standardized coefficient (β) t-value
E-commerce
brand
H1a QUL→SAT 0.340 7.320***
H1b VAL→SAT 0.226 5.927***
H1c INV→SAT 0.142 3.242***
H1d POP→SAT 0.235 5.237***
H2a QUL→INT 0.087 1.479
H2b VAL→INT 0.169 5.927***
H2c INV→INT 0.038 0.762
H2d POP→INT 0.340 6.321***
H3 SAT→INT 0.218 3.966*** Table IV.
Notes: QUL, quality; VAL, value; INV, innovativeness; POP, popularity; SAT, satisfaction; INT, repurchase Results of path
intention. ***p o 0.001 analysis

As reported in Table IV, the paths from quality, value, innovativeness and popularity
to satisfaction were all statistically significant (β QUL → SAT ¼ 0.340; t ¼ 7.320; po 0.001;
β VAL → SAT ¼ 0.226; t ¼ 5.927; p o0.001; β INV → SAT ¼ 0.142; t ¼ 3.242; po0.001;
β POP → SAT ¼ 0.235; t ¼ 5.237; p o0.001), supporting H1a–H1d. Moreover, value and
popularity have significant influences on repurchase intention (β VAL →INT ¼ 0.169;
t ¼ 5.972; p o0.001; β POP →INT ¼ 0.340; t ¼ 6.341; p o0.001), supporting H2b and H2d.
However, the paths from quality and innovativeness to repurchase intention were not
statistically significant (β VAL → INT ¼ 0.087; t ¼ 1.479; p o0.139; β POP →INT ¼ 0.038;
t ¼ 0.762; p o0.446) and therefore, H2a and H2c were not supported. Finally, satisfaction
has a positive influence on repurchase intention (β VAL → SAT ¼ 0.218; t ¼ 3.966; p o0.001).
Moreover, to evaluate the predictive power of the proposed research model, the explained
variances (R2) of the endogenous constructs (i.e. satisfaction and repurchase intention ) were
calculated through PLS analysis (Chin, 2010). The R2 values of satisfaction and repurchase
intention are 0.56 and 0.49, respectively, indicating the moderate level of predictive power
(Henseler et al., 2009).
Furthermore, two-step mediation analysis in PLS was conducted by the guideline
proposed by (Nitzl et al., 2016). The first step is to determine the significance of the indirect
effect via the mediator variable (i.e. satisfaction). The second step addresses the types of
effect and/or mediation. In the case where the direct effect is not significant whereas the
indirect effect is significant means the full mediation. On the other hand, the condition that
both the direct effect and indirect effect are significant represents the partial mediation
(Nitzl et al., 2016). The results found the significant indirect effect of satisfaction between
brand leadership factors (i.e. value, quality, innovativeness and popularity) and repurchase
intention ( p o 0.01), indicating the significant mediation. Moreover, the direct effects of
value and popularity on repurchase intention were significant ( p o0.001), representing the
partial mediating the role of satisfaction. Moreover, the direct effects of quality and
innovativeness on repurchase intention were not significant ( p W 0.05), indicating
satisfaction served as the full mediator in the relationships (Figure 2).

Different effects of gender and age

Researchers suggest that comparing several groups of respondents can be beneficial from a
theoretical and practical perspective and avoid erroneous conclusions from PLS-SEM
results (Becker et al., 2013; Hair et al., 2012). Multi-group analysis can elucidate whether
hypothesized relationships may vary across demographic subgroups. Hence, this study
applies PLS-SEM multigroup analysis using a percentile bootstrapping method to examine
the differences in gender and age. Before conducting the PLS-SEM, the measurement
APJML
Quality 0.340***

0.087

Satisfaction
0.226***
Value
0.169***
0.218***
0.142***

Innovativeness
0.038 Repurchase
intention
0.235***

Figure 2. Popularity 0.340***

Conceptual model
with path coefficients
Note: ***p < 0.001

invariance test was performed. The results showed that no significant difference of
measurement items was found across groups (i.e. gender and age).
First, to test the gender difference in the research model, the sample was split into the male
group (n ¼ 217) and female group (n ¼ 259). Following the guidelines of PLS-MGA (Henseler
et al., 2009; Hair et al., 2017), percentages higher than 0.95 and lower than 0.05 indicate a
significant difference of a specific PLS path coefficient between groups. That is, if the p-value
is smaller than 0.05 or higher than 0.95, the significant difference exists at 5 percent error level.
Particularly, the percentile below 0.05 indicates that the bootstrapping results of Group 2 are
higher than Group 1. On the other hand, the percentile above 0.95 means that the
bootstrapping results of Group 1 are higher than Group 2 (Henseler et al., 2009; Hair et al.,
2017). As reported in Table V, the path from quality to satisfaction was significantly different
between male and female groups ( p-value ¼ 0.961), indicating a stronger relationship for the
male group. Moreover, the path from popularity to satisfaction was significantly different
( p-value ¼ 0.024), indicating a stronger relationship for the female group (Figure 3).

Path coefficient (t-value)

Paths Male group (n ¼ 217) Female group (n ¼ 259) Significant difference in coefficients

QUL→SAT 0.414 (7.338***) 0.243 (3.065**) MalesWFemales

VAL→SAT 0.245 (4.689***) 0.214 (3.800***)
INV→SAT 0.117 (1.978*) 0.168 (2.561**)
POP→SAT 0.155 (2.208*) 0.335 (4.480***) FemalesWMales
QUL→INT 0.076 (0.810) 0.100 (1.493)
VAL→INT 0.131 (2.097*) 0.204 (2.675**)
INV→INT 0.067 (0.888) 0.027 (0.407)
Table V.
POP→INT 0.310 (3.957***) 0.340 (4.504***)
Path coefficients,
t-value and SAT→INT 0.220 (2.853**) 0.224 (2.887**)
results of PLS-MGA Notes: QUL, quality; VAL, value; INV, innovativeness; POP, popularity; SAT, satisfaction; INT, repurchase
between male and intention. Italic paths mean the significant difference in coefficients exists between groups. *p o0.05;
female groups **p o 0.01; ***p o 0.001
Second, to examine whether the structural coefficients vary between age groups, the sample was E-commerce
divided into 20s (n ¼ 193), 30s (n ¼ 175) and over 40 years old (n ¼ 108). As reported in Table VI, brand
the path from quality to satisfaction was significantly different between the age ranges of 20s
and above 40 ( p-value ¼ 0.995), and the relationship was stronger for the older group
(i.e. above 40 group). Moreover, the paths from innovativeness to satisfaction ( p-value ¼ 0.002)
and intention ( p-value ¼ 0.018) were significantly different between the age ranges of 20s and
above 40, indicating that the younger group (i.e. 20s group) is stronger in both paths (Figure 4).

Discussion
The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of perceived brand
leadership of an e-commerce website on satisfaction and repurchase intention based on

Quality 0.414***
0.243***
0.076
0.100

0.245*** Satisfaction
0.214***
Value
0.131*
0.204**
0.220**
0.117* 0.224**
0.168**
Innovativeness
0.067 Repurchase
0.027
0.155* intention
0.335***
0.310***
Popularity 0.340***

Figure 3.
Notes: Bold coefficients denote males, and italic coefficients Results of
multigroup analysis
denote females. Bold paths mean the significant difference for gender groups
between males and females. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

Path coefficient (t-value)

Significant difference in
Paths 20s (n ¼ 193) 30s (n ¼ 175) Above 40 (n ¼ 108) coefficients

QUL → SAT 0.222 (3.328***) 0.347 (3.914***) 0.491 (4.220***) Above 40 W20s
VAL → SAT 0.229 (3.732***) 0.272 (4.187***) 0.188 (2.885**)
INV → SAT 0.270 (4.281***) 0.106 (1.416) −0.006 (0.093) 20sWAbove 40
POP → SAT 0.227 (3.677***) 0.159 (2.037*) 0.359 (3.667***)
QUL → INT 0.059 (0.715) 0.102 (1.155) 0.168 (2.047*)
VAL → INT 0.138 (2.201*) 0.230 (2.759**) 0.182 (2.472*)
INV → INT 0.166 (2.234*) −0.020 (0.267) −0.093 (0.579) 20sWAbove 40
POP → INT 0.264 (4.053***) 0.364 (4.261***) 0.448 (3.920***)
SAT → INT 0.213 (2.679*) 0.201 (2.283*) 0.148 (1.962*) Table VI.
Notes: QUL, quality; VAL, value; INV, innovativeness; POP, popularity; SAT, satisfaction; INT, repurchase Path coefficients and
intention. Italic paths mean the significant difference in coefficients exists between groups. *po 0.05; t-values across
**p o0.01; ***p o0.001 age groups
APJML
Quality 0.222***
0.347***
0.491***
0.059
0.102
0.168*
0.229*** Satisfaction
0.272***
0.188**
Value
0.138*
0.230**
0.182*
0.213*
0.270*** 0.201*
0.106 0.148*
–0.006
Innovativeness 0.166*
–0.020 Repurchase
–0.093 0.227***
0.159* intention
0.359***
0.264***
0.364***
0.448***
Popularity

Figure 4. Notes: Bold coefficients denote 20s group, italic coefficients

Results of denote 30s group, and underlined coefficients denote above 40
multigroup analysis
for age groups age group. Bold paths mean the significant difference between
males and females. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

CAPS (Mischel and Shoda, 1995) and ECT (Oliver, 1980). It further aimed to explore the
different roles of gender and age in the relationships between perceived brand leadership of
an e-commerce website on satisfaction and repurchase intention. This study first applied the
concept of brand leadership into the e-commerce setting and examined consumers’
perception of e-commerce brand on their satisfaction and repurchase intention.
According to the results, all dimensions of brand leadership were found to have positive
influences on satisfaction. Moreover, value and popularity dimensions of brand leadership
were found to have significant influences on repurchase intention. However, quality and
innovativeness dimensions of brand leadership have no significant influences on repurchase
intention. In addition, satisfaction has a positive influence on repurchase intention. This
study also showed how different aspects and perceptions due to age and gender can play a
part in satisfaction and repurchase intention. The discussion of this study elaborates each
dimension of brand leadership and the significant different roles of gender and age.

Theoretical implications
First, it has been noted that, among various aspects of brand leadership, perceived quality of
the website is an important area for speculation in the field of e-commerce (Bai et al., 2008). The
results obtained in this study supported the perceived quality of a website to have a positive
influence on satisfaction (H1a). This finding echoes previous studies that the perceived quality
of the website to play an influential role in consumers’ satisfaction (Collier and Bienstock, 2006).
Furthermore, the perceived quality of the website encompasses many aspects of service quality
that are essential in achieving satisfaction. Upon evaluation on e-commerce websites, Lightner
(2004) noted that the quality of information provided on the website plays an important role in
order to achieve consumers’ satisfaction.
However, the results showed no direct effect of perceived quality on repurchase intention
(H2a), indicating the relationship between perceived quality of website and repurchase
intention is fully mediated by consumers’ satisfaction. Delone and Mclean (2003) outlined that, E-commerce
in order for subsequent purchase intention to occur, the website quality must positively brand
influence consumers’ satisfaction. It indicated that consumers may consider the product
quality to be more important than website quality (Luo et al., 2012). Further, return policy and
perceived informativeness are more important in their decision making (Kim et al., 2010).
Second, the results showed perceived value to possess a significant relationship between
satisfaction (H1b) and repurchase intention (H2b). Perceived value contributes to
consumers’ satisfaction when the purchased product is deemed cost-effective, which
influence retaining consumer. Yang and Peterson (2004) mentioned perceived value to be a
regulator of behavioral intention. For instance, when a consumer pays less for a high-quality
product, the positive perceived value is achieved, contributing to satisfaction. In addition,
consumers are motivated to repeat patronage when the benefits from a product are more
worthy than their sacrifice (Wu et al., 2014). This effect makes consumers feel satisfied, and,
in turn, heightened repurchase intention.
In accordance with this, Wu et al. (2014) found that heightened perceived value raises
repurchase intention. Chang and Ko (2014) also noted that products that benefit
consumers by adding value to their social-economic status can be priced at a high cost,
and consumers will be willing to pay for it. Based on this, it is critical for e-service
providers to take note that the perceived value not only includes monetary value but also
consumers’ evaluation of the product. Hence, brand managers need to craft purchase
benefits that sets it higher than the amount of sacrifice consumers’ make (Kuo et al., 2009).
This empirical evidence accounts for the overall online consumers as the results revealed
no age group and gender to have a significant effect on this relationship. Thus, this
supports marketers and service providers to implement general strategies that target
positive perceived value.
Third, this study found that innovativeness of brand leadership has a significant effect
on satisfaction (H1c), whereas no significant relationship was found between
innovativeness and repurchase intention (H2c). Crawford and Di Benedetto (2003) noted
that innovativeness is a factor that reflects a brand’s degree of openness to new ideas.
From consumers’ perspective, satisfaction is attained when an innovative element in its
service or product is considered to be valuable. Consumers expect the concepts adopted
by brands to be continuously evolving in accordance with the trend. In addition, they
observe and evaluate the brand’s level of innovativeness, which could finally influence
their purchasing behavior. Therefore, service providers need to ensure that their unique
characteristics are stable over time to maintain an image of innovativeness and to center
their efforts in developing creative and unconventional ideas (Chang and Ko, 2014; Chang
et al., 2016). When a brand is constantly known for its innovativeness, consumers’
satisfaction will stem from being part of a trendsetting brand, which in turn, encourage
their repurchase intention.
Fourth, the results showed that the perceived popularity of brand leadership positively
influences consumers’ satisfaction and repurchase intention. The popularity of a leading
brand has the potential to deviate consumers from its real value and directs them to benefits
such as self-esteem. It indicated that the social recognition of the brand and positive rewards
drive them to purchase a popular product (Zhu and Zhang, 2010; Chang and Ko, 2014).
Kim and Lennon (2013) noted that consumers have a high opinion of leading brands even
when those are not proven to deliver high-quality products. Word-of-mouth or online
consumer online review can be used to increase and maintain popularity, which can build
trust and reduce perceived risk (Park and Kim, 2008; Hsiao et al., 2010).
Fifth, aligning with the ECT, it is not surprising to find the strong relationship between
satisfaction and repurchase intention. In the context of online shopping, consumers’
satisfaction is evoked by the positive shopping experience on the e-commerce website.
APJML Further, this positive psychological state determines consumers’ future purchasing
behavior on the e-commerce website. This finding aligns with the results of the previous
studies in the online shopping context (Carlson and O’cass, 2010; Kim, 2012; Cao et al.,
2018; Kassim and Abdullah, 2010) and with the ECT, which identifies satisfaction as a
critical predictor of consumers’ continuance intention to purchase (Kim et al., 2009;
Oliver, 1980). Although ECT has been applied in diverse disciplines, such as tourism
(e.g. Escobar-Rodríguez and Bonsón-Fernández, 2017), e-learning (Lee, 2010) and mobile
data service (e.g. Kim, 2010), there have been few attempts to explain consumers behavior
using ECT in the setting of e-commerce. The findings of this study expand the application of
ECT and gain knowledge in the setting of e-commerce.
In addition, this study uncovers some hidden patterns between different groups (i.e. gender
and age) that would not have been discovered without conducting multigroup analysis. The
results revealed male to have a stronger significant effect of perceived quality on satisfaction
(H4). According to Mpinganjira (2014), male and female consumers have different shopping
motives. Male individuals are found to possess utilitarian motive when it comes to shopping
(Hernández et al., 2011; Rodgers and Harris, 2003). On the other hands, female consumers are
driven by hedonic motive toward shopping (Chiu et al., 2014). That is, male consumers are
motivated by practicality, such as usefulness, convenience, service, adequate information and
functionality, which make up the perceived quality of the website. Thus, when the perceived
quality of the website is considered high, it has met the shopping motive of male consumers’
resulting in satisfaction. It explains why male consumers share a more significant relationship
between perceived quality of website and satisfaction than female consumers.
Also, this study found that the impact of popularity on satisfaction was stronger for
female consumers. In other words, female consumers more importantly consider perceived
popularity than male consumers. According to previous studies, female individuals are more
sensitive to the latest trend and how they appear to others (Bakewell and Mitchell, 2003;
Kinley et al., 2010). It has been highlighted that purchasing a product is a mean of
adding value to a woman’s self-identity and status. For that reason, when a woman is
known to be a consumer of a popular brand, she perceives her status to be higher. This, in
turn, boosts their self-esteem among their peers. Hence, in order to continue appealing to
female consumers’, service providers can market their products in a manner that uses
status-enhancing advertising elements.
Finally, the age difference was found in the proposed research model (H5). It was found
that the influence of perceived quality on satisfaction was stronger for the consumers over
40 years old as compared to the younger consumers (i.e. 20s).This finding is consistent with
the argument of Lian and Yen (2014) that performance expectation of online shopping
websites is one of the major drivers to purchase online for older consumers. That is, when
older consumers perceived the website quality that benefit them, they would have a higher
level of intention to purchase online (Lian and Yen, 2014; Hernández et al., 2011). In order to
avoid regretting their expenditures, older consumers would not make a purchase until they
have trusted the quality of e-commerce website (Yoon and Occeña, 2015).
Moreover, it was found that the 20s age group values the innovative dimension more
than any other age groups. They are constantly seeking for experience that incorporates
creativity and enhances e-retail experience (Ordun, 2015). That is, in contrast to older
age groups, the 20s age group consider other aspects of products besides quality and value.
Parment (2013) reported that younger age group is attracted by the innovative concepts
and tends to compare the latest trends and concepts used by reputable retailers. For
example, e-beauty stores have found innovative ways such as virtual try-on shade match of
their products that allow consumers to get the right product online. The innovations
adopted by different e-commerce websites may appeal to different individuals and may
cause them to prefer and perceive one brand to be a leader among the rest.
 Overall, this study extended the marketing literature by taking into account the aspects E-commerce
of brand leadership in e-commerce websites based on ECT (Oliver, 1980) and CAPS (Mischel brand
and Shoda, 1995). Specifically, the dimensions of perceived brand leadership affect cognitive
appraisal and concurrently create an impact on the affective process, which influences
at the post-purchase stage in ECT and determines satisfaction and repurchase intention.
That is, this study outlined the importance of lowering the expectations of consumers in the
pre-purchase stage as well as providing seamless experience to instill the perception of
brand leadership in them.

Practical implications
This study suggests e-commerce service providers and marketers focus their efforts on
implementing general strategies that fulfill the factors of brand leadership (i.e. quality,
value, innovativeness, popularity) as well as the different roles of gender and age. In general,
service providers can upgrade their website service quality to promote favorable feelings.
That is, when a website meets the requirements such as innovativeness and quality of
information provided, it creates positive cognitive and affective appraisals. In addition, it is
necessary to implement new ways of attracting consumers’ such as constant offers of
incentives with a product purchased. At the same time, e-commerce managers need to
leverage online consumers’ expectations to match the actual products they are offering to
increase satisfaction, which, in turn, augments repurchase intention.
This study has found that perceived quality is a more critical factor influencing
satisfaction for male and older consumers. Therefore, it is important to build trust platforms
to eliminate uncertainty and perceived risk especially for male and older consumers. Service
providers can adopt user-generated content that includes evaluation upon purchased
product or even images as evidence of the actual product condition. This, at the same time,
guarantees the quality of the product, which, in turn, enhance male and older consumers’
satisfaction and repurchase intention (Dang and Pham, 2018).
Furthermore, findings reveal that innovativeness has stronger influences on satisfaction
and repurchase intention for younger consumers. As such, e-commerce websites need to
seek innovative ways to attract younger consumers. For example, e-commerce websites can
provide virtual reality assistant system for consumers to have better shopping experiences.
Consumers may have more realistic product models, with respect to size, experience and
user interaction. Applying such innovative technology may attract younger consumers’
attention and affect their decision-making process.
Besides, to attract consumers’ who are not tech-savvy, word-of-mouth is a good marketing
tool which is an effect followed by high service quality. Hence, when service providers ensure
the other aspects of brand leadership, word-of-mouth occurs to popularize the brand. This can
encourage consumers to switch from offline to the online store, perceiving it as a leading
brand. It is crucial for marketers and service providers to be unique in every dimension of
their brand and service. To simply put, the findings have suggested that a leading brand
needs to be proactive in developing ways to fulfill the dimensions of brand leadership and
develop unique concepts to attract more online consumers.

Limitations and future research

Although this study yielded insightful findings, it is not without limitations. First, this study
only included two questions regarding consumers’ purchase behavior (i.e. favorite
e-commerce website and frequency of purchase) in the demographic section. As such, future
research should take more questions, such as the average cost on online shopping
(per month) or product categories of purchase, into consideration in order to have a more
comprehensive picture of consumers’ online shopping behavior. Second, this study adopted
a cross-sectional design that measured online consumers’ perception of brand leadership at
APJML a specific time. However, due to the competitiveness among e-commerce websites,
consumers’ perceived leadership of e-commerce website may change over time. In particular,
perceived innovativeness and popularity changes according to what the trend is during a
period of time (Zhu and Zhang, 2010; Chang and Ko, 2014). Hence, future research is
encouraged to employ a longitudinal design in providing a holistic understanding
of perceived brand leadership. It can provide empirical evidence on which dimension of
perceived brand leadership has more enduring effects on its relationship with consumers’
satisfaction and repurchase intention. Third, this study has provided evidence on the
different role of age in certain dimensions of brand leadership. However, Zickuhr and
Madden (2010) reported that the gap between young and older online consumers is growing
closer. In addition, past findings noted that due to various limiting factors, offline shopping
is seen as an ideal avenue to purchase (Falk et al., 2007). This study focused on the distinct
difference in perception across age groups, but did not demonstrate the important factors
for the growing number of older consumers. For that reason, further research has to look
into ways to facilitate the transition from offline to online stores. Future research can
illustrate different kinds of factors that impact older consumers’ decision-making process.
Finally, although this study provides several valuable findings, they may not be generalized
to represent consumers from other countries because this study was carried out on Chinese
online consumers. Therefore, future studies should take other countries or regions into
consideration in order to obtain results which are more comprehensive.

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Appendix. Measurement item

Constructs/items
(1) Quality:
• QUL1: this online shopping website is higher in quality standards.
• QUL2: this online shopping website is superior in quality standards.
• QUL3: this online shopping website offers higher-quality features.
(2) Value:
• VAL1: the products of this online shopping website are reasonably priced.
• VAL2: the products of this online shopping website have better benefits for the price.
• VAL3: the products of this online shopping website offer more benefits for the price.
(3) Innovativeness:
• INV1: this online shopping website is more dynamic in improvements.
• INV2: this online shopping website is more creative in products and services.
• INV3: this online shopping website is more of a trendsetter.
(4) Popularity:
• POP1: this online shopping website is more preferred.
• POP2: this online shopping website is more recognized.
• POP3: this online shopping website is better known.
APJML (5) Satisfaction:
• SAT1: I am satisfied with my decision to use this online shopping website.
• SAT2: Based on all my experience with this online shopping website, I feel very satisfied.
• SAT3: I think I did the right thing when I decided to use this online shopping website.
(6) Repurchase intention:
• INT1: If I could, I’d like to continue using this online shopping website to purchase
products.
• INT2: It is likely that I will continue to purchase products from this online shopping
website in the future.
• INT3: I intend to continue purchasing products from this online shopping website.

Corresponding author
Heetae Cho can be contacted at: heetae.cho@nie.edu.sg

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