Modelling of multi-dimensional loyalty in electronic commerce / Nader Sohrabi Safa
Advances in web-based oriented technologies and services are taking place with a considerable speed around the world. New technologies have significantly influenced trade, and converted traditional commerce to e-Commerce. Modern commerce enables people to conduct business in their offices or at h...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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2014
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| Online Access: | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/4641/ http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/4641/1/PhD_Thesis%2DNader_Sohrabi_Safa%2DWHA100024.pdf |
| Summary: | Advances in web-based oriented technologies and services are taking place with
a considerable speed around the world. New technologies have significantly influenced
trade, and converted traditional commerce to e-Commerce. Modern commerce enables
people to conduct business in their offices or at homes, with minimal time, cost, error,
and maximum efficiency. Customer trust, satisfaction and loyalty play vital roles in the
success or failure of e-Commerce. It is also clear that loyal customers are one of the
most important assets of firms, which results in long-term benefits. In this research,
three problems were addressed. Firstly, companies easily lose their e-Customers in the
competitive environment of today‘s business (Internet). Secondly, gaining loyal
customers takes a long time, and is high in cost. Thirdly, there are inactive and nonprofitable
customers in the database of online companies; converting inactive and nonprofitable
customers to active and profitable customers by increasing their trust,
satisfaction and loyalty. These three basic problems encourage us to study the nature of
e-Loyalty formation in e-Commerce.
The main aim of this study is to answer the question of how firms can increase
Electronic Trust (e-Trust), Electronic Satisfaction (e-Satisfaction) and Electronic
Loyalty (e-Loyalty) among their e-Customers. A review of literature and interviews
with experts in this domain revealed that e-Satisfaction and e-Trust are two important
factors that influence e-Loyalty. The significant aspect of this research is derived from
the inclusion of a comprehensive conceptual framework with different aspects of
technology, organization, and customers (three main entities in e-Commerce). Nine
hypotheses display the relationships between technological, organizational, and
customer factors with e-Satisfaction and e-Trust, which is significantly influence e-
Loyalty. The data for this study were collected from e-Customers of the largest retail
company in Iran in 2011, and statistical analyses were used to validate and ensure the
reliability of the proposed model. The results showed the relationship between
technological, organizational and customer factors with e-Satisfaction, e-Trust, and
finally, e-Loyalty. The findings also revealed the fact that technological factor has the
most effect on e-Satisfaction, e-Trust and e-Loyalty. Furthermore, Artificial Neural
Fuzzy Interface System (ANFIS) was utilized to estimate e-Loyalty based on e-
Satisfaction and e-Trust as assessment of the results. The outcomes showed a slight
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difference between the prediction of ANFIS and e-Loyalty data. The results of both
methods (statistical analysis and ANFIS) confirm the reliability of the model. This
research sheds some light on the formation of e-Loyalty in e-Commerce and can be
useful for academics and practitioners. |
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