Cross-cultural examination of the relationships among firm reputation, e-satisfaction, e-trust, and e-loyalty

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically compare the impact of firm reputation on consumers' evaluation of e-tailers' market response outcomes (satisfaction, trust, and loyalty) in two cultures, the USA (individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, low context, and high-trust society) and South Korea (collectivism, high uncertainty, high context, and low-trust society). Design/methodology/approach - Two sets of data were collected, one in the USA and the other in Korea, using a mall intercept method. Males and females over 18 who had online purchase experience were chosen as respondents. Findings - The results with 385 usable questionnaires (182 from the USA and 203 from Korea) revealed that firm reputation contributes to customer loyalty by increasing customer satisfaction, and this effect is stronger in Korea than in the USA. However, contrary to the expectations, no cultural differences were found in reputation-trust and trust-loyalty links. That is, firm reputation leads to customer loyalty through trust in both cultures and the impacts are the same across cultures. Research limitations/implications - Further validation of the findings with other cultural settings merits attention. Practical implications - The firm reputation-satisfaction-loyalty link is stronger in Korea than in the USA. While it may be premature to conclude the link is stronger in all Asian markets, international managers should carefully consider this finding when establishing operations in Asian markets. Originality/value - This study is one of the first systematic cross-cultural examinations of how firm reputation functions in an e-tailing context increase market response outcomes.