Investigating the complex drivers of loyalty in e-commerce settings

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived service quality, satisfaction and trust determine loyalty in e-commerce settings at the level of construct dimensions. Design/methodology/approach - A survey method approach was used in this study. To test the dimensionality of the perceived service quality, all the 20 items were analyzed using oblique rotation and varimax rotation. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equations modeling. Findings - Empirical results indicate that only assurance does appear to play an imperative role in building trust as suggested by many authors. Of particular interest is the finding that word-of-mouth (WOM) is an antecedent of trust and intention. It becomes clear that WOM is a relatively important driver of trust and intention in e-commerce settings. Research limitations/implications - The study may also be delimited to Qatar only. Further research could complement it by exploring the study variables and other variables not mentioned in depth here. Practical implications - Satisfaction, which contributes considerably to loyalty, can be increased by providing an attractive user interface, and an easy to use and interesting system. Specifically, the positive word-of-mouth decreases the need for marketing expenses and can increase revenue if new customers are attracted. Online retailers should direct their before-and after-sales service mechanisms towards developing consumers' willingness to get engaged in positive WOM in favour of the company and its services. Originality/value - The major contribution of the study is that it is the first attempt to investigate the impact of word of mouth on trust and intention ahead of previous studies.