The Role of E-Service Quality and Information Quality In Creating Perceived Value:

Antecedents to Web Site Loyalty

Presented by:Shelley Keith

INFQ 7322 - Information Quality Theory

Assignment: Evaluation/Critique of an IQ Research Article

Authors

• Ann Pearson - Online Undergraduate Program Coordinator @ SIU

• Dr. Suresh Tadisina - Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Business @ SIU Carbondale

• Chris Griffin - Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems @ University of Louisiana at Monroe

Summary

Survey of 409 undergraduate students at 2 midwestern universities was conducted using an instrument adapted from several related research instruments for e-service quality, information quality, and perceived value. The research tested 16 hypotheses, and essentially concludes that the best loyalty results are achieved when both e-service and information quality are addressed within a web site.

Literature Review

• Reading list of significant sizeo More than 20 unique references in the review

• Would have liked more depth

• Lacked up-to-date web research sourceso No mention of relevant thought leaders with

scholarly works, like Jakob Nielsen, Jared Spool, etc.

o Most of the works cited here were pre-2005

• Nicely broken down by topic area

Literature Review: Topics

The literature review was broken down by major topic area:

• Expectancy-Value Theory

• e-Service Quality

• Information Quality

• Perceived Value

• Loyalty Intentions

• Perceived e-Service Quality, Perceived Information Quality, and Loyalty Intentions

Expectancy-Value Theory

...people learn from expectations.

...individuals learn to perform behavior they expect will result in positive events.

As adapted to media by Palmgren (1984)

...suggests individuals will continue to use a medium that generates positive evaluations.

Value

Value: attitude influenced by beliefs about the capabilities of an object permitting or blocking the achievement of a valued state.

In this study, the "object" is a firm's web site that permits or blocks a customer's attainment of a desired product.

Key Points

• Focuses on perceptions and their impact on user/visitor/consumer loyalty to web sites

• No one facet is the magic ingredient. Service quality and information quality influence the perception of value, which influences loyalty intentions. A well-rounded approach is necessary.

Strengths

• Able to apply highly-tested, well-regarded research to their questions.

• Multi-faceted approacho 16 individual hypotheses were tested

• Well defined attributes for web site service qualityo 11 attributes identified based on previous research

• Defined attributes for information quality for web sites

Weaknesses

• Disappointed that the web statistics were from 2007-2008. There are no shortage of usable sources for more current information.o Outdated references to Census Bureau data

• Self described limitation: Students did not evaluate a single shopping source, rather they evaluated a site of their choosing. (questionable as a "weakness")

Contribution

• Currently 0 citations in Google Scholar

• Validates what web professionals have been saying since the dawn of www.

• Provides additional scholarly foundation for both content strategy and strategic social media initiatives.

• Offers practical application advice

• Suggests research into other loyalty influencers and the effect of technology on perceptions.