The unprecedented proliferation of the Internet and the World Wide Web over the last decade has increased the importance of electronic commerce. The research will present an exploratory study of the role of quality factors in electronic commerce in order the significance of the latter to be assessed.
The success of electronic commerce service has been driven by the low price of commercial web presence. Quality factors are among the most important ones in the terms of customer decision-making. However, as electronic commerce usually involves self-service and little human interaction, many traditional quality factors are irrelevant for the purposes of the study (Zeithmal et al., 2000).
The proliferation of the Internet and the World Wide Web has led to dramatic amendments in business methodology, as electronic service generates a vast number of opportunities for all involved (firms, consumers and employees).
Since electronic commerce customers come from different backgrounds, their perceptions depend on different quality factors (overall culture; social values; security; trust). This research will set three main goals: 1) to assess the significance of quality factors of business-to-consumers (B2C) commercial web sites; 2) to determine the factors which create the differences of customers' attitudes/feelings towards electronic commerce; 3) to evaluate the relationship between quality factors and purchase decision.
Tags: Quality in E-commerce, Quality factors in E-Commerce, Factors for successful E-Commerce websites, E-Commerce quality factors
[...] (2001) On the Explanation of Factors Affecting E-commerce Adoption, Proceedings of the Twenty-Second International Conference in Information Systems, New Orleans, USA, pp109-120 Lee, M.K.O. and Turban, E. (2001) A Trust Model for Internet Shopping,‖ International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol No.1, pp75-91 Liang, T. and Huang, J. (1998) An Empirical Study on Consumer Acceptance of Products in Electronic Markets: A Transaction Cost Model, Decision Support Systems, Vol.24, pp29-43 Loiacono, E. T., Watson, R. T., and Goodhue, D. L. (2000) WebQual: A Website Quality Instrument, Working Paper 2000-126-0, University of Georgia MacMillan, I. [...]
[...] Several scholars (Hosmer, 1995; Heide et al., 1995; Molla et al., 2001) report that purchase decision is highly affected by the trust worthiness of the web site. The author of the proposed research will review the hypothesis that trustworthiness is among the quality factors that impact customer purchase decision in electronic commerce. Several studies, based on researches conducted in countries with developed economies, conclude that privacy is one of the key factors deterring consumers from making purchases online (Goerge, 2000; Lee et al., 2001; Zhan et al., 2003). [...]
[...] The proposed research will not involve any vulnerable group segment. The proposed research will not review any particularly sensitive topic. The proposed research will not access respondents via “gatekeepers”. The proposed research will not use deception. The access to any confidential data will be limited (only the author of the research will have access to it). The proposed research will not involve psychological stress, anxiety or other unpleasant emotions for the polled. The proposed research will not involve any intrusive interventions. [...]
[...] (2002) Trustworthiness in Electronic Commerce: The Role of Privacy, Security, and Site Attributes, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Vol.11, pp245-270 Bellizzi, J. A. and Hite, R. E. (1992) Environmental Color, Consumer Feelings, and Purchase Likelihood, Psychology & Marketing , Vol pp347- 363 Bellman, S., Lohse, G. and Eric J. (1999) Predictors of Online Buying Behavior, Communications of the ACM, Vol.42, No.12, pp32-38 Bolton, R. N. and Drew, J. H. (1991) A Multistage Model of Consumers' Assessments of Service Quality and Value, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.17, pp375-384 Brown, M. [...]
[...] Thus, it will test ideas about the importance of quality factors in electronic commerce, especially in the process of decision-making. The primary data will be collected by conducting a survey among the students of International University in the city of Sofia. The proposed research method is questionnaire. The author proposes this method as it does not take much of the time of the polled. This method also has the advantage of being cheaper compared to other methods (e.g. telephone interview). [...]
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