Research in Electronic Commerce Frontiers (RECF) Volume 1 Issue 3, November 2013
www.seipub.org/recf
Effects of Satisfaction and Commitment on E-commerce Customers’ Trust Dawei Liu* School of Management, Hangzhou Dianzi University No.1, 2nd Street, Xiasha Education Zone, Hangzhou, China P.R.,310018 *
liudawei@hdu.edu.cn
Abstract The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of satisfaction and commitment on e-commerce customers’ trust. Based on 362 valid responses collected from a survey questionnaire, structural equation modelling (SEM) technology was employed to examine the research model. The results indicated that both satisfaction and commitment significantly affect customers’ trust, which further determines their purchase behaviors; and that satisfaction is the strongest determinant of customers’ trust. E-commerce providers need to consider customers’ feelings on satisfaction and commitment when seeking the trust; as well they should enhance satisfaction degree and commitment level to improve customers’ trust. Although much research has been conducted to explore the extrinsic motivations, such as social benefit, economic benefit, the effect of intrinsic motivations, satisfaction, is seldom tested. This research found the effect of satisfaction and commitment on customers’ trust to be significant. Keywords E-commerce; Trust; Satisfaction; Commitment; Continuity
Introduction Numerous studies have contributed to different distribution channels that satisfaction and commitment are two of the critical variables for development of trust (Ba, Whinston, & Zhang, 2003). Nevertheless, seldom study analyses the commitmenttrust relationship with e-commerce services. In this research, a descriptive model that characterizes satisfaction, commitment and rust to e-commerce service was developed. First of all, based on a review of previous literature, this study can clearly indicate satisfaction in terms of previous interactions and commitment in e-commerce service. Secondly, commitment in terms of previous interaction and social benefit is related to the level of trust for ecommerce service. This study, therefore, presented three major contributions: the commitment-trust relationship is tested in e-commerce
service; (2) the function of commitment is analyzed as an antecedent of trust; and (3) the effect of continuity, economic benefit, security, social benefit on trust of ecommerce is revealed. The paper was structured as follows: Firstly, an indepth review of the relevant literature concerning six variables was concluded in the study. Secondly, hypotheses were formalized. Thirdly, the process of data collection and validation measures was clarified. Finally, results, conclusions and limitations of the study and possibilities for future research were formed. Literature Review Trust Trust is regarded as a central concept for understanding significant economic and social behaviors, especially the buyer of a product or service (Andaleeb, 1991). Its absence frustrates relationship and causes misunderstandings (Halldórsson & Aastrup, 2003). The issue of trust in markets has received considerable attention in the end of 20th century (Beatty, Mayer, Coleman, Reynolds, & Lee, 1996; Robinson, Sahin, & Gao, 2005). In their study trust is critical because it can decrease the operational costs considerably and increase the information sharing (Flight, Henley, & Robicheaux, 2008; Moretti, Rein, & Wiebe, 1998; Veal & Mouzas, 2011). Consequently, many scholars have suggested that trust is an important factor in explaining market success (Ashleigh & Nandhakumar, 2007; Baron, 2002; Frochot, 2005). Moreover, according to Morgan (1994), the conclusion of the compartmental component could be redundant, as a result of the cognitive component. In previous literature, trust is defined as one party's confidence that the other party in the exchange relationship will not exploit its vulnerabilities in e-commerce service (Gal-Or & Ghose, 2005; Xu, Swanson, & Samuelson, 2009). The trust would function in situations where the
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