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ISSN 1392–0758 SOCIAL SCIENCES. 2014. Nr. 3 (85)
SOCIETY AND ORGANIZATIONS IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
– PRACTICAL ISSUES
Impact of Usability Website Attributes on Users’ Trust, Satisfaction and Loyalty
Dariusz Dabrowski, Beata A. Basinska and Marcin Sikorski
Gdansk University of Technology
ul. Narutowicza 11/12 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland
http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.85.3.8409
Abstract
This paper presents the results of an experimental
study aimed at identifying possible relationships among
website usability characteristics, consumer satisfaction,
trust and loyalty. These factors regard not only
customer satisfaction in a transactional sense, but in
the long term they may affect e-customer behavior,
opinions, recommendations and attitudes toward using
on-line services in general.
The study was performed with 15 Polish subjects
who have made 90 evaluations of six websites offering
on-line access to health, financial and travel services.
To achieve the purpose of this study and to test the
hypotheses, both measurement models and a structural
model were evaluated by applying a partial least square
approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
It was found that four website attributes relate
positively to customer satisfaction with the website.
These were visual clarity, customer care,
demonstration of service and user guidance. Regarding
customer trust, we observed that customer care,
information content and visual clarity are drivers of
trust. Both satisfaction and trust positively influence
the loyalty of customers to a website.
Keywords: loyalty, satisfaction, trust, website
usability, PLS-SEM.
Introduction
The rapid growth of e-commerce raises questions
about the relationships between website quality, consumer
satisfaction, trust and loyalty. Websites have been the main
access channel to online shopping and on-line services to
date, resulting in vast design efforts invested in assuring
their usability and ease of use. Recently, customer
satisfaction to a large extent is also shaped by subjectively
assessed emotional components generally labeled as User
Experience (UX), adding to usability-related evaluation
aspects. Among researchers (Coelho and Machas, 2003;
Corritore, Kracher and Wiedenbeck, 2003; Anderson and
Swaminathan, 2011; Toufaily, Ricard and Perrien, 2013)
and practitioners there is also growing interest in such
factors beyond a website’s visual and operational aspects,
which shape not only user satisfaction but also perceived
trust and potential loyalty to the particular website or brand
of on-line service vendor.
The aim of this study is to determine the relationship
between website usability attributes used to serve
customers in terms of particular services and the
satisfaction as well as trust of customers, and the impact of
the latter on customer loyalty to websites.
For a service company, its website facilitates
communication with customers, including self-service – to
some extent. Self-service produces benefits for both the
customer and the company. The customer is primarily
saving time, which otherwise she/he would have to spend
to get to the point of service. In turn the service vendor
side usually can reduce its own costs. This situation makes
a website an important element of customer service
because website takes over some functions of first line
staff, which in traditional services is one of the key
elements contributing to creating quality, satisfaction, trust
and loyalty among prospective customers.
This paper presents the results of an experimental
study aimed at identifying possible relationships among
website usability characteristics, consumer satisfaction,
trust and loyalty. These factors regard not only customer
satisfaction in a transactional meaning, but in the long term
they may affect e-customer behavior, opinions,
recommendations and attitude to using on-line services.
This study differs from other studies in several
distinctive aspects:
it was an experimental study, while other studies used
mainly retrospective methods,
it combined user-based usability testing and
questionnaire survey, which was an appropriate
methodology for a relatively small sample of users,
it was one of the first studies of this type regarding
consumers on the Polish market for on-line services.
Social Sciences / D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski. Impact of Usability
Socialiniai mokslai. 2014. Nr. 3 (85) Website Attributes on Users’ Trust, Satisfaction and Loyalty
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The originality of our research comes from combining
an experimental usability evaluation approach with a
questionnaire survey, which allowed identifying some
interesting relationships among website quality, user
satisfaction, subjectively perceived trust and prospective
loyally of prospective consumers.
This paper is organized as follows. First, we start with
a discussion of the specificity of customer-vendor
interactions in the e-commerce environment. Next, we
analyze the literature of the subject, which helps us define
the concepts of interests. In the following section, we
propose a theoretical framework (model) of relationships
among the quality characteristics of a service website, user
satisfaction, trust and loyalty. In this section, a set of
hypotheses regarding the effects of website usability,
satisfaction and trust on loyalty formation is proposed.
Finally, we present the relevant PLS-SEM method to test
the relationship among variables, our findings and
conclusions.
Website quality and usability attributes
Service quality is a key factor to make a commercial
website successful in terms of business outcomes as well
as in terms of attracting and retaining customers. The
primary concepts of service quality originate from the
classic works of Oliver (1980), Gronroos (1984) and
Parasuraman et al. (1985), who developed the
SERVQUAL model widely used for quality evaluation of
traditional services. Unlike traditional services, customer
evaluation of e-service quality is not only evaluation of the
service process, but is also combined with the outcome of
website quality evaluation (Santos, 2003). Consequently,
Zeithaml et al. (2005) developed an e-SQ model suitable
for evaluation of e-services, which includes quality factors
combined with both service characteristics and website
quality attributes.
As customers prefer websites which are easier to use
(Iwaarden et al., 2004), website usability is considered to
be a quality factor and at the same time an important
antecedent of customer satisfaction during and after use.
Website usability remains an important concept for
research and design, insofar as websites are the most
popular access point used by consumers to access e-
services.
Among many other quality characteristics of an
interactive system, usability plays a central role, because it
affects task performance, task efficiency and customer
satisfaction from using the specific system in a specific
context of use (the ISO 9241-110 standard). From a
consumer’s viewpoint, website usability can be defined in
terms of satisfying the user’s needs for the ability to find
one’s way around the navigation structure of a particular
website, to locate desired information, to know what to do
next, and, very importantly, to do so with minimal effort.
Specific website quality characteristics such as ease of use,
understandability, visual clarity, user guidance or error
tolerance have been collectively labeled as website
usability and often used in marketing communication
about new on-line services.
The impact of website quality characteristics on
customers (with usability in particular) has been the
subject of many studies, which resulted in the development
of a variety of web usability models, usually presented as
sets of usability attributes.
Some models treat jointly quality characteristics of a
service and of a website. For instance Santos (2003)
presented a model which identifies two main dimensions
of e-service quality: incubative factors, relevant mostly to
website design, and active factors – relevant to website
usability validated ‘in action’. The incubative dimension
consists of ease of use, appearance, linkage, structure and
layout, and content. The active dimension consists of
reliability, efficiency, support, communication, security,
and incentives. Another model developed by Ojasalo
(2010) points out that there are some distinctive
characteristics of e-services: interaction through the
Internet, communication may be highly personalized, the
service offering may be adjusted to customer needs and
service delivery not restricted by opening hours and
distance, while interaction with e-customers is restricted by
viewing and hearing. The key issue in Ojasalo’s model is
the customer’s subjective perception of website usability
attributes such as ease of use, visual design and
appearance, personalization, information, responsiveness,
communication, security and reliability.
Another group of models focuses entirely on
identifying recommended website usability characteristics
and developing appropriate design guidelines. A vast
literature on website design ranges from user-based
website usability studies (Dumas, 2002; Yang et al., 2005)
through website design guidelines (Phyo, 2002; Souders,
2003) to application-oriented website design style guides
(Lynch and Horton, 2003; Neville, 2010).
Some website quality models attempt to focus not only
on website usability, but also on the emotional reactions of
users’ covered under the general umbrella term called User
Experience (UX). Although a commonly accepted
definition of UX has not been agreed upon yet, this term
has been broadly used for adding the emotional
expectations of users to designing user-service interaction
(Roto et al., 2010). Moreover, it often aims at including
economic aspects of a customer’s experience with a
specific brand or service on-line (Sikorski, 2008). In e-
marketing the term customer experience has been
extensively used in order to cover both customer
satisfaction factors and prospective customer attitude about
returning to a specific website in the future.
The specific economic context of interactions between
a customer and a service website has been studied for
instance by Basinska et al. (2013) and resulted in
identifying nine main usability-relevant factors, affecting a
user’s satisfaction from using a service website. The nine
factors were as follows: attractive price, low additional
expenses, convenient access to service, sufficient
information, secure access, easy website operation, low
manual load, low cognitive load and benefits from
marketing incentives. Despite limited scale of the study,
consumers’ main preferences regarding website quality
characteristics have been identified, with cost-related
factors rated at the top and workload-related factors lower
Social Sciences / D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski. Impact of Usability
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on the priority list.
Contemporary approaches to website quality cover not
only classical, task-oriented usability, but also emotional
reactions as described by User Experience.
Most recently, models relevant to e-service quality
usually focus also on the economic aspects of consumer-
service interaction, in addition to website usability
addressing consumer satisfaction, trust and loyalty issues
as well (Toufaily et al., 2013). The new challenge for e-
business designers and managers is to design an e-business
process which provides not only excellent website
usability, but one that will also raise consumers’ trust and
satisfaction, resulting in their prospective loyalty to a
specific website or service.
Analyzing potential relationships among these factors
is a starting point to resolve this issue. The results of this
study presented in the following sections will form some
useful conclusions and recommendations.
Loyalty and its determinants
The importance of customer loyalty as a crucial factor
in the development of modern enterprises has been
emphasized by many researchers (Baldinger and Rubinson,
1996; Oliver, 1999; Ball, Coelho and Machas, 2003;
Anderson and Swaminathan, 2011; Dabrowski, 2012;
Toufaily et al., 2013). This is due to the fact that there is
now strong competition between enterprises, which results
in a wide range of products and brands. At the same time,
buyers’ requirements are growing, so they are looking for
new and better ways to satisfy their needs. In this situation,
buyers’ loyalty to the company or its products is a strong
competitive advantage in modern enterprise. Loyal buyers,
who repeat purchases of a certain product or service,
guarantee a certain level of sales and profits. Therefore,
companies are trying to build a group of loyal customers
and at the same time looking for new ways of developing
customer loyalty.
Originally, in the area of business activity, the concept
of loyalty was related to the brand. This concept was
adequately captured by Jacoby and Chestnut (as cit. in
Falkowski and Tyszka, 2003). The authors defined brand
loyalty as the willingness to re-purchase the products of a
given brand in conjunction with a positive attitude towards
the brand. They indicated that brand loyalty has two
important aspects. The first concerns the attitude towards
the brand and reflects primarily an emotional experience
toward it, while the second refers to the behavior and
involves the repetition of purchasing or recommending the
brand to other potential buyers. Currently, the concept of
loyalty refers not only to the brand but also to other
objects, such as an enterprise, shop or website (Toufaily et
al., 2013). In the latter case we are dealing with e-loyalty
or online loyalty, by which is meant a positive attitude to
the website, which will result in re-use and
recommendation of the site to others (Anderson and
Srinivasan, 2003).
There are many drivers of customer loyalty online.
Toufaily et al. (2013) distinguished five groups of these
characteristics on the basis of previously conducted studies
of the determinants of online loyalty. These groups apply
to customers, the website, products or services offered, the
seller, and the environment. The first group contains four
subgroups that relate to relational variables (e.g.
satisfaction, trust, commitment), perceptions (e.g.
perceived value, perceived switching cost), psychological
variables (e.g. attitude, motivations) and relationships with
technologies (e.g. IT experience). In the second group
there are different quality website attributes. This group
includes many characteristics and they occur at different
levels of detail. For example, on the one hand, there are
general characteristics such as the quality of e-service or
system quality, and, on the other hand, specific features
like personalization, interactivity, ease of use or security.
In the third group are the features of the products or
services offered. This includes, for example, product
quality, price perception and value for money. In the fourth
group are included such features of a seller as, for
example, reliability and support service quality. The fifth
group, which concerns the characteristics of the
environment, contains only one characteristic, namely,
culture. Analysis of these five groups shows that the most
important for researchers are the first two groups, since
researchers’ effort is mainly concentrated on them when
they search for the determinants of loyalty (Toufaily et al.,
2013). We can also observe that the first of these groups is
clearly dominated by satisfaction and trust. Thus, we can
conclude that the buyers characteristics such as satisfaction
and confidence, and quality website attributes are crucial
when considering online customer loyalty.
Satisfaction and trust
Satisfaction can be defined in many ways. According
to Kotler and Armstrong (2008), satisfaction means ‘the
extent to which a product’s perceived performance
matches a buyer’s expectations’. Hill and Alexander
(2003) note that customer satisfaction level reflects the
extent to which the overall product offered by an
organization fulfills a set of customers’ requirements. We
should add that in the area of marketing the term product
refers both to physical goods as well as services.
The way of creating satisfaction is explained by the
expectancy-disconfirmation framework that was developed
according to Helson’s adaptation theory (Oliver, 1980).
The expectancy-disconfirmation framework posits that
customer expectations form a frame of reference that
influences the level of satisfaction. If the outcome, e.g.
product or website performance, is below this reference
point – a situation called a negative disconfirmation – then
the customer is dissatisfied. If this outcome reaches the
reference point, the customer is satisfied. When results are
better than expected, i.e. above the reference point – the
situation called a positive disconfirmation – then the
customer is highly satisfied or delighted.
A website can be regarded as an interactive IT solution
which mediates between customers and a service provider,
thus it is a part of the service provided by a vendor.
Therefore, in this study, by customers' satisfaction from the
website we understand the extent to which a website
fulfills user expectations.
Social Sciences / D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski. Impact of Usability
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Trust is considered to be another important aspect in
the buyer-seller relationship (Moorman, Zaltman and
Deshpande, 1992; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Anderson and
Swaminathan, 2011). In a situation when a customer is
served online, trust in the website is a component of the
overall trust in a service-provider. Trust appears when risk
and uncertainty are incorporated in the relationship. For
example Deutsch (as cit. in Corritore et al., 2003) defines
trust as ‘the willingness of an individual to behave in a
manner that assumes another party will behave in
accordance with expectations in a risky situation’. When a
situation is certain, trust is not necessary. However, being
self-served through website is to a certain extent risky,
because customers are not trained for this. On the other
hand, trust comes out in a situation when there is
vulnerability on the part of the trustor (Moorman et al.,
1992; Singh and Sirdeshmukh, 2000; Corritore et al.,
2003). In the case of online situations, the vulnerability
could appear because of lack of users' necessary
knowledge or insufficient or biased information provided
by a vendor.
In this study, we follow the approach proposed by
Corritore et al. (2003) who considered trust to be a
relationship between an individual person and a specific
website. The authors defined online trust as ‘an attitude of
confident expectation on an online situation of risk that
one's vulnerabilities will not be exploited’ (Corritore et al.,
2003).
Theoretical model and hypotheses
Figure 1 presents the study’s theoretical (conceptual)
model and the hypothesized relationships. The model
captures a quite substantial number of website
characteristics, hence it can be regarded as a complex one.
It includes the following nine website attributes: visual
clarity (VisClar), ease of use (EasUse), user guidance
(UseGui), information content (InfCon), interactivity
(Inter), personalization (Perso), service demonstration
(SerDem), recommendations (Recom), customer care
(CusCar). These attributes are the exogenous variables in
our model and each of them is related to two endogenous
variables, namely customer satisfaction of website (Satis)
and customer trust to website (Trust). The two latter are
related to the focal endogenous variable, i.e. customer
loyalty to website (Loyal).
The theory, which relates product attributes with
customer loyalty, is the so-called chain of quality-
satisfaction-loyalty. It assumes that, in the first stage,
improvement of the product characteristics (e.g. design,
quality) causes an increase in customer satisfaction. Then,
in the second stage, this increase in customer satisfaction
leads to greater customer loyalty. In consequence, in the
third stage, the increase in loyalty leads to higher company
profits (Anderson and Mittal, 2000). The concept of the
quality-loyalty chain may be applied to describe the
relation between a website and its users. Then, as the
product will be placed a website with its specific attributes
(e.g. ease of use, interactivity, visual clarity), improving
these characteristics should lead to greater customer
satisfaction with the service, which in turn will cause
increased customer loyalty to the service and,
consequently, higher profit of service provider. A common
research practice when investigating the relationships in
the quality-loyalty chain is to concentrate on the two first
stages of the chain because usually customers are
investigated (Srinivasan, Anderson and Ponnavolu, 2002;
Flavian, Guin and Gurrea, 2006; Anderson and
Swaminathan, 2011; Dickinger and Stangi, 2013).
Figure 1. Theoretical model
Note: VisClar – visual clarity; EasUse – ease of use; UseGui – user guidance; InfCon – information content; Inter – interactivity; Perso –
personalization; SerDem – service demonstration; Recom – recommendations; CusCar – customer care.
Social Sciences / D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski. Impact of Usability
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Some previous studies – primarily in the area of e-
commerce – confirmed the relationship between specific
features of websites and customer satisfaction (Ribbink et
al., 2004; Flavian et al., 2006; Kassim and Abdullah, 2008;
Anderson and Swaminathan, 2011).
An important customer characteristic is also trust
where online customer loyalty is concerned. Previous
studies proved that customer trust to website is a
determinant of online loyalty (Ribbink et al., 2004; Flavian
et al., 2006; Guin and Gurrea 2006; Kassim and Abdullah,
2008). As in the case of satisfaction, links between specific
website attributes and trust were found, especially in the
field of e-commerce (Ribbink et al., 2004; Flavian et al.,
2006; Kassim and Abdullah, 2008).
On this basis, with respect to websites used to also
serve customers within a specific service, the following
four research hypotheses have been formulated.
Hypothesis 1. The greater the level of (a) visual
clarity, (b) ease of use, (c) user guidance, (d) information
content, (e) interactivity, (f) personalization, (f) service
demonstration, (g) available recommendations, and (h)
customer care, the higher the customer satisfaction with
the website will be.
Hypothesis 2. The greater the level of (a) visual
clarity, (b) ease of use, (c) user guidance, (d) information
content, (e) interactivity, (f) personalization, (f) service
demonstration, (g) available recommendations, and (h)
customer care, the higher the customer trust to the website
will be.
Hypothesis 3. Customer satisfaction with the website
relates positively to customer loyalty.
Hypothesis 4. Customer trust in a website relates
positively to customer loyalty.
Method
Group. The study was conducted in a group of
customers already experienced as online service website
users. It was expected that participants should meet the
following research criteria:
• be experienced in making use of online banking,
travel or health services,
• be experienced in using social networking services
(media).
The group of 87 extramural students of the Faculty of
Management and Economics of Gdańsk University of
Technology responded positively to the recruitment
questionnaire. Only respondents who met the research
criteria and assented to participation in the survey were
included. In the end, the experimental group consisted of
15 persons, 9 men and 6 women. Seven persons were
under 25 years of age, six were 26–35 and two were 36–45
years old.
Instruments. Based on an earlier analysis of factors
shaping the perception of website quality and satisfaction
of the user, a list of nine main evaluation attributes
affecting the user experience during and after the use of the
service website was compiled. The usability characteristics
of web services and their illustrative items considered were
the following: visual clarity, ease of use, user guidance,
information content, interactivity with provider,
personalization, service demonstration, recommendations,
and customer care. Descriptions and examples of these
attributes are presented in Table 1.
The items were evaluated using a 6-point Likert scale,
where 1 is the lowest and 6 the highest rating. Each factor
consisted of three items.
Apart from the evaluation of the functional features
described above by the nine factors, the participants of the
survey were asked about relational factors like trust,
satisfaction and loyalty to a website. To identify
satisfaction and trust we used single-item measures by
asking respondents about their level of satisfaction and,
respectively, level of trust to the website. Our measure of
loyalty included three items (i.e. willingness to return to a
given website, willingness to recommend the website to a
friend, willingness to give a positive recommendation for
the website). The items – both in single- and multi-item
relational measures – were evaluated using again the 6-
point Likert scale, where 1 was the lowest and 6 the
highest rating. Altogether, 15 survey respondents made 90
evaluations of six service websites.
Table 1
Website Usability Characteristics: Descriptions and Examples
Attribute of Website
Quality
Description
Example
Visual clarity
Clear menu and navigation and clear
division of the screen
Website screen and menu layout are not cluttered and logical
Ease of use
Low mental and manual effort
Website operation does not make user perceptibly tired
User guidance
Immediate display of results
Website guides user via subsequent steps of operation and display prompt
feedback of user’s actions
Information content
Reliable and exhaustive descriptions
Website offers detailed description of products/services
Interactivity
Diverse forms of contact and prompt
reaction
Many forms of contact are available and responses to user's actions and
enquiries come promptly
Personalization
History of activity in the web service
Website saves history of user’s activity and contacts
Service demonstration
Display of the price and possibility to test
the service
Website presents the demonstration of the service
Recommendations
Making opinions available, possibility of
giving recommendations
Website offers and option to add user's own opinions and
recommendations
Customer care
Visible attention to perfectionism and
expression of empathy to the customer
Website makes the impression that the service vendor is professional and
cares about prospective customers
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Three categories of online services and two services
from each category were selected for the study:
1. Financial services – two banking websites
(mBank.pl and pekao.pl),
2. Travel services – two hotel booking websites
(accorhotels.com and booking.com),
3. Health services – two websites of private medical
dispensaries (luxmed.pl and swissmed.com.pl).
The websites were chosen from among those popular in
each category of services (i.e. financial, travel or health
online services), with our intention to present participants
in this experiment with two websites in each category, but
with different levels of usability. Selection of potential
websites for the experiment was made by expert evaluation
in an earlier research stage. For instance, the category of
financial services website was represented by mBank.pl –
the first Polish entirely on-line bank with advanced on-line
solutions – and pekao.pl, which has a decades-long
tradition of operating in the brick-and-mortar channel,
having only recently added on-line access to their financial
services. Travel services were represented by
accorhotels.com, a relatively simple hotel reservation
website and booking.com, a comprehensive system for
finding accommodations of any sort on zoomable maps
and using user’s recommendations as an important search
hint. Finally, luxmed.pl and swissmed.com.pl are two
websites which provide access to health related services;
both are privately-owned health service providers, and
preliminary evaluation showed that clear differences in
website usability characteristics make them good
candidates for this experimental study.
Having selected the websites for the experiment, we
assumed that user experience from using two websites
differing in their usability level would be a good predictor
for identification of potential determinants of willingness
to establish further relationships with the service vendor.
In the questionnaire survey, subjects declared their
willingness to use a particular service website again. It was
therefore assumed that websites of a given type, tested by
users in two variants, would result in measures expressing
differing attitudes to returning and remaining loyal to each
of the particular websites.
The experimental tasks prepared for the users were a
problem-solving assignment, defined generally as choosing
the best offer, based on information acquired from the
website. In the case of travel services, subjects were asked
to choose a hotel in a defined location, satisfying pre-set
requirements; in the case of health financial services – to
find the most attractive loan offer for buying a car,
supported with a simulation of the size and schedule of
loan payments. Regarding health related services the task
was to find a reputable allergist, book an appointment on-
line and find out which preliminary medical tests should be
done beforehand.
Each task required the use of particular website
functions by the user, acquisition of appropriate
information and, to some extent, economic thinking,
directed towards balancing diverse benefits and risks
perceived as effects of possible acceptance of the offer
submitted on a given website. After having completed each
task, the participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire
for the measurement of usability and relational factors.
Data Analysis. In order to achieve the purpose of this
study and to test the hypotheses, the SmartPLS statistics
package program was used. The evaluation of
measurement models and the structural model was
performed by applying partial least square approach to
structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The PLS-SEM
method was chosen because it is suitable for complex
models when sample size is small (Hair et al., 2014).
When evaluating the measurement and structural
models we followed indications given by Hair et al.
(2014). Our measurement models (scales) for all
constructs, except satisfaction and trust, were reflective
multi-items measures, so for models evaluation we used: a)
internal consistency reliability by calculating Cronbach's
alpha and composite reliability (CR) coefficients, b)
convergent validity by assessment of outer loadings of
indicators as well as average variance extracted (AVE) of
the constructs, and c) discriminant validity through
checking the Fornell-Larcker criterion (Nunally, 1978;
Hair et al., 2014).
The structural model was first checked for
multicollinearity issues by calculating the variance
inflation factor (VIF). The VIF ranges from 1,2 to 4,5 –
below the recommended cutoff of 5 (Hair et al., 2014).
Standard errors of the structural path estimates were
obtained by bootstrapping the sample to 5000. Having
these results we assessed the significance and relevance of
the structural model path coefficients relationships, and the
level of the coefficient of determination (R2).
Findings
Measurement models evaluation. For all multi-item
constructs, except visual clarity, the Fornell-Larcker
criterion was met. In the case of VisClar one of the outer
loadings was low (0,457) so it was removed from the
construct to improve both convergent validity as well as
discriminant validity. Finally the construct VisClar
included two items and other multi-items constructs –
three. This led to fulfilling the necessary requirements for
both reliability as well as validity for all multi-items
constructs. The results are shown in Table 2 and Table 3.
From Table 2 it can be seen that all measurement
scales have the required internal consistency reliability.
The values of both coefficients, Cronbachs’ Alpha as well
as composite reliability, exceeded the minimum
recommended level of 0,70 for all the latent variables (Hair
et al., 2014). Additionally, all latent variables had a
average variance extracted (AVE) well above the
recommended value of 0,50 (Hair et al., 2014). Thus,
convergent validity may be claimed for all latent variables
of the model.
Table 3 presents the results of the discriminant validity
of measurement scales. The table shows the values of the
correlation coefficient between the latent variables. On the
diagonal of this table the values of the square root of the
AVE for each construct were placed. The analysis of the
values given in Table 3 indicates that the Fornell-Larcker
criterion is met for each latent variable, since the square
root of each construct’s AVE is greater than its highest
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Socialiniai mokslai. 2014. Nr. 3 (85) Website Attributes on Users’ Trust, Satisfaction and Loyalty
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correlation with any other construct (Hair et al., 2014).
This criterion does not apply to single-item measures.
Structural model evaluation. The path estimates for
our structural model are reported in Table 4.
Hypothesis 1 postulates that that higher levels of
visual clarity, ease of use, user guidance, information
content, interactivity, personalization, service
demonstration, available recommendations, and customer
care of website will each have positive effects on customer
satisfaction.
Table 2
Assessment of the Measurement Models
Latent Variable
Coefficient
Cronbach’s Alpha
Composite Reliability
Average Variance Extracted
Customer care
0,824
0,896
0,744
Easy of use
0,826
0,896
0,743
Information content
0,831
0,899
0,747
Interactivity
0,760
0,864
0,682
Loyalty
0,958
0,973
0,923
Personalization
0,864
0,916
0,785
Recommendations
0,927
0,954
0,874
Service demonstration
0,813
0,888
0,726
User guidance
0,859
0,914
0,781
Visual clarity
0,863
0,926
0,929
Table 3
Correlations among the Latent Variables
X1
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
X8
X9
X10
X11
X12
CusCar (X1)
0,863
EasUse (X2)
0,561
0,862
InfCon (X3)
0,647
0,600
0,864
Inter (X4)
0,568
0,661
0,695
0,826
Loyal (X5)
0,794
0,712
0,709
0,653
0,961
Perso (X6)
0,583
0,543
0,576
0,714
0,581
0,886
Recom (X7)
0,369
0,236
0,206
0,161
0,351
0,223
0,935
Satis (X8)
0,686
0,714
0,618
0,680
0,868
0,581
0,289
single item
SerDem (X9)
0,712
0,591
0,602
0,708
0,764
0,760
0,325
0,748
0,852
Trust (X10)
0,712
0,680
0,696
0,599
0,847
0,550
0,233
0,751
0,647
single item
UseGui (X11)
0,667
0,747
0,615
0,756
0,789
0,671
0,282
0,803
0,779
0,675
0,884
VisClar (X12)
0,579
0,805
0,634
0,661
0,793
0,581
0,166
0,818
0,661
0,711
0,773
0,929
Note: Diagonal elements are the square root of the average variance extracted by the respective constructs; abbreviations as given in Figure 1.
Table 4
Structural Path Estimates
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Parameter Estimate
Standard Error
t-Statistics
Customer care
Satisfaction
0,164
0,068
2,408*
Easy of use
Satisfaction
-0,004
0,100
0,037
Informational content
Satisfaction
-0,016
0,080
0,202
Interactivity
Satisfaction
0,084
0,117
0,716
Personalization
Satisfaction
-0,135
0,084
1,603
Recommendations
Satisfaction
0,039
0,047
0,820
Service demonstration
Satisfaction
0,214
0,094
2,274*
User guidance
Satisfaction
0,205
0,095
2,151*
Visual clarity
Satisfaction
0,453
0,095
4,746*
Customer care
Trust
0,310
0,113
2,738*
Easy of use
Trust
0,173
0,120
1,438
Informational content
Trust
0,255
0,126
2,026*
Interactivity
Trust
-0,072
0,131
0,546
Personalization
Trust
-0,020
0,111
0,184
Recommendations
Trust
-0,024
0,088
0,271
Service demonstration
Trust
0,079
0,147
0,536
User guidance
Trust
0,023
0,158
0,146
Visual clarity
Trust
0,224
0,131
1,710*
Satisfaction
Loyalty
0,503
0,089
5,672*
Trust
Loyalty
0,471
0,088
5,347*
Note: *Parameter is significant at p < 0,05 based on a priori one-tailed test.
Social Sciences / D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski. Impact of Usability
Socialiniai mokslai. 2014. Nr. 3 (85) Website Attributes on Users’ Trust, Satisfaction and Loyalty
29
From Table 4 it can be seen that four parameter
estimates for the drivers of a website’s satisfaction are
positive and significant. The first of them is visual clarity
(beta = 0,453; p < 0,05), the second – service
demonstration (beta = 0,214; p < 0,05), the third – user
guidance (beta = 0,205; p < 0,05), and the last one is
customer care (beta = 0,164; p < 0,05). Therefore our
hypothesis that visual clarity, service demonstration, user
guidance, and customer care are all positively related to
customer satisfaction is supported. The strongest impact is
observed in the case of visual clarity – more than two
times higher than for the other significant drivers.
Hypothesis 2 implies that higher levels of visual
clarity, ease of use, user guidance, information content,
interactivity, personalization, service demonstration,
available recommendations, and customer care that a
website offers will each have positive effects on customer
trust.
Regarding this hypothesis, three parameter estimates
are significant and positive (Table 4). The first of them is
customer care (beta = 0,310; p < 0,05), the second –
information content (beta = 0,255; p < 0,05), and the third
is visual clarity (beta = 0,224; p < 0,05). Thus, our
hypothesis that customer care, information content, and
visual clarity are positively related to trust is confirmed.
The strongest driver of trust appeared to be customer care.
Hypothesis 3 posits that customer satisfaction will be
positively related to customer online loyalty. According to
Table 4, the parameter estimate for this relation is positive
and significant (beta = 0,503; p < 0,05), indicating that this
hypothesis is supported. Similarly, hypothesis 4 states that
trust will be positively related to online loyalty. Also in
this case the parameter estimate is positive and significant
(beta = 0,471; p < 0,05), hence, hypothesis 4 is confirmed.
For both relations, the values of beta parameters are quite
strong and on similar level; however the value for
satisfaction is slightly higher than that for trust.
The proposed structural model shows a high
explanatory power for all of the endogenous constructs.
The determination coefficient is high for satisfaction (R2 =
0,79), trust (R2 = 0,68) as well as for online loyalty (R2 =
0,83). Hence, the amount of variance in the endogenous
constructs explained by all of the constructs linked to them
is substantial. These findings indicate a high predictive
accuracy of the model.
Conclusions
In regard to the purpose of this study, it was found that
four website attributes relate positively with customer
satisfaction with a website. These were visual clarity,
customer care, service demonstration and user guidance.
Regarding customer trust, we observed that customer care,
information content and visual clarity are drivers of trust.
Both satisfaction as well as trust positively influence
loyalty of customers to a website.
The results of this study confirmed that higher levels
of website characteristics were associated with higher
levels of customer satisfaction (hypothesis 1). Among
these characteristics, the most important was visual clarity;
this attribute affected satisfaction nearly twice as strongly
as service demonstration, user guidance and customer care.
Therefore, it can be concluded that designing a website in
a clear and transparent manner is most important for the
formation of satisfaction. The impact through the sense of
sight in this is of the highest priority. It is also very
important because a direct interaction with the user via the
online service is not possible, so the perception and
assessment of the visual aspects have a dominant impact.
This view was also expressed by Srinivasan et al. (2002),
also Taradfar and Zang (2008), according to which greater
satisfaction from the use of online services accessed via
the website was strongly dependent on its design-relevant
characteristics, such as ease of use and aesthetics.
Moreover, higher satisfaction of users was affected by
better demonstration of the service and better user
guidance, such as a free trial of a video demonstration that
reduces a user’s uncertainty and information deficiency.
Finally, customer care was also significant for the
development of user satisfaction.
In this experimental study, we confirmed that users’
trust was higher when some attributes were at a higher
level. In our study, customer care, visual clarity and
information content were significant (hypothesis 2). The
results showed that the most important thing was customer
care. This is an attribute that describes the perceived care
about customers' needs, respecting their rights and striving
for continuous service excellence. Rich and relevant
information content about the service was also a factor that
was appreciated by users, according to results of this
experimental study.
The level of two factors: visual clarity and customer
care shaped the attitudes and feelings of users. Both
factors, but to varying extents, determined the level of
satisfaction and the level of trust. Similar results were
obtained by Garnik and Basinska (2013).
The results of our study confirmed that the level of
satisfaction and level of trust was associated with the level
of customer loyalty (hypothesis 3 and hypothesis 4). A
higher level of customer satisfaction with the service
website and a higher level of customer trust promotes
greater customer loyalty. Satisfaction and trust together
explained 83 % of the amount of variance in the loyalty to
the website. As mentioned previously, satisfaction and
trust can play a slightly different role in strengthening
loyalty. Some researchers suggest that trust is a mediator
between satisfaction and customer loyalty, while some
others point out that both satisfaction and trust can mediate
between the website quality and the loyalty of users
(consumers) (Cristobal, Flavián and Guinaliu, 2007;
Benedicktus, 2011; Butt and Aftab, 2013).
Satisfaction and trust are similar factors, but they are
treated as two separate dimensions. Their common element
is the attitude to service. The dominant element is a
cognitive component associated with cognitive evaluative
judgment. Previous studies have shown that both user
satisfaction and trust are related to users’ activity on the
website (Cristobal, Flavián and Guinaliu, 2007; Loureiro,
Kaufmann and Rabino, 2014). However their role is
different: on one hand more satisfied customers are more
willing to return to the website; on the other hand,
customers who lose trust in the service provider are apt to
Social Sciences / D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski. Impact of Usability
Socialiniai mokslai. 2014. Nr. 3 (85) Website Attributes on Users’ Trust, Satisfaction and Loyalty
30
give up using the website (Lee and Turban, 2001;
Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003; Yang and Peterson, 2004).
This means that one factor motivates to use the service,
while the lack (or deficiency) of a second factor may
motivate the decision to give up using the service. This
may imply that the trust users already have may be
inhibiting them from leaving the service. In contrast,
satisfaction can directly enhance the activity of customers.
The different role of factors that contribute to motivation
and those that are associated with lowering motivation was
already pointed out in the early concept of motivation to
work (Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman, 1959).
Using a paraphrase to this concept, we could say that trust
is a hygiene factor and satisfaction is a growth factor.
Therefore it is very important to include both satisfaction
and trust to research on customer loyalty attitudes.
This study has also specific limitations. First, we want
to emphasize that in the designed experimental conditions
we measured declarative (potential) loyalty, and not the
actual loyalty level, which could be measured only in
natural conditions using longitudinal research. In addition,
longitudinal studies would allow the observation of not
only interdependences, but also the cause-effect
relationships, including the effects of mediation. Secondly,
satisfaction and trust were measured using only one item,
which causes some psychometric limitations. In further
research, it is recommended to use the 3-item scales, which
provide higher reliability (Nunally, 1978). Thirdly, in our
study only relatively small group of participants –
volunteers participated. This is characteristic for the
experimental approach. As a result, we cannot generalize
the results to the whole population of online services users.
In further studies this experiment can be replicated in other
groups, in order to make it possible to re-confirm the
proposed model.
This study combines an experimental usability
evaluation approach with a questionnaire survey, which
seems to be novel in this type of research. The work is one
of the first studies of this type on a sample of Polish e-
customers, is based on PLS-SEM approach, and provides
interesting results according to the proposed model.
Acknowledgements
This work has been partly supported by the Polish
National Science Centre under the contract no.
2011/01/M/HS4/04995.
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D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski
Tinklalapio naudojimo požymių poveikis vartotojų pasitikėjimui,
pasitenkinimui ir lojalumui
Santrauka
Spartus elektroninės prekybos plitimas kelia klausimus apie sąsajas
tarp tinklalapio kokybės, vartotojo pasitenkinimo, pasitikėjimo ir
lojalumo. Tinklapis yra pagrindinis elektroninės prekybos kanalas, taip
pat elektroninių paslaugų užtikrinimo pagrindas. Tarp mokslininkų ir
praktikų didėja susidomėjimas vizualiniais ir operaciniais tinklapio
veiksniais, kurie ne tik didina vartotojų pasitenkinimą, bet ir užtikrina
pasitikėjimą ir potencialų lojalumą konkrečiam tinklapiui ar prekės
ženklo elektroninių paslaugų teikėjui.
Straipsnio tikslas – nustatyti ryšius tarp tinklalapio panaudojamumo
požymių ir vartotojų pasitenkinimo bei pasitikėjimo, juos siejant su
vartotojų lojalumu tinklapiams.
Tyrimo modelis sieja tinklapio požymius, pasitenkinimą,
pasitikėjimą ir lojalumą. Modelį galima traktuoti kaip kompleksinį,
kadangi jis apima devynis tinklapio požymius: vizualumas, naudojimo
lengvumas, pagalba vartotojui, informacijos turinys, interaktyvumas,
personalizacija, paslaugų demonstracija, rekomendacijos, rūpestis
vartotoju. Šie požymiai yra egzogeniniai kintamieji ir kiekvienas iš jų yra
susijęs su endogeniniais kintamaisiais, pavyzdžiui, vartotojo lojalumas
tinklapiui. Atsižvelgiant į modelį, buvo iškeltos keturios tyrimo hipotezės.
Hipotezė 1. Didesnis vizualumo laipsnis, panaudojimo lengvumas,
pagalba vartotojui, informacijos turinys, interaktyvumas, personalizacija,
paslaugų demonstravimas, rekomendacijų buvimas, rūpestis vartotoju,
susijęs su didesniu pasitenkinimu tinklapiu.
Hipotezė 2. Didesnis vizualumo laipsnis, panaudojimo lengvumas,
pagalba vartotojui, informacijos turinys, interaktyvumas, personalizacija,
paslaugų demonstravimas, rekomendacijų buvimas, rūpestis vartotoju,
susijęs su didesniu pasitikėjimu tinklapiu.
Hipotezė 3. Vartotojų pasitenkinimas tinklapiu pozityviai susijęs su
vartotojų lojalumu.
Hipotezė 4. Vartotojų pasitikėjimas tinklapiu pozityviai susijęs su
vartotojų lojalumu.
Tyrimas buvo atliekamas derinant eksperimentinį matomumo
vertinimo požiūrį su apklausa. Apklausa buvo atliekama siekiant įvertinti
matomumo ir sąveikos veiksnius. Kiekvienas respondentas turėjo naudoti
tam tikrą tinklapį, turėti atitinkamą informaciją ir tam tikra prasme
ekonominį mąstymą, orientuotą į balansavimą tarp naudos, pelno siekimo
ir rizikos, susijusios su konkretaus tinklapio siūlomais produktais ir
paslaugomis.
Tinklapio požymiai buvo vertinami taikant latentinius kintamuosius,
apimančius po tris klausimus. Be funkcinių tinklapio savybių vertinimo,
apklausos dalyvių buvo klausiama apie tokius santykinius veiksnius kaip
pasitikėjimas, pasitenkinimas tinklapiu ir lojalumas jam. Vienmačiai
klausimai buvo naudojami pasitenkinimui ir pasitikėjimui identifikuoti:
respondentai buvo klausiami apie jų pasitenkinimo lygį ir pasitikėjimo
tinklapiu lygį. Straipsnyje taikytas lojalumo matas susideda iš trijų
klausimų/teiginių. Jie buvo vertinami šešiabale Likerto skale: 1 –
žemiausias, 6 – aukščiausias įvertis.
Trys internetinių paslaugų kategorijos ir dvi paslaugos iš kiekvienos
kategorijos buvo pasirinktos studijai: (1) finansinės paslaugos – du
bankininkystės paslaugų tinklapiai, (2) kelionių paslaugos – du viešbučių
užsakymo tinklapiai, (3) sveikatos paslaugos – dviejų privačias
medicinines paslaugas teikiančių ambulatorijų tinklapiai.
Apklausoje dalyvavę 15 respondentų vertino šešis tinklapius,
teikiančius internetinę sveikatos, finansinių ir kelionių paslaugų prieigą.
Buvo gauta 90 vertinimų, kurie buvo analizuojami. Duomenų analizei
buvo naudota SmartPLS statistinė programa. Matavimo modelių ir
struktūrinio modelio vertinimas buvo atliktas struktūrinių lygčių
modeliavimo (SEM) mažiausių dalinių kvadratų (PLS) metodu. PLS-
SEM metodas buvo pasirinktas dėl savo pritaikomumo sudėtingiems
modeliams, kai imtis yra maža (Hair et al., 2014).
Vertindami matavimo ir struktūrinį modelius, vadovautasi Hair et al.
(2014) rekomendacijomis. Pirmiausiai buvo patikrintas struktūrinio
modelio multikolinearumas, apskaičiuojant dispersijos infliacijos faktorių
(VIF). Struktūrinio kelio įverčių standartinės klaidos buvo identifikuotos
Social Sciences / D. Dabrowski, B. A. Basinska, M. Sikorski. Impact of Usability
Socialiniai mokslai. 2014. Nr. 3 (85) Website Attributes on Users’ Trust, Satisfaction and Loyalty
32
taikant 5000 imtį. Turint šiuos rezultatus, įvertintas struktūrinio modelio
kelio koeficientų ryšių reikšmingumas ir determinacijos koeficiento (R2)
lygį. Pašalinus vieną klausimą iš vaizdinio aiškumo konstrukto, matavimo
modeliai atitiko būtinus patikimumo ir validumo reikalavimus
daugiamatėms skalėms.
Šios studijos tikslo požiūriu buvo nustatyta, kad keturi tinklapių
požymiai teigiamai koreliuoja su vartotojų pasitenkinimu tinklapiu. Tai
yra vaizdinis aiškumas, dėmesys klientų aptarnavimui, paslaugų
demonstravimas ir nuorodos vartotojui. Vartotojų pasitikėjimo atžvilgiu
buvo pastebėta, kad dėmesys klientų aptarnavimui, informacijos turinys ir
vaizdinis aiškumas lemia pasitikėjimą. Ir pasitenkinimas, ir pasitikėjimas
teigiamai veikia klientų lojalumą tinklalapiui.
Studijos rezultatai patvirtino, kad aukštesnis tinklalapio
charakteristikų lygmuo reiškia aukštesnį klientų pasitenkinimo lygmenį (1
hipotezė). Svarbiausia iš šių charakteristikų buvo vaizdinis aiškumas; šis
požymis pasitenkinimą veikė beveik dvigubai stipriau, nei paslaugų
demonstravimas, nuorodos vartotojui ir dėmesys klientų aptarnavimui.
Todėl galima teigti, kad aiškaus tinklalapio kūrimas yra svarbiausias
veiksnys formuojant pasitenkinimą. Be to, aukštas vartotojų
pasitenkinimas buvo paveiktas geresnio paslaugos demonstravimo ir
geresnių nurodymų vartotojui, tokių kaip prieiga prie vartotojo netikrumą
ir informacijos trūkumą sumažinančios video demonstracijos. Galų gale,
dėmesys klientų aptarnavimui taip pat yra svarbus vartotojų
pasitenkinimui.
Taip pat buvo patvirtinta, kad vartotojų pasitikėjimas buvo
aukštesnis, kai tam tikri požymiai buvo aukštesnio lygmens (2 hipotezė).
Tyrime buvo svarbūs dėmesys klientų aptarnavimui, vaizdinis aiškumas ir
informacijos turinys. Rezultatai parodė, kad svarbiausia – dėmesys
klientų aptarnavimui. Tai požymis, apibūdinantis matomą dėmesį klientų
poreikiams, pagarbą jų teisėms ir nuolatinį tobulėjimo siekį. Kaip parodė
šios eksperimentinės studijos rezultatai, turtingas ir aktualus informacinis
turinys apie paslaugas taip pat buvo vartotojų vertinamas veiksnys.
Tyrimo rezultatai patvirtino, kad pasitenkinimo ir pasitikėjimo lygiai
buvo siejami su klientų lojalumo lygmeniu (3 ir 4 hipotezės). Aukštesnis
klientų pasitenkinimas paslaugos tinklapiu ir aukštesnis pasitikėjimo lygis
lemia didesnį pasitikėjimą. Kaip jau minėta, pasitenkinimas ir
pasitikėjimas gali atlikti kiek skirtingus vaidmenis stiprinant lojalumą.
Pasiūlytas struktūrinis modelis parodė aukštą visų endogeninių
konstruktų aiškinamąją gebą. Determinacijos koeficientas yra aukštas
pasitenkinimo (R2 = 0,79), pasitikėjimo (R2 = 0,68), taip pat internetinio
lojalumo (R2 = 0,83) atvejais. Šie rezultatai rodo aukštą modelio
prognozavimo tikslumą.
Tyrimui taip pat būdingas tam tikras ribotumas. Visų pirma
sukurtose eksperimentinėse sąlygose matuotas deklaratyvaus
(potencialaus), o ne realaus lojalumo lygmuo, kurį galima būtų išmatuoti
tik natūraliomis sąlygomis atliekant longitudinį tyrimą. Antra,
pasitenkinimas ir pasitikėjimas buvo matuojami pasitelkiant tik vieną
klausimą. Tai lėmė psichometrinius ribotumus. Tolimesniuose tyrimuose
rekomenduojama taikyti trijų klausimų/teiginių skalę (Nunally, 1978).
Trečia, tyrime dalyvavo tik nedidelė grupė savanorių respondentų. Tai yra
eksperimentinės prieigos charakteristika, tačiau dėl to negalima rezultatų
generalizuoti visai interneto vartotojų populiacijai.
Verta atkreipti dėmesį į atlikto tyrimo originalumą. Eksperimento
metu internetiniais šaltiniais vartotojai naudojosi vienu metu; tai leido
nustatyti įdomias sąsajas tarp tinklalapio kokybės, vartotojo
pasitenkinimo, subjektyviai suvokiamo pasitikėjimo ir numanomo
potencialių klientų lojalumo.
Tyrimui būdingos ir praktinės implikacijos. Kuriant internetinių
paslaugų puslapius, pirmiausiai reikia atsižvelgti į du aspektus. Visų
pirma, klientai tikisi vaizdinio aiškumo. Tai reiškia, kad tinklalapio
kūrėjas turi aiškiai suskaidyti ekraną į mažesnius komponentus,
pasirūpinti lengvai suprantamu meniu ir aiškia navigacija. Klientai taip
pat tikisi, kad internetinis paslaugų tinklalapis pademonstruos atitinkamą
dėmesį vartotojo poreikiams. Šį lūkestį reikia patenkinti ir pateikiant
informaciją apie tai, kaip apsaugomi klientų duomenys bei ginamos jų
teisės.
Reikšminiai žodžiai: lojalumas, pasitenkinimas, pasitikėjimas,
tinklalapio naudojimas, PLS-SEM.
First received: June, 2014
Accepted for publication: September, 2014
