The Impact Of Website Characteristics On Website Stickness : A Moderated-Mediation Model Of Trust
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Date
2012-06
Authors
Yeap, Jasmine Ai Leen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
In this current competitive digital economy, website stickiness has emerged
as a much coveted element among online retailers. The interface design and
personality aspects of a website are believed to have an impact on website stickiness.
However, trust is believed to play a very crucial role in the relationship between the
website’s characteristics and website stickiness. Focusing on first time encounters to
a website, this study examined initial trust as a mediator for the relationship between
website interface design (structure, content, graphic and social-cue design), website
personality (sincerity, excitement, competence and sophistication) and website
stickiness. Propensity to trust was also tested as a moderator for the mediation
process. A field experiment was conducted on 239 university students using 6 realworld
online book retailing websites. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
analysis revealed that initial trust is a mediator for the relationship between socialcue
design and website stickiness. Additionally, initial trust was found to mediate the
relationship between a sincere website personality and website stickiness. Propensity
to trust was proven to moderate the mediation process of initial trust on the
relationship between social-cue design and website stickiness, whereby the
mediation process was stronger for respondents with high trusting propensities.
However, the mediation process of initial trust on the relationship between i) graphic
design and website stickiness, ii) sincerity and website stickiness, and iii)
competence and website stickiness emerged stronger for respondents with low
trusting propensities. Theoretically, this study has proven the feasibility of a
moderated-mediation model that can be analyzed using a multigroup analysis
approach on SEM.
Description
Keywords
The impact of website characteristics , on website stickness