Nowadays, it is common that most consumers are purchasing goods in e-stores. The e-stores eager to attract, revisit, retain, and finally convert them into loyal customers.
The e-store marketers have planned and executed numerous marketing efforts. As one of the marketing activities, e-store managers attempt to build web sites that meet customers' functional and psychological needs. A wide array of studies has been done to identify factors that could affect customers' response of web sites. Majority of studies were conducted to verify technology-related and functional variables of the website which facilitate transactions and enhance customer responses such as purchase intention and website loyalty. However, there has been little research on the external cues of website and psychological variables of consumer that could have positive influences on customer response.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of e-store personality on e-store loyalty through mediating variables such as e-store identification, e-store trust,and e-store engagement. The authors of this study develop the model and set up the six main hypotheses and a set of sub-hypotheses based on a literature review, shown in <Figure 1>. This model is composed of four paths such as dimensions of e-store personality→e-store identification, e-store identification→e-store loyalty, e-store identification→e-store trust→e-store loyalty, and e-store identification→e-store engagement→e-store loyalty. Main hypotheses and sub-hypotheses are as follows.
∙ Hypothesis 1: e-store personality dimensions such as (1) warmth, (2) sophistication,(3) activity, (4) progressiveness has a positive impact on e-store identification, but (5) strictness has a negative.
∙ Hypothesis 2: e-store identification has a positive impact on e-store trust.
∙ Hypothesis 3: e-store identification has a positive impact on e-store engagement.
∙ Hypothesis 4: e-store identification has a positive impact on e-store loyalty.
∙ Hypothesis 5: e-store trust has a positive impact on e-store loyalty.
∙ Hypothesis 6: e-store engagement has a positive impact on e-store loyalty.Ladies under 30s were the respondents of this survey. Data were collected from January 20th to February 26th in 2010. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed and 169 respondents were analysed finally to test hypotheses because 31 questionnaires had incorrect or missing responses. SPSS 12.0 and LISREL 7.0 program were used to test frequency, reliability, factor, and structural equation modeling analysis.According to results from factor analysis, eigen value was over 1.0 and items which were below 0.6 were deleted. Consequently, 9 factors(% of total variance is 72.011%)were searched. All Cronbach's α values are over the recommended level(α>0.7). The overall fit indices are acceptable such as =2028.36(p=0.00), GFI=0.87, AGFI=0.82,CFI=0.81, IFI=0.92, RMR=0.075. All factor loadings were over the recommended level. As the result of discriminant validity check with chi-square difference test between paired constructs, each construct has good discriminant validity. The overall fit indices of final model are acceptable such as =340.73(df=36, p=0.00),GFI=0.92, AGFI=0.81, CFI=0.91, IFI=0.91, RMR=0.085. As test results, 5 out of 6hypotheses are supported because there are statistically significant casual relationships in structural equation model, shown in <Table 1>. First of all, hypothesis 1 is partially supported because sub-hypothesis 1-1 and 1-2 are supported, whereas sub-hypothesis 1-3, 1-4, and 1-5 are rejected. Specifically, it reveals that warmth and sophistication dimensions in e-store personality have positive influence on e-store identification,however, activity, progressiveness, and strictness does not have any significant relationship on e-store identification. Secondly, hypothesis 2 was supported. Therefore, it can be said that e-store identification has a positive impact on e-store trust. Thirdly,hypothesis 3 is also supported. Hence, there is a positive relationship between e-store identification and e-store engagement. Fourthly, hypothesis 4 is supported too. e-store identification has a positive influence on e-store loyalty. Fifthly, hypothesis 5 is also accepted. This indicates that e-store trust is a precedent variable which positively affects e-store loyalty. Lastly, it reveals that e-store engagement has a positive impact on e-store loyalty. Therefore, hypothesis 6 is supported.
The findings of the study imply that some dimensions of e-store personality have a positive influence on e-store identification, and that e-store identification has direct and indirect influence on e-store loyalty through e-store trust and e-store engagement positively. These results also suggest that the e-store identification in e-store personality is a precedent variable which positively affects e-store loyalty directly and indirectly through e-store trust and engagement as a mediating variable. Therefore,e-store marketers need to implement website strategy based on e-store personality,e-store identification, e-store trust, and e-store engagement to meet customers'psychological needs and enhance e-store loyalty. Finally, the limitations and future study directions based on this study are discussed.
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