Impact of E-Services Quality on E-Loyalty in Paltel E-Satisfaction as a Mediating Variable

Impact of E-Services Quality on E-Loyalty in Paltel E-Satisfaction as a Mediating Variable

Maan Ali Alkhateeb
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/IJWP.2020070105
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Abstract

E-loyalty has received great interest from researchers as a key element for customer retention and the growth of firms as well as gaining new customers. This study aims to investigate the impact of the electronic website services quality on e-loyalty in the companies listed within Paltel using electronic satisfaction as a mediating variable. Seven dimensions of e-service quality are examined including content, structure, interaction, presentation, responsiveness, e-security, and reliability. The quantitative research approach is conducted on the returned 393 valid surveys. The findings revealed and emphasized the role played by e-satisfaction as a mediating variable between the independent variable's dimensions and the independent variable.
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1. Introduction

During the past two decades with the accelerating use of the internet, the way of communication and doing business has changed. E-commerce, e-business, and e-services became common forms of selling and buying products and services through internet websites. The most common form of online shopping is B2C e-commerce in developing countries (Turban et al., 2015). Despite the evolution in communication, wireless technology and the electronic value-added services, the rate of Palestinian customers who use online services is limited. According to the statistics published by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics on its official website, the percentage of internet users in West Bank reached 51.4% of the population in 2014, though; only 7.5% used the internet for getting information about goods or services. Palestinian Telecommunication Group (Paltel) provides a variety of services in telecommunication sector including local and international fixed telephony services, internet, data communications, mobile services and next generation services.

Although that the common form of providing services to customers is the traditional approach in which customers go to the service providing centers and interact directly with the employees; Currently, Paltel as well as many service-providing companies are moving toward electronic service approach. In this approach, the context is different, customers interact with the service providers through a website, in which they have to fill electronic forms, ask for or cancel a specific service, enquiry about certain services, submit a complaint, or report about a fault in services.

The problem with online shopping and services is that customers are not committed to a particular website. Thus, the question is whether customers have loyalty to certain e-commerce websites or to a specific service provider and what factors may have influence on their loyalty to a specific electronic website. To answer these questions the researcher will conduct this study to investigate those factors related to website services quality of Palestinian telecommunication group and their potential impact on customers' e-loyalty with e-satisfaction as mediating variable particularly that the mediating role of e-satisfaction has been approved by several studies (Sugiharto, 2017; Al-dweeri et al., 2017; Shu-pei, 2017).

A repeated factor for not using online services among internet users is the lack of satisfaction in e-service provider's website (Kim et al, 2009). Customer satisfaction has been found to be a significant factor that has influence on customer loyalty (Caruana, 2002; Cyr, 2008; Kim et al., 2009; Eid, 2011). Similarly, Bashar & Wasiq (2013) revealed that customer satisfaction has a significant positive influence on the e-loyalty of cyber consumers.

Given the importance of e-loyalty for customers' retention and the growth of firms as well as gaining new customers; E-loyalty received a great interest from researchers. Unfortunately, research in e-loyalty in the Arab world are very limited (Eid, 2011). Several factors have an impact on customers' e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. Among the major factors that have been studied in a wide scale in the developed countries are website services quality dimensions (Al-Manasra et al., 2013; Eid, 2011; Kim et al., 2009; Cyr, 2008).

A website is the elementary mechanism through which any firm that conducts business on the Internet, advertises its products or services and attracts customers (Turban et al., 2015, 744). The quality of the offered services through the website is extremely important particularly that e-service quality is a vital factor influencing the online shopping experience (Turk et al, 2012).

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