Exploring the Role of Technology Readiness in Developing Trust and Loyalty for E-Services

Introduction

With greater penetration of the Internet and the invention of new processes to service consumers though the electronic media, consumers rely increasingly on on-line service providers for even the most rudimentary tasks and services. As Rust and Kannan (2003, p.37) explain, “Traditional e-commerce is giving way to a new paradigm known as e-service.” Services which were hitherto the preserve of traditional brick and mortar service providers like real-estate brokers, marriage bureaus, letting agents, gambling houses, mortgage advisors, etc. are all now being encroached upon by online service providers. An interesting aspect to the rapid adoption of e-services is the adopter’s level of technology readiness. Technology readiness defines an individual’s predisposition to use new technologies. Individuals who are not yet ready to migrate to a technology dependent service environment may not perceive much value in the conveniences provided by e-services. It is therefore important to measure the level of technology readiness in understating constructs like e-trust, e-satisfaction and e-loyalty in the context of e-services. While extant literature in this area have considered the linkages between most of the important aspects related to e-services, the impact of technology readiness in shaping the adoption of e-services has been very rare. However with high proliferation of on-line service providers like grocery retailers, fashion retailers, book retailers etc., it is very important to understand this aspect. The present study considers this aspect and looks at how individual differences in the readiness to adapt technologies could impact customer evaluation and experiences with e-services. In the next sections we introduce the concepts and then develop the conceptual model. Subsequently the contexts of the empirical study as well as the results are discussed.