Online Store Atmosphere, Brand Relationship Quality, and Brand Equity: an empirical Study

• Main Authors: Chieh-an Uang, 汪倢安
• Other Authors: Yin-chieh Hsu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/69831913550089637906

碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 國際管理碩士學位學程 === 100 === Online transaction has become a more and more popular trading channel, numerous companies look forward to make a profit in the online area. Due to this reason, retailers are facing severe competition. Customers are bombard with so many choices to choose from, the most reliable accordance for them is the force of brand. There are records indicating store environment can influence customer’s emotional response to a brand, and thus website design serves as the most potential power in expressing online stores. To make contribution in this area, this study aims to explore the relationship between website attributes and brand equity is mediated by brand relationship quality and to locate what attributes contribute to brand relationship quality. A data of 454 valid questionnaires (77.89% response rate) are used as the analyzing sample of this research, employing a structural equation modeling methodology with AMOS 18, this study reaches the following conclusions. First, this study confirms that the relationship of website attributes with brand equity is mediating by brand relationship quality. Second, we find that three website attributes contribute to brand relationship quality: website content, customer care, and personalization. However, the following five attributes do not relate to brand relationship quality: aesthetic appeal, navigation convenience, transaction convenience, security, and reliability. Such empirical results seem to indicate that online customers tend to judge brand relationship quality based on ‘intrinsic utility,’ not on the basic or required functions. As such, this study suggests online managers to construct their websites based on intrinsic utility attributes.