ترانس قرمز الکترونیکی: یک رویکرد مبتنی بر فرایند معامله برای گرفتن خدمات با کیفیت در خرید آنلاین

Existing e-service quality scales mainly focus on goal-oriented e-shopping behavior excluding hedonic quality aspects. As a consequence, these scales do not fully cover all aspects of consumer's quality evaluation. In order to integrate both utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality elements, we apply a transaction process model to electronic service encounters. Based on this general framework capturing all stages of the electronic service delivery process, we develop a transaction process-based scale for measuring service quality (eTransQual). After conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, we identify five discriminant quality dimensions: functionality/design, enjoyment, process, reliability and responsiveness. All extracted dimensions of eTransQual show a significant positive impact on important outcome variables like perceived value and customer satisfaction. Moreover, enjoyment is a dominant factor in influencing both relationship duration and repurchase intention as major drivers of customer lifetime value. As a result, we present conceptual and empirical evidence for the need to integrate both utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality elements into one measurement scale.

The rapid expansion of information and communication technologies in daily business activities is the most important long-term trend in the business world (Rust, 2001). Accordingly, a large growth potential is forecasted especially for the provision of products and services via the Internet (Evanschitzky et al., 2004). If and how this potential can be exploited sufficiently depends largely on Internet retailer's ability to meet customers' expectations in the virtual shopping environment (Zeithaml et al., 2002). According to Meuter et al. (2000) the number of dissatisfied online customers experiencing service breakdowns, lost orders, or inadequate complaint handling is notable. These unsatisfying service encounters cause annual Web sales losses of several billion dollars per year (Rust and Lemon, 2001). Therefore, managing electronic service quality becomes an essential challenge for e-tailers. In order to establish a comprehensive and effective service quality management, this article applies a transaction process-based framework to electronic service encounters incorporating both utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality elements. Conceptual underpinning for this approach is provided by insights from an extensive literature review, taking into account environmental psychology and flow theory. This article shows that the process-oriented characterization of e-services provides a sound and holistic conceptual framework for analyzing overall service quality in the Internet.

This study compares a newly developed scale, eTransQual, vis-à-vis two scales well established in the literature—the eTailQ scale developed by Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) and the E-S-Qual Scale presented by Parasuraman et al. (2005) (Fig. 3). We integrate hedonic quality aspects which result from intrinsic shopping motives. Neither eTailQ nor E-S-Qual considers this dimension. Strong evidence for the importance of hedonic aspects for evaluating online shopping experiences is demonstrated both by the results from the scale validation procedure as well as the exploration of their impact on marketing outcome variables. Their strong influence on perceived value indicates that shopping behavior cannot be described as purely goal-oriented and rational as suggested by several authors. Instead, hedonic and emotional motives play an important role. By providing a “flow experience” online retailers can strongly improve quality perceptions and thereby enhance perceived value. The weak relationship to satisfaction provides some evidence that experiencing fun and excitement during Web site usage is expected from consumers without explicit articulation as this lies in the nature of multimedia technologies. Thus, assuring hedonic quality can be interpreted more as a “dissatisfaction inhibitor” than a “satisfier”.Given the strong correlation between the responsiveness dimension and the other dimensions, and also given the strong loadings of all dimensions on a higher order quality construct, this study illustrates that responsiveness should be integrated together with the remaining factors in one scale. Thus, in contrast to Parasuraman et al.'s (2005) findings, in our study responsiveness (which is in Parasuraman et al.'s study mainly covered by the separated RecS Qual scale) does not emerge as a distinct scale which is only relevant when users run into problems. As a basis for their decision to use a Web site, users make judgments about the quality of the prospective recovery services far before actual problems occur. Therefore measurement should not be done separately. The study shows that the aesthetic appeal of the Web site relates strongly to the judgment of the functionality and usability of a Web site. As our findings suggest, users strongly associate the efficiency of a Web site and the quality of the content with the visual appeal of the Web site design. The extracted quality dimensions cover all stages of the service transaction process enabling a full assessment of an online service experience. From a marketing management point of view, the reliability dimension has to be emphasized due to its utmost importance in predicting customers' perceived value and satisfaction. Service managers should especially concentrate on issues such as accurate order delivery, providing timeliness information and broad service and product offerings. Nevertheless, from an economic point of view, enjoyment and responsiveness prove to be strong enablers for enhancing future customer cash flows. To address the limitations of our study we point out the following issues. Even though the study succeeds in validating the measurement scale, generalizability concerns may arise. The results refer only to a population of Internet users which have made actual purchase experiences with the shopping site. As a result, a potential sample bias could occur by excluding people who browsed the Web site but did not choose to buy from this provider. This could be due to various reasons, including poor Web site design or process failures during the electronic service encounter. Future studies could test the eTransQual scale for other populations of web users like browsers and non-buyers in order to confirm the generalizability of our results. In addition, the constant technological changes along with the growing externalization of service deliveries call for greater attention paid to the time dependency of research on electronic services. Existing research reflects only electronic service quality assessments focusing on a specific point in time rather than comprising longitudinal quality evaluations. Finally, research into the determinants of e-service quality could be a promising field for further studies in this area. In this context, the roles of a service provider's market orientation and innovativeness seem worthy of further investigation.