The Impact of Website Personality on Consumers' Initial Trust towards Online Retailing Websites
E-tailing websites are often perceived to be static, impersonal and distant. However, with the movement of the World Wide Web to Web 2.0 in recent years, these online websites have been found to display personalities akin to 'humanistic' qualities and project impressions much like its retailing counterpart i.e. salespeople. This paper examines the personality of e-tailing websites and their impact on consumers- initial trust towards the sites. A total of 239 Internet users participated in this field experiment study which utilized 6 online book retailers- websites that the participants had not previously visited before. Analysis revealed that out of four website personalities (sincerity, competence, excitement and sophistication) only sincerity and competence are able to exert an influence in building consumers- trust upon their first visit to the website. The implications of the findings are further elaborated in this paper.
[1] D. Gefen, E. Karahanna, and D.W. Straub, "Trust and TAM in online
shopping: an integrated model," MIS Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 51-90,
March 2003.
[2] G. Hackbarth, "Website Revisitation (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation)," University of South Carolina, Moore School of Business,
2001.
[3] P. Briggs, B. Burford, A. De Angeli, and P. Lynch, "Trust in online
advice," Social Science Computer Review, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 321-332,
2002.
[4] B.N. Schenkman, and F.U. Jonsson, "Aesthetics and preferences of web
pages," Behaviour and Information Technology, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 367-
377, 2000.
[5] D.H. McKnight, V. Choudhury, and C. Kacmar, "The impact of initial
consumer trust on intentions to transact with a web site: a trust building
model," Journal of Strategic Information Systems, vol. 11, pp. 297-323,
2002.
[6] D.H. McKnight, L.L. Cummings, and N.L. Chervany, "Initial trust
formation in new organizational relationships," Academy of
Management Review, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 473-490, 1998.
[7] Y. Bart, V. Shankar, F. Sultan, and G.L. Urban, "Are the drivers and role
of online trust the same for all web sites and consumers? a large-scale
exploratory empirical study," Journal of Marketing, vol. 69, pp. 133-
152, October 2005.
[8] D.L. Hoffman, T.P. Novak, M. Peralta, "Building consumer trust
online," Communications of the ACM, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 80-85, 1999.
[9] V. Shankar, G.L. Urban, and F. Sultan, "Online trust: a stakeholder
perspective, concepts, implications and future directions," Journal of
Strategic Information Systems, vol. 11, pp. 325-344, December 2002.
[10] G.L. Urban, F. Sultan, and W. Qualls, "Placing trust at the center of your
Internet strategy," Sloan Management Review, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 39-48,
2000.
[11] Y.D. Wang, and H.H. Emurian, "An overview of online trust: concepts,
elements, and implications," Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 21, pp.
105-125, 2005a.
[12] Y.D. Wang, and H.H. Emurian, "Trust in e-commerce: consideration of
interface design factors," Journal of Electronic Commerce in
Organizations, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 42-60, October-December 2005b.
[13] A. Poddar, N. Donthu, and Y. Wei, "Web site customer orientations,
web site quality, and purchase intentions: the tole of web site
personality," Journal of Business Research, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 441-450,
2009.
[14] R.M. Liebert, and M.D. Spiegler, Personality: Strategies and Issues.
Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1998.
[15] M. Atkinson, and C. Kydd, "Individual characteristics associated with
world wide web use: an empirical study of playfulness and motivation,"
Association for Computing Machinery, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 53-62, 1997.
[16] S. Okazaki, "Excitement or sophistication? a preliminary exploration of
online brand personality," International Marketing Review, vol. 23, no.
3, 279-303, 2006.
[17] S. Park, D. Choi, and J. Kim, "Visualizing e-brand personality:
exploratory studies on visual attributes and e-brand personalities in
Korea," International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 19,
no. 1, pp. 7-34, 2005.
[18] Q. Chen, and S. Rodgers, "Development of an instrument to measure
web site quality," Journal of Interactive Advertising, vol. 7, no.1, pp. 33-
46, 2006.
[19] D. Breakenridge, Cyberbranding. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Peason
Prentice Hall, 2001.
[20] Y.K. Kim, "The study on construction of e-brand personality and
effective factors," Advertising Study, vol. 49, pp. 29-53, 2000.
[21] S.J. McMillan, "A four-part model of cyber-interactivity: some
cyberplaces are more interactive than others," New Media and Society,
vol. 4, no.2, pp. 271-291, 2002.
[22] S. Rodgers, and E. Thorson, "The interactive advertising model: how
people perceive and process interactive ads," Journal of Interactive
Advertising, vol.1, no.1, pp. 42-61, 2000.
[23] B.J. Smith, "Buyer-seller relationships: bonds, relationship management,
and sex-type," Canadian Journal of Administrative Science, vol. 15, no.
1, pp. 76-92, 1998.
[24] F.D. Davis, "Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user
acceptance of information technology," MIS Quarterly, vol. 13, no.3, pp.
319-340, 1989.
[25] D.A. Aaker, and D.E. Bruzzone, "Viewer perceptions of prime time
television advertising," Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 21, no. 5,
pp. 15-23, 1981.
[26] W.D. Wells, C. Leavitt, and M. McConville, "A reaction profile for TV
commercials," Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 11-
17, 1971.
[27] B.H. Schmitt, Experiential Marketing: How To Get Customers To
Sense, Feel, Think, Act And Relate To Your Company And Brand. New
York: Free Press, 1999.
[28] J. Kleinbard, and M.H. Erdelyi, "Has Ebbinghaus decayed with time?
the growth of recall (hypermesia) over days," Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, vol.4, no.4, pp. 275-289,
1978.
[29] M. Wagner, "L.L. Bean puts folksy feel into its web site,"
Computerworld, vol. 31, no. 25, pp. 47-49, 1997.
[30] D.A. Aaker, "Dimensions on brand personality," Journal of Marketing
Research, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 347-356, 1997.
[31] K.K. Kim, and B. Prabhakar, "Initial trust and the adoption of B2C ecommerce:
the case of Internet banking," ACM SIGMIS Database, vol.
35, no. 2, pp. 50-64, 2004.
[32] G. Yee, "Building consumer trust for Internet e-commerce," in Trust in
E-Services: Technologies, Practices and Challenges, R. Song, L. Korba
and G. Yee, Eds. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2007.
[33] N.M. Menon, P. Konana, G.J. Browne, and S. Balasubramanian,
"Understanding trustworthiness beliefs in electronic brokerage usage,"
in Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Information
Systems, P. De and J. I. DeGross, Eds., 1999.
[34] D. Meyerson, K.E. Weick, and R.M. Kramer, "Swift trust and temporary
groups," in Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research,
R. M. Kramer and T. R. Tyler, Eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996.
[35] V. Mummalaneni, "An empirical investigation of web site
characteristics, consumer emotional states and on-line shopping
behaviors," Journal of Business Research, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 526-532,
2005.
[36] C.M. Ringle, S. Wende, and A. Will, "SmartPLS 2.0 (beta),"
www.smartpls.de, 2005.
[37] S.S. Al-Gahtani, G.S. Hubona, J. Wang, "Information technology (IT) in
Saudi Arabia: culture and the acceptance and use of IT," Information &
Management, vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 681-691, 2007.
[38] W.W. Chin, and P.R. Newsted, "Structural equation modelling: analysis
with small samples using partial least squares," in Statistical
Strategies for Small Sample Research, R.H. Hoyle, Ed. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage, 1999.
[39] C. Fornell, and J. Cha, "Partial least squares," in Advanced Methods of
Marketing Research, R.P. Bagozzi, Ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994, pp.
52-78.
[40] W.W. Chin, "The partial least squares approach to structural equation
modeling," MIS Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 7-16, 1998.
[41] C. Fornell, and F.L. Bookstein, "Two structural equation models:
LISREL and PLS aaplied to consumer exit-voice theory," Journal of
Marketing Research, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 440-452, 1982.
[42] J. Nunnally, Psychometric Theory (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill,
1978.
[43] C. Fornell, and D.F. Larcker, "Evaluating structural equation models
with unobservable variables and measurement error," Journal of
Marketing Research, vol. 18, no.1, pp. 39-50, 1981.
[44] R. F. Falk, and N.B. Miller, "A Primer Soft Modeling. Ohio: University
of Akron Press, 1992.
[45] P.A. Pavlou, "Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce: integrating
trust and risk with the technology acceptance model," International
Journal of Electronic Commerce, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 101-134, 2003.
[46] W. Hampton-Sosa, and M. Koufaris, "The effect of web site perceptions
on initial trust in the owner company," International Journal of
Electronic Commerce, vol. 10, no.1, pp. 55-81, 2005.
[47] Y. Chen, and S. Barnes, "Initial trust and online buyer behaviour,"
Industrial Management and Data Systems, vol. 107, no.1, pp. 21-36,
2007.
[48] B. Ganguly, S.B. Dash, and D. Cyr, "Website characteristics, trust and
purchase intention in online stores: an empirical study in the Indian
context," Journal of Information Science and Technology, vol. 6, no. 2,
pp. 22-44, 2009.
[1] D. Gefen, E. Karahanna, and D.W. Straub, "Trust and TAM in online
shopping: an integrated model," MIS Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 51-90,
March 2003.
[2] G. Hackbarth, "Website Revisitation (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation)," University of South Carolina, Moore School of Business,
2001.
[3] P. Briggs, B. Burford, A. De Angeli, and P. Lynch, "Trust in online
advice," Social Science Computer Review, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 321-332,
2002.
[4] B.N. Schenkman, and F.U. Jonsson, "Aesthetics and preferences of web
pages," Behaviour and Information Technology, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 367-
377, 2000.
[5] D.H. McKnight, V. Choudhury, and C. Kacmar, "The impact of initial
consumer trust on intentions to transact with a web site: a trust building
model," Journal of Strategic Information Systems, vol. 11, pp. 297-323,
2002.
[6] D.H. McKnight, L.L. Cummings, and N.L. Chervany, "Initial trust
formation in new organizational relationships," Academy of
Management Review, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 473-490, 1998.
[7] Y. Bart, V. Shankar, F. Sultan, and G.L. Urban, "Are the drivers and role
of online trust the same for all web sites and consumers? a large-scale
exploratory empirical study," Journal of Marketing, vol. 69, pp. 133-
152, October 2005.
[8] D.L. Hoffman, T.P. Novak, M. Peralta, "Building consumer trust
online," Communications of the ACM, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 80-85, 1999.
[9] V. Shankar, G.L. Urban, and F. Sultan, "Online trust: a stakeholder
perspective, concepts, implications and future directions," Journal of
Strategic Information Systems, vol. 11, pp. 325-344, December 2002.
[10] G.L. Urban, F. Sultan, and W. Qualls, "Placing trust at the center of your
Internet strategy," Sloan Management Review, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 39-48,
2000.
[11] Y.D. Wang, and H.H. Emurian, "An overview of online trust: concepts,
elements, and implications," Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 21, pp.
105-125, 2005a.
[12] Y.D. Wang, and H.H. Emurian, "Trust in e-commerce: consideration of
interface design factors," Journal of Electronic Commerce in
Organizations, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 42-60, October-December 2005b.
[13] A. Poddar, N. Donthu, and Y. Wei, "Web site customer orientations,
web site quality, and purchase intentions: the tole of web site
personality," Journal of Business Research, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 441-450,
2009.
[14] R.M. Liebert, and M.D. Spiegler, Personality: Strategies and Issues.
Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1998.
[15] M. Atkinson, and C. Kydd, "Individual characteristics associated with
world wide web use: an empirical study of playfulness and motivation,"
Association for Computing Machinery, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 53-62, 1997.
[16] S. Okazaki, "Excitement or sophistication? a preliminary exploration of
online brand personality," International Marketing Review, vol. 23, no.
3, 279-303, 2006.
[17] S. Park, D. Choi, and J. Kim, "Visualizing e-brand personality:
exploratory studies on visual attributes and e-brand personalities in
Korea," International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 19,
no. 1, pp. 7-34, 2005.
[18] Q. Chen, and S. Rodgers, "Development of an instrument to measure
web site quality," Journal of Interactive Advertising, vol. 7, no.1, pp. 33-
46, 2006.
[19] D. Breakenridge, Cyberbranding. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Peason
Prentice Hall, 2001.
[20] Y.K. Kim, "The study on construction of e-brand personality and
effective factors," Advertising Study, vol. 49, pp. 29-53, 2000.
[21] S.J. McMillan, "A four-part model of cyber-interactivity: some
cyberplaces are more interactive than others," New Media and Society,
vol. 4, no.2, pp. 271-291, 2002.
[22] S. Rodgers, and E. Thorson, "The interactive advertising model: how
people perceive and process interactive ads," Journal of Interactive
Advertising, vol.1, no.1, pp. 42-61, 2000.
[23] B.J. Smith, "Buyer-seller relationships: bonds, relationship management,
and sex-type," Canadian Journal of Administrative Science, vol. 15, no.
1, pp. 76-92, 1998.
[24] F.D. Davis, "Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user
acceptance of information technology," MIS Quarterly, vol. 13, no.3, pp.
319-340, 1989.
[25] D.A. Aaker, and D.E. Bruzzone, "Viewer perceptions of prime time
television advertising," Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 21, no. 5,
pp. 15-23, 1981.
[26] W.D. Wells, C. Leavitt, and M. McConville, "A reaction profile for TV
commercials," Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 11-
17, 1971.
[27] B.H. Schmitt, Experiential Marketing: How To Get Customers To
Sense, Feel, Think, Act And Relate To Your Company And Brand. New
York: Free Press, 1999.
[28] J. Kleinbard, and M.H. Erdelyi, "Has Ebbinghaus decayed with time?
the growth of recall (hypermesia) over days," Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, vol.4, no.4, pp. 275-289,
1978.
[29] M. Wagner, "L.L. Bean puts folksy feel into its web site,"
Computerworld, vol. 31, no. 25, pp. 47-49, 1997.
[30] D.A. Aaker, "Dimensions on brand personality," Journal of Marketing
Research, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 347-356, 1997.
[31] K.K. Kim, and B. Prabhakar, "Initial trust and the adoption of B2C ecommerce:
the case of Internet banking," ACM SIGMIS Database, vol.
35, no. 2, pp. 50-64, 2004.
[32] G. Yee, "Building consumer trust for Internet e-commerce," in Trust in
E-Services: Technologies, Practices and Challenges, R. Song, L. Korba
and G. Yee, Eds. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2007.
[33] N.M. Menon, P. Konana, G.J. Browne, and S. Balasubramanian,
"Understanding trustworthiness beliefs in electronic brokerage usage,"
in Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Information
Systems, P. De and J. I. DeGross, Eds., 1999.
[34] D. Meyerson, K.E. Weick, and R.M. Kramer, "Swift trust and temporary
groups," in Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research,
R. M. Kramer and T. R. Tyler, Eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996.
[35] V. Mummalaneni, "An empirical investigation of web site
characteristics, consumer emotional states and on-line shopping
behaviors," Journal of Business Research, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 526-532,
2005.
[36] C.M. Ringle, S. Wende, and A. Will, "SmartPLS 2.0 (beta),"
www.smartpls.de, 2005.
[37] S.S. Al-Gahtani, G.S. Hubona, J. Wang, "Information technology (IT) in
Saudi Arabia: culture and the acceptance and use of IT," Information &
Management, vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 681-691, 2007.
[38] W.W. Chin, and P.R. Newsted, "Structural equation modelling: analysis
with small samples using partial least squares," in Statistical
Strategies for Small Sample Research, R.H. Hoyle, Ed. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage, 1999.
[39] C. Fornell, and J. Cha, "Partial least squares," in Advanced Methods of
Marketing Research, R.P. Bagozzi, Ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994, pp.
52-78.
[40] W.W. Chin, "The partial least squares approach to structural equation
modeling," MIS Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 7-16, 1998.
[41] C. Fornell, and F.L. Bookstein, "Two structural equation models:
LISREL and PLS aaplied to consumer exit-voice theory," Journal of
Marketing Research, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 440-452, 1982.
[42] J. Nunnally, Psychometric Theory (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill,
1978.
[43] C. Fornell, and D.F. Larcker, "Evaluating structural equation models
with unobservable variables and measurement error," Journal of
Marketing Research, vol. 18, no.1, pp. 39-50, 1981.
[44] R. F. Falk, and N.B. Miller, "A Primer Soft Modeling. Ohio: University
of Akron Press, 1992.
[45] P.A. Pavlou, "Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce: integrating
trust and risk with the technology acceptance model," International
Journal of Electronic Commerce, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 101-134, 2003.
[46] W. Hampton-Sosa, and M. Koufaris, "The effect of web site perceptions
on initial trust in the owner company," International Journal of
Electronic Commerce, vol. 10, no.1, pp. 55-81, 2005.
[47] Y. Chen, and S. Barnes, "Initial trust and online buyer behaviour,"
Industrial Management and Data Systems, vol. 107, no.1, pp. 21-36,
2007.
[48] B. Ganguly, S.B. Dash, and D. Cyr, "Website characteristics, trust and
purchase intention in online stores: an empirical study in the Indian
context," Journal of Information Science and Technology, vol. 6, no. 2,
pp. 22-44, 2009.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:53279", author = "Jasmine Yeap Ai Leen and T. Ramayah and Azizah Omar", title = "The Impact of Website Personality on Consumers' Initial Trust towards Online Retailing Websites", abstract = "E-tailing websites are often perceived to be static, impersonal and distant. However, with the movement of the World Wide Web to Web 2.0 in recent years, these online websites have been found to display personalities akin to 'humanistic' qualities and project impressions much like its retailing counterpart i.e. salespeople. This paper examines the personality of e-tailing websites and their impact on consumers- initial trust towards the sites. A total of 239 Internet users participated in this field experiment study which utilized 6 online book retailers- websites that the participants had not previously visited before. Analysis revealed that out of four website personalities (sincerity, competence, excitement and sophistication) only sincerity and competence are able to exert an influence in building consumers- trust upon their first visit to the website. The implications of the findings are further elaborated in this paper.
", keywords = "E-commerce, e-tailing, initial trust, online trust, partial least squares, website personality.", volume = "4", number = "6", pages = "792-6", }
