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Business Process Management Journal

An empirical test of the link between web site quality and forward enterprise
integration with web consumers
Adel M. Aladwani
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To cite this document:
Adel M. Aladwani, (2006),"An empirical test of the link between web site quality and forward enterprise
integration with web consumers", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 12 Iss 2 pp. 178 - 190
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J. Cox, B.G. Dale, (2002),"Key quality factors in Web site design and use: an examination",
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BPMJ
12,2 An empirical test of the link
between web site quality and
forward enterprise integration
178
with web consumers
Adel M. Aladwani
Department of QM and IS, College of Administrative Sciences,
Kuwait University, Edailiyah, Kuwait
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Abstract
Purpose To understand the relationship between web site quality and consumers web attitudes
and purchases.
Design/methodology/approach The paper constructs and tests a model linking four
sub-dimensions of web site quality to purchasing intent of consumers using data gathered via a
field survey.
Findings Only the technical dimension of web site quality influences consumers purchasing
behavior both directly and indirectly through their attitudes towards the web site. Specific content
quality and appearance quality have relatively stronger association with consumers attitudes towards
the web site than technical quality and general content quality do.
Research limitations/implications First, the present study used a sample of students in testing
the proposed model. In the future, there may be a need to re-test the same research model using a wider
sample of web consumers. Second, attitudes toward and intentions to buying online may change over
time and this study does not take this fact into account. Future research may need to examine the
proposed relationships using a longitudinal design.
Practical implications It was shown that by giving attention to building a technically sound web
site with effective content and attractive design, an organization could bring in more consumers to its
online business and convince them to make purchases.
Originality/value Understanding the link between multiple dimensions of web site quality and
purchasing behavior of web consumers should help organizations know how to improve forward
integration with their customers. Previous research, although helpful, failed to examine this important
relationship. This paper tries to fill this void in the literature.
Keywords Electronic commerce, World wide web, Purchasing, Consumer behavior, Quality
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
By all accounts, the recent internet statistics are staggering. Some reports (e.g. ClickZ:
www.clickz.com) estimate that approximately 1 billion people will have access to the
web by the end of this year. Some other reports claim that since the turn of this decade
the percentage of web users who made purchases over the internet has increased
Business Process Management worldwide by 50 percent (Shim et al., 2002). Yet another set of reports suggest that the
Journal monetary value of web purchasing transactions is expected to reach US $7 trillion by
Vol. 12 No. 2, 2006
pp. 178-190 the end of 2004 (Sanders and Temkin, 2000). Most organizations are becoming more
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1463-7154
cognizant of this trend and are trying to gain advantage of this remarkable potentiality
DOI 10.1108/14637150610657521 through integrating web technologies into their operations (Gefen et al., 2003; Heston
et al., 2003; Currie, 2000; Teo and Tan, 1998; Kalakota and Whinston, 1997). However, Web site quality
most organizations have limited understanding of how to design a customer-centered
web site that can help them establish better commercial relationships with their
customers and to secure the success of their e-Business initiative.
Fortunately, there has been a significant interest in the notion of web site quality
from both the web site research and business communities. However, previous
research, although helpful, failed to examine a model linking multiple dimensions of 179
web site quality to purchasing behavior of web consumers in order to help
organizations understand how to improve forward integration with their customers. In
the present study, an attempt is made to extend past research by examining the
influence of four sub-dimensions of web site quality on attitudes and purchasing
intentions of web consumers. The proposed model has its roots in Daviss Technology
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Acceptance Model (Davis et al., 1989), which postulates that behavioral beliefs of the
user about the technology predict his or her attitudes towards the same. In addition, the
model theorizes that ones beliefs and attitudes affect ones usage intentions of the
technology. It is hoped that the findings of the current study would be valuable to
organizations interested in enhancing their forward integration with their individual
customers. Most organizations still would like to understand more closely the nature of
the influence of quality aspects of their web sites on purchasing decisions of web
consumers.

2. Background
Past research in the area can be classified into either web site quality or web site
adoption research. Studies focusing on web site quality are usually interested in issues
relevant to the salient design or usability attributes of web sites. For example,
Aladwani and Palvia (2002) suggested an integrated web site quality model consisting
of four dimensions: technical quality, general content quality, specific content quality,
and appearance quality. Liu and Arnett (2000) identified information and service
quality, system use, playfulness, and system design quality as key dimensions of web
site quality. Huizingh (2000) named two types of web quality: content and design. Wan
(2000) recognized four categories of web site quality attributes: information,
friendliness, responsiveness, and reliability. Rose et al. (1999) highlighted the
importance of such web site quality features as download speed, web interface, search
functionality, measurement of web success, security, and internet standards. Misic and
Johnson (1999) suggested such web-related quality criteria as finding contact
information (e.g. e-mail, people, phones, and mail address), finding main page, speed,
uniqueness of functionality, ease of navigation, counter, currency, wording, and color
and style. Olsina et al. (1999) specified quality attributes for academic web sites. These
authors took an engineering point of view and identified factors such as cohesiveness
by grouping main control objects, direct controls permanence, contextual controls
stability, etc. Bell and Tang (1998) identified factors such as access to the web, content,
graphics, structure, user friendliness, navigation, usefulness, and unique features.
Schacklett (2000) proposed nine tips for improving web site quality, including effective
use of graphics and colors, 24/7 web site accessibility, and ease of web site use and
navigation. Levine (1999) offered tips to help a company with web site design including
fast web page download, web page interactivity, and current content, among other
factors. Wilson (1998) recommended avoiding seven mistakes relevant to web site
BPMJ design. Moreover, based on their own personal experience, Barron et al. (1998)
12,2 recommended 39 guidelines relevant to web site graphics, text, links, page size and
length, and multimedia.
Web site adoption studies, on the other hand, are interested in issues related to how
customers accept/adopt/transact with online business. For instance, Gefen et al. (2003)
examined the factors influencing trust in an online shopping context. Heijden and
180 Verhagen (2002) analyzed the relationships among online store image, attitude toward
online purchasing, and intention to purchase online. Liang and Lai (2002) studied the
influence of motivation, hygiene, and media richness factors on the consumer purchase
decision. Liao and Cheung (2002) examined the effect of convenience, user experience,
friendliness, user involvement, system quality, and transaction speed on the intention
of consumers to use e-banking. Lin and Wu (2002) studied the links among online
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service quality, beliefs about the web site, attitude towards using the site, intention to
use the web site, and actual usage. Loiacono et al. (2002) tested the influence of 12
quality factors on web site reuse. Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002) examined the
role of information content, design, security, and privacy in differentiating between low
and high peoples intention to purchase from the web. Shim et al. (2002) examined the
effect of the existence of policy information, existence of an 800 number, number of
clicks, and requirement of sideways scrolling on customer satisfaction. Song and
Zahedi (2001) developed and empirically tested a model linking perceived price,
perceived service, interpersonal beliefs, self-efficacy, and resource facilitation to
purchase reactions of online customers. Liao and Cheung (2001) examined the impact
of the life content of products, transactions security, price, vendor quality, IT
education, internet usage, and network speed on the willingness of consumers to e-shop
over the internet. Tan and Teo (2000) investigated the attitudinal, subjective norms,
and behavioral control factors influencing the intention to use internet banking. Gefen
and Straub (2000) examined the effect of ease of use and usefulness on peoples
intention to inquire and purchase online. Gefen (2000) studied the influence of
familiarity, disposition to trust, and trust on peoples intention to inquire and purchase
online. Bellman et al. (1999) analyzed the factors predicting actual purchases over the
web such as looking for product information over the internet, the number of months
online, number of daily e-mails, work online every week, read news online, household
working hours, etc.
The above review reveals that missing from the literature on web site quality and
adoption research is a model linking a unifying view of web site quality to the
attitudinal and behavioral consequences of web consumers. On one hand, past web site
quality research stopped short to empirically examining the possible user-related
consequences of such quality attributes. On the other hand, past web site adoption
research considered the adoption behavior of web consumers and a constellation of
factors leading to such behavior; but missing from this list of factors is a consolidated
view of web site quality (an exception is the work of Loiacono et al. (2002), but it
regrettably suffers from several serious conceptual and measurement problems see
Loiacono (2000) for a detailed description of instrument development results). Shim
et al. (2002) and Lin and Wu (2002), for example, focused on examining four single-item
quality attributes, whereas Liao and Cheung (2001), Gefen and Straub (2000), and
Gefen (2000) focused on three, two, and zero attributes, respectively. Liang and Lai
(2002), Liao and Cheung (2002), and Song and Zahedi (2001) studies were much wider
in their focus than the other studies, but they missed several critical web site quality Web site quality
factors such as web site attractiveness, web site organization, web site interactivity,
proper use of fonts, colors, and multimedia, finding contact information, content
conciseness, and content currency, to name a few. None of the studies that were
reviewed proposed and empirically tested the relationship between an integrated model
of web site quality with the purchasing behavior of web consumers. The present study
tries to fill this void in past research. 181
3. Research model
Figure 1 shows the research model of the present investigation. Based on the
suggestions of the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis et al., 1989), the current model
proposes that the integrated four-dimension view of web site quality as proposed by
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Aladwani and Palvia (2002) (technical quality, general content quality, specific content
quality, and appearance quality) affects consumers attitudes towards the web site.
Consumers attitudes, in turn, influence consumers intentions whether to purchase
from the visited web site or not. Furthermore, the research model acknowledges the
direct relationship between purchase intentions and the actual purchase from the web
site but the present investigation does not test for this relationship due to obvious
limitations related to the selected sample of respondents. The research model,
relationships, and hypotheses will be explicated in detail in the following paragraphs.

3.1 Technical quality


Using web technologies, an organization can now reach out to all potential customers
all the time and provide them with not only general information about its products or
services but also the opportunity of performing interactive business transactions. In
such a work environment, technical characteristics of the web site (such as security,
ease of navigation, search facilities, site availability, valid links, personalization, speed
of page loading, interactivity, and ease of accessing the site) become important
attributes of web site quality, hence, deserving the attention of organizations interested
in going online (Aladwani and Palvia, 2002). For example, although there has been

Figure 1.
The research model
BPMJ several technological advances in web security in recent years, consumers are still
12,2 expressing concern about the potential safety of their monetary transactions over the
web. In a recent study, Aladwani (2001) found that security remains the major barrier
to electronic commerce applications. Gefen and Straub (2000) found a significant
positive relationship between the ease of using the web site and peoples intention to
inquire and intention to purchase online (through usefulness). Liao and Cheung (2002)
182 found that 24-hour access (site availability) was singled out by 91 percent of the
respondents to be important for e-banking adoption; and found that transaction speed
is a significant determinant of consumers willingness to use the service. Liang and Lai
(2002) found that the search function was the second and navigational hyperlinks was
the eighth most important factor affecting consumer choice of online stores.
Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002) found that the availability of interactivity options
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in the web site (part of the information content dimension) is a significant factor
differentiating between low and high purchase intent. In short, a web site with inferior
technical attributes may turn potential consumers away to other web sites.
H1a. Technical quality will influence consumers attitudes towards the web site.
H1b. Technical quality will influence consumers intentions to purchase from the
web site.

3.2 General content quality


Several studies have emphasized the fact that building a web site with a sub-standard
general content quality (such as content usefulness, completeness, clarity, currency,
conciseness, and accuracy) is a waste of resources and vanishes the chances of the web
site to attract consumers (Liu and Arnett, 2000; Misic and Johnson, 1999; Schubert and
Selz, 1999; Bell and Tang, 1998; Rowell et al., 1999). One of the main stages in the
purchasing process followed by most consumers is information search, the process
through which a consumer actively looks for and collects facts from the web site. If the
web site does not meet consumers expectations with respect to information needs, then
this dissonance may cause unfavorable reactions from visitors towards the web site. It
is just hard to gain consumers trust if the web site provides them with ambiguous,
unusable, or inaccurate information. Gefen and Straub (2000) found a significant
positive relationship between content usefulness and peoples purchasing behavior.
Liao and Cheung (2002) found that content accuracy is the most important factor
affecting consumers willingness to use e-banking. Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002)
found that the completeness of the information provided about the company and
offerings (part of the information content dimension) is an important determinant of
purchase intent. Song and Zahedi (2001) found that content clarity is an important
determinant of online buying behavior (through perceived resource facilitation and
behavioral control). In order for a web site to create favorable consumers attitudes and
intentions, it must contain useful, complete, clear, current, concise, and accurate
content (Aladwani and Palvia, 2002).
H2a. General content quality will influence consumers attitudes towards the web
site.
H2b. General content quality will influence consumers intentions to purchase from
the web site.
3.3 Specific content quality Web site quality
Many web design researchers agree with the proposition that a web site with a higher
level of specific content quality (such as finding contact information, finding firm
general information, finding products/services details, finding customers policies, and
finding customer support) can attract more consumers than a web site with lower
specific content quality (Liu and Arnett, 2000; Misic and Johnson, 1999; Schubert and
Selz, 1999; Bell and Tang, 1998; Rowell et al., 1999). This is simply true because a web 183
site serves as an information provider about the organization for interested web users.
Therefore, for a web site to attract potential buyers, it must provide them quality
information about the organization itself, its products and/or services, its customers
policies, its contact information, and its customer support details (Aladwani and
Palvia, 2002). Before completing a purchase transaction, a consumer usually searches
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for and collects details about, for example, different products and/or services and
supplier options. Bellman et al. (1999) found that looking for product information over
the internet is the most significant predictor of online buying behavior. Liang and Lai
(2002) found that allowing for product returns was a significant factor affecting a
consumers choice of an e-store. Without these and similar specific content aspects and
information, a web site can face serious challenges to achieve its goal to induce the
desired consumers attitudes and purchasing intentions.
H3a. Specific content quality will influence consumers attitudes towards the web
site.
H3b. Specific content quality will influence consumers intentions to purchase from
the web site.

3.4 Appearance quality


Appearance quality (such as attractiveness, organization, proper use of fonts, proper
use of colors, and proper use of multimedia) is another important dimension of web site
quality that could be used as a mechanism in a web site to capture the interest of users
and retain them at the (Aladwani and Palvia, 2002). Heijden and Verhagen (2002) found
that online store enjoyment (fun, pleasure, and attractiveness) is a significant predictor
of consumers attitudes toward purchasing online. Liang and Lai (2002) found that
product organization was the fourth and consistent style was the ninth most
significant factor influencing consumers choice of online stores. Ranganathan and
Ganapathy (2002) found that the presence of visual presentation aids (part of the
design dimension) is the third most important factor discriminating between low and
high purchase intention groups. It is just hard to keep consumers attention if your web
site is sober. Similarly, it is just hard to convince consumers to continue looking at a
web page with unfriendly colors or with inconsistent style. Web sites should focus on
not only technical quality and content quality, but also appearance quality to
successfully accomplish their goal to bring into being favorable consumers attitudes
and purchasing intentions.
H4a. Appearance quality will influence consumers attitudes towards the web site.
H4b. Appearance quality will influence consumers intentions to purchase from the
web site.
BPMJ 3.5 Attitudes
12,2 Only three studies from the empirical research reviewed in the background section
have measured and tested the influence of web consumers attitudes on purchasing
intentions from the web site. Heijden and Verhagen (2002) found that attitudes
toward online purchasing act as a significant predictor of online purchasing intentions
b 0:78; p , 0:001: Lin and Wu (2002) and Song and Zahedi (2001) also found
184 similar results (b 0:55; p , 0:01 and b 0:504; p , 0:001; respectively). The
remaining reviewed studies have examined either the relationship between other
beliefs such as perceived usefulness, ease of use, and trust, and purchasing intentions
(Gefen, 2000), or the direct relationship between some aspects of web site quality and
purchasing intentions (Bellman et al., 1999). Therefore, based on the findings of Heijden
and Verhagen (2002), Lin and Wu (2002), and Song and Zahedi (2001), a positive
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relationship between consumers attitude toward the web site and their intentions to
purchase from it is also predicted in the present study.
H5. Attitudes will influence consumers intentions to purchase from the web site.

4. Methodology
4.1 Sample and experimental design
The respondents to the questionnaire were students enrolled in three different sections
of an introductory Information Systems class at a business school. The researcher
followed the same procedure in the three data gathering sessions, which took place in
the same internet-connected computer lab. All personal computers in the lab had
similar hardware configurations, operating systems, and internet browsers. Before
administering the questionnaire, the participants were asked to read a brief overview
of the study and instructed to search for, access, and navigate through the web site of a
well-known bookstore for some time. The researcher then administered the
instruments to the participants and instructed them to search for and request any
MS Office book that can be used for the same course they are enrolled in, but to stop
before actually paying for it. For all sessions the author was present to answer
questions and provide any necessary assistance. One hundred and four web users
participated in this study; and usable responses were collected from one hundred and
one. All of the students in the sample were from 18 to 21 years of age. Approximately,
64 percent of the respondents are females, and 36 percent are males. Of the students
that participated, a majority was business majors. Twenty-one respondent out of the
101 participants describe themselves as having some internet knowledge, 47 of the
participants say they have moderate knowledge of internet, and the remaining, 33 of
the 101 participants, say they have advanced knowledge of the internet.

4.2 Scales
Three instruments were used to operationalize study variables. First, a 25-item
instrument tapping technical quality, general content quality, specific content quality,
and appearance quality is used to measure web site quality (Aladwani and Palvia,
2002). Cronbachs a for the 25-item scale was 0.90; and for technical quality, general
content quality, specific content quality, and appearance quality, Cronbachs a is 0.91,
0.85, 0.91, and 0.87, respectively. Second, a 2-item instrument is used to measure
consumers attitudes towards the web site. The two items are:
(1) visiting this web site was a good idea; and Web site quality
(2) I am not fully satisfied with the visit I made to this web site (reverse coded).

A reliability test using Cronbachs a resulted in a score of 0.81. The items were
measured using a seven-point scale ranging from (1) Strongly disagree to (7)
Strongly agree. Finally, another 2-item instrument is used to measure consumers
intentions to purchase from the web site. The two items are: 185
(1) I do not intend to buy from this web site any time in the future (reverse coded);
and
(2) I will buy from this web site some time in the near future (during the coming six
months).
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Cronbachs a for the intentions scale was 0.84. The items were measured using a
seven-point scale ranging from (1) Strongly disagree to (7) Strongly agree.

5. Analysis and results


5.1 Convergent and discriminant validity
Convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs was examined by submitting
all items to a principal component analysis procedure with varimax rotation to explore
the underlying dimensions of the constructs. There are no accepted absolute
standards for the cutoffs; the choice is based on judgment, purpose of the study, and
prior studies. Since the goal of this study is to examine the most significant loadings in
interpreting the factor solution, a cut-off point of 0.50 for item loadings and eigenvalue
of 1 were used. All scales showed adequate convergent and discriminant validity
(Table I). In every factor analysis run, each scales items converged cleanly on the same
factor representing these items. Table I shows that there are six factors, together
explaining approximately 70 percent of the variation. The table also summarizes
descriptive statistics of the six factors.

5.2 Model testing


The research model was tested using stepwise regression (Table II). As shown in
Table II, technical quality b 0:192; p , 0:05; general content quality b 0:183;
p , 0:05; specific content quality b 0:211; p , 0:05; and appearance quality
b 0:209; p , 0:05 are significant predictors of consumers attitudes towards the
web site. The predictor variables explain approximately 26 percent of the variance in
attitudes. The results provide support for hypotheses H1a, H2a, H3a, and H4a. The
results reported in Table II further show that only consumers attitudes towards the
web site b 0:338; p , 0:01 and technical quality b 0:308; p , 0:01 have a
significant influence on consumers intentions to purchase from a web site. The
antecedent constructs explain approximately 27 percent of the variance in purchasing
intentions of consumers. Based on these results, hypotheses H1b (technical
quality-intentions) and H5 (attitudes-intentions) are also supported. The analysis
does not support H2b (general content quality-intentions), H3b (specific content
quality-intentions), and H4b (appearance quality-intentions). Figure 2 summarizes
stepwise regression results.
BPMJ
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Factor 5 Factor 6
12,2
Security 0.698
Ease of navigation 0.740
Search facilities 0.718
Availability 0.768
186 Valid links 0.737
Personalization 0.686
Speed of page loading 0.761
Interactivity 0.619
Ease of accessing the site 0.690
Usefulness 0.749
Completeness 0.735
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Clarity 0.828
Currency 0.710
Conciseness 0.761
Accuracy 0.673
Finding contact info. 0.898
Finding firm general info. 0.844
Finding products details 0.898
Finding customer policies 0.785
Finding customer support 0.816
Attractiveness 0.713
Organization 0.662
Proper use of fonts 0.854
Proper use of colors 0.829
Proper use of multimedia 0.825
Visiting is a good idea 0.813
Not satisfied with visit (R) 0.699
No intention to buy (R) 0.752
Will buy in the near future 0.796
Eigenvalue 5.08 4.04 3.58 3.40 1.86 1.73
Table I. Percent explained variance 17.51 13.93 12.36 11.73 6.42 5.97
Factor analysis and Mean 4.54 4.42 4.40 4.40 4.48 4.50
descriptive statistics SD 1.08 1.00 1.03 1.05 1.24 1.01

Standardized
Model Adjusted R 2 F-value Predictor variables coefficient (b) t-value

Attitudes towards
the web site 0.263 9.900 * * Specific content quality 0.211 2.260 *
Appearance quality 0.209 2.234 *
Technical quality 0.192 1.987 *
General content quality 0.183 2.002 *
Purchase intentions 0.274 19.917 * * Attitudes 0.338 3.663 * *
Technical quality 0.308 3.340 * *
Appearance quality 0.077 0.813
Specific content quality 0.060 0.632
Table II. General content quality 0.017 0.189
Multiple regression
results Notes: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01
Web site quality

187
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Figure 2.
Multiple regression results

6. Discussion and conclusions


The objective of this study was to answer one central question: is web site quality a
precondition for forward enterprise integration with web customers? In an attempt to
answer this question, the author examined the effect of a unifying view of web site
quality on purchasing behavior of consumers. In particular, the paper explored the role
of four sub-dimensions of web site quality, technical quality, general content quality,
specific content quality, and appearance quality, in predicting consumers attitudes
towards the web site and intentions to purchase from the same. Overall, the tests
provide support for the omnibus premise that web site quality is a precondition for
forward enterprise integration with web consumers. More specifically, the empirical
analyses reveal two major interesting findings. First, technical quality is found to be
the only dimension of web site quality influencing consumers purchasing behavior
both directly and indirectly through their attitudes towards the web site. Second,
specific content quality and appearance quality characteristics are found to have
relatively higher effect size on web site attitudes than technical quality and general
content quality do.
Although the findings of this study are helpful in understanding the relationship
between web site quality as a precondition for forward integration with customers
and purchasing decision of web consumers, there are several limitations that need to be
addressed with future research. First, the present study used a sample of students in
testing the proposed model. The student subjects used in the investigation although
real web users may not be representative of the population of web consumers in
general. In the future, there may be a need to re-test the same research model using a
wider and more representative sample of web consumers. Second, attitudes toward and
intentions to buying online may change over time and this study does not take this fact
into account. Future research may need to examine the relationship between web site
quality and purchasing behavior of consumers over time via one or more longitudinal
investigations.
The results may be useful for organizations aspiring to build better commercial
relationships with their customers. It was shown that by giving attention to building a
technically sound web site with effective content and attractive design, an organization
BPMJ could bring in more consumers to its online business and convince them to make
12,2 purchases. More specifically, the organization must make sure not to find its web site
lacking in technical quality, general content quality, specific content quality, and
appearance quality. If the organization finds its web site lacking in any of the four
dimensions, then it must take appropriate steps to remedy these quality gaps or its
online business may suffer. Furthermore, organizations must realize that the four
188 studied quality dimensions differ in terms of their relative importance for inducing
favorable attitudes and purchasing intentions. For example, specific content quality
and appearance quality attributes are found to be more important in predicting
consumers attitudes towards the web site than technical quality and general content
quality attributes. This finding corroborates Gefens (2000) proposition that increased
familiarity with the organization, through for example, effective specific content, can
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build potential consumers trust and thus encourage them to purchase from the web
site. It also confirms the importance of effective design and animation for attracting
consumers to the web site. Nonetheless, besides paying attention to building a web site
with appropriate general and specific content and appearance quality characteristics,
organizations must also not forget that the purchase decision of a consumer from a web
site is influenced by his or her perception of the technical quality of the web site.
Consequently, it is critical for an organization to build a technically sound web site and
convince visiting users of its technical adequacy and merits, i.e. secure, easy to use, etc.
in order to encourage these users to do online business with the organization. While the
author recommends that organizations dress-up their web sites effectively, he also
advises them not to overlook the basic technical requirements of their web sites;
focusing on the basics is not an old fashioned strategy even in the era of the world wide
web.

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Corresponding author
Adel M. Aladwani can be contacted at: adwani@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw
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