Trust and Satisfaction, Two Stepping Stones for Successful E-Commerce Relationships: A Longitudinal Exploration

• Published in: Information systems research Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 237 - 257
• Main Authors: Kim, Dan J, Ferrin, Donald L, Rao, H. Raghav
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linthicum INFORMS 01.06.2009; The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS); Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subjects: Analysis; Behavior; consumer satisfaction; Consumers; Correlation analysis; Customer satisfaction; Decision making; e-loyalty; Electronic commerce; expectation-confirmation theory; extended valence framework; Information storage and retrieval systems; Ingredients; Internet; Long term; Marketing; Massachusetts trusts; Perceptions; purchase and repurchase intentions in B2C e-commerce; Purchase intention; Purchasing; Regression analysis; Shopping; Studies; Sumer; Trust; trust in e-commerce; Websites; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 1047-7047; 1526-5536
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.1080.0188

Trust and satisfaction are essential ingredients for successful business relationships in business-to-consumer electronic commerce. Yet there is little research on trust and satisfaction in e-commerce that takes a longitudinal approach. Drawing on three primary bodies of literature, the theory of reasoned action, the extended valence framework, and expectation-confirmation theory, this study synthesizes a model of consumer trust and satisfaction in the context of e-commerce. The model considers not only how consumers formulate their prepurchase decisions, but also how they form their long-term relationships with the same website vendor by comparing their prepurchase expectations to their actual purchase outcome. The results indicate that trust directly and indirectly affects a consumer's purchase decision in combination with perceived risk and perceived benefit, and also that trust has a longer term impact on consumer e-loyalty through satisfaction. Thus, this study extends our understanding of consumer Internet transaction behavior as a three-fold (prepurchase, purchase, and postpurchase) process, and it recognizes the crucial, multiple roles that trust plays in this process. Implications for theory and practice as well as limitations and future directions are discussed.