2013
University of Groningen Henk Kooij
[ELECTRONIC SERVICE QUALITY IN MOBILE SHOPPING APPLICATIONS]
Faculty of Economics and Business, Department of Innovation Management & Strategy
S2418193
Supervisor: Dr. C.W. Tan
Abstract
Mobile commerce has grown rapidly the last years, especially after the introduction of the smartphone. The development of the smartphone and other smart devices opened up new possibilities for retailers. Research indicated the effects of businesses improving service encounters and the relation between service quality on profits. However, the design features of applications that determine the electronic service quality has not yet been investigated. This research builds on the E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL models and other relevant
Acknowledgements
This thesis is the end result of an interesting year at the University of Groningen. The Master Business Administration with the specialization Strategic Innovation Management will be completed. The achievement of this result is of course related to the hard work during the last year but even that would not be successful without the necessary support.
Contents Acknowledgements ... 3 1. Introduction ... 7 1.1 Background introduction ... 7 1.2 Research goals ... 9 1.3 Application area ... 9
1.4 Outline of current research ... 9
2. Theoretical Framework ... 10
2.1 Mobile commerce ... 10
2.2 Ubiquitous computing and u-commerce ... 10
2.3 Context aware ... 12
2.4 Experiential products ... 13
2.5 Service quality ... 14
2.6 Electronic Service quality and Mobile Service Quality ... 15
2.7 Defining electronic service quality ... 15
2.8.1 Electronic service quality literature ... 16
2.8.2 E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL as foundation for this research ... 17
2.8.3 e-SERVQUAL ... 18
2.8.4 E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL ... 18
2.8.5 Studying the dimensions ... 19
2.9 New dimensions: Personalization and Enjoyment ... 21
2.9.1 Personalization ... 21
2.9.2 Enjoyment ... 22
2.10Different mobile platforms ... 23
2.10.1 Introduction ... 23
2.10.2 The major platforms: Android and iOS ... 24
2.10.4 Device set ... 26 2.10.5 Platform integration ... 27 2.10.6 Developer options ... 27 2.11 Conclusion ... 28 3 Methodology ... 28 3.1 Operationalization ... 28
3.2 The final model ... 29
3.3 Discussing the measures ... 32
3.3.1 Efficiency measures ... 32
3.3.2 Fulfilment measures ... 35
3.3.3 System availability measures ... 37
3.3.4 Privacy measures ... 38 3.3.5 Responsiveness measures ... 39 3.3.6 Compensation measures ... 40 3.3.7 Enjoyment measures ... 40 3.3.8 Personalization measures ... 41 3.4 Tested Sample. ... 43 3.5 Procedure ... 44 3.6 Examples of observations. ... 44 4. Findings ... 45
4.1 Results on the dimension level ... 45
4.1.7 Enjoyment ... 52
4.1.8 Personalization ... 53
4.2 Results on the measurement item level ... 54
4.2.1 Efficiency ... 54 4.2.2 Fulfilment ... 57 4.2.3 System ... 60 4.2.4 Privacy ... 61 4.2.5 Responsiveness ... 62 4.2.6 Compensation ... 63 4.2.7 Enjoyment ... 64 4.2.8 Personalization ... 65 5. Discussion ... 66
5.1 About the results ... 66
5.1.2 Measurement items ... 68
5.2 Contributions to Theory ... 71
5.3 Contributions to Practice ... 73
5.4 Limitations and Future Research ... 74
6. Conclusion ... 74
References ... 76
Appendices ... 85
Appendix A : Specifications of the used devices ... 85
Appendix B: List of US applications ... 85
Appendix C:Results of the Apple coding process ... 86
Appendix D: Results of the Android coding process ... 87
1. Introduction
1.1 Background introduction
In the last years, mobile commerce has become a hot topic in both the business and academic environments. Rupp and Smith (2002) stated more than 10 years ago that the combination of ‘wireless’ and the ‘Internet’ is driving consumers and businesses to adopt mobile commerce for daily situations like shopping, but also complex situations like supply chain management. They argued that it is no doubt that will grow explosively. Now, more than 10 years later, their predictions seem to have come true.
Figure 1 Percentage of Retail e-Commerce Dollars spent through mobile, Retrieved from Business Insider (2013)
In 2010, mobile commerce was only 3% of e-commerce. But, the last years that number has risen. In the end of 2012, this number soared to 13% (Luger, 2013). This represents a $18.6 billion in consumer spending, which does not include travel-related purchases. It is expected that this number can rise to 15% by the end of 2013. Reasons of this enormous growth potential are the penetration of tablets and smartphones and their usage. By 2013, 54% of all phones globally will be smartphones (Source: IHS iSuppli, 2012). Tablets will hit 100 million shipments in 2012. (ABI Research 2012). For around 50% of 12-17 year old smartphone owners, their smartphone is their primary Internet access device. For these younger
Figure 2 Internet Retail Sales by Region: 2005-2015, Retrieved from EuroMonitor (2011)
Rapid innovations took place on the devices and a new type of mobile phone was introduced: the smartphone. The characteristics of this new type of phone enables convenient and secure mobile commerce services: electronic wallet application, electronic payment application, broadband Internet access, high computing performance and multimedia contents (Chang et al., 2009).
In the field of e-commerce, extensive research has been done about the elements of a website that determines the level of service quality (Zeithhaml et al. 2005; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003). Cenfetelli et al. (2008) examined the effect of businesses to improve service
1.2 Research goals
Considering the relevance of the topics mentioned, a number of research goals can be formulated for the current research:
Adding new insights to the electronic service quality literature
Collecting and summarizing the relevant literature on electronic commerce from 2008-2013
Testing the relevance of a current electronic service quality model
Develop a scale with measurement items that can be used in evaluating and developing an application
Highlight the current top-applications that deal with experiential products and services
1.3 Application area
In this research, the top 25 shopping US applications that deal with experiential products or services will form the sample. The applications are all US based and derived from the Most Popular Free Applications section in Google Play. To increase the reliability of the research, 23 of the 25 applications has also been examined on an Apple iOS device. The selection of US applications may be advantageous because the reduction of the risk of context specific findings such as variables that deal with payment methods or legal issues.
1.4 Outline of current research
2. Theoretical Framework
This section will provide a theoretical background on electronic commerce and (electronic) service quality. This framework will be used to gain insights and understand the concepts that are used in the measurement of electronic service quality.
2.1 Mobile commerce
Mobile commerce is simply defined as any transaction with a monetary value that is
conducted over a wireless telecommunication network (Barnes, 2002). Barnes (2002) came up with a basic model of mobile commerce which tries to explain the value adding activities that terminates with the customers. The basic model consists of six core activities: Content
creation, content packaging and market making (content area) and mobile transport, mobile services &delivery support and mobile interface & applications (infrastructure area). The linkage of mobile phones and Internet has an enormous potential to increase the overall volume of e-commerce (Bouwman & Carlsson et al., 2001).
However, the mobile commerce industry changed dramatically the last years. In the days of Barnes (2002), the development of mobile services was controlled by mobile network operators, phone manufacturers and some mobile application developers. This has changed with the arrival of the traditional software companies with new mobile phones on new platforms, such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone (Holzer and Ondrus, 2011). The
structure of the market and the value chain evolved and is still evolving. Roles have changed, are combined with other roles or are exchanged. Some of the actors in the ‘old’ phase lost control on the device, for example the mobile network operators. The portal providers, such Google and Apple, got new revenue streams through the selling of applications. Others, like financial institutions and content providers, were more seamlessly integrated into the
platforms ( de Reuver and Haaker, 2009).
2.2 Ubiquitous computing and u-commerce
In the conceptual paper on computing in everyday life, Yoo (2010) discussed the rapid developments of digital technology. The digital technology acts as a mediator of all or partial dimensions of human experiences: time, space, actors and artifacts. This has the effect that computers and computing are nowadays part of everyday experiences. Yoo (2010) argued that that the IS community must embrace experiential computing as an emerging field in their discipline. Here, experiential computing is defined as “digitally mediated embodied
capabilities.” In this context, everyday activities mean non-computing activities that humans
do to sustain their daily lives. The artifacts are non-computing artifacts with which humans interact. In his paper, Yoo (2010) argued that two distinctive forces contributed to the emergence of experiential computing: the emergence of new users of computing and
ubiquitous computing technologies . These forces contribute to experiential computing since users use computers more deeply in their lives; in everyday artifacts and activities. In terms of the contribution of ubiquitous computing to experiential computing, computing
capabilities become ubiquitously distributed throughout the daily experiences. Also, users are enable to store, mobilize and interpret information that was not available in the past. This opens up a new perspective of opportunities, including experiential computing (Yoo, 2010). Lamb and Kling (2003) explained that the traditional note of users is not broad enough. The traditional user is in their view an individual who focus on task performance and use
information systems as an assistant for their cognitive processes. In experiential computing, the notion of users need to expanded across three dimensions. At first, experiential computing users are not necessarily individuals but rather individuals who are not in an organizational context. The difference is that users will interact with computing technologies in broader contexts, thereby adopting a different role such as family or friend. Second, users will interact with computers as well as everyday artifacts that have computing capabilities. In a more conventional computer usage pattern, users are able to focus their attention exclusively to a PC. In experiential computing, the artifacts are incorporated in both digital and non-digital tools and the access and use of these artifacts is subject to constant negotiations.
Finally , users do not use artifacts only for informational purposes. Computing capabilities are used in a broader set of daily experiences, such as running, travelling and the listening of music. Artifacts in these embedded computing activities, mediate the user’s experiences directly . This is opposite from traditional computing, where users need to interpret symbolic representations. This means a shift in the focus from task performance and information processing to everyday life activities and their lived experiences that are mediated through digital technology (Yoo, 2010).
(Dourish, 2001). Tangible computing is defined as a mode of computing in which users interact directly with the system by physically manipulating objects other than the traditional input methods. Devices that make use of tangible computing use the physical movements of the human body as the input and the output consists of direct bodily experiences (Yoo, 2010). Further, the digitalization of everyday artifacts also plays an important role in ubiquitous computing. Users of ‘smart’ artifacts can connect with other users in other places and with different time while they physically interact with the artifact in their own context. This can expand the meaning of everyday activities by the creation of new possibilities. Finally, a global information infrastructure in combination with sensor networks will create enormous opportunities for buildings and even cities to communicate with computing devices. These computing environments will change the way individuals experience the environment (Yoo, 2010). The two forces explained above, directly relate to the definition of experiential
computing. The new type of users and the possibilities of the new technologies enable users to make us of experiential computing since experiential computing was not possible without the emergence of these two forces.
Ubiquitous computing enables ubiquitous commerce. Ubiquitous computing can be explained from a social and technical perspective ( Lyytinen et al. 2004). From the social perspective, ubiquitous computing can be explained as means for people to stay connected and interacted with others without the time or space constraints. The technical perspective refers to a set of computing devices that is able to perform (semi)automatically tasks, enables by mobile and wireless technologies.
The purpose of u-commerce is to overcome the spatial and temporal boundaries of e-commerce and m-e-commerce. Following this rationale, u-e-commerce can be seen as the next phase of e-commerce and m-commerce (Junglas and Watson, 2006) . Therefore, some literature on u-commerce is discussed in this study since it has an overlap with m-commerce and offer some new insights on the other hand.
2.3 Context aware
Context aware computing was first discussed by Schilit and Theimer in 1994. They defined context aware computing as software that ‘adapts according to its location of use, the collection of nearby people and objects, as well as changes to those objects over time.” Various definitions were given over time. Pascoe et al. (1998) defines context aware
from environmental sensors and allow users to select from a range of physical and logical contexts according to their current interests or activities.
In this definition the way applications act upon the context is important. So for example the application is analyzing the context of the user and thereby adapting the provided content to the specific environment, for example like weather or traffic applications. Dey and Abowd (1999) argued that a context –aware system uses context to provide relevant information and/or services, where relevance depends on the user task. Dey and Abowd (1999) categorize the features for context-aware applications as follows: 1) presentation of information and services to a user 2) automatic execution of a service; and 3) tagging of context to information for later retrieval.
2.4 Experiential products
According to Nelson (1970), in the classification of products into search and experience products the importance of the different sources of product information differs. Klein (1998) states that search products are defined as products where information can be collected prior to the purchase and experience products as products for which information cannot be known until purchase or use. Also, collecting information for experience products is more costly than for search products. Zeithaml (1988) stated that for search products, the intrinsic attributes are more useful for comparing the quality of the product. With experience products, customers rely on more extrinsic characteristics to validate the product or service, such as warranty, package and brand name. Rha (2002) studied the consumer’s attitudes and usage of
information sources on the Internet. He argued that consumers of experience products should value online information more than those of search products, since products characteristics of experiential products differ.
According to Kunz (1997), online apparel consumers valued merchandise quality, merchandise variety and customer service. Taylor and Cosenza (2000) found that online consumers rate functional attributes such as price, ease of movement and ease of use as
In this research, the definition of Nelson (1970) is used where experiential products are dIn this thesis, a distinction will be made between experiential products and experiential services.
Due to intangible nature of services and the experiential value of the services, it could be expected that services score higher on the Fulfilment measure. In our sample, the service-related applications consist of travel applications and the product-service-related applications consist of clothing applications. This will be explained in methods. Weathers et al.(2007) found that online consumers face more uncertainty the product quality of experience goods like clothing. With services, and especially travel, customers could rely more on reviews of other customers than for clothing. This is due to the nature of the product and the how value can measured. For example, hotels can be judged by objective measures such as the hygiene of the room or the quality of the beds, whereas the quality or value of clothes can be hard to communicate (Luo et al. 2012; Nelson, 1970). Therefore, it could be hypothesized:
H1: Service-related applications score higher on Fulfilment than product-relate applications
2.5 Service quality
Service quality is an essential part of business nowadays. Heskett et al . (1994) argues that there is a relation between profit and service quality. Profit and growth are primarily
stimulated by customer loyalty. Customer’s loyalty is a result of customer satisfaction, which is largely influenced by the value of the service.
One of the most well-known service quality models is the SERVQUAL model, developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988). SERVQUAL is a multiple item scale that can be used to better understand the expectations and perception of customers and ultimately to improve service quality. The construct of quality involves perceived quality. Perceived quality is the consumer’s judgment about the excellence or superiority of an entity (Zeithaml, 1988). The difference between the expectations and perceived quality may be called a ‘gap’.
and do not draw on established economic and psychological theory. This leads to the modification of the SERVQUAL model in many other studies.
2.6 Electronic Service quality and Mobile Service Quality
In the Internet environment, traditional measures will not adequately capture the electronic service quality (Fassnacht and Koese (2006). They mention that the electronic service quality differs from traditional service quality in two important ways. First, there is the self-service character of electronic services. In using electronic services, customers interact with a technical interface. This leads to a pure person-to-technology service encounter .In a traditional service context, services are delivered by people. Hereby, the outcome of the service depends for the most part on the performance of the employee. Second, the service context is created by a design features of a graphic user interface (Rust and Kannan, 2002). Apparently, the electronic environment differs from the traditional service environment. Therefore, the quality measures of an offline service environment will not be able to capture the electronic service quality. This has the effect that electronic service quality measures should cope with this issues and older models should be adjusted.
2.7 Defining electronic service quality
Before the dimensions for this thesis can be chosen, electronic service quality should be defined. Zeithaml et al. (2002) stated that although many researcher tried to conceptualize electronic service quality, most of them do not provide a definition of electronic service quality. Furthermore, Zeithaml et al. (2002) argued that some researchers focus their conceptualizations to the technical quality of the Website rather than the service quality provided through the website. Some conceptualizations focus on interaction with the website , while others include the post-Web site services. Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhotra (2002) came up with a definition where the meaning of services are comprehensive and include both pre-and post- Website service aspects. Their definition also serves as the electronic service quality definition in this thesis: Electronic service quality can be defined as the as the extent
to which a Web site facilitates efficient and effective shopping, purchasing, and delivery of products and service (p. 363).
2.8 Electronic Service quality models
different dimensions to this research. First, the concepts of electronic service quality will be explained and a brief overview of the establishment of the E-S-QUAL will be given. Finally, two extra dimension will be added. These dimensions are based on relevant literature and will measure different attributes of an application.
2.8.1 Electronic service quality literature
Relevant literature about electronic has been reviewed to determine the most suitable dimensions for this research. The purpose of the literature review was to get an overview of the recent developments in the research of electronic and mobile commerce. Some articles covered the subject of the thesis specifically. Not all articles were chosen because they described a direct link between design characteristics and trust. To cover all the related literature, a broader perspective had to been taken. Therefore, articles about concepts such as trust, loyalty, continued usage and usefulness were included. Service quality influences these concepts, which in turn have an influence on consumers’ attitudes. The articles that deal with these concepts as dependent variable, use direct variables such as design characteristics or ease of use to explain a possible relation. From this point of view, service quality can be explained using the independent variables. A result of this approach is that more high quality articles suite this research.
The articles in this literature review come from top-listed journals in the field of information systems and electronic commerce. Most articles come from the MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research and the Journal of Management Information Systems. However, also some less renowned journals were used, like the International Journal of Electronic Commerce and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.
All the articles were written in the period 2008-2013. This is an important criteria for this thesis. By doing so, the recent streams of research on electronic service quality has been discovered. A very systematic method was used to find the relevant articles. For each year, all the articles of the specific journal were sorted on their key words and themes. In this thesis, the articles with key words and themes that are related to electronic commerce and service quality were used, for example: electronic commerce, service quality, mobile commerce, design interphases, trust, privacy, IT usage.
This coding scheme serves as the building block for the framework and the coding scheme of the mobile applications.
The overview of the literature can be found in the appendices. The models that built on the electronic service quality definition of Zeitham, Parasuraman and Malhotra (2000) will be discussed next.
2.8.2 E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL as foundation for this research
In the last decades, several models were introduced to describe the different variables that lead to the intention to use or a positive attitude towards IT or electronic commerce. The major, and most credible, frameworks are :
The Theory of Reasoned Action (Azjen, 1991); an individual forms beliefs salient to a context of interest and these beliefs influence one’s attitude and behavior within this context (Cenfetelli et al., 2008)
the Expectancy Value Theory (Azjen and Fishbein’s, 1980); external stimuli influence an individual’s beliefs regarding the outcomes associated with their performance of a targeted behavior. These beliefs, in turn, shape attitudes toward actually performing the behavior (Tan et al., 2013)
Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989). In the TAM, a belief-attitude-intention-behavior is suggested that explains and predicts technology acceptance among user (Ha,Stoel; 2009). TAM proposes that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use determine a person’s attitude towards a technology. The TAM is used in many prior studies and has been validated as a robust framework for understanding the user’s adoption of technology in a variety of contexts(Ha, Stoel, 2009). However, the original TAM variables may not adequately explaining the key beliefs influencing consumers’ attitudes towards e-shopping (Ha, Stoel, 2009). Vijayasarathy (2004) argues that the variables in TAM are better suited to decisions involving few technology decision than decisions that involve voluntary choices, such as online shopping.
based models (Wixom and Todd, 2005). Wixom and Todd proposed a research model that distinguishes belief and attitudes about the system (object beliefs and attitudes) from beliefs and attitudes about using the system , which are behavioural beliefs and attitudes. An object based model will suit better in this type of research since user satisfaction on the service quality is measured by various subsets of beliefs about system design characteristics.
2.8.3 e-SERVQUAL
On the basis of a review of the extant literature on electronic service quality, Zeithaml et al. (2002) detailed five dimensions to be important to electronic service quality perceptions: 1) information availability and content, 2) ease of use or usability, 3) privacy/security, 4) graphic style, and 5) reliability/fulfilment. Some of these dimensions have been hypothesized to be important, others by empirical evidence. Insights from the criteria mentioned above formed the starting point of developing the e-SERVQUAL scale by Zeithaml et al. (2002). They developed a three stage-stage process using exploratory focus groups and collected and analyzed empirical data in two phases. This produced seven dimensions: efficiency,
reliability, fulfilment, privacy, responsiveness, compensation and contact. Four dimensions form the core dimension of the e-SERVQUAL: efficiency, reliability, fulfilment and privacy. These dimension refer to the criteria that customers use to evaluate routine online services when they do not encounter problems. Efficiency refers to the ability of customers to
navigate to the product, find information and check out with minimal effort. Reliability refers which extent the website is available and functions correctly. Fulfilment includes the accuracy of service promises, having products/services in stock and the delivery of products in the promised time. Privacy deals with the assurance that collected data is not shared and is secure. The other three dimensions become important when customers run into problems. These dimensions have been conceptualized as a recovery e-SERVQUAL scale.
Responsiveness measure the ability of service providers to provide information when a problem occurs, have mechanisms for handling returns and offers online guarantees. Compensation involves monetary compensation and returning shopping and handling cots. The contact dimension is the ability of customers to speak to live customer service agent s online or by phone.
2.8.4 E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL
dimensions than on website specific characteristics. Also, recovery items were set aside in apart scale. This model, the E-S-QUAL model, is a result of a comprehensive data collection and analysis. A set of 121 items, representing the 11 dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, access, flexibility, ease of navigation, efficiency, assurance/trust, security/privacy, price knowledge, site aesthetics, and customization) of e-SQ by Zeithaml et al. (2000), formed the initial scale. Series of iterations have resulted in a final E-S-QUAL model, consisting of 22 items in four dimensions, namely: Efficiency, Fullfillment, System availability and privacy. It is important to note that the reliability measure in the e-SERVQUAL model has been renamed to system availability in the E-S-QUAL model. Also, for measuring the quality of recovery services by website a new scale was created. This E-RecS-QUAL scale consist of 11 items covering three dimensions: responsiveness , compensation and contact.
An overview of the dimensions and their definitions can be found in this figure:
Figure 3 Dimensions and Definitions of the ES-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL model of Parasuraman et al. (2005)
Dimension Defintition (Parasuraman et al. (2005)
Efficiency The ease and speed of accessing and using the site.
Fulfilment The extent to which the site’s promises about order delivery and item availability
are fulfilled. System
Availability
The correct technical functioning of the site.
Privacy The degree to which the site is safe and protects customer information Responsiveness Effective handling of problems and returns through the site.
Compensation The degree to which the site compensates customers for problems
Contact The availability of assistance through telephone or online representatives
2.8.5 Studying the dimensions
using the site’. According to Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002), convenience and saving of
time have frequently been considered as the most important reasons to shop online. Kim (2006) argued that slow download and difficulty in searching lead customers to leave the website and visit another website. Santos (2003) stated that it is crucial to have a well-organized, well-structured an navigable site with concise content, terms, and conditions plus an easy-to-remember URL address.
According to Wolfinbarger and Gily (2003), fulfilment is one of the most important factors by valuating the quality of an online website. Yang and Fang (2004) argued that accurate order fulfilment and service promise are critical elements that predict customer (dis)satisfaction. In this study, no products or services will actually be ordered. Therefore, the assessment of the fulfilment of an application will be built on the characteristics of the application. In the E-S-QUAL, fulfilment refers to ‘the extent to which the site’s promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled’.
System availability is defined in the E-S-QUAL model as the correct technical functioning of the site. Fram and Grady (1995) asserted that technical software issues are problems that relate to purchasing on websites. Missing links and non-working buttons for example lead to frustration and stress by consumers (Kim, 2006). As a result of that, the e-tailer misses an opportunity to build customer loyalty. Santos(2003) argued that the avoidance and elimination of for example broking links are related to the total e-service quality (Santos, 2003).
Parasuraman et al, (2005) defined privacy as the degree to which the site is safe and protects
customer information. In online retailing, privacy issues are found to be critical issues
Wolfinbarger and Gily, 2003). Ultimately, Tsai et al. (2011) asserted that that when privacy information is more salient and accessible, some consumers are willing to pay a price premium to purchase from websites that protects privacy. According to this research, this could lead to leveraging privacy protection as a selling point by businesses.
Responsiveness is the first dimension of the E-RecS-QUAL. Parasuraman et al . (2005) explain responsiveness as effective handling of problems and returns through the site. Generally spoken, responsiveness has a positive influence on e-satisfaction. Zeithaml et al. (2002) mention that it could have a negative impact when consumers feel they are bombarded with emails. Ribbink (2004) found that responsiveness does not have significant influence on e-trust. Howeverm, responsiveness can have a moderate effect on satisfaction.
Compensation is defined in the E-RecS-QUAL as ‘’ “the degree to which the site
compensates customers for problems’’. The dimension is measured by items that deal with financial consequences of problem transactions. Since this study will not deal with actual transactions, the items on this scale will measure on-site characteristics such as the availability of a refund policy or return center.
The last item of the E-RecS-QUAL is contact. Contact is defined by Parasuraman et al. (2005) as “as the availability of assistance through telephone or online representatives”. Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) observed that customers reacted negatively when a website does not deliver spontaneous or delayed customer inquiry services.
For this research, the contact dimensions is eliminated as such that it is combined with the responsiveness. The reason for this is that the original measurement items of the E-Recs-Qual does not fit with the applications sample. However, some items are still useful and therefore combined into the responsiveness dimension. Responsiveness has some overlap with contact, especially in the context of mobile computing.
2.9 New dimensions: Personalization and Enjoyment
In this section, the addition of two new dimension will be suggested to the six E-S-QUAL and E-Recs-QUAL dimensions.
2.9.1 Personalization
services. They argued that customers seek understanding, reassurance, courtesy and other forms of personal attention, but these service elements did not seem to be important in the perceived electronic service quality. Only when consumers encounter problems or have to deal with highly complex situations, personalization is required. This can be explained by the reasoning that electronic service quality seems to be more a cognitive than an emotional evaluation (Zeithaml et al., 2002).
In contrast, in their eTailQ, Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) argued that personalization is a part of website design. Also, Kim et al . (2006) discussed the personalization dimension. They stated that personalization is becoming more and more important in online services. Personal attention, understanding the specific needs of customer and providing convenience related service can be regarded as personalization.
Finally, in their study on ubiquitous computing, Sheng et al. (2008) mentioned that customers trade off privacy concerns for the benefits of personalized services. It is important for service providers to address these concerns, because they have a major influence on the adoption of personalized u-commerce applications. However, it is important to take current context in mind. Online customers around the world massively use personalized services or social network such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. Also, the acceptance of cloud computing (where data is saved on online servers) is increasing. It seems like customers are willing to give up some privacy concerns to make use of this kind of applications or websites. A possible reason may be that they are not fully aware of the related privacy issues, but this study will not go in depth on these issues.
2.9.2 Enjoyment
Zeithaml et al. (2000) study identified site aesthetics as an electronics service quality dimension. Site aesthetics was defined as the appearance of the website. However, this dimension was eliminated and not included in the E-S-QUAL model. According to Zeithaml et al (2005), the purpose of the E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL is to measure service quality of web sites. They argued that fun or pleasure does not fall in this domain because such hedonic aspects are distinct benefits that is not available in all contexts or to all customers. However, they do mention that it could be of importance in some contexts where customers are seeking for hedonic benefits, such as entertainment websites.
In their research on consumer e-shopping acceptance, Ha and Stoel (2008) argued that
tested their hypothesis on apparel shopping, and concluded that consumers do not solely have trust and information needs, but shoppers also have experiential needs. High-quality
e-shopping sites may result that the e-shopping experience of an individual is fun and enjoyable. Consumers are likely to perceive greater enjoyment and more fun when they complete a task on a website that establish high quality in terms of information related and marketing-related attributes (Ha and Stoel, 2008). Childers et al. (2002) argued that websites that feature an appeal to one’s hedonic motivations, such as personalization and experiential quality dimensions, will contribute to greater enjoyment and fun for the consumer.
Deng and Poole (2010) found that the that a web user’s emotional response (pleasantness and arousal), caused by the website design features will have carry-over effects on subsequent approach behavior toward the website. Also in other researches on the effect of enjoyment on technology addiction (Turel et al., 2011), Impulsive buying (Parboteeah et al, 2011),
acceptance of IT (Venkatesh, 2012); enjoyment seems to have an influencer effect.
2.10 Different mobile platforms
In this sub chapter, the platforms on which the applications are tested will be explained. First, a short overview about the characteristics of the platforms will be given. Further, the impact of the operating system on the design of an application will be discussed.
2.10.1 Introduction
As discussed earlier, the mobile value chain evolved over the last years. The traditional distribution system changed in the way developers bring their software products to the market. It also opened up the market for the freelance development community. These
developers bring their products to the market by offering them to an online store (portals) that is related to an operating system. The way a distribution process is designed varies per
operating system (Holzer and Ondrus, 2011)
Android follows with 24.7%, BlackBerry scores 2.3% and Windows Phone just 1.4%. Both researches point out the dominance of Android and iOS over the other operating systems. This is also reflected in the number of applications that are offered in the application store of an operating system. Android has around 785,000 (Appbrain.com) applications in the
application store where Apple offers 900,000 (148apps.biz) applications. In contrast, Windows Phone has around 145,000 applications on its platform (Yahoo, 2013). This
research will focus on the two major platforms, which means that Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are included. Both platforms will be discussed and differences will be explained. Also, hypotheses about the influence of the platform on the design of applications will formulated.
2.10.2 The major platforms: Android and iOS
Apple’s iOS was launched in June 2007, together with the iPhone. Apple’s iOS is based on Max OS X Leopard, which is a proprietary system with open source parts. The Graphical User Interface was developed by Apple itself and is considered as the core value feature as it designed for optimal user experience. The platform is designed to only run applications that have the approval of Apple. Approved applications then receive a cryptographic signature (Remneland-Wikhamn et al., 2011). Since the launch of the operating system, several updates have been launched. As of July 2013, Apple is distributing iOS 7 to its customers. Although new functions and graphics are added, basic design elements of the system remains
committed to the philosophy of the first version
Google followed Apple to the smartphone market one year later. Android was acquired by Google in 2005 and later transferred to the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which is a
consortium of around 50 companies in the mobile phone industry. Android is a so called open system. Remneland-Wikhamn et al.(2011) argued that the system is open on three axis: toward the mobile phone industry, toward the users and toward the developers of the applications. The mobile phone industry is supported because the codes for the Android Platform are released under an open source license. The members of the OHA agree upon the shared standards for Android to enforce compatibility between hardware and software.
applications can be deleted or replaced by competing applications and the user can easily transfer data into new applications. Finally, the openness towards suppliers is reflected in two, different ways. At first, the developers do not need permission to ship an application. There is no certification system and there is also no additional level of access to market the application on the platform. Second, Android is open on a technical level. Developers are able to ingrate, extend and replace components in the system (Remneland-Wikhamn et al., 2011).
2.10.3 Distribution process
Holzer and Ondrus (2011) analysed the application distribution process from a developer’s perspective. They argued that this process involves three main processes. First, the developer uses development tools to build the application. Second, applications are published by the developers on a portal. Finally, a customer can access the portal with a mobile device to download the application. The design of the three processes on both Android and iOS will be elaborated below. Software development kits (SDK) enable the developer to build
applications for the platform. These SDKs consist for example libraries, debuggers and handset emulators. The chosen design philosophy of the platform has implications for the design of the applications by third-party developers (Holzer and Ondrus, 2011). The next step in the distribution process is the application portal. Developers offer their application through the portal to the customer. In the current landscape of mobile operating systems, portals are an essential component of the mobile application distribution process. They play an
intermediary role between developers and consumers. Muller et al. (2011) argued that the design of the portal, open vs. closed, becomes less relevant because open portals have closed aspects and closed portals have open aspects as well. They argued that the segmentation strategies will be of greater importance, in order to strengthen the competitive position of the platform.
Some platforms use a centralized single point of sale strategy, while others use a
find and download applications more easily. Also, the developers are facilitated because they can focus on one portal per platform. Network effects also take place; more customers and thus more developers are attracted to the portal. Android and iOS both make use of centralized portals (Holzer and Ondrus, 2011).
However, there are some differences. Apple’s iOS created a unique and exclusive portal with a strict review process for applications. In contrast, Google does not restrict the publication of applications to its portal. In this rationale, the rating and feedback of the quality is the task of the consumers. On Android devices, it is also possible to download from other portals, but Google’s Play Market remain the most important and the most used portal. The lack of a review process and the possibility to download applications from other sources increase the risk of low-quality or malicious applications (Butler, 2011; Holzer and Ondrus, 2011). Following this rationale, it could be expected that iOS applications would score higher than Android applications on the system availability dimension and then especially on ‘stability’ and ‘loading errors’ item. These items directly relate to the technical features of the platforms and the control over the portals. The chance of ‘bad’ applications or applications that do not run well could higher when there is no strict policy. The other two items of System
Availability, Availability and Accessibility, are not related to the evaluation process of malicious software or the different design of the portals. Therefore, the following could be hypothesized:
H2: iOS applications score higher on Stability and Loading Errors than Android applications 2.10.4 Device set
customers. The platform is also less dependent on a single manufacturer, because many manufacturers bring devices with the platform to the market. The main drawback is the customization of the OS to the different manufactures. Because every device has its own specifications, the OS needs to be adapted to different devices. Doing so, the original purpose and philosophy of the OS can be lost (Holzer and Ondrus, 2011). Coping this problem, Google offers Nexus devices, in close cooperation with manufactures. These Nexus smartphones or tablets represent the core platform without the customization layer of the manufacturer. It shows the architectural philosophy and design of the developers of the platform.
Following the rationale from these arguments, it can be expected that applications that run on a platform that has extensive control over the devices score higher on the Efficiency
dimension. Therefore, it could be hypothesized:
H3: iOS applications score higher on Efficiency than Android applications. 2.10.5 Platform integration
Holzer and Ondrus (2011) classified Android and iOS to the extent which the platform was integrated. Some platform focus on their core business, whereas others integrate some elements of the distribution process. Apple’s iOS is classified with a platform with full integration. Fully integrated platforms have strict control over everything related to the distribution process, from device manufacturing to the publishing of applications. Because Apple control the two sides of the market, it can take advantage of these elements. For example, when Apple lower the price of the device, more people are attracted to the OS and will increase the sales of applications (Holzer and Ondrus, 20011).This kind of intervention is more difficult when several players are involved in the distribution process. Apple’s
integration includes various elements: Apple produces the iPhone, it owns the authorized portal (AppStore) for mobile applications and also provides content to the devices with the iTunes Store. Google on the other hand focus on application development and application sale by integrating a portal into the OS, namely the Google Play Market (Mortier and Mulligan, 2011; Wasserman, 2010; Butler 2011, Holzer and Ondrus, 2011).
2.10.6 Developer options
An important issue for developers is to decide which platform to support. For some
versions of each variant. Wasserman (2010) argued that in this case, the developers has four options :
1) Develop the application for a single platform and use one version that run on all the different devices. This would simplify the work of the developer, but would not take advantage of the features of each device
2) Develop native applications for each platform. This would could higher the
development and maintenance costs but it includes the ability to optimize the application for each platform
3) Develop mobile web applications. This minimizes coding for a specific platform because the applications is accessible online in the browser.
4) Use one or more layers of abstraction. A ‘write once’ application can be mapped into native executable programs that will run on multiple platforms.
From this point of view, similarities and/or differences in the applications could be explained from the developer’s point of view. Developers can choose to replicate the application on another platform or to design a completely different application.
2.11 Conclusion
The conclusion of the arguments stated above is that E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL by Parasuraman et al. (2005) offer the most complete framework to valuate electronic service quality in the context of mobile applications that deal with shopping of experiential products .
3 Methodology
In this section, the dimensions will be operationalized into measurable items. After that, the selection of the sample will be discussed.
3.1 Operationalization
needed to be objectively measurable. As result of that, some of these items are also rewritten so they can be answered by a Yes or No. The second important condition is that the measures have no overlap and cover as many aspects as possible of their dimension.
3.2 The final model
The final model will be presented below. This model is used for the coding of the applications in the sample.
Figure 4 The ES-QUAL-MES model
Dimension Measurement items Description Sources
Efficiency A1 Logging time Users must be able to access all content with a maximum of 3 pages
Murray and Haubl (2011) Zeldman (2001) A2 General
information cues
Icons in the application have a textual description that gives information
Parboteeah et al.(2009)
A3 Download delay The application loads within 12 seconds Hoxmeier & Di Cesare (2000) A4 Search function The application supports a search
functions
Vance et al. (2008) A5 Gestures The application supports multi-touch for
navigation for navigation and scrolling (also zooming in pictures)
Android
developers Guide
A6 Filler interface The application makes use of a filler interface information is loading
Android
developers Guide A7 Vertical scrolling The application supports vertical
scrolling
Android
developers Guide A8 Horizontal
scrolling
The application supports horizontal scrolling
Android
developers Guide
A9 Tabs The application supports tabs Android
swiping swiping developers Guide A 11 Sticky
information
When you leave the app and then come back later, the information or actions you have taken are still intact.
Zhang (2011) Android
Developers Guide
Fulfilment B 1 Retailer-hosted product reviews
There are retailer-hosted products reviews available in the application
Gu et al (2012)
B 2 Third-party product reviews
There are third-party products reviews available in the applications
Gu et al (2012)
B 3Customer ratings There are customer ratings available in the application
Gu et al (2012)
B 4 Usefulness of the review
Users can vote for the usefulness of the review
Gu et al (2012)
B 5 Branding logo Third-party logo are present in the application
Lowry et al. (2008) B 6 Branding name Third-party branding names are present
in the application
Lowry et al. (2008) B 7 Stock
information
The availability of a product or service is given Janda et al. (2002); Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003 B 8 product specifications,
Product specifications are listed in the applications
Janda et al. (2002) B 9 product pictures There are one of more product pictures
available in the application
Janda et al. (2002);
Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) B 10 Graphic quality The pictures load properly and are not
distorted.
Janda et al. (2002) B 11 Product
demonstration
A demonstration video of the product is present in the application
Janda et al. (2002);
completeness there are no images missing (2002) B 13 Ordering
function
In the application there is a ordering function available
Cenfetelli et al. (2008)
B 14 Paying function
In the application there is a paying function available Cenfetelli et al. (2008); (Barnes,2002) B 15 Delivery information
There is information available about the delivery of the purchased products
Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) B 16 Wish list The application has a wish lisht function Kalyanam et al.
(2002
System availability
C 1 Availability Application is available on different platforms
Lee et al. (2009)
C 2 Stability Application does not crash Lee et al. (2009) C 3 Loading errors Application does not loads with errors Lee et al. (2009) C 4 Accessibility The application supports accessibility
options for impaired users
Android Design Guide
Privacy D 1 Third party use Application allows third parties to use the collected information from the
application.
Tsai et al. (2011)
D 2 Password The application makes use of a password system
Ha, Stoel (2009)
D 3 Privacy information
The application has an privacy statement Android Design Guide
Repsonsiveness E 1 Chat support The application supports chat between online customers and human customer service representative is present in the application
Xu et al. (2011)
E 2 Return Policy There is a return policy available in the application
E-Recs-Qual (2005) E 3 FAQ There is a FAQ list in the application E-Recs-Qual
(2005) E 4
Evaluation/feedback
The application supports evaluation or feedback forms
forms
Compensation F 1 Refund policy There is a Refund policy in the application
E-Recs-Qual (2005)
F 2 Returns center There is return center in the application Cenfetelli (2004) F 3 Resell The application has a reselling option Cenfetelli (2008)
Enjoyment G 1Video The application makes use of video Deng and Poole (2010)
G 2 Music The application makes use of music G 3 Mix-and-Match The customer is able to coordinate an
apparel ensemble on the screen
Merle et al. (2012) G 4 Virtual try on The customer is able to use a virtual
model technology
Merle et al. (2012)
Personalization H 1 Customer
recognition
The application provides content and services that are tailored to individuals.
Sheng et al.(2008)
H 2
Recommendations on sales
The application makes use of
personalized product recommendations
Zhang et al. (2011)
H 3 Push notification
The application supports push notification
H 5 Context The application can track the user's location whenever the app was being used. Sheng et al. (2008) H 5 External Communication support
It is possible to share/ tweet information on social networks
Lei et al(2010)
H 6 Freedom of Choice
Individuals are able to customize the interface of the application
Murray and Haubl (2011)
3.3 Discussing the measures
3.3.1 Efficiency measures
Figure 5 Efficiency measures and their descriptions and definitions
Measures Description and definition
Logging time In their theoretical framework, Murray and Haubl (2011) include the variable task completion times. Task completion time is defined as the amount of time taken by each participant to complete the navigation portion of a task. The faster the task completion time, the easier the accessing and use of the application. To make this measurement item applicable to this study, the navigation rule of thumb of Zeldman (2001) is used: Users must be able to access all content with no more than three ‘clicks’.
General
information cues
Parboteeah et al. (2000) explains the urge to buy impulsively by the presence of task relevant cues. Task relevant cues include
characteristics, such as navigability, that help in the attainment of the online consumer’s shopping goal. To use this item in an application context, it has been rewritten to ‘general information cues’ and question if icons in the application have a textual description of its meaning
Download delay Hoxmeier & Di Cesare (2000) found that an application should load within 12 seconds before the user reaches a level of intolerance. This could be a reason for the user to draw away and close the application. In this research, the startup time of the application is tested, when it is has been opened for the first time. This means that the application is not in the cache and has to be started from the beginning.
Search function Vance (2008) found that navigation structure, as part of system quality, has an positive influence on trust. Navigation structure is also related to the ease of using an application. According to the Android Developers Guide, a search function increases the navigability of an application. In this research it will be examined whether or not it is possible to search for products or services in the application.
allow people to directly touch and manipulate objects in the
application. This will lead to a reduction of the cognitive effort needed to perform a certain task while making it more emotionally satisfying. In this research , it will be examined whether or not the applications makes us of gestures in the form of multi-touch.
Filler interface According to Lee (2012), a filler interface may reduce the Perceived Waiting Time. This can be related to the (perceived)speed of using the application. It will be examined if the application supports filler interfaces.
Vertical scrolling According to the Android Developers Guide, vertical scrolling lists are often the most straightforward kind of interface for collection-related screens, especially for textual information. This feature thus contributes to the navigability of the application and so influence the ease and speed of using the application
Horizontal scrolling
According to the Android Developers Guide, horizontal scrolling can be used for more visual or media-rich content items such as photos or videos. This feature thus contributes to the navigability of the
application and so influences the ease and speed of using the application
Tabs According to the Android Developers Guide, tabs in the action bar makes it easy to explore and switch between different functional aspects or to browse categorized data sets. This feature thus
contributes to the navigability of the application and so influences the ease and speed of using the application
Horizontal swiping According to the Android Developers Guide, swipe views creates an opportunity to efficiently move from item to item using a simple gesture. This makes browsing and consuming data a more fluent experience. This feature thus contributes to the navigability of the application and so influences the ease and speed of using the application
accessing increases when users can continue their last activity in the application. It will be examined whether or not the same menu/product is displayed after returning to the application.
3.3.2 Fulfilment measures
Measure the extent to which the application promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled
Figure 6 Fulfilment measures and their descriptions and definitions
Measures Description and definition
Retailer-hosted product reviews
In their research on Word of Mouth (WOM) sources, Gu et al. (2012) defined retailer- hosted (internal) WOM information as information on relative retailer that is hosted by the retailer itself. Hosting customer reviews van help customer make a purchase decision and ultimately increase product sales. This relates to It will be examined if the application support this kind of product reviews,
Third-party product reviews
In contrast, third-party (external) product reviews are reviews that are not hosted by the retailer. External product reviews has a better reputation and recognition, they are often more specialized and they often provide professional reviews as well (Gu et al., 2012).
Customer ratings Chen et al. (2007) study the effect of customer reviews. The authors showed that an average rating value influences the evaluation of the product quality of a product by consumers. It will be examined whether or not the application shows customer ratings.
Usefulness of the review
Chen et al. (2007) show that customer reviews that are perceived as helpful by other customer have a greater influence on retailer sales. When this option is available, visitors could indicate whether they think the review was helpful, by answering a yes or no question.
applications uses logo’s in their content.
Branding name The same reasoning as for the branding logo holds also for branding names. Sometimes a Web Site does not show a logo, but a brand name. A combination is also possible (Lowry et al., 2008)
Stock information In the studies by Janda et al. (2002) and Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003), product availability was mentioned as an important part of the fulfilment process. The information dimension is a strong predictor of customer satisfaction and will increase the likelihood to distribute positive WOM. These findings emphasize the importance of supplying the ability to check inventory information.
Product specifications
The information dimension rationale also holds for product
specifications (Janda et al., 2002). In this study, an application has product or service specifications if it displays some characteristics of the product or service.
Product pictures Product pictures give the consumer information about the product or service. Therefore, the information dimension (Janda et al., 2002) is also applicable to this item. Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) also emphasizes the importance of good pictures of products. In this study, at least one picture should be available for a product or service.
Graphic quality According to Janda et al. (2002), not only the quantity of the information dimension is important, the quality is also important. In this study, the quality of the graphics was measured by the look of the graphic ( appropriate resolution) and the sharpness (no large pixels visible)
Product demonstration
For this measurement item, the logic of the information dimension is used (Janda, 2002). More and more websites are using demonstration videos to demonstrate the product. Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) also use measures about the comprehensiveness of provided information. In this study, the presence of one or more informational videos has been examined. Condition is that video is used for product or service demonstration.
Graphical completeness
influence on the perceived quality. Therefore, in this study is examined whether all images load correctly.
Ordering function Cenfetelli et al. (2008) asserted that an ordering function is a relative important support service technology. This function is more important for customers than other functions. In this study, this item is marked as ‘yes’ if consumers are able to order products in the application.
Paying function Payment systems are important aspects of mobile services and delivery support ( Barnes,2002) Paying is identified by Cenfetelli et al. (2008) as a service functionality that supports the core transaction. In this research, the application should at least has one payment method to be classified as an application with a paying function.
Delivery information
Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) have studied the delivery of products purchased online. Their results indicate that the performance of the retailer will be judged by fast and accurate delivery of products. Since no products are ordered in this study, the presence of delivery
information will be examined.
Wish list Kalyanam et al. (2002) argued that wish list can serve as means to communicate their preferences to other customers. This indicates that the wish list has a community function. Retailers can also base their product recommendation on the basis of a wish list. In this study, the presence of a wish list function will be examined.
3.3.3 System availability measures
Measure the correct technical functioning of the application
Figure 7 System Availabillity measures and their descriptions and definitions
Measures Description and definition
whether the application is available on iOS and on Android.
Stability Another important aspect of the accessibility, mentioned by Lee et al. (2009), is the stability. In this study, stability will be tested by
examining whether or not the application crashes.
Loading errors Loading errors is also an aspect of the accessibility (Lee et al., 2009). Loading errors in the context of this study refers to whether or not all the text and graphics loads without errors, such as missing content
Accessibility According to the Android Developer Guide, accessibility is an
important feature since some users have varying abilities. Support for accessibility will increase the technical functioning of the application. Accessibility setting, for example, let users modify the text size or the speed at which text is spoken. In this study, it will be examined
whether or not accessibility settings are present in the application
3.3.4 Privacy measures
Measure the degree to which extent the application is safe and protects customer information
Figure 8 Privacy measures and their descriptions and definitions
Measures Description and definition
Third party use Tsai et al. (2011) asserted that the secondary use of personal
information is an important factor in valuating privacy. The secondary use of personal information refers to the trading of personal
information of customers to third parties. If the application does not allow secondary use of personal information, customers may perceive that the application is safe and protects customer information In this study, it will be examined whether or not the vendor use personal information for this purpose. This is often stated in the privacy policy. If there is no privacy policy or other informational disclosure on this item, it is assumed that the vendor allows secondary use of personal information.
commitments in electronic commerce are reflected in the actions of the Web merchant. For customers, visible access to privacy and security on e-commerce web sites is through statement or security features like password protection. In this study, it has been examined whether or not an application makes use of a password system.
Privacy information
Liu et al. (2005) argue that privacy seals are a visible and easy way to assure consumers that the vendor respects privacy of individuals. According to the Android Developer Guide, it is important to be transparent about the data that is collected. A clear and concise privacy policy will generate trust among users. It also reduces to likelihood of surprised and irritated users. Finally, a privacy policy helps the consumer to answer on these questions without the support of the vendor. This will save costs for the vendor. In this research, the presence of a privacy policy will be examined.
3.3.5 Responsiveness measures
Measure the effective handling of problems and returns through the application
Figure 9 Responsiveness measures and their descriptions and definitions
Measures Description and definition
Chat support In their study on customer loyalty, Xu et al. (2011) examined the influence of Live Help Technology. Live Help Technology is used to facility direct contact between customers and a human service
representative. The study of Janda (2002) also measure this item. In this research, the presence of a live chat mechanism will result in a positive score on this item.
Return Policy In the E-RecS-QUAL, Zeithaml et al. (2005) measure return by the availability of convenient return options and whether or not the website handles product return well. Since no products or services are ordered in this research, the presence of a clear return policy will be examined.
return policies (Ranganathan & Ganapathy, 2001). Studies have shown that online stores with a FAQ will get more visitors than those without one.
Evaluation/feedback forms
Cenfetelli et al. (2008) identified evaluating as a service functionality that support the core transaction. By evaluation, the tools that enable the customer to communicate with the company are meant. In this study, the presence of an evaluation form in the application is examined.
3.3.6 Compensation measures
Measure the degree to which the application compensates customers for problems
Figure 10 Compensation measures and their descriptions and definitions
Measures Description and definition
Refund policy In addition to the customers laws of a specific country, an application could implement a refund policy. In the E-RecS-QUAL the
compensation dimension is briefly discussed and contains important aspects that mirror aspects of traditional service quality. This creates trust because there is a concern for solving the problems of customers. When there was a refund policy present in the application, this
measure was scored positively.
Returns center Lightmer (2004) describes a return center as a functional requirement for the retirement phase of the Customer Service Life Cycle. In a return center, the vendor informs the customer of disposal options and the return process. Since no products or services are purchased in this research, solely the presence of a return center will be examined.
Resell Cenfetelli et al. (2008) measured return an resell as one item that refers to the ‘helping customers to move, return, or dispose of products’. In this study, the resell option will specifically be examined.
3.3.7 Enjoyment measures
