Impact of Website Quality on Competitive Advantage of Business

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I certify that the work presented in the dissertation is my own unless referenced

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I would like to express my thanks to my advisor, for his suggestions, comments, patience and understanding. Very special thanks to my parents, my father, my mother, my brother and my sister who were continuously supporting me throughout my life and leaving me free in all my decisions. I would also like to thank my colleagues for his technical support whenever I needed. I would like to thank to Department, all the university managers, teachers and students with whom I have worked.

DECLARATION

I declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. I further declare that this work has not previously been presented in whole or part, for any other award, or published in whole or in part elsewhere, including this university. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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ABSTRACT

Distance and time barriers are vanishing and the world is becoming an integrated community of buyers and sellers that interact via the Internet. The transition of the global market place from a tangible-oriented marketplace to an information-based market place promises to lower transaction costs, save time, and remove distance barriers. Electronic business (E-Business) and Electronic commerce (Ecommerce) represent an evolution of traditional business and trading, offering a broader global marketplace for sellers and buyers. The study integrates web quality (system quality, information quality, and service quality), perceived interactivity (human-message, human-human), and web outcomes (web usage, web satisfaction, and web loyalty) to explore the Ecommerce model of websites. This shows that web quality has significantly positive effect on perceived interactivity, web usage, and web satisfaction separately, which in turn influence web loyalty. This study also confirms that perceived interactivity is an important mediator between web quality and web outcomes. This study emphasizes the importance of both web quality and perceived interactivity in the progress towards success of company websites.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTii

DECLARATIONiii

ABSTRACTiv

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION6

Background of the study6

Rationale of the study9

Significance of the study10

Research Aim11

Research Objectives11

Structure of the thesis12

Chapter I: Introduction12

Chapter II: Literature Review12

Chapter III: Methodology13

Chapter IV: Data analysis and Discussion13

Chapter V: Conclusion13

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW14

Web Quality15

Perceived Interactivity16

The relationship between website quality and perceived interactivity18

The relationship between website quality and perceived interactivity19

The relationship between website use, website satisfaction, and website loyalty19

Determinants of Successful Ecommerce Website20

Website Quality Issues21

Main Website E-Service Quality Assessment Techniques24

E-S-QUAL24

E-A-S-QUAL25

WebQual/eQual25

eTailQ25

IRSQ Scale:26

PIRQUAL26

SITEQUAL26

Information Quality Assessment on the World Wide Web in Automotive Sector27

Web Assessment Index (WAI)27

Factors Inherent to the Web Assessment Index (WAI)28

Accessibility28

Speed29

Navigability29

Content Quality30

REFERENCES31

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Web quality consists of three dimensions: (1) system quality, (2) information quality, and (3) service quality. Furthermore, positive perceptions of health web quality predict customers' perceived interactivity, web usage, and web satisfaction. Previous studies having found similar results (Ansari, Mela and Neslin 2008, p. 60). Hwang and Kim proposed a conceptual framework to interpret how web quality influences affective ...