*Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the structure of the concept of customer-perceived
quality (CPQ) in electronic commerce (e-commerce).
*Design/methodology/approach – The study applies the methodology of concept mapping to data obtained from online and offline focus groups. Following a series of structured conceptualization tasks, the data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis to establish a
conceptual construct of e-commerce CPQ.
*Findings – The proposed conceptual construct consists of six dimensions: outcome quality;
consumer service; process controllability; ease of use; information quality; and web site design.
The study finds that online consumers attach more importance to quality attributes associated with
outcome quality and consumer service than to attributes associated with web transactions.
*Research limitations/implications – The sample should be extended to facilitate the generalization of the findings from this research.
*Originality/value – This paper identifies a three-level structure for e-commerce quality as
perceived by consumers. The study offers practical insights to online retailers in providing superior
service. |