The antecedents of site trust and the determinants of on-line purchasing/repurchasing behavior: A relationship marketing approach

The exponential growth of the on-line shopping mall has been the advent of buying and selling products and services over the internet. In these circumstances, this paper presents the importance of understanding and managing the purchasing behavior of on-line shopping mall customers. The main purpose of this research is to find out the antecedents of customer trust and to conceptualize and investigate the relationship between endogenous mediating variables (such as customer trust, attitude, loyalty, relationship involvement) and purchasing and/or repurchasing intention in internet shopping mall. The empirical findings are as follows: First, the three antecedents of customer trust (EC system characteristics, psychological propensity, and trustworthiness) had the positive effects on the formation of site trust. Second, we found out that there were direct or indirect relationships between the mediating variables and on-line purchasing and/or repurchasing intention. In particular, the direct effects of customer attitude on customer loyalty and buying intention were rejected, but the indirect effects through relationship involvement were accepted. This means that the relationship marketing is probably more important for the success of internet shopping mall. Third, there were no direct relationship between the mediating variables and the repurchasing intention, but in most researches in brick and mortar business, the proposition is supported. This implies that repurchasing intention was intensified by the indirect path, such as site trust → attitude → involvement → loyalty → purchasing intention → repurchasing intention. So, the internet marketers must make an effort not only to strengthen the direct causal linkage between them but also to consolidate the indirect connections leading to boost purchasing and repurchasing intention.