Abstract
As few studies relate the technical aspects of a corporate website to a firm’s turnover, this paper aims to examine how the quality of a corporate website influences social networks and the company’s turnover in large family firms. The moderating and mediating effect of social networks on the relationships between website quality and turnover are also tested. In addition, the paper performs a multigroup analysis to analyze the differences between family businesses with low and high family ownership concentration. The sample used in the study, the largest 500 family firms’ websites around the globe extracted from The Global Family Business Index compiled by the University of St. Gallen, were analyzed using partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that both the direct and indirect effect of website quality on turnover and the moderating effect of social networks in the relationship between website quality and turnover were negative and significant. The multigroup analysis reveals some significant differences between both groups. The study contributes to the evaluation of website literature by exploring a new sector of application: family businesses. Moreover, the largest family firms should improve their presence in social networks to increase their sales.
Highlights
Organizations communicate with a range of audiences through a variety of channels
Family firms with higher family involvement may pursue family-oriented goals and are willing to sacrifice economic performance in order to preserve family wealth [58], which can lead to severe conflicts with other shareholders or stakeholders
We have analyzed the relationships between e-quality, social networks and turnover and we have compared the results between family firms with high and low family ownership
Summary
Organizations communicate with a range of audiences through a variety of channels. over the last two decades, the Internet has grown to be one of the basic pillars of such communication. The informative and participatory nature of the Internet has boosted company relationships with their environments, heralding the emergence of a new paradigm in which the user is actively involved in the generation of content: Web 2.0. The development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been providing new means for customers to participate in co-creation experiences [1]. Assessing the effectiveness or quality of a website is important as a way to understand whether the company is providing the type and quality of information and interaction to satisfy website users [2]. Identifying the effect of website quality on website users’ behavioral intentions, such as attitude towards using a website and purchase intention (PI), is crucial for informing managers about how website users experience the level of website quality offered by the companies [3]
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