How a branded website creates customer purchase intentions

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate whether customers’ perceptions of the quality and brand equity of a branded website affect purchase intentions, and to explore the mediating effects of trust and perceived risk in this relationship. Links between purchase intention and both trust and perceived risk, moderated by electronic word of mouth (eWOM), are also examined. A research model for testing relationships among these constructs based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework is outlined. A statistical analysis of the collected questionnaires was computed from the website of a target chain restaurant in Taiwan (T.G.I. Friday’s). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine the hypothesised relationships among the variables. The findings confirm that potential customers’ perceptions of both the quality and brand equity of a branded website affect their trust and perceived risk, and, in turn, their purchase intentions. This study also reveals the existence of a moderating effect of eWOM on the links between both trust and perceived risk and purchase intentions. Based on the findings, the implications are discussed, and directions for future research are highlighted.