Online consumer response: key variables affecting consumers’ value perceptions

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the relationship between consumer perceptions of a brand and their web site, and the perceived value of that web site. This is done by empirically testing the relationship between four key consumer perception variables, i.e. brand personality, involvement, perceived control and expectations, and the perceived value of the web site in an experimental study of consumers’ interaction with car brand web sites. Laboratory based, controlled and randomised experiments using three equal sized samples under three experimental conditions were designed. Seventy-eight participants were randomly allocated to three different web site interactions as the experimental treatments. The multiple regression models showed that the four independent variables taken together, rather than in isolation, predict the dependent variable, and account for 70% of the variation in perceived value. This finding supports the argument that these four consumer-based perceptions measured after the web site interaction can successfully predict the overall value of the web site as perceived by those consumers. Theoretical and managerial implications of this finding are further discussed.