Perceived uncertainty and switching intention on e-commerce platforms: The moderating role of usage habit

Abstract

With the increasingly fierce competition between e-commerce platforms, the issue of user retention has received more attention. Prior research highlighted the important role of perceived uncertainty in predicting user switching. This study enriches this line of literature by incorporating the effect of habit. Distinguished from other research, our study specifically focuses on the conflict between habit, which requires a stable environment for formation, and perceived uncertainty, which indicates an unstable environment. Anchored on the stimulus–organism–response framework, we provide a clear explanation of how perceived uncertainty interacts with habit and shapes users’ switching intention in the e-commerce context. An online survey of 358 users of the Taobao in China provided data for model validation and partial least squares estimation was adopted for data analysis. Three main findings emerged. First, perceived information asymmetry and perceived seller opportunism increase users’ perceived uncertainty. Second, perceived uncertainty directly and positively influences disconfirmation (internal cognition), whereas indirectly influences dissatisfaction (internal affect) through disconfirmation. Third, users’ habit of using an incumbent platform negatively moderates the effect of perceived uncertainty on disconfirmation. Furthermore, both disconfirmation and dissatisfaction positively contribute to the users’ switching intention. The findings provide valuable enlightenment for e-commerce platform owners to retain users.