1.

Research Model and Hypothesis

The research model is developed based on the model developed by Gwo-Guang Lee and Hsiu-

Fen Lin based on the study that determines the perceptions of customer e-service quality in
online shopping. The study relates the dimensions of e-service quality that leads to customer
satisfaction and service quality in purchase decision in online stores in Ernakulum. Also the
customer satisfaction positively leads to purchase intention from the online stores in Ernakulam.
The research model is developed as shown in the picture below.

Figure 3.1: Study Model

Dependent Variable

Purchase Intention

Independent Variables

Customer Satisfaction

Overall Service Quality

Service Quality Dimensions.

Responsiveness

Personalization

Reliability

Website Design

Trust

3.1 E-service quality dimensions & Hypothesis

This study used the revised SERVQUAL scale items to establish dimensions of e-service quality
through web site design, reliability, responsiveness, trust, and personalization. The relationship
among the e-service quality dimensions, overall service quality and customer satisfaction is
hypothesized and discussed below.
Web site design quality is very important in for online. The influence of web site design on
e-service performance has been studied extensively. Web site design describes the appeal that
user interface design presents to customers. They found that the customer satisfaction is assessed
using the quality of web site design. So the following hypotheses are proposed.
H1. Web site design in an online store positively influences service quality.

Reliability. Reliability represents the ability of the web site to fulfill orders correctly, deliver
promptly, and keep personal information secure .The importance of reliability has been
emphasized by the information technology-based service. Online stores must provide mistakefree service and secure online transactions to make customers feel comfortable using online
shopping. The following hypotheses thus are proposed.

H2. Reliability in an online store positively influences overall service quality.

Responsiveness. Customers expect online stores to respond to the demands promptly (Liao and
Cheung, 2002). Responsiveness describes how often an online store voluntarily provides
services. Researchers examining the responsiveness of web-based services have highlighted the
importance of perceived service quality and customer satisfaction (Yang and Jun, 2002; Zhu et
al., 2002). The following hypotheses thus are proposed.

H3. Responsiveness design in an online store positively influences overall service quality.

Trust.

Online

shopping

context

comprises

the

interaction

customers

and

online

stores (Bakos, 1991). Trust is a significant antecedent of participation in commerce generally,

and especially in online settings because of the increased ease with which online stores can
behave opportunistically (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000). Trust is defined as customer
willingness to accept vulnerability in an online transaction based on their positive expectations
regarding future online store purchase behavior.

H4. Trust in an online store positively influences overall service quality.

Personalization. Personalization involves individualized attention, personal thank you notes from
online stores, and the availability of a message area for customer questions or comments. The
lack of real-time interaction tends to prevent potential customers from purchasing through online
shopping .Previous studies have examined the influence of the customer service provided by
internet retailers on customer perceptions of service quality.

H5. Personalization in an online store positively influences overall service quality.

Purchase intentions. As the internet has spread it has become a popular marketing channel.
Analyzing customer evaluations of online hopping is particularly interesting to academics and

practitioners, especially in the field of e-commerce. Previous studies have found that service
provider perceptions of customer satisfaction are a function of perceived service quality of
technological services. The theory of reasoned action proposes that behavior can be predicted
from intentions that correspond directly (in terms of action, target and context) to that behavior.
This study thus postulated that consumer purchase intentions provide an acceptable proxy for
actual online purchase behavior.

H6. Overall service quality in an online store positively influences customer satisfaction.
H7. Overall service quality in an online store positively influences purchase intention.
H8. Customer satisfaction with an online store positively influences purchase intention.

2. Research methodology

Methodology:

Sample Size: 331

Sampling Method: Convenience Sampling

Sample Frame: People who have previously purchased from online stores in Ernakulam.

For testing the research model a survey of 331 online consumers were used. Confirmatory factor
analysis was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the
research model was tested using structural equation modelling technique. In the research it was
found that the dimensions of web site design, reliability, responsiveness, and trust affect overall
service quality and customer satisfaction. Also the service quality and the customer satisfaction
leads to customer purchase intentions. The implication of the study is that in future the study can
be made in different methodologies, such as longitudinal studies, focus groups and interviews, to
examine the relationship between service quality and customer purchase behavior in online
shopping contexts

4.1 Subjects and procedure

A total of 331 questionnaires were among various online customers those who have already
purchased from various online sites like Amazon, Flipkart, Amazon and various other sites. The
customers were identified using convenience sampling by asking their experience about previous
online purchase. The response rate was 100 percent.

Tool of Data Collection: Standard questionnaire were adapted from the instruments used
by Gwo-Guang Lee & Hsiu-Fen Lin (2005), Customer Perceptions of E-service quality
in online shopping, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Managment, Volume
33.

Items for measuring web site design, reliability, responsiveness, and personalization
employed several dimensions of the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Kim
and Lee, 2002; Yang and Jun, 2002)

Items for trust were revised from, Kimery and McCard (2002)

Analysis Method:
Structural equation modelling (SEM) is a statistical modelling technique. The factor
analysis, path analysis and regression are all special cases of SEM. SEM is largely
confirmatory technique, rather than exploratory. In other words, a researcher is more
likely to use SEM to determine whether a model in SEM is valid or not, an appropriate
model to "see", it often includes SEM analysis and some probing element. In SEM, it
focuses generally on the latent constructs and abstract psychological variables such as
"intelligence" or "brand attitude" rather than the manifest variables used to measure these
variables. The measure will be recognized as a difficult and error probable. It is modelled
in explicit measurement error, using SEM user unbiased estimates of the relation between
latent constructs. For this purpose SEM enables multiple actions with a single latent
construct.

A structural equation model implies a structure of the covariance matrix of the

measurements (where an alternative name for this field is the "analysis of covariance").
Once the model parameters are estimated, the covariance matrix of the model, which
implicitly results, can then be compared to a sample covariance matrix or in the database.
If both matrices are consistent with each other, then the structural equation model can be
a plausible explanation for the relationship between the measurements and is taken into
account. Compared to regression and factor analysis, SEM is a relatively young field, has
its roots in the documents, which appeared as such in the 1960s. This method is still in
development, and concepts are made and revised on regular basis. These rapid changes
are a source of excitement for some researchers and a source of frustration for others. In
this study it will be used to estimate the number of dependency relationships between all
the variables.

P value
The P value or calculated probability is the estimated probability of rejecting the null
hypothesis (H0) of a study when that hypothesis is true. If the P value is less than 0.05,
the hypothesis is accepted or probability of rejection is less.

Path coefficients
It is the fraction of the standard deviation of the dependent variable (with the appropriate
sign) for which the designated factor is directly responsible. It indicates the amount of
expected change in the dependent variable as a result of a unit change in the independent
variable.

R- Squared Coefficient
This is a measure calculated only for endogenous latent variables, and that reflects the
percentage of explained variance for each of those latent variables. The higher the Rsquared coefficient, the better is the explanatory power of the predictors of the latent
variable in the model, especially if the number of predictors is small.

Reliability
Reliability is a measure of the quality of a measurement instrument; the instrument itself
is typically a set of question statements (or other measures) associated with each latent
variable are understood in the same way by different respondents.

Cronbachs Alpha
This is a measure of reliability associated with a latent variable. It usually increases with
the number of indicators used, and is often slightly lower than the composite reliability
coefficient.

3. Results & Interpretation

All values of like RMR, SRMR, GFI and AGFI are within expected levels shows that the study
can be projected to feasible levels. This study provides statistical evidence for the test of model
goodness of fit (GFI) as observed to be .889 is slightly less fit as compared to the theoretical
levels. Other fit indexes also shows almost good fit for the measurement model. The GFI is
0.889, greater than the 0.9 recommended (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1996). Also non-incremental fit
index, such as the comparative fit index (CFI) is 0.921, exceeding the recommended cut-off level
of 0.9 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). The value of goodness of fit index (AGFI) is 0.861, eventhough is
slightly low, but still acceptable (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Finally, the RMSEA value (root mean
square error of approximation) is found to be 0.061 which not good fit according to the data
(Bagozzi and Yi, 1988).But RMSEA is failing within expected levels that is less than 0.07 so
somehow the study is said to be relevant. In total, the measurement model displayed legitimately
good fit with the data that were collected. The measurement model is as shown in Picture.

Figure 5.1 :Analysis Model

The research model was further already assessed for validity and construct reliability based on
the reference journal.
The explanation of the resultant coefficient is same to that of Cronachs alpha, accepting that it
also takes into account the actual factor loadings rather than supposing each item to be equally
weighted in the composite load determination. In this study the value of Cronachs alpha
exceeded .9 which is a best result. Bagozzi and Yi (1988) defined a factor loading exceeding 0.7
as evidence of convergent validity.

Table 5.1 : Model Fit Indices

Table 5.1: RMSEA Value

5.1 Structural model

The research model was tested using the structural equation modelling using IBM SPSS AMOS
Verion 21. The overall fit statistics advise that the model has adequate model fit with chi-square
value = 476; degrees of freedom = 201; RMSEA = .064; GFI =.889; AGFI = 0.861.Also by
looking on to the model fit indexes which all satisfy the acceptance levels, indicates that the
displayed fitted the data well. Table 6.3 displays the list of lists the structural parameter estimates
and the hypothesis testing results. As the aim of this study were to examine the relationship
between the dimensions of e-service quality and customer purchase intentions mediated by
service quality and customer satisfaction in the online shopping in Ernakulam, it was found to be
a dependable model and projectable. Based on the analytical results showed the dimensions of
service quality, customer satisfaction and purchase intention all supports the respective
hypothesis and are extremely significant.

Table 5.2 : Model Estimates

This study developed is aimed in finding how dimensions of e-service quality through modifying
affects customer satisfaction and how customer satisfaction and service quality affects purchase
intention in online purchase decision. The dimensions of e-service quality that were analyzed in
this study were web site design, trust, reliability, responsiveness, and personalization. The
analytical results of this study showed that all these dimensions of service quality strongly affects
overall the customer satisfaction in making online purchase from e-commerce websites. One of

these analytical results (trust as a factor) which is obtained from the study is consistent with that
of Gefen (2000), who found that trust is a strong determinant of e-service performance that
identified trust as key drivers of perceived customer satisfaction and service quality. Its the
quality of online stores to act securely and in the best securities of customers during the
transaction processes. The dimension of responsiveness significantly affects overall service
quality and customer satisfaction for online stores. From this study it can be concluded that
customers expect high responsiveness from the prompt delivery of products. Thirdly, the the
other dimension reliability was found to be very significant to online purchase leading customer
satisfaction and purchase intentions. Other studies also that shows that reliability to be a crucial
determinant of web-based service quality is by (Kuo, 2003; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003). That
is in order to improve customer satisfaction and purchase intentions, online stores should start
improving the dimensions of reliability, such as providing up-to-date and accurate information,
strengthening the security of online transactions and capability of delivering products as
promised. The e-service quality dimension web site design has a major effect on service quality
and customer satisfaction in this study, its importance should not be undervalued. Several ecommerce websites pays careful attention to this aspect. Online websites are always designed
according to user friendliness, eye-catching color combinations and lucrative offers displayed in
the websites. These all factors add the visual appeal of the website to attract or retain customers
to spend their time in the particular website and motivate them to purchase from the website. The
web site design the user interface should be visually appealing, should be readable, and, allowing
customers to interact in the the web site smoothly. Next important and very significant
dimension is personalization. This results of the study shows that customers are willing t will sell
personal information to other organizations with their knowledge or permission to trusted
websites.

4. Conclusion
The conclusions that can be obtained from the study give contributions in two main areas. Firstly
this study was aimed to develop a model that relates e-service quality by modifying the
SERVQUAL model that relates with customer satisfaction and leading to purchase intention to
consider online shopping context. Secondly, this study was aimed in finding how service quality
dimensions and customer satisfaction, which in turn are considerably, related to customer
purchase intentions for online shoppers in Ernakulam. Since the online shopping is flourishing
nowadays the study is very crucial to analysis the behavior of consumers and to understand
which factors leads them to purchase intention. It will be also helpful to e-commerce industry to
design their services based on the reliability, website design, security, responsiveness which are
the crucial factors on the basis of which the online purchasers rate e-commerce websites. From
the study it was found that the dimensions of responsiveness, web site design, reliability and trust
affect customer satisfaction and both service quality and customer satisfaction leads to purchase
intention. Also the service quality and the customer satisfaction leads to customer purchase
intentions. The study is limited to little scope and in future the study can be extended to different
methodologies, such as longitudinal studies, focus groups and interviews, which can be used to
observe the relationship between service quality and customer purchase behavior in online
shopping contexts.

5. Limitations

This study could be applicable only on the research model to examine other types of online
stores, because online customer perceptions of service quality are dependent based on the cobtext
and thus therefore the thorough effects on purchase intentions may be related to specific services
and products. Also, the sample is obtained on the basis of convenience sampling. The analytical
results presented here thus may have limited generalizability. Again as this study was done in a
short time period, the reliability of this study will not be that dependable and as its based on a
short cross-sectional time period of two months. Also, as the sample was collected in Ernakulam
only, generalizability of this study to other areas might be limited due to cultural differences in
purchase behaviors.

References:

Gwo-Guang Lee, Hsiu-Fen Lin (2005), Customer perceptions of e-service quality in

online shopping , International Journal of Retail Distribution Management Vol. 33 No.
2, pp. 161-176.

Li, Y.N., Tan, K.C. and Xie, M. (2002), Measuring web-based service quality, Total
QualityManagement, Vol. 13 No. 5, pp. 685-700.

India Brand Equity Foundation Website

Mohammad Al-Nasser, Rushami Zien Yusoff, Rabiul Islam and Abdullah ALNasser
(2013),

E-SERVICE

QUALITY

AND

ITS

EFFECT

ON

CONSUMERS

PERCEPTIONS TRUST, American Journal of Economics and Business Administration

5 (2): 47-55, 2013