Sustainable Internet service provider selection: Affected by internal and external factors (quality and reputation)

Abstract

Although recent studies have provided a framework for determining factors contributing online retailers' success, they have not been successful in recognizing that customer decision-making process is mostly influenced by internal factors of the websites (e.g. navigation, color and graphics). Although website quality is important, it provides only a subset of the evaluation criteria for service provider. Other features of online retailers can play important roles in influencing customer's response. This study considers external (i.e. reputation) and internal factors (i.e. quality of the website) as factors affecting the customer's opinion about the website of companies offering broadband services in Iran. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has been used for data analysis. The findings show that security and confidentiality of data have a significant and positive impact on reputation. Moreover, web design and customer services have a significant positive effect on positive emotions of the customers. In addition, we found that security and confidentiality of data have a significant positive effect on perceived risk, and positive emotions have a significant positive effect on purchase intention. Finally, perceived risk has a positive impact on negative emotions.