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ABSTRACT
An online retailer’s website acts as a focal point for a company’s online identity, not only encompassing the products and services offered but also presenting the aesthetic image and values of the company. Cultivating a strong company online identity helps differentiate one online retailer from another, attracts and retains customers to strengthen competitive advantage, and enhances brand, product, or service distinctions. Our study proposes that an online retailer’s website cultivates a particular identity that consumers may identify with to varying degrees. This identification with an online retailer’s web presence may generate repeat purchases from committed consumers, or even extra-role behaviors such as the creation and distribution of written, audio, and video content online. Website identification is proposed to be a representation of a consumer’s identification with his/her perception of an online retailer’s identity. Website identification is theorized to act as a mediating factor that unifies online purchase research streams with information systems, consumer behavior, and marketing, presenting new strategies for online retailers to assess and build a strong customer base. This study demonstrates that website identification provides a new theoretical perspective to understand online shopping behavior of committed customers. We recommend that online retailers promote website identification to attract and retain repeat customers by focusing on the attractiveness of the website and product offerings while maintaining a high degree of trust.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ruth C. King
RUTH C. KING (corresponding author: [email protected]) is a professor of management information systems at the School of Business and Economics, Fayetteville State University. She earned her Ph.D. in information systems from the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, she served on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research interests include IT governance and strategy, electronic commerce, IS development, and IT human-capital management. She has published more than seventy articles in premium journals and in international conference proceedings, including Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Communications of ACM, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Information and Management, and others.
Richard A.M. Schilhavy
RICHARD A. M. SCHILHAVY is an assistant professor of computing technology and information systems and business administration at Guilford College. He earned his PhD in information systems at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His research interests include electronic commerce, IT ethics and professionalism, web design, usability, and civic hacking. His research has been published in Decision Support Systems and presented at the Americas Conference on Information Systems and Decision Sciences (AMCIS).
Charles Chowa
CHARLES CHOWA is a managing partner for Agnosco research consultants, and formerly an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His interests include IT alignment, e-commerce, and lately, IT project management. He has published in top-tier journals and conference proceedings including Information Systems Research, Journal of Information Technology, and AMCIS proceedings.
Wynne W. Chin
WYNNE W. CHIN is the C.T. Bauer Professor of Decision and Information Sciences in the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He received his Ph.D. in computers and information systems from the University of Michigan. He has published in journals such as Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, and Data Base. He has been a member of the editorial board of numerous leading journals. He has recently received a World Class University (WCU) Professor designation in conjunction with Sogang University in South Korea. He is a fellow of the Association of Information Systems.