Customers' perceived website service quality and its effects on e-loyalty

Purpose - This study aims to examine determinants of perceived website quality and associations among consequences of perceived website quality. Adopting the framework of loyalty development, causal links are investigated among the website quality, customers' perceived service quality, their satisfaction, return intention and loyalty in the context of the lodging industry. Design/methodology/approach - An online field survey is conducted with internet bookers. A confirmatory factor analysis and a parameter estimate analysis using structural equation modeling are adopted to analyze the data. Findings - The progression of the phases of loyalty proceeds in a linear fashion on a lodging website. Mediation effects of customer satisfaction and return intention are detected. Moderation effects of gender were also detected in the relationships among website service quality and consequences of website service quality. Research limitations/implications - Caution is advised in generalizing findings of this study due to convenience sampling, although findings of the study do confirm results of previously conducted studies. Practical implications - This study provides practical tips for website development for hospitality management to understand the e-loyalty formation process so that appropriate marketing strategies can be established to accommodate the type and degree of individual customer's loyalty as well as gender-specific expectations from prospective customers. Originality/value - This study demonstrates that customer loyalty formation in both physical and online environments has identical processes in the context of the lodging industry. The male group, compared to the female group, appears to be more sensitive in perceiving the effects of functionality of a lodging website, tends to develop customer satisfaction when perceiving website service quality and inclines to develop customer loyalty when having return intention.