Title: An exploration of online marketplace quality dimension and relationship with purchase intention: the mediating roles of trust and e-WOM

Authors: Priyadarshi Ranjan; G.V.R.K. Acharyulu

Addresses: School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India ' School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

Abstract: As the e-commerce industry undergoes metamorphosis with each passing day, gaining and retaining competitive advantage has become a significant challenge for the online marketplace. In this scenario, sellers have emerged in the forefront, playing a crucial role within companies and helping them in outperforming their rivals in the competitive market. This research has empirically investigated the effect of online marketplace quality on online purchase intention by introducing a new dimension: seller selection quality with website design quality and service quality of the online marketplace, testing the direct and indirect effects of trust and e-WOM. In the proposed model, seller selection quality is determined by the product price, product quality, delivery lead time and delivery cost, and its helps to match consumer desire to overcome quality issues of the online marketplace. Data has been collected from public university students using a web-based survey using adapted instruments. In order to test the hypothesis on the relationship between constructs, data analysis has been done using SmartPLS-SEM 3.0. The statistical results indicate that online marketplace quality is a strong predictor of trust and e-WOM, both of them mediating the relationship between online marketplace quality and online purchase intention.

Keywords: online marketplace quality; seller selection quality; website quality; service quality; online purchase intention; trust; e-WOM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2022.125588

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2022 Vol.13 No.4, pp.490 - 512

Received: 07 Aug 2020
Accepted: 16 May 2021
Published online: 16 Sep 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article