Title: Measuring website quality: theoretical framework and practical implications for the agro-food sector in the European Alpine area

Authors: Andrea Moretti; Michela Cesarina Mason; Davide Di Fatta

Addresses: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Udine, Italy ' Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Udine, Italy ' Department of Business, Environmental Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Messina, Italy

Abstract: Currently, online shopping has become a widespread phenomenon around the world and the internet has become a new outlet for the commercialisation of products usually sold through traditional channels. This paper focuses on the agro-food sector and on the European Alpine area with respect to sheep and goat production in order to develop a context-specific framework for e-commerce website quality. In other words, this paper aims to provide, on the one hand, a comprehensive theoretical framework for measure web quality; on the other hand, managerial implications for practitioners of the agro-food sector in order to promote these businesses improving the quality of their e-commerce websites. We declined these aims in two research questions: the first is about which are the key factors of website quality in the agro-food sector, analysing simultaneously system (or functional) quality and information (or technical) quality; the second research question is about how to measure these factors. This paper uses a quantitative methodology that mixes an objective and a subjective approach. The result is a pioneering approach able to capture website quality and to provide useful insights for managers and professionals in the agro-food sector.

Keywords: web quality; system quality; information quality; e-commerce.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2017.086131

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2017 Vol.8 No.3, pp.212 - 231

Received: 08 Jul 2016
Accepted: 17 Jul 2016

Published online: 27 Aug 2017 *

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