The roles of habit and web site quality in e-commerce

Habit is included as a primary construct along with perceived usefulness and trust to predict and explain consumers' continued behavior of using a B2C web site and several web quality measures as antecedents to trust and perceived usefulness.

Abstract

Previous research has primarily examined consumers’ perceived usefulness of web sites and trust in the web retailer as two major predictors of web site use and e-commerce adoption. While the consumers’ repeated behavior in the past (i.e., habit) may contribute to continuance behavior, it has not been investigated. This article includes habit as a primary construct along with perceived usefulness and trust to predict and explain consumers’ continued behavior of using a B2C web site. Additionally, included are several web quality measures as antecedents to trust and perceived usefulness. The research model is evaluated using structural equation modeling. Results show that consumers’ behavioral intentions to continue using a B2C web site are determined by all three key drivers: perceived usefulness, trust, and habit. Furthermore, not all dimensions of web quality have a significant effect on perceived usefulness and trust.