Commitment, Trust, and Social Involvement: An Exploratory Study of Antecedents to Web Shopper Loyalty

Preliminary results provide general support for commitment as a determinant of loyalty and social involvement magnifying the strength of that relation.

Abstract

Winning customer loyalty is viewed as a priority by many electronic (e) businesses. Grounded in the theory of reasoned action, our proposed model suggests that commitment is a key attitudinal antecedent to Web shopper loyalty. In the model, we introduce trust in the Internet and social involvement in a Web consumption community as moderators of the commitment-loyalty relation. The model was tested using data from a survey of Web users. Preliminary results provide general support for commitment as a determinant of loyalty and social involvement magnifying the strength of that relation. Trust in the Internet did not attenuate the commitment-loyalty relation. We offer implications and directions for future research.