A Cross-National Study on Online Consumer Perceptions, Trust, and Loyalty

This article analyzes the validity of signaling theory and relationship marketing in e-commerce and in two different countries with different stages of technology development. We advance a model that reflects the role played by website characteristics as determinant factors of trust and loyalty to the website. The model is tested for young Internet users. It is examined in Spanish and Japanese contexts to ascertain whether any differences emerge due to differing cultures and shopping contexts. Results reveal few differences between Spain and Japan, despite their contrasting development of e-commerce and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Customer service is the most important website signal to engender trust, a feature closely linked to loyalty both in Japan and Spain. However, reputation seems more important when engaging Japanese buyers' trust, whereas only website design has an impact on Spanish buyers' trust.

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