Appendix - George Balabanis and Vangelis Souitaris

Appendix
Measures
Motivation. Items generated for the motivation scale were based on the qualitative study by Wolfinbarger and Gilly. The item reduction process involved the following procedure. First, 10 e-shoppers (that had used internet for shopping for at least one year) were asked to assign each item to one of the two dimensions identified by Wolfinbarger and Gilly, goal oriented and experiential motivation. At the end, they were instructed to discard the items that did not fall into any of these categories. Anderson and Gerbing’s substantive validity coefficient ( Csv = (nc- no)/N where nc is number of respondents that assign the item to the posited dimension, no is the highest number of assignments of the item to any of the 2 identified dimensions and N is the total number of respondents) was used to establish which items will be retained .40
All items were analysed using Anderson and Gerbing procedure.41 In particular, we examined the dimensionality of each dimension by examining the pattern of standardised residuals and modification indices. Purification of the scale following the Kaplan’s procedure led to a reduction of items to 10, listed below. 42
Goal oriented items
I am really specific when I’m shopping on-line; anything I’ve ever purchased is something that I have planned beforehand
I have a purpose in mind
I am looking for a specific product
I try to save time
There are no queues/crowds
I want to get in-and-out quickly (fewest clicks)
I want ease of use
Experiential oriented items
I use it for recreational purposes, its fun, because it’s out there in the world
I constantly browse out of curiosity, just to see if there’s anything that takes my fancy
I enjoy the ‘thrill of hunt’ above all other things that the internet provides
The purified model had a satisfactory fit (χ2 (34)= 61.13, p=0.004, RMSEA=0.063, GFI=0.94, CFI=0.91, N=202). 43 Reliability alpha for the two dimensions was 0.73 (goal oriented) and 0.66 (experiential), respectively. Composite reliability of each scale was above the threshold of 0.6. 44 Specifically, composite reliability was 0.73 and 0.61 for goal oriented and experiential dimensions.
Convergent validity is evidenced by highly significant t-values. All the reported t-values were above 5.5. Discriminant validity was established by checking the magnitude of correlation coefficient (phi) between the goal orientation and experiential orientation measures. The low correlation coefficient (-0.25) indicated that the two measure are distinct. Additionally, discriminant validity was tested by using the single degree of freedom test that compares the two structural equation measurement models, one with the correlation between the two constructs fixed at 1, and a second with this correlation free. 45 The difference in resulting chi-squares was significant (Δχ2 (1) =48.7, p=0.000), which supports the claim of discriminant validity.
Web service attributes of the e-retailer were measured using an abbreviated version of 8Cs framework by Srinivasan et al. The 8C variables were validated by using confirmatory factors analysis. Two factors (community and cultivation) were eliminated because of poor fit. After purification using Kaplan’s procedure the model’s fit was acceptable (χ2(50)=77.26, p = 0.008, RMSEA=0.052, GFI=0.94, CFI=0.93). The following items remained after the purification: This website makes purchase recommendations that match my needs; This website enables me to order products that are tailor-made for me (customisation); The return policies laid out in this website are customer friendly; I believe that this website takes good care of its customers (care); This website provides a “one-stop shop” for my shopping; This website does not satisfy the majority of my online shopping needs (reversed) (choice); This website design is attractive to me; For me, shopping at this website is fun; I feel comfortable shopping at this website (character); The site doesn’t waste my time; This website is very convenient to use (convenience); This website has a search tool that enables me to locate products easily; This website makes product comparisons easy (interactivity). The composite reliabilities (CR) for most of the variables were above or close to the 0.6 cut-off point: customisation (CR=0.588); care (CR=0.597); choice (CR=0.467); character (CR=0.601); convenience (CR=0.623); and interactivity (CR=0.634). Choice was eliminated from the analysis due to the low value of CR.
Store attributes. Given the nature of the e-tailer three measures from store image inventory of Chodhudy et al were used: 46 “product quality”, “product assortment” and “value for money”. After the appropriate modifications the 3 factor CFA model indicated a good fit (χ2(17)=23.37, p = 0.137, RMSEA=0.043, GFI=0.97, CFI=0.97). The following items were used: I like XYZ brand products; XYZ.com only sells high quality products; I can count on products I buy at XYZ.com to be excellent (product quality); XYZ.com has a large variety of products; Everything I need is at XYZ.com; XYZ.com carries a wide variety of national brands (assortment); The prices at XYZ.com are fair; I get value for money at XYZ.com (value for money). Composite reliabilities for the three constructs were: 0.674, 0.718, and 0.785 respectively. The corresponding Cronbach’s alpha for the two 3-item constructs that could be calculated were: 0.686 and 0.723, respectively.
Loyalty measures were adapted from Zeithaml et al. 47 After the appropriate modification CFA indicated a good fit for the one factor model (χ2(5)=10.69, p = 0.058, RMSEA=0.076, GFI=0.98, CFI=0.95). The following items were included: I seldom consider switching to another website; I say positive things about XYZ.com to other people; I will continue to do business with XYZ.com if its prices increase; I will pay a higher price at XYZ.com relative to the competition for the same benefit; I will stop doing business with XYZ.com if its competitors’ prices decrease somewhat (reversed). The composite reliability was 0.619 and Cronbach’s alpha 0.694.
Satisfaction was measured on an abbreviated version of Oliver’s scale. 48 The following items were included: I have truly enjoyed purchasing from XYZ’s; My choice to purchase from XYZ.com was a wise one; If I had to do it again, I would do my purchase at XYZ.com again. Composite reliability was CR=0.790 and Cronbach alpha 0.780.
Cluster analysis method
Initially shoppers’ clusters were formed using Ward’s method of hierarchical clustering. A three-cluster solution resulted based on an examination of the Variance Ratio Criterion (VRC) proposed by Milligan and Cooper. 49 Then, a K-means clusters procedure with the initial seeds (centroids) provided by the hierarchical analysis solution was conducted to obtain the final clusters. To validate the cluster solution, a split-sample procedure as recommended by Huberty et al was used. 50 This procedure involved the splitting of the sample in half 3 consecutive times. For each of the 3 pairs of sub-samples a matching of the correlation of the Linear Discriminant Functions (LDF) structure coefficients was estimated. In this case this calculation was difficult due to the small number of cluster variables (only two), however, in all three pairs the LDF coefficients were close to each other. The overall correlation coefficient for all three pairs of LD coefficients was high (0.920). The second validation test (cross-typology clustering) involved the use of the final cluster means for the first half as a seed for the second half (sub sample) in a K-means analysis. At the end the average hit rates of all pairs are estimated and should be higher than those expected by chance. In that case the average hit rate was 93.14%, which is much higher than that of chance (33.33%).
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