Online Retailers’ Perceived Ethics and Consumer Repetitive Purchases Under the Moderating Role of Reputation: A Commitment-Trust Theory Perspective

Abstract

In a highly competitive market, online stores are requested to identify key factors to implement customers’ trust and commitment, which are vital determinants of high-quality relationships. As online transactions are witnessing increasing risks of cybercrimes and abuse incidents, offering ethical online services has become crucial in building robust and sustainable relationships with customers. The current study has been conducted in this context and its objective is twofold: on the one hand, it aims at understanding the effects of online retailers’ perceived ethics on e-trust and e-commitment, which in turn predict repetitive purchases, and on the other hand, it seeks to test the moderator role of reputation in the relationship between e-trust, e-commitment, and repetitive purchases. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method was employed to analyze the data collected from a web survey conducted in Saudi Arabia involving 328 online shoppers. The results showed that all ethical dimensions influence e-trust and e-commitment in a significant way, hence predicting repetitive purchases from the same e-service platforms. The reputation of online retailers also plays a significant moderator role in the relationships between e-trust and repetitive purchases, as well as between e-commitment and repetitive purchases. This study is interesting for three main reasons. First, it is the earliest of its kind to assess online retailers’ ethical practices through seven dimensions in the context of the business-to-consumer (B2C) market. Second, it constitutes a further extension of the trust-commitment theory by testing the moderating role of online retailer reputation. Third, the findings provide relevant managerial implications for online retailers to enhance the loyalty of their consumers based on their ethical practices.