برآورد نقش ارزیابی محصول از سوی مصرف کننده و اعتماد به خرید دوباره در محیط های تجارت الکترونیک Assessing the effects of consumers’ product evaluations and trust on repurchase intention in e-commerce environments

1. Introduction E-commerce websites are not only tools to support a business transaction, but also companies’ channels to interact and communicate with their consumers (Al-Natour, Benbasat, & Cenfetelli, 2011). According to Gartner (2015), online consumers’ expectations are continuing to increase in the last past years. These heightened consumer expectations have increased the complexity of online systems that businesses need to operate. In order to retain their consumers, online businesses need to redefine strategies to meet consumers’ expectations and win their trust. Considering that it costs more time and effort to acquire new consumers than to retain existing one, it is crucial for online businesses to gain and sustain consumer loyalty in e-commerce markets (Harris and Goode, 2004; Hung, Cheng, & Chen, 2012; Zhang et al., 2011). Research indicates that generating loyal consumer in electronic markets is challenging and considered more important than in offline markets (Harris and Goode, 2004). Establishing online loyalty is dependent on generating consumers’ trust in online vendors (Harris and Goode, 2004). As in traditional markets, trust has been considered crucial in an e-commerce environment due to its ability to promote risktaking behavior in the case of uncertainty (Fang, Qureshi, Sun, & McCole, 2014; McKnight, Cummings, & Chervany, 1998). Lack of trust tends to prevent consumers from purchasing online and causes them to abandon their shopping cart during an online transaction (e.g., Awad and Ragowsky, 2008). Trust in an e-commerce environment is imperative because online consumers generally are more vulnerable to transaction risks, especially when uncertainty regarding product or service quality offered by the online sellers is present (Ba and Pavlou, 2002). One of the most frequent ways to reduce these risks is by creating value to increase trust between online sellers and buyers (Zeithaml, 1988). Thus, as consumer’s demands from business change simultaneously, trust can be a tool to create long-term revenue and growth. To date, the study of online trust along with technology adoption factors, such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and willingness to transact with online firms have dominated the information systems (IS) literature. A particular attention has been given to identifying the relationships among these constructs (e.g., Al-Natour et al., 2011; Awad and Ragowsky, 2008; Benlian, Titah, & Hess, 2012; Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003). This effort has advanced our understanding on the e-commerce adoption and has resulted in an emerging consensus as to its implications in business. The results of prior empirical studies have contributed to the development of e-commerce since online business owners or managers have tied various adoption variables and trust to their business success factors. This is no doubt due to the assumption that improvement in perceptions of technology adoption and trust in online shopping markets should lead to consumers’ willingness to purchase or repurchase products from online firms. However, it is here the confusion remains.