Business-to-Consumer Web Site Quality and Web Shoppers' Emotions: Exploring a Research Model

Abstract

Based on the literature on consumer behavior, psychology, and information systems, this paper explores relationships between Web site quality, the cognitive appraisal of situational state (a key cognitive antecedent to emotions) and a set of positive and negative emotions. A theoretical model is tested on data collected from 215 different Web shopping episodes. Results show that when shopping on business-to-consumer Web sites for low-touch products (music CDs and movies in DVD format), customers felt emotions, namely liking, joy, pride, dislike, frustration, and fear. Even though the mean intensity levels of these emotions is low to moderate, for a substantial number of shoppers (near a third of the sample population) the emotions of liking and joy were felt intensely. Results also indicate that Web site quality, measured by several Web site design components, has a positive impact on the cognitive appraisal of situational state, operationalized as the satisfaction level of the overall online shopping experience. In turn, this appraisal affects all emotions felt by shoppers except fear. This study is particularly addressed to designers and managers of B2C Web sites as it invites them to consider Web shoppers’ emotions while designing and developing their electronic platform.

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