THE CAUSAL MODEL OF FACTORS AFFECTING THAI CUSTOMER LOYALTY TOWARDS E-COMMERCE BUSINESS

Abstract

The objectives of this research were (1) to develop a causal model of factors affecting Thai customer’s loyalty towards e-commerce business; and (2) to examine the goodness of fit of the causal model of factors affecting Thai customer’s loyalty towards e-commerce business with the empirical data. The research model consisted of 9 latent variables, namely, information quality, system quality, product and service quality, brand image, marketing communication tools, perceived value, satisfaction, trust, and loyalty. This research was a quantitative research employing the survey method.  The research sample consisted of 360 Thai customers as respondents who shopped via e-commerce websites, obtained by the multi-stage sampling technique.  An online questionnaire was employed as a tool for collecting data.  Data were analyzed with the structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that the causal model of factors affecting Thai customer’s loyalty towards e-commerce business developed in this research fitted with the empirical data at the statistical significance level of 0.001, 0.050, and 0.100. Also, the results of path analysis of variables in this model revealed that the system quality had direct effect on the customer’s perceived value of e-commerce business with a path coefficient of 0.485. The product and service quality had direct effect on the customer’s perceived value of e-commerce business and had direct effect on the customer’s satisfaction with e-commerce business with path coefficients of 1.650 and 1.287, respectively. The customer’s perceived value and the customer’s satisfaction had direct effects on the customer’s loyalty towards e-commerce business with path coefficients of 0.961 and 1.754, respectively. Finally, the customer’s satisfaction had direct effect on the customer’s trust in e-commerce business with a path coefficient of 0.827.