Impacts of platform design on consumer commitment and online review intention: does use context matter in dual-platform e-commerce?
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 21 March 2022
Issue publication date: 7 September 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of consumers’ online review intention in e-commerce platforms from a unique perspective of consumer commitment and platform design. Meanwhile, for the dual-platform strategy, i.e. providing both the web and mobile platforms simultaneously, which is widely adopted in the industry but lacks theoretical concerns, this study aims to examine the differences that platform design influences consumer commitment, consequently contributing to online review intention, between the web and mobile contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional online survey is employed, and a structural equation model-based approach is utilized to analyze the data collected from both the website-preferred consumers (N = 167) and the mobile app-preferred consumers (N = 247).
Findings
The results indicate that instrumental support design factors and socio-emotional support factors positively influence consumer commitment, which further affect online review intention positively. Furthermore, design factors in different use contexts generate different impacts, and consumer commitment generates a greater effect on online review intention in the mobile than in the web context. Empathy is found to be an important motivator of consumer commitment in both contexts.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, as one of the first attempts to capture the differences in the relationship between platform design on consumer commitment and online review intention in different use contexts within the dual-platform e-commerce, this study provides insights for e-commerce platform managers and designers to promote consumer commitment and online review engagement by prioritizing the platform design.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by the grant of National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 71861014, 71863015, 71974152, 61802156], China Social Science Foundation [No. 20ZDA047], China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [No. 2019M652272], Science and Technology Project of Jiangxi Education Department [No. GJJ60458] and Social Science Project of Jiangxi Province [No. 17BJ31].
Citation
Xiao, Q., Siponen, M., Zhang, X., Lu, F., Chen, S.-h. and Mao, M. (2022), "Impacts of platform design on consumer commitment and online review intention: does use context matter in dual-platform e-commerce?", Internet Research, Vol. 32 No. 5, pp. 1496-1531. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-03-2021-0152
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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