| Although sales from multi-channel retailers (i.e., retailers with both online and offline presences) dominate the e-tailing marketplace, surprisingly few studies have been conducted to understand consumer responses to the websites set up by these retailers. Compared with pure online retailers, multi-channel retailers' online business has to carry the "burden" of consumers' prior brand knowledge, good or bad, from their offline operations. The degree of retailer image congruity---the similarity between the perceived functional and symbolic image of a retailer's website and the existing image of the firm's offline channel---is posited to influence consumers' responses to multi-channel retailer's websites in this thesis. Based on the brand extension literature, the website attributes literature, and the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, the author proposes that consumers evaluate the website of a multi-channel retailer through three simultaneous processes: (1) via an attitudinal transfer process in which consumers' prior attitudes toward the retailer will be transferred to the website and this transfer process is strengthened with higher degree of retailer image congruity; (2) via an expectancy-disconfirmation process in which consumers respond more positively when the website conveys comparable or more favorable retailer image; and (3) via a piecemeal process in which consumers form their attitudes toward the website by evaluating various website attributes and this piecemeal process may be enhanced with higher degree of retailer image incongruity. Consumers' attitudes toward the website of a multi-channel retailer are proposed to lead to higher revisit intentions and desire to stay at the site. Finally, consumers' attitudes toward the website are also posited to reciprocally modify the overall attitude toward the retailer as a whole. A web-based survey was conducted by assigning respondents to one of eight multi-channel retailer websites and soliciting their responses to these websites. The results largely supported the proposed model. Implications and theoretical contributions are also explored. |
