Factors influencing trust in university websites: A survey amongst Generation Y students in South Africa

Abstract

Considering the growing number of Generation Y students enrolled at South African higher education institutions (HEIs), and university websites primarily being the first point of reference in sourcing and evaluating information about the university and the courses offered, as well as Generation Y students’ scepticism about marketing tactics and their low trust propensity, it is imperative to understand the factors that influence this generation’s trust in university websites. As such, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of perceived system and information quality on Generation Y students’ trust in university websites within the South African context. A single cross-sectional and descriptive research design was followed in this study. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect data from a convenience sample of 319 Generation Y students registered at two Gauteng-based South African HEI campuses. The methods used to analyse the data included descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product-moment correlation analysis, reliability measures, regression analysis and collinearity diagnostics. The findings of the study suggest that Generation Y students’ perceived information and system quality of university websites has a significant positive influence on their perceived trust in university websites. Insights gained from this study can assist universities in devising appropriate strategies that will foster trust in their website, thereby paving the way forward for an increased number of visitors and student enrolments. Corresponding author: Marko van Deventer Email addresses for the corresponding author: Marko.VanDeventer@nwu.ac.za First submission received: 19th June 2018 Revised submission received: 30th August 2018 Accepted: 3rd November 2018 Introduction The 21st century’s digital technologies, such as the internet and its supporting tools, are continuously introducing new ways in which organisations and people interact (Ganiyu, Mishra, Elijah & Gana, 2017). These technologies, in general, and websites, in particular, provide an organisation with the opportunity to tap into global markets, reach a larger audience, communicate with its stakeholders, as well as improve the operational efficiency and image of the organisation (Ganiyu et al., 2017; Mentes & Turan, 2012). As such, websites are an essential tool for surviving in both the highly competitive local and global markets (Mentes & Turan, 2012). Approximately two billion websites are available on the Internet and more are developed on a daily basis, which demonstrates that more organisations, including universities, recognise the importance of having a well-developed website (InternetLiveStats, 2018). For universities, websites serve as a valuable communication tool (Bairamzadeh & Bolhari, 2010) and are considered the source most used to access university-related content (Buang et al., 2016). Therefore, universities are increasingly dependent on their websites to function as an information provider (ElHalees & Abu-Zaid, 2017). Not only are websites increasing in numbers on a daily basis, but the numbers of internet users and the time they spend on the Internet are also increasing. In January 2018, more than half of the world’s population of close to 7.6 billion were active users of the internet. This is seven percent more compared to Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 4 July 2019 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 159 January 2017. In South Africa, there were 30.81 million internet users in January 2018, which are 54 percent of South Africa’s total population and an increase of seven percent from 2017. This number is expected to increase during 2018. Currently, these users spend an average of approximately eight and a half hours on the internet per day (McDonald, 2018). Of these internet users, a staggering 65.77 percent are represented by the Generation Y cohort (MyBroadband, 2018). The Generation Y cohort, also known as the millennials or the internet generation (Severt, Fjelstul & Breiter, 2013), includes those individuals born between 1986 and 2005 (Markert, 2004). Individuals of this cohort are characterised as being independent, self-reliant, confident, and well educated (Broadbridge, Maxwell & Ogden, 2007). Compared to previous generations, Generation Y is the first generation with access to several multimedia platforms, mobile phones, convergent technologies and the internet (Schlitzkus, Schenarts & Schenarts, 2010), rendering them the most technologically astute generation to date. As part of their daily lives, Generation Y enjoys browsing the internet (Bilgihan, 2016) and playing on social networking sites (Severt et al., 2013). This digitally connected generation frequently uses the internet to find information that could assist with their decision-making (Valentine & Powers, 2013). From a marketing perspective, literature suggests that Generation Y customers are sceptical of the media and of online content that feels generic or like a sales pitch (Ali, 2015; Bubser, 2016). As such, traditional online marketing has proven to be less effective (Colucci & Cho, 2014). St Louis (2017) agrees and states that Generation Y customers’ dismissive attitude towards traditional online marketing efforts could be due to the lack of trust in an organisation. Trust within an online context plays an important role. This is because the customer has no direct control over the actions of the product or service provider (Muda, Mohd & Hassan, 2016). In addition, the internet increases organisations’ interpersonal distance from their customers, which may also create trust issues (Benamati & Serva, 2007). Therefore, it comes as no surprise that one of the main reasons why customers avoid engaging in online undertakings is due to the lack of trust (Muda et al., 2016). For any website to be considered successful, it is important that users perceive it as trustworthy (Bilgihan, 2016). Trust refers to an individual’s confidence in another entity’s conduct when the individual is in a vulnerable position or has no control over the other entity (Hosmer, 1995; Lewicki, Mcallister & Bies, 1998). Trust is also defined as an individual’s psychological expectations that a trusted party will not behave opportunistically (Kim, Shin & Lee, 2009). A number of studies related to the quality of a website within specific contexts, namely online auctions (Gregg & Walczak, 2010), online hotel bookings (Lien, Wen, Huang & Wu, 2015) and consumer-generated media (Filieri, Alguezaui & McLeay, 2015) found that website quality has a significant positive influence on trust in these websites. Various other online studies (Hsiao, Lin, Wang, Lu & Yu, 2010; Kim, Xu & Koh 2004; Zhou & Zhang, 2009) also validate the relationship between website quality and trust in the website. These findings suggest that high website quality is associated with greater trust in a website, which, in turn, is likely to translate into customers perceiving the product and service provider as competent, honest and benevolent (Liang & Chen, 2009). In terms of university websites, two particularly important aspects contribute to the overall quality of the website and subsequently foster greater trust, namely the system and information quality of the website. Considering the growing number of Generation Y students enrolled at South African higher education institutions (HEIs), and university websites primarily being the first point of reference in sourcing and evaluating information about the university and the courses offered, as well as Generation Y students’ scepticism about marketing tactics and their low trust propensity, it is imperative to understand the factors that influence this generation’s trust in university websites. As such, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of perceived system and information quality on Generation Y students’ trust in university websites within the South African context. Literature review System quality Perceived system quality is defined as customers’ opinions of a website’s performance in terms of information delivery and retrieval (Yang, Cai, Zhou & Zhou, 2005). System quality refers to the consistency of a website’s interface and ease of navigation. Difficult website navigation is one of the main barriers of many online undertakings. A well-designed website that is easy to navigate will enhance Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 4 July 2019 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 160 customer experience and satisfaction and will ultimately lead to trust in and the success of the website (Kuan, Bock & Vathanophas, 2008). As such, customers assess the system-based qualities of a website to determine whether the product or service provider is trustworthy (Kim et al., 2004). A website with adequate system quality and technicalities will enhance the convenience to users and increase customers’ confidence and trust in the organisation (Liang & Chen, 2009). It is therefore recommended that organisations invest considerable time and effort in designing a website that contains effective link structures and interfaces, ultimately making the website user-friendly and trustworthy (Kuan et al., 2008). Other factors that contribute to the system quality of a website include the security of the website (Ahn, Ryu & Han, 2007) as well as several appearance factors, namely the lay-out of the website, text fonts, colours and the graphics-text balance (Aladwani & Palviab, 2002). As such, system quality is observable in a website’s overall performance (Lin, 2007). These contributing factors hold especially true for Generation Y customers and students, as they grew up with technology and expect a website to have certain aesthetics and functionality (Djamasbi, Siegel & Tullis, 2010). With reference to uni