Intertwining Between Online Retailer's Trustworthiness Attributes and Consumer's Purchase Intentions: A Knowledge Management Perspective in Response to COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19, a black swan event which caused a long-lasting effect on every sphere of human lives including consumers' perceptions and behaviors in e-retailing to the extent that they might leave a mark even when the pandemic is over. The purpose of this study is to understand the critical dimensions of online retailer trustworthiness, which have an impact on consumer trust and consumer purchase intentions, as the success of organizations depends on the effective use of their knowledge management capabilities in the deadly situation of COVID-19. The aim is to provide an insight into how retailers can handle this unprecedented situation, gain consumer trust, and use this customer knowledge to grow their businesses. The three dimensions of e-service quality, website quality, customer service, security, and privacy demonstrate the online retailer's trustworthiness and better predict customer's trust behavior. Grounded in the Hofstede cultural dimensions' theory, this study is expected to extend our knowledge about the moderating effect of the cultural environment of trust on consumers' online purchase intentions during the COVID-19 situation. Data were collected from 350 online consumers through a well-structured questionnaire and used to test the proposed research model employing structural equation modeling. Results show that three attributes of e-service quality convey the perception of the trustworthiness of retailers and affect consumers' overall trust in OP and subsequent purchase intentions.