Measuring website quality: theoretical framework and practical implications for the agro-food sector in the European Alpine area

Abstract

Currently, online shopping has become a widespread phenomenon around the world and the internet has become a new outlet for the commercialisation of products usually sold through traditional channels. This paper focuses on the agro-food sector and on the European Alpine area with respect to sheep and goat production in order to develop a context-specific framework for e-commerce website quality. In other words, this paper aims to provide, on the one hand, a comprehensive theoretical framework for measure web quality; on the other hand, managerial implications for practitioners of the agro-food sector in order to promote these businesses improving the quality of their e-commerce websites. We declined these aims in two research questions: the first is about which are the key factors of website quality in the agro-food sector, analysing simultaneously system (or functional) quality and information (or technical) quality; the second research question is about how to measure these factors. This paper uses a quantitative methodology that mixes an objective and a subjective approach. The result is a pioneering approach able to capture website quality and to provide useful insights for managers and professionals in the agro-food sector.