The interplay of website aesthetics and information quality on website trust

Subhash Jha, Marla B. Royne and Ankit Kesharwani

Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 2014, vol. 2, issue 3, 269-280

Abstract: This study examines the role of website aesthetics and information quality on website trust based on the tenets of signalling theory and the cue-diagnostics framework. A conceptual framework is developed that differentiates between extrinsic and intrinsic cues and suggests that the importance of one cue depends on the presence of the other cues in the online environment. The framework is then used to investigate the relative and moderating impacts of website aesthetics on website trust in the presence of information quality. Using data from a cross-sectional survey, this study demonstrates that website aesthetics and information quality have a positive impact on website trust, but the effect of website aesthetics on website trust is stronger relative to the effect of information quality. The study also finds that website aesthetics moderates the relationships between information quality and website trust such that the effect of information quality on website trust is weaker for the website with more appealing website aesthetics than for the website with less appealing website aesthetics. Such results have important theoretical implications for academicians and managerial implications for online businesses.

Keywords: website aesthetics; information quality; website trust; signalling theory; extrinsic cue; intrinsic cue (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aza:jdsmm0:y:2014:v:2:i:3:p:269-280

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