Presentation for paper presented at the 2004 Academy of Marketing (AM) conference. Abstract: The focus of this paper is the impact that user perceptions of website quality and satisfaction have on website visit duration. Research from the fields of consumer research on product quality and satisfaction and product usage is discussed. This paper sees user perceptions of website quality and satisfaction as an important influence on the length of time spent at a website. The interrelationships between these measures are presented and the validity of website visit duration as a proxy measure for user perceptions of website quality and satisfaction is discussed. Read the full paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2214326

1. The Effect of Website Quality &
Satisfaction on Visit Duration
2004 Academy of Marketing (AM) Conference
Nina Reynolds
Kelly Page
Jonathan Burnes

2. Introduction
 Increase in number & variety of highly complex, self-service e-technologies
(e.g., e-kiosks, web)
 Increase in consumer use – particularly as an information source
 Understanding & measuring usage is important for system design &
implementation
 This study investigates:
The effect web site quality and satisfaction has on web site visit duration
Visit duration as a possible proxy measure for ‘web site satisfaction’ & ‘web site quality’
2
Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

3. Web Site Usage
 User-oriented network navigation
Web Session
Web Site Visitation
 Web Site Visit Duration
Perceived Time (Subjective – Estimation)
Actual Time (Objective – Clocked)
 Longer periods of web site visit duration
 purchase, information use,
 product / brand awareness
 customer loyalty
 Product usage & service waiting times  satisfaction
(e.g., longer waiting times = increased dissatisfaction) 3
Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

4. Web Site Quality  Visit Duration
 Quality is the users’ evaluation of a web site’s actual performance
 Comprise evaluations of service quality and Information quality
 Good service quality
 profitability,
 repeat patronage
 positive (+) w.o.m.
 Positive web site evaluations will lead to greater time spent on web site
(Bhatti, Bouch & Kurchinsky 2000)
H1 A positive relationship will exist between web site quality and web site visit
duration 4
Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

5. Web Site Quality  Web Site Satisfaction
 Satisfaction: Outcome measure of purchase & use (i.e., post-decision)
 Web site satisfaction = objective / goal of site designers
 propensity to buy & access information
 Web site dissatisfaction
 negative (-) W.O.M
 purchase intentions & return
 Higher levels of quality are associated with higher levels of satisfaction
(e.g., Oliver, 1993; Spreng et al., 1996)
 Gap in literature - web site quality & web site satisfaction?
H2 A positive relationship will exist between web site quality and web site
satisfaction
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Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

6. Web Site Satisfaction  Visit Duration
 Little research on satisfaction  actual usage time
 Web site research investigates system and user characteristics that
‘encourage’ longer visit duration (e.g., web design, cognitive absorption)
 Time used as a measure of consumption experience (e.g., goal-directed)
 Individuals with a positive site attitude are likely to spend more time at site
(Balabanis & Reynolds, 2001)
H3 A positive relationship will exist between web site satisfaction and web site visit
duration
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Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

7. Research Design
 Experimental design
Three informational (tourism) web sites viewed
Sites evaluated by researcher for varying quality (Nielsen 1994 checklist)
Sites randomly rotated to minimize ‘order effects’
Unlimited time to ‘browse’
 Measurement
Actual visit duration: clocked time of entry & exit from web site
Quality: Webqual (Barnes & Vidgen, 2000)
Satisfaction: General satisfaction scale (Oliver & Swan, 1989)
 Sample
60 undergraduate business students
Even gender distribution (48% males); Young sample
2-5 hours on average a week on the web 7
Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

8. Results: Hypothesis 1 , 2 & 3
H1 A positive relationship will exist between web site quality and web site visit
duration
 No significant correlations found
H2 A positive relationship will exist between web site quality and web site
satisfaction
 Overall, and for each web site, strong (.8 or above) significant correlations found
H3 A positive relationship will exist between web site satisfaction and web site
visit duration
 No significant correlations found
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Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

9. Conclusion & Further Research
 Inappropriate to use of web site visit duration as a proxy measure for:
web site quality or
satisfaction with the web site
 Long visit duration does not indicate well designed sites or satisfied web site
users
 Possibility of non-linear relationships between quality/ satisfaction and visit
duration
 Differences in user characteristics and/or experience may have influenced the
relationships (e.g., knowledge, web experience, ability to achieve ‘flow’
experience)
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Web Site Quality, Satisfaction & Visit Duration

10. Questions!
Nina Reynolds
Kelly Page
Jonathan Burnes