| Strategic alliances, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions have saturated the daily headlines. Today, businesses are examining a variety of methods to leverage their technologies and consumer relationships. Transactions conducted through the Internet create electronic commerce (e-commerce). The creation of e-commerce ignited new competition that accelerates business cycles (timetables) and activity. For instance, the "U.S. Department of Commerce reported growth of 24.6 percent for the full year 2005 versus 2004...to {dollar}83.3 billion in non-travel sales" (comScore, 2005, p. 1). Forrester, market research company, forecasts U.S. online retail shopping to increase from {dollar}172 billion to {dollar}329 billion by 2010. (Johnson, 2005) These staggering figures and a literature review revealed an obligation to fill the research cavity within e-commerce. Moreover, the Internet's visibility and rapid growth place the roles of satisfaction, trust, and commitment as key mediating variables in this emerging exchange system.; Global, national, and local businesses are competing against time and each other to discover a sustainable competitive advantage via the Internet. This dissertation aims to develop a research model that addressees the question: Do the key mediating variables of satisfaction, trust, and commitment affect low and high relational consumers' buying behaviors in the virtual marketplace? This question is imperative because researchers in business schools have a challenge to explain the role of virtual relationships within the business community. This challenge has researchers at universities and colleges openly debating the nature and long-term viability of virtual marketplaces. This dissertation addressed the need for knowledge about the influence of satisfaction, trust and commitment in the virtual marketplace and the difference between consumers' relational nature. |
