| The rapid growth and power of the Internet has begun to change the landscape of the retail environment. With advances in online technology, the contemporary retailer is faced with an abundance of opportunities as well as threats. As a result, there is an ever-present need for practitioners and academics alike to understand the consumer's perception of the website utilized by the online retailer, or e-tailer.; Drawing on the seminal work of Hoffman and Novak (1996), this study analyzes the impact of each dimension of e-tailer image on the online search motives of opinion leadership, recreational shopping, prepurchase deliberation, and task completion. It is hypothesized that affective dimensions of e-tailer image will positively influence experientially-directed search motives, further, it is hypothesized that functional dimensions will positively influence goal-directed search motives. Each of the search motives will result in varying levels of enduring and situational involvement, which it is hypothesized will lead to revisiting and browsing the website, and ultimately, determination of purchase intention.; This study proposes a scale to measure e-tailer image. The author defines a six dimensional construct for e-tailer image consisting of the functional dimensions of price, merchandise, and service, and the affective dimensions of atmosphere, self/site image congruence, and convenience. Through extensive review of retail image literature and interviews with experts in the field, an item pool is generated to represent e-tailer image. The study utilizes the two-step approach to structural equation modeling (Anderson and Gerbing 1988) to assess reliability, unidimensionality, and construct validity, as well as assessment of the theoretical structural relationships hypothesized therein.; Of the 26 hypothesized relationships, 21 were supported, thus suggesting that e-tailer image does in fact exist as was hypothesized. Further, the image construct has a significant effect on search motive, involvement and purchase intentions, thus providing support for the application of existing theoretical perspectives to electronic marketing. Extensions of this research may include the analysis of e-tailer image as it relates to brand equity, stimulation of brand loyalty, online advertising, and the diffusion of new products and technologies by way of online methods. |
