Perceived Effectiveness, Credibility and Continuance Intention in E-commerce: A Study of Amazon

The use of persuasive strategies has been identified as one means through which e-businesses can engage their existing clients and make new ones. To contribute to ongoing research in this area, we extend our previous study where Amazon was evaluated as a persuasive system using the Persuasive System’s Design (PSD) framework. In the current study, we further investigate the factors that affect the perceived effectiveness, credibility and continuance intention for use of e-commerce systems through the prism of the PSD framework. Using Amazon as a case study and a sample size of 324 Amazon shoppers, we develop and test a research model using partial least-squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis. Our results show that perceived effectiveness of an e-commerce company like Amazon is a great predictor of continuance intention. In addition, social support and primary task support are strong predictors of perceived effectiveness. Furthermore, dialogue support significantly influences perceived product credibility and perceived review credibility and both constructs are strong predictors of system credibility. These findings suggest possible design guidelines in the development of successful e-commerce sites.