An assessment of the validity and dimensionality of E-S-QUAL as a measure of internet retail service quality

Abstract

Despite its acknowledged importance, there are few rigorous empirical studies examining internet retail service quality. An exception is the development of the E-S-QUAL scale by PZM (2005). Whilst E-S-QUAL demonstrates excellent psychometric properties, the scale is in need of external validation. We present a reassessment and validation of the E-S-QUAL in the internet grocery sector. Our results show that there are potential discriminant validity problems with the Efficiency and System Availability dimensions. Our analysis also shows problems of high correlation between Privacy and Fulfilment dimensions. This may be because privacy is less important for frequent users (such as grocery shoppers). Consistent with Parasuraman et al, our results suggests that website related factors are the most important in the overall evaluation of internet retail service quality.