Evaluating e-commerce website qualities: personality traits as triggers

Purpose: The five-factor model (FFM), a popular personality typology that identifies five key personality traits, has been used to predict use intention in various e-commerce applications, but the role of FFM in triggering certain evaluations of the various quality dimensions of e-commerce websites has not been examined, revealing a gap, i.e. the authors do not know how the five personality traits impact evaluations of the quality dimensions of e-commerce websites. The 3Q model—which comprises system quality (SysQ), information quality (IQ), and service quality (SQ), spanning 13 quality dimensions—is helpful for evaluating website quality, but the model neglects user characteristics and their impacts on quality evaluation, posing another gap, i.e. the authors do not know how user characteristics impact the user's evaluation of quality dimensions. Thus, the authors used the FFM to extend the 3Q model to explain how user personality predicts the evaluation of websites in the 13 quality dimensions. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used an online survey to collect responses from 392 online shoppers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Findings: The authors found that openness in a shopper predicts their favorable evaluation of a website in the quality dimensions of format and flexibility; conscientiousness predicts favorable evaluation in terms of completeness, accuracy, currency, timeliness, and service reliability; neuroticism predicts unfavorable evaluation in terms of reliability, accessibility, and assurance; and extraversion predicts favorable evaluation in terms of responsiveness; while agreeableness did not predict empathy. Originality/value: In sum, the authors successfully used the FFM to theoretically extend the 3Q model, which clarifies the usefulness and pathways of personality in formulating strategies for e-commerce success.