IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 52, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2005 461 A Consumer Perspective of E-Service Quality Xiaoni Zhang and Victor R. Prybutok, Member, IEEE Abstract—E-service is an emerging and rapidly evolving area as demonstrated by new technological innovations introduced to improve e-service. Motivated by the growing interest in online commerce, we focus our research questions on examining the factors that contribute to e-service, the relationships among these factors and the consumers’ attitude toward e-service. To explore answers to our research questions, we developed an e-service model. Specifically, our proposed model consists of such con- structs as individual differences, e-service convenience, Web site service quality, risk, e-satisfaction, and intention. We develop an e-service quality survey instrument and use empirical data to validate the instrument. The results of our empirical study validate our eight hypotheses. We confirm seven of the eight hypotheses. One hypothesis that tested individual differences and service convenience was not confirmed. However, we found that service convenience, Web site service quality, and risk are significant factors affecting consumers’ satisfaction level, which in turn affects intention. The findings suggest that managers need to understand e-convenience from the consumers’ perspective. In order to provide better services for users, companies need to invest in Web site service quality design and evaluation, and at the same time, control the perceived risk associated with using it. Index Terms—E-satisfaction, e-service, e-service quality, indi- vidual differences, intention. I. INTRODUCTION A S e-commerce proliferates, companies are increasingly turning to the Internet to market products and services. However, the effectiveness of such online commerce systems depends on the degree of comfort that customers feel with the technology-based interactions between the customers and companies. Service in e-commerce is a function of how the online store facilitates efficient and effective shopping, pur- chasing and delivery of products and services. Because of the proliferation and increasing reliance on corporate Web sites, researchers and practitioners are equally concerned with the issue of understanding and managing e-service. E-service and its providers represent the evolution of e-commerce [103]. As e-services continue their growth, technology executives and their budgets are under strain. Current customers and the livelihood of the organization require 24 7 access, reliability, and attention. Some organizations have successfully leveraged technology to create new revenue streams, lower the cost of Manuscript received November 1, 2004; revised February 1, 2005 and March 1, 2005. Review of this manuscript was arranged by Department Editor A. Chakrabarti. X. Zhang is with the Department of Information Systems, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099 USA (e-mail: zhangx@nku.edu). V. R. Prybutok is with the Information Technology and Decision Sciences Department, College of Business Administration, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203 USA. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2005.856568 doing business, improve customer satisfaction, and attract new customers [26]. Some of these organizations work with con- sulting companies that specialize in building e-commerce sites that allow companies to expand their capabilities and interact more effectively with their online customers. Although there is a considerable body of research about con- sumer service attitudes relevant to physical stores, it remains unknown how those same consumer attitudes transfer to on- line stores. Also, missing from the literature is an assessment of how individual differences impact e-service. Examining the emerging issues in e-service provides insights and practical con- siderations for e-service providers. Motivated by the growing interest in online commerce, we intend to focus our research questions on examining the factors that contribute to e-service, the relationships among these factors, and consumers’ attitudes toward e-service. Different terms for e-service exist to denote differences in the type or application of service. Some authors use net-based cus- tomer service systems, while others use e-service. According to Brohman et al. [19], “a net-based customer service system de- livers service to customers either directly or indirectly.” Direct delivery of service is through a browser, PDA, or cell phone; indirect delivery of service is via a customer service representa- tive or agent [19]. Gartner defined “e-service” as including the processes, policies, procedures, people, tools, and technologies that enable enterprises to provide assisted and unassisted cus- tomer service using the Internet as its platform. The definitions of net-based customer system and e-service both state that ser- vice is delivered via browser interface or human agents. How- ever, Brohman et al. definition includes only tools (browser, PDA, cell phone), whereas Gartner’s definition contains a more complete description of e-service including processes, policies, procedures, people, tools, and technologies. In this work we adopted Gartner’s definition of e-service. The organization of this paper is described below. Section II contains the background and theoretical support for our research model and testable hypotheses. Section III proposes the research methodology and measures. Section IV describes the data col- lection, analysis, and model testing. Section V discusses the re- sults and Section VI contains the conclusion and includes man- agerial implications of the findings and possible future research areas. II. BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH MODEL A. e-Service The Berry et al. [13], service convenience model Web site characteristics, firm related factors, and individual differences 0018-9391/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE