Internet retailing quality: a conceptual perspective

Cronin (2003, p.335) describes new constructs as “…a proverbial dream come true” because literature can be moulded to explain new constructs, there are limited grounds on which to compare research results and reviewers favour new information. This is pertinent to Internet retailing quality in that the construct is relatively new and while various studies offer models and measures of Internet retailing quality, many identify substantially different quality criteria and the results are rarely compared. This raises questions regarding the extent to which Internet retailing quality is understood. Accordingly, this paper will examine Internet retailing quality from a conceptual perspective by drawing from ‘old’ information pertaining to quality management and model/scale development. From this foundation it will emerge that there are at least four variations of the Internet retailing quality construct, that the understanding of the variations is limited and that testing hypotheses about Internet retailing quality is premature.