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E‐loyalty towards a cancer information website: applying a theoretical framework
Author(s) -
Crutzen Rik,
Beekers Nienke,
Eenbergen Mies,
Becker Monique,
Jongen Lilian,
Osch Liesbeth
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
psycho‐oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.41
H-Index - 137
eISSN - 1099-1611
pISSN - 1057-9249
DOI - 10.1002/pon.3471
Subject(s) - loyalty , context (archaeology) , perception , psychology , order (exchange) , social psychology , marketing , business , paleontology , finance , neuroscience , biology
Objective To provide more insight into user perceptions related to e‐loyalty towards a cancer information website. This is needed to assure adequate provision of high quality information during the full process of cancer treatment—from diagnosis to after care—and an important first step towards optimizing cancer information websites in order to promote e‐loyalty. Methods Participants were cancer patients ( n = 63) and informal caregivers ( n = 202) that visited a website providing regional information about cancer care for all types of cancer. Subsequently, they filled out a questionnaire assessing e‐loyalty towards the website and user perceptions (efficiency, effectiveness, active trust and enjoyment) based on a theoretical framework derived from the field of e‐commerce. A structural equation model was constructed to test the relationships between user perceptions and e‐loyalty. Results Participants in general could find the information they were looking for (efficiency), thought it was relevant (effectiveness) and that they could act upon it (active trust) and thought the visit itself was pleasant (enjoyment). Effectiveness and enjoyment were both positively related with e‐loyalty, but this was mediated by active trust. Efficiency was positively related with e‐loyalty. The explained variance of e‐loyalty was high ( R 2 = 0.70). Conclusions This study demonstrates that the importance of user perceptions is not limited to fields such as e‐commerce but is also present within the context of cancer information websites. The high information need among participants might explain the positive relationship between efficiency and e‐loyalty. Therefore, cancer information websites need to foster easy search and access of information provided. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.