Re-examining the measurement models of success for Internet commerce

In an effort to understand the value of Internet commerce, Keeney interviewed over 100 individuals and proposed two sets of variables: means and fundamental objectives for Internet shopping. The first help businesses deliver what is important for customers so that the customers’ objectives are achieved. Fundamental objectives represent ultimate values that customers care about and will influence their overall satisfaction. Using a sample of 620 responses in a two-phase exploratory study, two of the authors previously developed a 5-factor 21-item instrument to measure means objectives and a 4-factor 16-item instrument to measure fundamental objectives. They also proposed a second-order model of the fundamental objectives as a measure of overall customer satisfaction. The new study described here examined the two hypothesized measurement models and the proposed second-order model using a sample of 331 responses. Results confirm factor structures of the two models and suggest a more parsimonious instrument for each; a 5-factor 15-item scale for means objectives and a 4-factor 8-item scale for fundamental objectives. Goodness-of-fit indices for putative models of factor structures and the second-order model are presented.