Dimensions and determinants of website brand equity: From the perspective of website contents

Abstract

This study develops a research model that can be used to evaluate website brand equity from the perspective of web contents. To evaluate the model and to examine the effects of web contents on brand equity, a SEM analysis is conducted on twenty Chinese websites which could be classified into four different types. The results show that the website brand equity model, which is composed of five dimensions, namely brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand relationship, brand experience and brand attraction, is useful for measuring website brand value, and also applicable to different web types. Web contents factors, such as recourses, design, service and interactivity, are found to be the antecedents of website brand equity, and they all affect dimensions of website brand equity. However, the effects vary according to web types. The results also demonstrate that portal websites’ brand equity value is the highest while shopping websites’ brand equity value is the lowest among the four web types. Suggestions and implications are provided for website brand management.

摘要

以品牌资产和网络营销相关理论为基础, 结合本土网站品牌的内容特性, 构建了基于消费者的网站品牌资产模型, 并通过测试四种类型的20个本土网站品牌对模型进行了检验, 同时分析了网站内容因素对品牌资产的影响。 研究发现: 由网站感知质量、 品牌体验、 品牌吸引力、 品牌关系和品牌忠诚五个变量构成的品牌资产能较好地反映网站品牌的整体价值, 在不同类型的网站中都具有较好的适用性; 网站资源、 设计/构成、 服务和互动等作为网站品牌资产前置因素的效应都得到了证实, 它们对品牌资产的影响力会随着网站类型的不同而略有变化; 所测试的本土门户网站的品牌价值整体较高, 而购物网站则较低, 这些结论为网站品牌资产的进一步研究提供了理论基础, 对于本土网站的品牌管理业具有指导意义。