theroleofinteractivityandinvolvement.docVIP

The Role of Interactivity and Involvement in Attitude toward the Web Site Jang-Sun Hwang, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Dr. Sally J. McMillan, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Attitude toward the Web site (AST) is an important measure of Web site effectiveness. While research has been done to develop AST measures, more work is needed to identify specific predictors of AST. This study identifies perceived interactivity and involvement with the subject of a site as possible predictors and analyzes the impact of these two variables on AST. Both variables predict AST, but perceived interactivity accounts for more of the variance in attitude than does involvement. Analysis of relationships among the variables in this study suggests that the control sub-dimension of perceived interactivity has the strongest correlation with attitude toward the Web site. Future studies need to examine other predictors of AST using more respondents and different research environments. Overview What makes a Web site good? In recent years, Web sites have become a common marketing communication tool, but both practitioners and academic researchers still struggle to measure the effectiveness of these new tools. Researchers have suggested various methods for measuring Web site effectiveness (e.g., Bruner II and Kumar 2000; Cho and Leckenby 1999; Pavlou and Stewart 2000; Stevenson, Bruner II, and Kumar 2000). Many have suggested Web site effectiveness should be measured with new methods that are different from traditional measures of advertising effectiveness. Attitude toward the advertisement (AAD) is one of the most-frequently utilized measures of effectiveness in the context of traditional media. Attitude toward the Web site (AST) is coming to be recognized as an important measure of effectiveness of Web sites. As Chen and Wells (1999) argued, though AST is similar in concept to AAD, new measures are needed to measure attitude toward this new media environment.