Using cusp catastrophe theory to model pick-up point choice behavior for online bookstore shopper

Abstract

Ordering books on the Internet is obviously becoming a significant market. Retailing delivery (RD) service provides consumers with a self pick-up approach, so it is popular for those who cannot conveniently use home delivery service. E-service quality and logistics service quality are the key issues in e-commerce. A nonlinear model of loyalty is suggested by past studies. The main purpose of this study is to explore how of the logistics service quality and switching cost influence the pick-up point choice behavior by using a catastrophe model. Firstly, the latent variable is defined in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Secondly, the catastrophe model was used to analyze the linkages between service quality and switching cost on pick-up point service loyalty. The results indicated that the switching cost plays the splitting factor in the catastrophe model, and a high switching cost makes the discontinuous choice behavior, implications of these results for practice and research are provided.