The Moderating Role of Involvement in the Creation of Online Trust and Satisfaction

Consumers´ involvement in online shopping can exert a moderating role when explaining the effect of a Web site´s characteristics on satisfaction and trust. This study proposes a set of hypotheses on the basis of the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion, a classical background for explaining the formation of the individual´s attitudes throughout the use of central or peripheral cues. Although the model proposes the use of central signals when the buyer is highly involved and peripheral signals when the buyer is less involved, the results demonstrate that in the case of online buying, these relationships are not so clear. The results are interesting and suggest that some assumptions of the ELM need a revision to take the peculiarities of the online context into account.