Virtual travel communities and customer loyalty: Customer purchase involvement and web site design

1567-4223/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.elerap.2009.05.004 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 954 557542; fax: E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M.J. Sanc (F.J. Rondan-Cataluña). 1 Tel.: +34 954 554427; fax: +34 954 556989. 2 Virtual communities have acted as a virtual meet interests, build relationships, create fantasies or con Armstrong 1997). Our research examines the influence of purchase involvement and design variables in the affective acceptance of online services, in particular, virtual travel communities. Few studies have focused directly on design variables, visual aesthetics and usability, and the consequences on satisfaction of adopting a user-centered perspective. We propose an integrative model of relationship quality to provide an explanation of overall satisfaction through the influence of usability and visual aesthetics. We also suggest that purchase involvement moderates the strength of the relationships between design variables and satisfaction. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to estimate the parameters of the structural model and develop a multi-group analysis. The results provide strong support for the proposals. Design variables, satisfaction and trust lead the users to develop high customer loyalty; and, purchase involvement is an important moderator to engage in online service relationships. Our investigation contributes to the growing literature by examining the influence of purchase involvement in developing virtual relationships. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.