Website credibility and user engagement: a theoretical integration

Abstract

The rapid advancement in web technology has shifted the role of organizational websites from a merely communication tool to a strategic tool for gaining competitive advantage. Organizational website has to be interactive, integrative and intuitive so that its presence is captured by the user. However, the organizational website presence tends to be ignored due to credibility issues and demotivating factors of user engagement. While research on website credibility and user engagement has been extensively reported in the literature, an attempt to combine both in single study is still very scarce. Thus, this study proposes a framework that integrates website credibility measures and user engagement. Credibility is defined as a multiple construct comprising of surface credibility, source credibility, content credibility and reputed credibility. User engagement is defined as two construct which are user participation and involvement. Drawing upon the literature, the four dimensions of credibility are hypothesized to have a significant relationship with the two dimensions of user engagement. The proposed framework should be of interest to researchers focusing on website assessment.