The Affective and Cognitive Impacts of Perceived Touch on Online Customers' Intention to Return in the Web-based eCRM Environment

Electronic Customer Relationship Management (ECRM) systems focus on a website as the interaction channel for creating a one-to-one relationship with customers via various “touch” options. The intention of such technologies is to affectively and cognitively impact on online customers’ intention to return to the website. To capture the influence of eCRM systems, we define a construct, Perceived Touch, to differentiate the customer’s perception of the touch received from the actual level of touch deployed. We report the results of an empirical study that provides evidence that Perceived Touch positively influences customers’ Behavioral Intention to Return via both affective and cognitive routes. Our results show that Perceived Touch provides a theoretical underpinning for eCRM system design and suggests that e-business managers invest in the design and evaluation of the users’ perception of touch options and pay special attention to affective quality manipulation.