Determinants of Brand Equity in E-Businesses: An Exploratory Study

Previous research suggests that brand equity is affected by marketing mix elements, such as store image or distribution intensity. However, because the Internet has no boundaries, some of these elements may not be applicable in building the brand equity of online companies. In this study, we identify factors pertaining to online contexts that may affect consumers’ perception on quality and brand knowledge, both of which are found to be important determinants of brand equity. By performing confirmatory factor analyses on a set of survey data, we show that having a high quality Website and innovative products and technologies may help reinforce consumers’ perceived quality. However, popular online marketing instruments, such as offering value-added services and features or advertising, may not contribute much to the formation of online firms’ brand equity.