Will They Stay or Will They Go? An Examination of the Factors Influencing User Loyalty towards News Websites

Owing to the increased competition in electronic markets, customer loyalty has become an important success factor in e-business. However, the antecedents of customer loyalty differ between business domains. While the formation of customer loyalty in e-commerce has been studied extensively, little is known about how loyalty towards news websites develops. Integrating findings from uses and gratifications research into DeLone and McLean’s theory on information systems success, we built a quality-value-satisfaction-loyalty chain for news websites. To test our research model, we conducted a survey and applied partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results reveal that loyalty towards news websites depends on both utilitarian and hedonic value perceptions, which, in turn, are influenced by content quality. Our study combines communication, information systems, as well as marketing research theories and has important implications for news website providers.