PEEIM and online shopper loyalty

Online shopping frequently characterized by the risks, e.g., leaking of personal information or credit card fraud. These risks are critical. Hence, shopping websites develop protective mechanisms, enhancing shoppers' Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms (PEEIM). However, shoppers may not perceive this mechanisms, or PEEIM, motivating them to defect and threat shopping websites' survival. To solve this problem, we plan to contextualize the signaling theory into the online shopping context and use context-specific features (quality evaluations and PEEIM) to extend this theory. Our findings will envision which quality aspects are more relevant in forming users' perceptions and loyalty. Theoretically, our findings will change our understanding of the signaling theory that observable cues may not only form beliefs of the two parties (as the theory posited) but also form beliefs pertaining to the third party (e.g., PEEIM).