Consumers' responses to brand websites: an interdisciplinary review

Purpose - The aims of this paper are to provide an integrated literature review of factors influencing consumers' responses to brand websites; to describe the state of research in the past ten years; and to give an overview of the theories used in brand website studies. Design/methodology/approach - Using a vote-counting procedure, 736 findings from 50 empirical studies are synthesized. In a vote-counting analysis the number of positive and negative significant relations between the same two variables is compared to the number of non-significant relationships. Findings - The analysis reveals which person-related factors (e.g. involvement or flow) and website-related factors (e.g. usability or interactivity) influence responses to websites and brands. To explain such responses many studies integrate new theoretical concepts (e.g. interactivity or telepresence) into traditional theories. Furthermore, the review shows that the current state of research is limited by the use of forced exposure, student samples and the measurement of affective responses. Practical implications - The present study investigates an increasingly popular approach to promote brands at the internet: the use of brand websites. The study gives insight into factors influencing the effectiveness of these websites. Marketers can use this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of their websites. Originality/value - The paper provides a valuable contribution to the literature on brand websites. The paper can form the basis for future research on this topic.