Determinates of Live Support Chat in Organizational Intranets

Abstract

Live support chat (LSC) is a relatively new type of online customer support that is growing significantly in e-commerce websites. LSC bypasses the traditional types of customer support like phone, e-mail and web forms and it provides instant answers to customers' questions and concerns. Few researchers have empirically examined the factors affecting LSC at the individual level, however there is no evidence of research that explored the determinates of LSC in an organizational context and how it affects employees. This study attempts to fill this research gap by empirically examining the factors that affect LSC in the context of the organizational Intranets. Survey data from 389 employees at private and public organizations in Kuwait were collected to test the study hypotheses. The study findings have important implications at both the theoretical and practice levels.