Gaining insight into cognitive structure using GALILEO method: Where is your web site in the customers' cognitive space?

In this article we introduce a multidimensional systems evaluation technique for tapping into the group cognitive structure. The objective is to illustrate how GALILEO assists in mapping the multidimensional cognitive domain of user evaluations in order to subsequently identify strategies to build customer loyalty and lock-in with e-commerce websites. A popular approach for understanding the structure of relationships between constructs is Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS). GALILEO is a very powerful multidimensional scaling technique developed by researchers in the area of communications and cognitive science but has not been applied to systems evaluation. The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the GALILEO method as a tool for evaluating emerging and existing technology and service innovations. The power of the GALILEO approach is illustrated by examining key dimensions of two leading e-commerce websites - Amazon.com and BN.com (Barnes & Noble).