The Role of the Mangement Sciences in Research on Personalization

We present a review of research studies that deal with personalization. We synthesize current knowledge about these areas, and identify issues that we envision will be of interest to researchers working in the management sciences. We take an interdisciplinary approach that spans the areas of economics, marketing, information technology, and operations. We present an overarching framework for personalization that allows us to identify key players in the personalization process, as well as, the key stages of personalization. The framework enables us to examine the strategic role of personalization in the interactions between a firm and other key players in the firm's value system. We review extant literature in the strategic behavior of firms, and discuss opportunities for analytical and empirical research in this regard. Next, we examine how a firm can learn a customer's preferences, which is one of the key components of the personalization process. We use a utility-based approach to formalize such preference functions, and to understand how these preference functions could be learnt based on a customer's interactions with a firm. We identify well-established techniques in management sciences that can be gainfully employed in future research on personalization.CRM, Persoanlization, Marketing, e-commerce,

The Dynamics of Value Creation in Online Brand Communities: Strategy Map Approach

As the clout of social networking is growing, brand managers are exploring diversified marketing strategies and consumer attitudes. The current study reveals the impact of value creation practices and brand loyalty in online brand communities based on perceived benefits enjoyed by consumers. Based on quantitative research approach, a sample of 308 respondents were collected to investigate relationships among online brand community participation, value creation practices and brand loyalty. The results highlighted hedonic, learning, self-esteem and social benefits as antecedents for online brand community participation. Moreover, value creation practices are derived as essential factor for enhancing brand loyalty among online community members. The finding exhibited valuable insights about developing corporate strategies to achieve customer intimacy for long-term relationship. Managerial implications are explained by identifying value-creation practices as a mechanism for enhancing consumer engagement and relationship management

Essays on the effect of retail innovation on consumer behavior

As a result of the convergence of online and offline retailers, and due to the notoriously low margins in the retail environment, innovation and technology have become more and more competitive differentiators. The purpose of this cumulative dissertation is to explore consumers’ behavioral reactions towards those technological innovations in brick and mortar retailing. As it is not feasible to consider every available technology in its own right, the focus of this dissertation is limited to the following three recent technologies: mobile payment, electronic shelf labels, and electric vehicle charging stations. By conducting experiments (Paper 1 and Paper 3) and leveraging real transaction data from a retailer (Paper 2), the author was able to formulate and investigate various research hypotheses, including a positive influence of new technology on the willingness to pay (Paper 1), mere revenue effect (Paper 2), and shopping intentions (Paper 3).:1 Introduction 2 Theoretical foundations 3 Purpose and focus of the dissertation 4 Article summary 4.1 Overview of dissertation articles 4.2 Summary of first article 4.3 Summary of second article 4.4 Summary of third article 5 General contributions and implications of this dissertation 6 Limitations and future research 7 Outlook References Appendix I: The effect of credit card versus mobile payment on convenience and consumers’ willingness to pay Appendix II: Behavioral consequences from converging channel capabilities: the effect of mere electronic shelf label presence on store revenue Appendix III: Recharge while you shop: the impact of free electric vehicle charging on shopping intention and shopping duratio

Factors Affecting the Decision to Shop Directly at Fashion Stores: A Study of Vietnamese Youth in the Context of Online Shopping 4.0

Purpose: This study was conducted to understand the factors affecting direct shopping decisions when online shopping is a new trend in the fashion retail industry, thereby making appropriate business management recommendations.   Theoretical framework: The authors have built a research model based on the factors that are used extensively in previous research models, including the following five independent variables: (1) Product experience, (2) Spiritual value, (3) Customer service, (4) Emotional commitment and (5) Price.   Design/methodology/approach: The study conducted a customer survey to identify the deciding factors to shop directly at a fashion store. Then use SPSS 23 software to process and check the data.   Findings: Research results show that there are 5 factors affecting the decision to shop directly at a fashion store: 1) Product experience, (2) Spiritual value, (3) Customer service, (4) Emotional commitment and (5) Price.   Research, Practical & Social implications: E-commerce is growing day by day at breakneck speed on the Internet. There have been speculations that online shopping will gradually overwhelm or even replace traditional shopping behavior in the future.   Originality/value: The study provides some solutions and recommendations for businesses doing business in the fashion sector in Vietnam

How about integration: the impact of online activities on store satisfaction and loyalty

Although there has been widespread support for the concept of integrating the Internet with other channels, relatively little empirical research has been conducted in this area. This paper examines the effects of integrated online activities on customer perceptions, i.e., satisfaction and loyalty, as well as customer behavior, i.e., purchases. As this study focuses on a nontransaction site, the purchases only take place in the store. Through structural equation modeling, we test a model that determines the relationships between loyalty and satisfaction in two channels – the store and the web site –, as well as the antecedents of both store and site satisfaction. The results provide evidence for synergy effects between the store and the site. Site satisfaction and site loyalty are both positively and significantly related to their offline counterparts. Store loyalty and site loyalty are also positively and significantly related to each other, but the relationship between store satisfaction and site satisfaction is not significant. The online activities do not directly influence offline purchases, but there is an indirect effect via store loyalty. However, the magnitude of this effect is rather small.

Exploring online brand choice at the SKU level : the effects of internet-specific attributes

E-Commerce research shows that existing studies on online consumer choice behavior has focused on comparative studies of channel or store choice (online or offline), or online store choice (different e-tailers). Relatively less effort has been devoted to consumers’ online brand choice behavior within a single e-tailer. The goal of this research is to model online brand choice, including generating loyalty variables, setting up base model, and exploring the effects of Internet-specific attributes, i.e., order delivery, webpage display and order confirmation, on online brand choice at the SKU level. Specifically, this research adopts the Multinomial Logit Model (MNL) as the estimation methods. To minimize the model bias, the refined smoothing constants for loyalty variables (brand loyalty, size loyalty, and SKU loyalty) are generated using the Nonlinear Estimation Algorithm (NEA). The findings suggest that SKU loyalty is a better predictor of online brand choice than brand loyalty and size loyalty. While webpage display has little effect on the brand choice, order delivery has positive effect on the choice. Online order confirmation turns out to be helpful in choice estimation. Moreover, online consumers are not sensitive to net price of the alternatives, but quite sensitive to price promotion. These results have meaningful implications for marketing promotions in the online environment and suggestions for future research