Understanding the consumption process through in-branch and e-mortgage service channels: A first-time buyer perspective

This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here (////BURA web address here). Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Purpose – The twin aims of this paper are to explore the differences in the consumption process between the traditional in-branch and web-based (e-mortgage) service channels and how the differences relate to any problems identified in the electronic service environment, with respect to information search and product evaluation. Design/methodology/approach – A process-oriented approach comparing the two service channels (in-branch vs e-mortgage) was conducted in two study phases. Data from the e-mortgage process were collected using protocol analysis with 12 first-time buyers (FTBs) applying on a website belonging either to a hybrid or to an internet-only bank. Results of the e-mortgage process were mapped on to stages of the in-branch process, which was captured by observation of six FTB mortgage interviews to determine the level of correspondence and emergent issues. Findings – Support for the FTB in the e-mortgage process was problematic and service provision was found to be product- rather than consumer-oriented. Practical implications – The study highlights the importance of design issues in the electronic service environment for creating confidence in the online advice and information available on home mortgages for FTBs. Originality/value – The paper promotes increased understanding by financial service providers of the characteristics that support the consultative selling process for complex products such as mortgages and inform multichannel retailing

The Relative Importance of Search versus Credence Product Attributes: Organic and Locally Grown

Organic foods and local foods have come to the forefront of consumer issues, due to concerns about nutrition, health, sustainability, and food safety. A conjoint analysis experiment quantified the relative importance of, and trade-offs between, apple search and experience attributes (quality/blemishes, size, flavor), credence attributes (conventional vs. organic production method, local origin vs. product of USA vs. imported), and purchase price when buying apples. Quality is the most important apple attribute. Production method—organic versus conventional—had no significant impact on preferences.conjoint analysis, organic, locally grown, credence attributes, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

Buy local, pollute less: What drives households to join a community supported farm?

This paper examines which factors determine the participation of households in long term contracting with local farmers. Are households motivated by reducing the environmental impacts of their food consumption? A discrete-choice model of community supported agriculture (CSA) participation is applied to a sample of 264 French households. The findings suggest that difficult-to-measure attributes, notably environmental considerations play a major role in explaining CSA participation.community supported agriculture; food supply; transaction cost economics

Agency Theory and Supply Chain Management: Goals and Incentives in Supply Chain Organisations

Purpose Agency theory (AT) offers opportunities to examine how the risk of opportunism can be prevented or minimised along supply chain organisations using incentives to achieve goal alignment. Methodology The study presents evidence of how members of such organisations achieve goal alignment through the use of incentives by empirically examining two complete supply chain organisations, including final customers, within the UK agri-food industry using a case study methodology. Findings The findings show that contractual goals can be divided into two different categories, shared supply chain organisational goals, and independent goals of each individual participant. In addition to monitoring ability, incentives can also be classified into short term financial and long term social incentives. Product attributes, in particular credence attributes, are also identified as having implications for both goals and incentives. Research limitations The supply chain perspective and case study methodology mean that the research findings cannot be generalised to other supply chains. A further limitation of the research is the use of different methods of data collection at the final customer point. Practical Implications Managers must ensure that appropriate incentives for all departments and individuals are designed to deliver the strategic goals of the supply chain organisation

Talk up or criticize? Customer responses to WOM about competitors during social interactions

Popular metrics such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) highlights many benefits of word of mouth (WOM) to firms. Is WOM all it is claimed to be? Building on social identity theory, this research develops a conceptual model of WOM exchange in social settings and tests the model with customer surveys of three service sectors. The findings show that the effects of (1) positive and negative WOM (P/NWOM) received about competitors and (2) perceived presence of critical incidents (PPCIs) on P/NWOM given about own service provider are far from intuitive. Responses to PWOM received counter the suggestions in the NPS literature. The findings also indicate that the best firms can hope for when receiving NWOM about competitors is that their customers remain silent. It is recommended that firms communicate a message that is consistent with the nuanced views expressed by friends in social circles, rather than a uniformly superior positioning

Creative professional users musical relevance criteria

Although known item searching for music can be dealt with by searching metadata using existing text search techniques, human subjectivity and variability within the music itself make it very difficult to search for unknown items. This paper examines these problems within the context of text retrieval and music information retrieval. The focus is on ascertaining a relationship between music relevance criteria and those relating to relevance judgements in text retrieval. A data-rich collection of relevance judgements by creative professionals searching for unknown musical items to accompany moving images using real world queries is analysed. The participants in our observations are found to take a socio-cognitive approach and use a range of content and context based criteria. These criteria correlate strongly with those arising from previous text retrieval studies despite the many differences between music and text in their actual content

Quality Uncertainty And Adverse Selection In Sponsored Search Markets

Sponsored search mechanisms, where advertisers bid for placement to be as close to the top in the listing of search results, are the fastest growing among online search models. Sponsored search in popular search services such as Google and Yahoo! employ an auction mechanism wherein firms can bid, for a better placement in the (sponsored) search results, on relevant keywords used by consumers in their search process. This provides an unprecedented opportunity to test some of the predictions of earlier research relating quality and advertising, in the online setting. While sponsored search mechanisms have been gaining popularity, they can potentially introduce a bias in the listing of search results. In particular, sponsored search mechanisms that enable low quality bidders to be placed at the top of the search listings can adversely affect consumer welfare. Our study uses data from online sponsored search auctions to examine the relationship between advertisers' quality and their bidding strategies. Specifically we seek to understand if advertisers' bidding strategies differ across products characterized by different degrees of quality-uncertainty. Our results indicate that there are significant differences in the bidding strategies of sellers of search goods as compared to sellers of experience and credence goods, and that there is significant adverse selection in product categories characterized by greater uncertainty. We discuss the implications of our findings for consumers, advertisers, and intermediaries and provide directions for future research in this emerging context

Credence Services: Content, credibility, and usefulness of online reviews

Credence products are those whose quality is difficult or impossible for consumers to assess, even after consuming the product (Darby & Karni, 1973). For example, it is difficult to assess the technical skill and knowledge of a physician even after a visit. This research is focused on the content, structure and consumer perceptions of online reviews for credence services. We start by examining how the content and structure of real online reviews of credence services systematically differs from those of experience services (Nelson, 1970). We find that online reviews of credence services are more likely to contain unsupported claims than reviews of experience services. We experimentally examine consumer perceptions of reviews, varying both their structure and content. Consumers rationally discount the credibility of credence claims when presented with short, simple reviews but we expect more complex argument structure and inclusion of experience attributes in the review to attenuate this effect