e-Consumer Behaviour

Purpose – The primary purpose of this article is to bring together apparently disparate and yet interconnected strands of research and present an integrated model of e-consumer behaviour. It has a secondary objective of stimulating more research in areas identified as still being underexplored. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is discursive, based on analysis and synthesis of econsumer literature. Findings – Despite a broad spectrum of disciplines that investigate e-consumer behaviour and despite this special issue in the area of marketing, there are still areas open for research into econsumer behaviour in marketing, for example the role of image, trust and e-interactivity. The paper develops a model to explain e-consumer behaviour. Research limitations/implications – As a conceptual paper, this study is limited to literature and prior empirical research. It offers the benefit of new research directions for e-retailers in understanding and satisfying e-consumers. The paper provides researchers with a proposed integrated model of e-consumer behaviour. Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in linking a significant body of literature within a unifying theoretical framework and the identification of under-researched areas of e-consumer behaviour in a marketing context

Proposing the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) to Explain and Predict the Influence of High- and Low-Affect Infusion on Web Vendor Trust

Trust is just as essential to online business as it is to offline transactions but can be more difficult to achieve-especially for newer websites with unknown web vendors. Research on web-based trust development explains that web vendor trust can be created by both cognitive and affective (e.g., emotion-based) influences. But under what circumstances will emotion or cognition be more dominate in trust establishment? Theory-based answers to these questions can help online web vendors design better websites that account for unleveraged factors that will increase trust in the web vendor. To this end, we use the Affect Infusion Model and trust transference to propose the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) that explains and predicts how and when cognition, through perceived website performance (PwP), and positive emotion (PEmo) each influence web vendor trust. ATIM explains the underlying causal mechanisms that determine the degree of affect infusion and the subsequent processing strategy that a user adopts when interacting with a new website. Under high-affect infusion, PEmo acts as a mediator between PwP and vendor trust; under low-affect infusion, PwP primarily impacts trust and PEmo is dis-intermediated. We review two distinct, rigorously validated experiments that empirically support ATIM. To further extend the contributions of ATIM, we demonstrate how use of specific contextual features-rooted in theory and that drive one\u27s choice of affect infusion and cognitive processing-can be leveraged into a methodology that we propose to further enhance user-centered design (UCD). We further detail several exciting research opportunities that can leverage ATIM

What Drives M-Shoppers to Continue Using Mobile Devices to Buy?

Producción CientíficaThe aim of this work is to offer a better understanding of consumer continued intentions to use mobile devices to shop. An integrated model is developed to identify the drivers that lead m-shoppers to repurchase. Specifically, navigation, safety and ubiquity are posited as stimuli guiding consumers’ affective (satisfaction) and cognitive (trust and convenience) reactions that will, in turn, increase repurchase intention. Results show the impact of ubiquity on m-convenience and safety m-experience on both affective and cognitive reactions. Finally, repurchase intention is explained directly by m-satisfaction and m-convenience and indirectly by m-trust. This article contributes to the fields of mobile marketing literature and practitioner management.Ministerior de Educación y ciencia (proyecto ECO2017-8217-R)Junta de Castilla y León (proyecto VA001B10-1)Fondo europeo de desarrollo regional (proyecto VA112P17

Web Design Attributes in Building User Trust, Satisfaction, and Loyalty for a High Uncertainty Avoidance Culture

In this study, we attempt to evaluate the user pref6 erences for web design attributes (i.e., typography, color, content 7 quality, interactivity, and navigation) to determine the trust, sat8 isfaction, and loyalty for uncertainty avoidance cultures. Content 9 quality and navigation have been observed as strong factors in 10 building user trust with e-commerce websites. In contrast, inter11 activity, color, and typography have been observed as strong de12 terminants of user satisfaction. The most relevant and interesting 13 finding is related to typography, which has been rarely discussed 14 in e-commerce literature. A questionnaire was designed to collect 15 data to corroborate the proposed model and hypotheses. Further16 more, the partial least-squares method was adopted to analyze the 17 collected data from the students who participated in the test (n 18 = 558). Finally, the results of this study provide strong support to 19 the proposed model and hypotheses. Therefore, all the web design 20 attributes were observed as important design features to develop 21 user trust and satisfaction for uncertainty avoidance cultures. Al22 though both factors seem to be relevant, the relationship between 23 trust and loyalty was observed to be stronger than between satis24 faction and loyalty; thus, trust seems to be a stronger determinant 25 of loyalty for risk/high uncertainty avoidance culture

Perceived mobile interactivity influence on usability and mobile marketing acceptance in the informal hair-care business

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing 2016The African hair-care business has become a multibillion-dollar industry, stretching from India to china attracting global retailers such as Unilever and L’Oréal. The African hair-care market will continue to grow, especially in the informal sector where it is said to employ about 1.5 people per business on permanent basis. In order for small businesses’ performance to improve in emerging markets, especially in the informal sector, improving their marketing skills is quite essential. Mobile marketing is cost effective and can be utilised to benefit both marketing practitioners and consumers. This is imperative in the informal hair-care industry, where businesses generally lack financial resources and therefore do not have a budget to spend on marketing and advertising. The mobile phone therefore becomes an important marketing channel to reach customers and increase profitability in informal hair-care businesses, yet there has not been much academic research conducted on this and little is known about the factors that might influence mobile marketing acceptance. The purpose of this study is therefore to bridge the gap by investigating perceived mobile interactivity influence on usability and mobile marketing acceptance in the informal hair-care industry in South Africa. A quantitative study was conducted using a sample of 312 informal hair-care business operators in the Johannesburg area. Given the nature of the informal sector, a nonprobability sampling method, known as convenience sampling, was used for data collection. For analysing and interpreting data, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach was utilised. The study findings indicate that perceived interactivity dimensions (control, responsiveness and nonverbal information) have a positive effect on mobile phone usability and lead to mobile marketing acceptance. However, the findings showed a negative relation between perceived personalisation and mobile phone usability. This study aims to contribute to mobile marketing literature, be of benefit to Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs) policy makers and add value to the field of marketing. Key words: perceived control, perceived responsiveness, nonverbal information, perceived personalisation, mobile phone usability, mobile marketing acceptanceGR201

A Theory and Practice of Website Engagibility

This thesis explores the domain of website quality. It presents a new study of website quality - an abstraction and synthesis, a measurement methodology, and analysis - and proposes metrics which can be used to quantify it. The strategy employed involved revisiting software quality, modelling its broader perspectives and identifying quality factors which are specific to the World Wide Web (WWW). This resulted in a detailed set of elements which constitute website quality, a method for quantifying a quality measure, and demonstrating an approach to benchmarking eCommerce websites. The thesis has two dimensions. The first is a contribution to the theory of software quality - specifically website quality. The second dimension focuses on two perspectives of website quality - quality-of-product and quality-of-use - and uses them to present a new theory and methodology which are important first steps towards understanding metrics and their use when quantifying website quality. Once quantified, the websites can be benchmarked by evaluators and website owners for comparison with competitor sites. The thesis presents a study of five mature eCommerce websites. The study involves identifying, defining and collecting data counts for 67 site-level criteria for each site. These counts are specific to website product quality and include criteria such as occurrences of hyperlinks and menus which underpin navigation, occurrences of activities which underpin interactivity, and counts relating to a site’s eCommerce maturity. Lack of automated count collecting tools necessitated online visits to 537 HTML pages and performing manual counts. The thesis formulates a new approach to measuring website quality, named Metric Ratio Analysis (MRA). The thesis demonstrates how one website quality factor - engagibility - can be quantified and used for website comparison analysis. The thesis proposes a detailed theoretical and empirical validation procedure for MRA

The Effect of Customer Service and Content Management on Online Retail Sales Performance: The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction

This paper analyzes the mediating role of customer satisfaction by studying the relationship between IT-enabled customer service and content management efforts and online sales performance. Using data on the top performing Web retailers in the U.S. based on their online annual sales, we show that the extent of retailers’ efforts in online customer service and content management is positively linked to customer satisfaction, which in turn is positively related to the retailers’ online sales performance. In addition to directly increasing the revenue, our results indicate that customer service and content management features can also indirectly improve the retailers’ financial performance. Specifically, customer service management impacts the sales performance via the average ticket amount, while content management affects the sales via the repeat visit

Impact of Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce Factors on Firm Performance in Taiwan\u27s E-Brokerage Sector

The new economy influences the entire economy, from corporations and governments to society. Business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (EC) continues to grow despite the burst of the 2000 e-bubble. Dramatic changes in EC and the significance of EC\u27s impact on firm performance are important practical issues. Variations in firm performance (outcome variable) are attributed to organization effect and to industry effect. Thus, a theoretical framework that combines a strategic typology with a resource-based view of the dynamic capabilities perspective can explain the industry and organization effect on firm performance. This non-experimental, correlational (explanatory) and causal-comparative (exploratory) survey and secondary data research design is the first to investigate the relationships among organizational characteristics (firm size and web age), CEO commitment to EC, strategy types, website design, and IT system integration capabilities on the performance of Taiwan\u27s e-brokerage firms. In this study, integrating factors of strategic types as an industry effect, CEO commitment to EC as a firm resource and website design and IT system integration as EC capabilities provided a better explanation of the performance of Taiwan\u27s e-brokerage firms. Findings indicated that strategy types showed no significant differences on the level of firm performance (online sales and market share). Another finding suggested that website design of catalog application and web age were significant contributors the to the online annual sales growth rate. In addition, CEO commitment to EC, website design of catalog application, IT system integration capabilities, and web age were significant explanatory factors of the online annual market share growth rate. Top managers of e-brokers in Taiwan must have the ability to do all things well in order to succeed in the rapidly-changing EC environment. EC firms can no longer benefit from first-mover advantage which contributes negatively to firm performance. At the same time, they need to emphasize and invest firm resources into EC and bundle and leverage EC (website design capabilities) as a way to create value for customers, build a sustainable competitive advantage, and gain superior performance over competitors

The Sequence of electronic service quality on customer satisfaction: Theoretical study

This study investigates the impact of electronic service quality dimensions on customers’ satisfaction. Finding indicates that customers are satisfied in three dimensions: information, ease of use and security/privacy while they answer with “Neutral” for the other dimensions: design, reliability and interactivity/personalization which in turns did affect the overall satisfaction. Furthermore, the recommendations of this research were as follows: Organization should give more attention to its e-service quality especially in the three dimensions which did not meet its customer’s expectation which are: interactivity/personalization, design and reliability. However, as the users become more mature, they know exactly what they expect to be e-service quality factors. Therefore, It will be valuable to find out the solutions to reduce failures in firm electronic service quality and fill the gap between what is perceived by the customers view through in depth qualitative inquiry. The solution will include the integration of internal functional departments and external integrations of channel. Nowadays, called customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management have become the main factors