A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE US IN THE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MODEL FOR MOBILE UTILITARIAN INFORMATION SERVICES

Customer satisfaction and loyalty on mobile information services have been investigated in academic literature. However, there are not many researches on the factors with a specific focus on multiple utilitarian services on a cross-national basis. This research examines the antecedents of customer satisfaction and loyalty through a survey of young adult mobile users in Japan and US, respectively by modifying the American Customer Satisfaction Model (ACSM). The result showed that all of the paths in the estimated models for Japan and US were statistically significant except 3 non-significant paths for the both countries and one non-significant path from Perceived Expectation (PE) to Customer Satisfaction (CS) for US. Also, the estimated coefficients for two countries were very similar in general with a difference in the estimate on the above non-significant path of PE-CS. Since we investigated the antecedents of the common factors for two countries on Customer Satisfaction of multiple utilitarian services, our results may provide useful implications for global marketing in terms of user satisfaction and loyalty. Keywords- Mobile information services, Utilitarian service, ACSM, Customer satisfaction, Perceived expectation, SEM

A study on brand loyalty : empirical evidence from the mobile phone market in Malaysia

Faced with a severe competitive business environment and the possibility of reaching maturity stage over the coming years, mobile phone brand owners are concerned about retaining and nurturing their profitable existing customers by strengthening customers’ brand loyalty. Surprisingly, studies relating to brand loyalty in the mobile phone setting are relatively scanty and much less studies have focused on comprehensive sets of brand loyalty determinants in the context of mobile phones. Therefore, understanding the formation of mobile phone brand loyalty is of utmost importance and it is the main concern of this study. Drawing upon Oliver’s four- stage loyalty model, this study investigated the relationship of utilitarian value and hedonic value (cognitive loyalty), brand satisfaction and emotional attachment (affective loyalty), brand trust (conative loyalty), and brand loyalty (action loyalty) sequentially. The study, moreover, examined the moderating effect of brand reputation in order to provide a clearer understanding of the mobile phone customers’ brand loyalty formation process. A total of 327 mobile phone users who resided in Klang Valley participated in the study. The results from the structural model supported the hypothesized paths: hedonic value influences brand satisfaction, hedonic value affects emotional attachment, brand satisfaction induces brand trust, emotional attachment influences brand trust, and brand trust influences brand loyalty. However, the hypothesized paths, i.e. utilitarian value influences brand satisfaction and utilitarian value influences emotional attachment, were not supported. The findings further indicated that the links of brand trust to brand loyalty are stronger when the brand has a high reputation, supporting the moderating effect of brand reputation. Finally, the implications are discussed, and the limitations of the study and future directions are briefly outlined

Social commerce users'' optimal experience: stimuli, response and culture

Social commerce users' experience is generated during socio-commercial interactions. Therein, users receive utilitarian and hedonic stimuli that form their experience and influence their responses. However, research is needed to understand how this experience is generated. Based on the stimulus-organism-response framework and flow theory, this study analyzes how hedonic stimulus (here called sPassion) and utilitarian stimulus (usability) affect users' flow experience (organism) to positively impact emotional and behavioral loyalty (users' responses). Furthermore, as social commerce users are culturally diverse, the moderating effect of cultural background is studied, drawing on Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Findings show that hedonic stimulus more strongly impacts social commerce users' flow experience versus utilitarian stimulus. Once users reach the state of optimal experience, their positive responses are reflected in their increased intention to spread social word of mouth, to return to the website and to repurchase on it. Additionally, optimal user experience in social commerce is generated mainly through hedonic stimuli and, while social commerce environments can be culturally diverse, cultural background does not imply changes in users' behavioral patterns. This study theoretically advances research on social commerce users' experience. Likewise, the findings guide online retailers in optimizing user experience via hedonic stimuli to enhance loyalty

Optimal user esperience in social commerce: the role of emotions, flow and user-generated information

This doctoral dissertation aims to understand how to optimize online customer experience in the highly interactive environment of social commerce. In an attempt to go beyond online commercial transactions and to support a consumer-centered and social-oriented perspective, social commerce offers users the necessary tools (e.g., recommendations, referrals, ratings and forums) for fostering social interactions during the online purchasing process. User-generated content, the fruit of these social interactions, can affect and help users in their decision-making process. Hence, the main objective of this dissertation aims to understand online consumer behavior to optimize the customer experience in social commerce. This doctoral dissertation is organized into four studies.Study 1 aims to investigate the customer engagement behavior literature in depth, analyzing the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process in social commerce and the role of emotions within that process. This study proposes a model of the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process. The model analyzes how interactivity, social presence and enjoyment affect sPassion and result in positive sWOM. The results confirm empirically that cognitive experience and emotional feelings derived from the process boost user participation. At the core of the process, sPassion positively affects the spread of sWOM. Study 2 has the objective of reaching a wider understanding of optimal user experience in social commerce and its mediating effect between emotions and behavior. Accordingly, the study is divided into two parts: first, to analyze the dimensionality, structure and measurement of the state of flow; and second, to test how websites can improve user experience to boost positive sWOM while avoiding negative sWOM. The empirical results confirm the three-dimensional nature of the concept and support its second-order reflective structure, thereby helping to establish the basis for measuring state of flow, its structure and factors; and it confirms that passionate users are likely to experience a state of flow and, as a consequence, to share positive sWOM. Study 3 investigates how user-generated versus company-generated information contributes to trust in the social commerce site, at the same time analyzing how user-generational cohorts behave (Generations X, Y and Z). Social commerce websites offer content created by the company itself and by its users, and this content is accessible without time and space constraints; therefore, everyone, regardless of age, can access social commerce information. The mission of social commerce is to boost tradeoffs while offering users the chance to share their own experiences and to obtain information from the experiences of others. Hence, trust transferred in this part of the purchasing decision process will be influenced by trust in the type of information available. Thus, Study 3 analyzes how user-generated and company-generated information contribute to trust in social commerce. The younger the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in user-generated information; the older the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in company-generated information. Study 3 confirms that users cannot be considered as a single group and must be segmented into generational cohorts.Study 4 investigates user experience across cultures, analyzing the effect of hedonic and utilitarian antecedents on optimal user experience and its consequences on user intention. Taking into account the salience of emotions within experiences of digital technologies, this study has a twofold purpose. First, it analyzes how emotions such as sPassion compared with flow state affected by usability, resulting in a positive impact on emotional and behavioral loyalty. Second, as the main focus of the study, cultural background is tested as a moderating effect.This dissertation allows us to draw a number of main conclusions regarding the study of online consumer experience in social commerce. First, on the basis of the importance of emotion in customer experience, this dissertation supports the primary role of emotions in shaping optimal user experience in social commerce. Second, once users are engaged and have reached an optimal experience (state of flow), this situation drives positive changes in their behavior, positively affecting their decision-making process. Third, it is necessary to take into account the fact that generational cohorts behave differently, since they trust information in different ways. Last, but not least, despite the fact that culture influences decision-making processes, the internationalization of markets and multiculturalism is making users more and more similar.<br /

23rd Recent Advances in Retailing &amp; Services Science Conference, July 11-14, 2016, Edinburgh, Scotland:book of abstracts

This book includes the (edited) abstracts of the papers that will be presented at the 23rd Recent Advancesin Retailing and Services Science Conference, at the Carlton/Hilton hotel, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 11-16, 2016.The aim of the conference is to bring together an international and multidisciplinary audience working ondifferent topics in retailing and consumer behavior research. Both completed work and work in progresswill be presented. This is reflected in the kind of papers that have been accepted for presentation

The impact of Covid-19 on the German online home sports industry: an analysis based on S-O-R and Structural Equation Modeling

The online home sports industry grew tremendously in the last years and especially since the emergence of quarantine measurements and new restrictions caused by the outbreak of Covid19. A better understanding of what drives practitioners to participate in online sports classes and to further continue with them in the future would benefit sport marketers and sport classes providers greatly. To date, no empirically tested model has proposed predictive relationships among the online sports athletes' stimuli and behavioral variables. Based on the SOR model, this study investigated how five different stimuli of online video sports classes induces the users' organism in terms of emotion and attitude, and how it further influences users' satisfaction and intention to continue doing online classes. Data from 303 respondents were collected. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and an additional multigroup analysis was conducted to observe whether there exist significant differences in the structural model between synchronous and asynchronous online sports classes participants. In general, the results revealed that hedonic value and online coach reputation have the largest indirect effect on the participants' intention to continue. Pleasure was evaluated to be the most important emotional dimension for users to continuous following online classes, whereas dominance had no significant impact, neither on satisfaction nor on the intention to continue. Attitude and satisfaction had a significant direct influence as well and the results of the multigroup analysis indicated that the two groups (synchronous and asynchronous classes) only differ in the relationship between hedonic value and arousal.A indústria do desporto online tem crescido nos últimos anos e especialmente desde o surto de Covid-19. Uma melhor compreensão dos fatores que levam as pessoas a praticar desporto através de plataformas online, e a continuar com esta prática no futuro, seria um grande benefício para os comerciantes e fornecedores desta área. Até à data, nenhum modelo empírico testado produziu relações objetivas entre o estímulo de atletas de desportos online e variações no comportamento dos mesmos. Com base no modelo SOR, este estudo investiga a forma como cinco estímulos diferentes de aulas de desporto online afetam o organismo dos utilizadores em termos de emoção e atitude, e como influenciam ainda mais a satisfação e intenção dos utilizadores de continuarem. Foram recolhidos dados de 303 participantes. As hipóteses foram testadas utilizando modelos de equações estruturais. Adicionalmente, foi realizada uma análise multigrupo para observar se existem diferenças significativas no modelo estrutural entre os participantes das aulas de desporto online síncronas e assíncronas. Os resultados revelaram que o valor hedónico e a reputação do treinador online têm maior efeito indireto sobre a intenção dos participantes de continuar. O prazer foi avaliado como sendo a dimensão emocional mais importante para a intenção final contínua, enquanto que a dominância não teve impacto significativo, nem na satisfação nem na intenção de continuar. A atitude e a satisfação tiveram também uma influência direta significativa e os resultados da análise multigrupo indicaram que os dois grupos diferem apenas na relação entre o valor hedónico e a excitação

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage