Passive, Active, or Co-Active? The Link Between Synchronous User Participation and Willingness to Pay for Premium Options

Social media-enabled business models have transformed the content industry. To increase users’ willingness to pay (WTP), many of today’s content providers have changed from mere content provision towards offering social content experiences. Recent research has confirmed that users’ participation activities, e.g. commenting on content, increase the WTP for social content services’ premium options. So far, social content has been available predominantly on-demand, only allowing asynchronous user participation. Recently, social live content services emerged, which facilitate synchronous user participation and enable so-called co-active behavior. With this study, we conceptualize co-active behavior as the interplay between users while co-experiencing content together, and empirically show that co-active behavior has a stronger effect on WTP for premium options than the classic forms of passive and active behavior. Our work provides theoretical contributions on the WTP for social content as well as implications for the management of social content services

Still Targeting Younger Customers? A Field Experiment on Digital Communication Channel Migration

When encouraging customers to migrate to a digital communication channel, companies often factor age into their targeting strategy. Both the popular press and scholarly work generally believe that younger customers are more likely to opt into communication digitally. However, our empirical evidence from a large-scale field experiment shows that younger customers are not more likely to migrate to a digital communication channel. Besides, we propose two IT-embodied factors to better target customers in the context of digital communication, namely individual digital activeness and information seeking intensity. We find that customers with higher individual digital activeness, or those with lower information seeking intensity, are more likely to migrate to a digital communication channel. Our study thus offers implications for companies to focus more on customer IT-embodied characteristics instead of age

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Performance: Evidence from Small and Micro-Enterprises in Kenya

Entrepreneurial orientation is a significant determinant of firm performance. The multifaceted nature of EO prompted a need for a more insightful study to bring to fore the extent of effect it has on performance. Nonetheless, past research has shown that simply examining the effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation on firm performance provides an incomplete picture. To stimulate the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and firm performance, there is need to control internal and external contingent factors. Using data from 333 Small and Micro-enterprises (SMEs) in Uasin-Gishu County in Kenya, the study showed that innovativeness (β1= 0.632, p value = 0.000) and pro-activeness (β2= 0.246, p value = 0.000) have positive effects on firm performance; however, risk-taking  negatively  effects  firm performance (β3= -0.163, p value = 0.002). The study makes significant contributions to the understanding of the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and performance of SMEs. This knowledge is invaluable to both SME owners and policy makers in designing and shaping firm and industry-level strategies that are appropriate for positive outcomes of entrepreneurship. Keywords: Entrepreneurial orientation, Innovativeness, Pro-activeness, Risk-taking, Firm Performanc

Hotels' dependency on online intermediaries and their chosen distribution channel portfolios: Three country insights

New intermediaries are entering the market, challenging the hospitality industry to find an appropriate distribution channel portfolio. This research investigates how many channels hotels in Austria, Germany and Switzerland choose and what role the various channels play. Findings based on 1014 questionnaires reveal an average mix of 8.06 offline and online channel categories. Traditional channels, such as walk-ins and telephone, still play a major role; however, about one fifth of the bookings are completely generated online. On average, 3.61 online travel agencies (OTAs) are used. With regards to OTA penetration, an oligopolistic market structure is prevalent. Swiss and German hotels' OTA dependency is higher than Austrian's. A series of a posteriori cluster analysis results in four distribution portfolio groups hoteliers choose: multi-channel-, electronic-, real time-, and traditional distributors. Distribution portfolio profiles facilitate learning from strategies used by hotels with certain characteristics such as target group and star-rating

A Synthesis of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Entrepreneurial Marketing to Enhance the Effectiveness of Approaching the Market by SMEs in Periods of Economic Transition

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and employment in every economy. However, in transition economies (TEs) they often struggle to approach the market effectively. This study extends theoretical understanding of the interface between entrepreneurship and marketing. The study identifies Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) as key to the success of these SMEs. It proposes a synthesis of the two concepts, and the practices they describe, as a basis for better understanding and improving SME approach to market in economies experiencing the disruption of transition. The overall aim of the study is to assist SMEs in approaching the market more effectively, especially in TEs. Its specific objectives are threefold. First, to identify the antecedent behaviours that underlie EO. Second, to scope the components that interlink the concepts of EO and EM. Third, to propose marketing strategies that are especially applicable to SMEs in general and, in particular, to SMEs operating in a TE context. These objectives are informed by phenomenologically oriented analysis of twenty-nine (n29) semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs who manage or own an SME in Saudi Arabia in various sectors including SME consultants. Their reports of their lived experience suggest seven antecedents of EO ordered according to their perceived importance. In addition, two elements that interlink EO and EM are identified; these are human capital and access to market information. Thus, and contrary to previous academic practice, this study treats EO and EM as essentially interrelated nature and explores how market engagement is more effective when SMEs embrace both in their practice. Finally, the study evaluates different marketing strategies and tools generated at the EO-EM interface, that can be most effective for SMEs in TEs. The study concludes with managerial implications, suggestions for policy makers and directions for further research

Facebook: a blessing or a curse for grocery stores?

Abstract Purpose – Increasingly businesses are using Facebook to communicate and engage their customers. However, there is a dearth of research as to why and how customers interact with businesses on social media in the grocery sector. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the roles played by online brand communities (OBCs) and social customers in the creation as well as the destruction of value. Design/methodology/approach - Netnography was adopted as an approach to gain insight into the various ways customers engage with grocery stores on their official Facebook pages. Messages posted on Tesco’s and Wal-Mart’s Facebook pages are thematically analysed and critical discussion is linked back to the extant contemporary debate on social media. Findings – This study shows that customers respond to company posts for the following reasons: to communicate with the stores, to converse with other customers, to express their emotions, to share their experiences as employees of the stores with customers, and to share their positive or negative actions with members of the online communities. The study further highlights the role of social media in the co-creation and co-destruction of customer, consumer and supermarket value and builds contemporary theory and informs practice. Practical implications – Retailers should use social media to enrich the customer experience by encouraging customer engagement, co-creation of value and responding efficiently to customer needs in real time. Originality/value - This paper contributes to knowledge by uncovering the various ways customers react with the business. The social customer is both a curse and a blessing to Tesco and Walmart as they can create or destroy value for the business

Personalization in social retargeting - A field experiment

This study compares the effectiveness of product- and category-specific advertising personalization in Social Retargeting. Social Retargeting combines the features of social advertising, targeting consumers based on social connections, and retargeting, using consumers' browsing behavior to personalize ad content. We conducted a large-scale randomized field experiment in collaboration with a major e-retailer. Contradicting prior empirical findings, our results indicate that product-specific ads outperform less personalized category-specific ads. While theory suggests a positive effect, we find that social targeting decreases the performance of personalized ads. Surprisingly, socially targeted consumers are not more responsive to product-specific ads. We show that our results remain robust and are driven by ad personalization when controlling for temporal targeting and how deep consumers browse the e-retailer's website. Our study contributes to the IS and marketing literature related to personalization in digital advertising and provides valuable suggestions for firms' personalization strategies

Personalization in Social Retargeting – A Field Experiment

This study compares the effectiveness of product- and category-specific advertising personalization in Social Retargeting. Social Retargeting combines the features of social advertising, targeting consumers based on social connections, and retargeting, using consumers’ browsing behavior to personalize ad content. We conducted a large-scale randomized field experiment in collaboration with a major e-retailer. Contradicting prior empirical findings, our results indicate that product-specific ads outperform less personalized category-specific ads. While theory suggests a positive effect, we find that social targeting decreases the performance of personalized ads. Surprisingly, socially targeted consumers are not more responsive to product-specific ads. We show that our results remain robust and are driven by ad personalization when controlling for temporal targeting and how deep consumers browse the e-retailer’s website. Our study contributes to the IS and marketing literature related to personalization in digital advertising and provides valuable suggestions for firms’ personalization strategies