Customer Loyalty in Social Virtual Worlds

Social virtual worlds (SVWs) are an emerging phenomenon in terms of numbers of users as well as business environments. When it comes to the economic viability of SVWs, keeping existing customers active, i.e. customer loyalty, is a sine qua non. In this paper we investigate customer loyalty with two key variables: continuous use intention and purchase intention. We apply the expanded expectation-confirmation model by Thong et al. (2006) and empirically test our research model with data collected from 965 Canadian SVW users. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data. Perceived enjoyment was found to have the strongest impact on continuous use intentions whereas perceived critical mass was the main predictor of purchase intention. Finally, contrary to previous studies, satisfaction did not have a statistically significant impact on loyalty

Trust, Social Presence and Customer Loyalty in Social Virtual Worlds

Social virtual worlds (SVWs) have drawn substantial attention in business and academia. This research focuses on how trust affects customer loyalty in the SVW setting. Specifically, this study pinpoints how trust in SVW staff and other users influences the continuous use and purchase behaviour in SVWs. Additionally, we examine the influence of social presence on the two aspects trust and customer loyalty. The research model is tested with PLS using a sample of 2111 Finnish Habbo users. The two facets of trust are important antecedents on customer loyalty, yet differing in their effect. Social presence is a strong determinant of trust but also a direct antecedent of customer loyalty. Together, trust and social presence account for a considerable amount of variance in continuous use and purchase intention

Digital Natives’ Purchasing Behavior in Habbo Hotel

Purchasing virtual products and services in virtual worlds is a rapidly growing form of online consumer behavior, especially among the digital natives. The paper examines why teens spend real money in virtual goods and services. We empirically investigate the reasons for virtual purchasing behavior in world‟s most popular social virtual world, Habbo Hotel. Using content analysis, we classify the reasons for purchasing into four higher order gratifications, namely elevated experience, hedonic and social factors as well as functional activities. The results demonstrate that virtual purchasing is a vehicle for enhancing and customizing the valued aspects in the user experience

User Acceptance of Electronic Commerce: Contributions from the Bled eConference

User acceptance of electronic commerce continues to be a popular topic at the Bled eConference. The paper reviews the past contributions of the conference in this specific area. The review deals with those studies that have an empirical and quantitative component, and those studies where the emphasis has been on testing theories of user acceptance. The paper establishes three phases in which Bled delegates have gradually extended generic user acceptance models to deal with issues of electronic commerce. The first phase (20012003) is one of theory application. The second phase (2004-2007) is one of theory extension. In the third phase, (2008-2011), Bled delegates move beyond traditional models and adopt alternative theoretical approaches. The review ends with three promising avenues for further research in electronic commerce

Factors that Impact Customers’ Loyalty to Social Commerce Websites

Social commerce (s-commerce) has become rapidly appeared as relatively new area of investigation for both researchers and practitioners. However, there has been little research in the area of customer loyalty to s-commerce websites. The aim of this study is to develop a framework to identify factors affecting customers’ loyalty to s-commerce websites. A web-based survey was used to collect data which were analysed using the partial least squares based on structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). This study found that satisfaction; trust and social presence have significant influence on loyalty to s-commerce website and found that reputation, satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and social presence positively contribute to explaining the variance in trust. In contrast, communication and online shopping experience didn’t contribute to explain the variance in trust. The findings of this study contribute to the development of businesses strategies of how to retain their customers which will result in higher profits

Generating Procedural Controls to Facilitate Trade: The Role of Control in the Absence of Trust

Over the years, Trust has been recognized in the Bled community as a key enabling factor to stimulate Electronic Commerce. Authors have discussed formal aspects of trust, the role trust plays in the adoption of both B2B and B2C Electronic Commerce, as well as mechanisms to build trust and/or overcome the lack of it. This article first provides a brief overview of the Trust-related articles in the Bled eConference. It then focuses on one specific aspect of the facilitation of trade in absence of trust: the development of procedural controls that enable Electronic Commerce at arms’ length, summarizing the contributions of the authors on this theme at the Bled Conference since the early 1990s. The paper concludes with the authors’ current view on developing procedural controls, focusing on the design process itself, which is often a rather lengthy process consisting of trial-and -error. Here a more analytical approach is proposed to the identification of control requirements for inter-organizational procedures. The approach involves abstracting the process to identify its basic deontic elements. A model checking approach is then applied to identify needed controls

The Role of Confirmation in IS Continuance Theory: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis

This paper provides a meta-analysis of Information Systems Continuance (ISC) theory, specifically focusing on the relationships that Confirmation has with Satisfaction, Perceived Usefulness and Continuance Intention. A comprehensive literature review for the years 2001 to 2012 revealed 75 ISC studies from 72 papers. The results of this meta-analysis indicate the robustness of ISC theory and model, with large effect sizes for the three key relationships. Moderator analyses indicate larger effect sizes for nonconvenience samples (versus convenience samples) and educational/eLearning Information Systems and personal Information Systems (versus corporate Information Systems). Implications of the results are discussed, along with implications for researchers and practitioners. Meta-analysis limitations as well as future directions for this meta-analysis are presented

Integrating Social Networking Sites into e-Commerce Website: A Study on Online Consumer Behaviour

The high interactivity rate in social networking sites (SNSs) has drawn the attention of many researchers and businesses. However, this has at the same time made it difficult for businesses to decide where to build their web presence - in their e-commerce website or in SNSs. Therefore, this project, embracing the methodology of rapid application development (RAD), aims to study the impact on the online consumers’ behaviour, particularly in their perceived trust, word-of-mouth (WOM) effect among them, and their purchase intention in the e-commerce website, by integrating Facebook social elements into the website interface of an e-commerce website, ToHerHeart.com. A research online survey was developed and distributed before and after this integration. The research outcome shows that the positive impact of this social integration was generally not significant to accept the project hypotheses; integrating Facebook social elements into ToHerHeart.com e-commerce website interface does not really increase the online consumers’ perceived trust, WOM effect among them, and their purchase intention in ToHerHeart.com. The research outcome also suggests that businesses build their e-commerce website and at the same time set up their business webpage in SNSs to optimize the business advantages of both and minimize the overall disadvantages. Recommendations for future research were also outlined in this paper