Interaction Archetypes of Online Shopping

To inform the design space of electronic commerce stores, increase the sales opportunities and convert browsers to buyers, it is imperative to understand consumers’ online shopping tasks. This study postulates that consumers’ shopping tasks, particularly those involving information seeking and decision making, can be classified and aggregated into a few interaction archetypes, which would require specific technology support from EC stores. With better support from the EC stores, consumers would be more satisfied with their shopping experience, more likely to make a purchase and to return loyally. After reviewing the literature, this study proposes the context-aware shopping interaction archetypes (CASIA) conceptual framework, which helps classifying shopping tasks with the characteristics of the context: customers, tasks, and products. A CASIA would share similar contexts and differ from other CASIAs in terms of cognitive efforts, behaviors, and problems encountered in carrying out the tasks. The study proposes a naturalistic case-study methodology to validate the CASIA framework

Retail positioning through customer satisfaction: an alternative explanation to the resource-based view

Through exploring factors influencing effective retail positioning strategies in an emerging market environment, this paper challenges the role of isolation mechanism and heterogeneous idiosyncrasy argued by the resource-based view theory. By drawing on a sample of 11,577 customers from hypermarkets, electronic appliance specialty stores and department stores in major Chinese cities, we set up ten hypotheses and confirm a nine-item model for customeroriented retail positioning (perceived price, store image, product, shopping environment, customer service, payment process, after-sales service, store policies, and shopping convenience). Our results show that different retail formats achieve success through the implementation of similar positioning strategies, in which case, it is not heterogeneity but homogeneity that contributes to retailers' success greatly at the development stage of retail expansion. Our results challenge previously proved effectiveness of inimitability to success by the resource-based view, and support homogenous idiosyncrasy of retailers in the implementation of customer-oriented positioning strategies in an emerging market

Dwarna : a blockchain solution for dynamic consent in biobanking

Dynamic consent aims to empower research partners and facilitate active participation in the research process. Used within the context of biobanking, it gives individuals access to information and control to determine how and where their biospecimens and data should be used. We present Dwarna—a web portal for ‘dynamic consent’ that acts as a hub connecting the different stakeholders of the Malta Biobank: biobank managers, researchers, research partners, and the general public. The portal stores research partners’ consent in a blockchain to create an immutable audit trail of research partners’ consent changes. Dwarna’s structure also presents a solution to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation’s right to erasure—a right that is seemingly incompatible with the blockchain model. Dwarna’s transparent structure increases trustworthiness in the biobanking process by giving research partners more control over which research studies they participate in, by facilitating the withdrawal of consent and by making it possible to request that the biospecimen and associated data are destroyed.peer-reviewe

Understanding the Workforce Needs of New Jersey's Retail Industry

Explores the changing skill and education needs of the modern retail workplace. Identifies key skills employers require and the jobs for which employers report the most difficulty finding and keeping skilled workers