Brand equity of digital games : the influence of product brand and consumer experiences as sources of unique value

By demonstrating something unique a product stands out from the mass. This is the starting point of brand awareness, which exerts influence over consumers’ product evaluation processes. Particularly in the digital games industry, the creation of unique value is vital as games utilize intangible modes of distribution lacking physical form, which ultimately leads to difficulties in highlighting and facilitating evaluation of a game’s defining characteristics. The objective of this thesis is to determine and conceptualize how a game functions as a source of unique value. A game’s varied defining characteristics function as the source of brand equity which results in incremental effects influencing consumers’ product evaluation. The unique value characteristics of games are studied from three perspectives: 1) by examining the motivational aspects of digital games consumption; 2) by investigating the influence of brand image and prior experience on product evaluation regarding a game’s salient qualities and 3) by demonstrating the organizational practices involved in the development of unique qualities by processing novel game ideas within digital game studios. Three interrelated theories are adapted from various research contexts regarding the brand equity phenomenon - motivational theory, information processing theory of consumer choice and boundary objects-in-use in organizational practices. This thesis uses methodology triangulation to answer the research question, both quantitative (surveys and multivariate data analysis) and qualitative methods (interpretative case study) are applied to four data collection samples; three from consumers and one from game developers. The main contribution of this study is that both the game brand and prior experience are central elements which result in incremental influences on consumers’ product evaluation processes. First, the results indicate that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational aspects of consumption are important determinants of perceived value. Enjoyment, particularly the fun in games, plays a more important role during the awareness creation process than usefulness. Second, the results suggest that the influence of brand image on product evaluation is covert and this modifies consumers’ decision making structures. This leads to a reprioritization of attribute importance in which prior game playing experience maintains an additional significant role. Third, the processing of ideas in digital games studios is an imperative and complex practice. The overwhelming amount of knowledge conflicts during idea processing practices lead to the birth of unique value. Following the results of this thesis, digital games should be viewed as experience information goods. The findings provide novel theoretical and practical perspectives regarding brand equity and demonstrate how a combination of unique value characteristics can be used to create a successful game which stands out from the mass

Virtual world commerce adoption (VWCA) : a case study of second life investigating the impacts of perceived affordances, trust, and need satisfaction

Virtual worlds are computer-simulated worlds in which multi-players can simultaneously interact in a rich graphical environment. The development of virtual worlds, along with the massive growth of users, creates opportunities for business organizations. This dissertation involves many studies regarding virtual world adoption in business by virtual consumers. Most of the research in Information Systems (IS) was conducted investigating factors influencing technology adoption, such as ease of use and usefulness, subjective norms and behavioral controls, self-efficacy, performance and effort expectancy, flow, etc. However, most of these research studies focused neither on design aspects related to affordances nor users\u27 goal-oriented behaviors, such as need satisfaction. This dissertation examines the effect of affordances, referring to a property of an object, animal, or environment that affords, or makes available certain actions. Particularly, this dissertation investigates the users\u27 perceived affordance of virtual products and environments, in which business transactions take place. In addition, relationship-based trust and need satisfaction are considered as crucial determinants of virtual world commerce adoption in this dissertation. There are three studies that were conducted in Second Life in this dissertation, which are two preliminary studies and a main study. The preliminary studies use multiple data collection methods, including user interviews, documentation, direct observations, and questionnaire surveys. The results of the preliminary studies suggest that trust, social influence, system security, system quality, and service quality are vital for users when they make purchase decisions. The initial measurement model containing valid and reliable measurement scales of the main research constructs was proposed. The main study, using a revised questionnaire survey from the preliminary studies, was conducted to develop the conceptual framework of Virtual World Commerce Adoption (VWCA). Covariance-based and PLS-based path analyses were employed based on the data obtained from the participants who have different experience levels with online business transactions. The final results show a significant relationship between perceived affordances and intention to purchase products in the virtual world. This relationship is mediated by need satisfaction. However, the mediating effect of relationship-based trust is not significant. This is due to more concern about trust related to technical aspects of the system rather than trust from social exchange process

Evaluating whether a change in organisational structure would improve its competitive advantage

The purpose of this research is to study and analyse the internal and external structure of Ultimate Clean ltd, where I do work. We have put concentration on background of the company in the starting. This information is followed by aim and scope of research, which shows that what is the research question and what is scope of our research. After that Literature review is elaborated under five main subheadings. These subheading gives us deep information about the literature of organisation structure, competitive advantage. After that, Organisational context with internal and external analyse of the company is given which highlight the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the company. Some external factors like political, economic, social and legal, are also discussed in this report. Then some information is given for method of research that why we use it, where and when it is used. Some limitations are also discussed in this report of method. After this, result section comes. In this section, we discussed deeply about the answers of customers, employees and employer. We prepare a discussion of the result and conclude it wisely. In the end, some recommendations are also given to improve organisational structure of Ultimate Clean ltd. We suggest a new structure for the organisation to develop within company to have a good competitive advantage in market place. A big list of references is also given in the end of this report

Iberian market entry strategy for a new brand for mattress

This thesis is studying the possibility of the Eliconfort brand to internationalize for the Iberian market. It currently produces for several brands in Portugal and Spain but does not have its own identity as a brand. As Eliconfort has its own product, process and production knowledge, this is a great opportunity to assert yourself as a brand. Based on previous literature, a conceptual model was proposed and tested that investigates the possibilities of internationalization, the importance of a brand, factors that influence the shopping experience, perceptions, satisfaction and intentions, in the B2C and B2B context. This study provides more information about the concepts. An interview was conducted for 66 individuals in the context of the mattress industry. The research methodology used in this dissertation is qualitative. The results of this investigation reveal that the internationalization of the brand has to be very well studied and worked, since the creation of a strategy of adaptation to the Spanish market, understanding the characteristics of products in each market region and identifying the determining factors to enter the market.Esta tese estuda a possibilidade da marca Eliconfort internacionalizar para o mercado ibérico. Atualmente é produtora de colchões e almofadas para várias marcas, em Portugal e Espanha, mas não tem uma identidade própria como marca. Como a Eliconfort tem o conhecimento de produto, processos e produção própria, esta é uma grande oportunidade para se afirmar enquanto marca. Com base na literatura anterior, foi proposto e testado um modelo conceitual que investiga as possibilidades de internacionalização, importância de uma marca, fatores que influenciam a experiência de compra, perceções, satisfação e intenções, no contexto B2C e B2B. Este estudo fornece mais informações sobre os conceitos. Uma entrevista foi realizada para 66 indivíduos no contexto da indústria da colchoaria. A metodologia de pesquisa utilizada nesta dissertação é qualitativa. Os resultados desta investigação revelam que a internacionalização da marca tem de ser muito bem estudada e trabalhada, desde a criação de uma estratégia de adaptação ao mercado espanhol, compreensão das características de produtos em cada região do mercado e identificar os fatores determinantes para entrar no mercado

Cultural influences on consumer interactions in the context of electronic commerce

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Researchers and academics from diverse disciplines have highlighted the role of 'trust' for establishing and strengthening existing relationships between individuals and organisations in the commercial and the social context. Trust in the cultural context specifically, is credited with being the social 'glue' for sustaining bonds between members of cultural groups. The 'trust' phenomenon has become a 'hallmark' of success for organizations as they become more involved with Information Technology (IT). A precondition for trust to manifest is the natural presence of risk or uncertainties in a potential decision. Since the fears and risks associated with online transactions in the context of ecommerce are high, gaining a customer's trust becomes a must. Some studies have found the ingrained cultural values, which form an essential part of the cultural heritage of a person, to be influential in evoking an individual's trust. Various sources in the marketing and consumer behaviour literature have highlighted the role that religious subcultures play in the purchase decisions of their members. The customs, values, and norms set by a religious group are highly esteemed by its members. The objective of this thesis is to investigate if religious Web sites are more likely to instil trust in online fellow-members than their generic counterparts. From a HCI point of view, we can say that our research will investigate an "abstract" interface of e-commerce systems: the 'theological' interface of a commercial Web site. Consequently, we can also ascertain if religious consumers basing their purchasing decisions on 'religious' trust alone overlook more important issues such as the privacy and security problems associated with financial transactions performed over the Internet. Our empirical findings have discovered that conservative Muslims, who are not very familiar with the Internet, trust a Muslim Web site more than a Christian Web site and a generic Web site. In contrast, conservative Muslims with higher Internet experience were found to be more cautious. They based their 'trust' on more appropriate criteria such as the extent of privacy and security safeguards adopted by a Web site. A qualitative analysis of the post-experimental interviews that we conducted purports that Web-based trust develops with a company's good reputation, previous personal purchasing experiences, and through word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family or peers. In light of our findings, we argue that the time experience gained in using the Internet plays a major role on how consumers perceive culturally or religiously oriented Web sites. We believe that less experienced Internet users are unaware of the security vulnerabilities inherent in the Internet environment. Therefore, we assume that they are context-blind: they do not differentiate between traditional and the digital marketing environments. Consequently, they would trust purchasing from an electronic store (Web site) in the same manner they would trust purchasing from a 'brick-and mortar' store. In contrast, experienced Internet users deem reputable Web sites adopting good security and privacy safeguards for online transactions to be trustworthier than Web sites designed with a 'religious' interface. We conclude that in the context of e-commerce, one cannot expect to establish a trustworthy commercial relationship based on religious trust alone. From the findings of this study, it has become apparent that the trait of strict religious affiliation seems to disappear in the context of e-commerce. The threats and risks inherent in online transactions seem to restructure the religious community by merging it into a traditional global community of e-consumers. When contemplating a purchase from a Web site, traditional e-consumers pay more attention to the company's reputation and the extent of data security measures adopted by a Web site rather than basing their purchase decisions on the religious affiliations and cultural values taught by parents and ancestors. Thus, Web sites aiming to sell products behind a 'religious' interface could become disappointed. Having said that, we reiterate that the time experience in using the Internet seems to play an influential role in how users' perceive cultural or religious Web sites.Funding was obtained from the Lybian Interest Section

Perceived Quality of Mobile Services

The book investigates user satisfaction with mobile services, the perceived quality of m-commerce products, and the loyalty towards service providers. After introducing the m-commerce value chain and emerging mobile services, the first part examines relevant theories from diffusion of innovations and service quality to mobile services, and identifies new trends in the mobile communication market. The book demonstrates to what extent service quality and adoption theories of consumer behavior literature explain the (repeated) usage of mobile services, and how the results differ by user segments. A-priori and a-posteriori segmentations provide detailed insights. The results indicate that it is important to consider (un)observed heterogeneity in explanatory models

Passive visual behavior modifiers and consumer psychophysiology online.

Through an examination of the electroencephalography (EEG) data collected from 27 university students, this study examined the efficacy of three known passive visual behavior modifiers -- color, layout, and motion -- in an e-commerce environment. These three variables have significant scholarly support in the context of traditional media, but their effect online is still largely unsubstantiated. Using EEG readings taken from regions of interest Fp1 and Fp2, the researcher attempted to measure and compare sustained evoked response upon exposure to six fictitious e-commerce web pages, each exhibiting a different passive visual behavior modifier. It was hypothesized that (H1) a product in a subtle state of motion, (H2) a greater proportion of image to text, and (H3) a color system with a dominant wavelength of approximately 650nm would evoke higher average levels of amplitude (μV) and frequency (Hz) in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex compared to stimuli exhibiting inverse properties: a static product image, a greater proportion of text to image, and a color system with a dominant wavelength of approximately 490nm. The biofeedback measurement was supplemented by a qualitative interview. Participant responses were analyzed for key words, phrases, and trends related to consumer attitude and product preference. While no significant differences were found between the visual stimuli, this study provides insight, limitations, and direction for future psychophysiological research relating to e-commerce.--Abstract