The impact of social virtual presence agents and content-based product recommendation system on on-line customer purchase intention

The appearance of the digital market came as turning point factor, obligating companies to maintain the relationship with consumers by improving and keeping a high technological innovativeness on-line overall experience. The lack of studies on antropomorphization of virtual voice assistances chatbot and the possibilities, yet to be found, on customized product recommendation system variation integration, brought the author to this study. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of using two different chatbot social virtual presences interactions: with a fully pre-recorded computed personification agent versus with a pre-recorded human social virtual agent; and also understand how having a customized content-based product recommendation system can influence the consumers purchase intention at on-line shopping framework. An on-line platform was developed, recreating a possible virtual store interaction, and the core data was treated using a PLS-SEM model. The results indicate that Human Social Virtual Presence Agent, while assisting the shoppers, have a larger model positive effect on Intellectual stimulus and Hedonic Benefits than a computed personification Agent. This might be explained by the fact that computed imagery and sound Agent was perceived with some amount of emotional creepiness by the participants. Also, recommendation system presence is impacting customers purchase intention on a positive way when compared with not using recommendation system. Thus, this study shows how relevant social interactions are for the customers, especially when done by a human, and how recommendation system has an impact on customers purchase intention.Com o aparecimento do mercado "on-line", as empresas que quiseram manter uma relação de qualidade com os seus clientes, tiveram de investir no desenvolvimento de uma experiência de utilizador de qualidade e manter um olhar atento na inovação. A falta de estudos relativos à antropomorfização em "chatbots" virtuais e as possibilidades, ainda por descobrir, do sistema de recomendação de produtos à medida de cada utilizador, trouxeram o autor ao tema deste estudo. O seu objetivo é investigar os efeitos de dois tipos de presença social em "chatbots": uma presença virtual computada versus uma presença virtual humana; e como o sistema de recomendação de produtos à medida de cada utilizador influencia a intenção de compra dos consumidores nas lojas "on-line". Para tal, foi desenvolvida uma plataforma "on-line", recriando uma possível interação em loja virtual. Os dados foram tratados utilizando o modelo PLS-SEM. Os resultados indicam que a presença social virtual feita por um agente humano melhora substancialmente o estímulo intelectual feito pela marca e os seus benefícios hedónicos, quando comparado com um agente virtual computado. Tal resultado pode ser explicado pelo facto dos participantes que interagiram com um agente computado sentirem um maior valor de "creepiness". Considerando que a utilização do sistema de recomendação de produtos tem forte impacto na intenção de comprar do consumidor, este estudo mostra-se relevante ao salientar a importância da presença social nas lojas "on-line", especialmente quando o agente é humano

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

Building a Strong Undergraduate Research Culture in African Universities

Africa had a late start in the race to setting up and obtaining universities with research quality fundamentals. According to Mamdani [5], the first colonial universities were few and far between: Makerere in East Africa, Ibadan and Legon in West Africa. This last place in the race, compared to other continents, has had tremendous implications in the development plans for the continent. For Africa, the race has been difficult from a late start to an insurmountable litany of problems that include difficulty in equipment acquisition, lack of capacity, limited research and development resources and lack of investments in local universities. In fact most of these universities are very recent with many less than 50 years in business except a few. To help reduce the labor costs incurred by the colonial masters of shipping Europeans to Africa to do mere clerical jobs, they started training ―workshops‖ calling them technical or business colleges. According to Mamdani, meeting colonial needs was to be achieved while avoiding the ―Indian disease‖ in Africa -- that is, the development of an educated middle class, a group most likely to carry the virus of nationalism. Upon independence, most of these ―workshops‖ were turned into national ―universities‖, but with no clear role in national development. These national ―universities‖ were catering for children of the new African political elites. Through the seventies and eighties, most African universities were still without development agendas and were still doing business as usual. Meanwhile, governments strapped with lack of money saw no need of putting more scarce resources into big white elephants. By mid-eighties, even the UN and IMF were calling for a limit on funding African universities. In today‘s African university, the traditional curiosity driven research model has been replaced by a market-driven model dominated by a consultancy culture according to Mamdani (Mamdani, Mail and Guardian Online). The prevailing research culture as intellectual life in universities has been reduced to bare-bones classroom activity, seminars and workshops have migrated to hotels and workshop attendance going with transport allowances and per diems (Mamdani, Mail and Guardian Online). There is need to remedy this situation and that is the focus of this paper

Impact of Consumer Characteristics and Hedonic Shopping Motivations on Online Auctions

Online auctions present unique characteristics in the consumer decision making process that raise new issues related to consumer shopping behaviors in auction-based purchases. The present research examined the relationship between hedonic shopping motivations and shopping values in online auctions and found that the hedonic shopping motivations are important predictors of shopping values in online auctions. This research also defined consumer characteristics that influence hedonic shopping motivations. Hedonic shopping motivations combined with consumer characteristics are critical factors of consumer shopping evaluation in the online auction environment. The results of this study also revealed that consumers’ shopping evaluation (i.e., shopping value) positively influence their preferences for online auctions. Preferences are important factor to form behavioral intentions in online auctions. The primary contribution of this dissertation is that it provides an empirically tested theoretical foundation on the components of consumer characteristics, hedonic shopping motivations, and shopping values in online auction environment. Contrary to previous studies that focused on utilitarian benefits of online shopping, this study focused on hedonic aspects of shopping which may explain the success of online auctions in the current retail market

Escaping the interpersonal power game: Online shopping in China

The increasing popularity of online shopping is now a global phenomenon, and China has become the largest internet market in the world. The reasons behind this preference for online shopping are examined in this study through 63 in-depth interviews and 5 years of virtual ethnography of a major online shopping website in China called Taobao.com. Chinese customers prefer Taobao not only because of price and convenience, but also because they enjoy the interactional process, during which they obtain more information, feel less pressured to put on a status performance in comparison to physical stores, and pay less affective labor. Chinese customers tend to believe that interaction with sales clerks in physical shops is a burden, and try to avoid this form of contact. This is related to the fact that consensus on status hierarchy is still yet to be established in a society that is undergoing rapid transition. Consequently, online shopping entails social interaction that attributes more power, autonomy and freedom to customers than otherwise possible in brick-and-mortar shopping. This study shows how both the online interactional environments afforded by technology and the broader social contexts (the service quality and related aspects of status competition among different social groups in contemporary China) affect interpersonal interaction

Online buying behavior for entertainment products

The internet is becoming more used to do shopping, all over the years. Although there are some advantages of using the internet, like convenience, time saving, among others, but some people still prefers to do shopping in the physical context, because the store image and environment is better as well the service quality, among others. So, the online context must improve its weaknesses to attract more people. In this case, it will be studied the online buying behavior just for Entertainment products, as CD and DVD, books, newspapers, magazines, e-learning material, games and consoles, bets and lotteries. Results: Some of the results show that if the site has a good image, a good service quality and a friendly environment, consumers will be satisfied with the site where they buy entertainment products. So, if the consumers are satisfied with the site they will prefer it among others and they will recommend it to their family, friends and colleagues. However, the fact that a site is fun and fits the client style, does not necessarily mean that the consumer will be satisfied with it.Enquadramento: A internet está a tornar-se cada vez mais usada para a realização de compras, ao longo dos anos. Apesar de haver algumas vantagens do uso da internet, como a conveniência, a poupança de tempo, entre outros, algumas pessoas ainda preferem fazer comprar num contexto físico, uma vez que existe uma melhor imagem e ambiente da loja assim como um melhor serviço, entre outros. Assim, o contexto online deve melhorar os seus pontos fracos para atrair mais pessoas. Neste caso, será estudado o comportamento de compra online apenas para produtos de Entretenimento, como CD e DVD, livros, jornais, revistas, material de e-learning, jogos e consolas e lotarias e apostas. Resultados: Alguns dos resultados mostram que se um site tiver uma boa imagem, um bom serviço e um ambiente de loja amigável, os consumidores irão ficar satisfeitos com o site onde costumam comprar produtos de entretenimento. Portanto, se os consumidores se sentirem satisfeitos com um site irão preferi-lo em relação a outros e irão recomendá-lo à família, amigos e colegas. No entanto, o facto de um site ser divertido e se encaixar no estilo de consumidor, não significa necessariamente que o ele fique satisfeito com o site

Determinants of online leisure travel planning decision processes :a segmented approach

D.B.A. ThesisThere is an abundance of information sources on the Internet that consumers use to plan and book their travel. This information reflects the fact that travel comprises a significant part of the business conducted through the web. Consumers are sometimes faced with a complex task of making purchasing decisions in the dynamic and fast-paced medium of the Internet. In spite of the importance of travel and the intricacies of the decision process, an integrated framework that identifies the various determinants of the online leisure travel planning decision process and how they interact, is largely absent in travel literature. This study aims to make a contribution by extracting from relevant literature useful elements that could comprise such a framework. It also uses several phases of qualitative research to refine the framework, and then a quantitative assessment of data collected from an online questionnaire completed by 1,198 respondents to test specific components of the framework that deal with online travel booking intention. In the final model building stage, three logistic regression models were compared. The first is a parsimonious one containing key determinants that lead to online travel booking intention. These determinants emerged from theoretical frameworks of the theory of reasoned action and innovation adoption theory. The second Model used strictly involvement, motivation, and knowledge variables that are thought to influence online booking intention. The third Model included a combination of relevant predictor variables from the other two Models. The relationship between various demographics and online travel booking intention was investigated yielding some interesting insights. Consequently, this study recommends these demographic variables be considered in segmenting travelers to find those more likely to book online. The determinants of online leisure travel booking decision processes could be used in conjunction with demographic variables to more accurately predict leisure travel website usage

Conversational commerce: anthropomorphic chatbots in e-commerce and their effect on consumer behavior

Conversational agents are becoming increasingly popular in today’s technology-driven world, thus a better understanding of factors that enhance customer experience with this technology is crucial. Our study provides insights about the impact of anthropomorphism on consumer behavior in a conversational interface usage scenario. This is the first experimental study to fill the research gap in investigating customer satisfaction with anthropomorphic chatbots in food e-commerce. A sample of 426 participants was tested to verify the proposed hypotheses. The test group interacted with a standard chatbot with out human-like characteristics, while the control group communicated with the anthropomorphically designed agent. The results confirm the tremendous potential of anthropomorphic cues in chatbot applications and show that they are positively associated with customer satisfaction and mediated by the variables enjoyment, attitude, and trust

Evaluating Restaurants’ Profitability of a Daily Deal Promotion

Although group buying daily deal sites are widely popular among consumers, it is unclear if deal promotions are profitable for merchants, especially for restaurants. The goal of this study is: (1) to investigate if restaurants make profit from a group buying deal, break even or make significant investment and (2) to find out what factors affect deal profitability. A model for calculating the short-term profitability of restaurant\u27s deal promotions is developed, and ten variables are identified and tested using linear regression analysis to find the once affecting deal profitability measured by return on investment. The research was conducted on the case of Grouper.mk, the leading deal platform in Macedonia. Findings show that deal promotions are profitable and effective tool for restaurants. Deal promotions that provide takeout are less profitable for restaurants, while those that offer additional discount on extra purchases are more profitable for restaurants. Employees effort to upsell have positive impact on deal profitability. However, profitability varies across restaurants category, from least profitable for fast food restaurants to most profitable for fine dining restaurants. Based on the findings of this research, recommendations for maximizing the deal profitability are provided

Fashion brands communicating and interacting in Instagram: a netnography approach

The study aims to analyze and compare how fashion brands of different categorization communicate in Instagram. Six global brands (Zara, H&M, Prada, Gucci, Nike, and Adidas) are chosen to be analyzed due to their different type/category of brands and their worldwide recognition. Netnography concept and method is used to conduct the data collection and data analyze during a period of time of six mouth. The results show that overall fast fashion brands (Zara and H&M) emerge to be more effective than other fashion categories in online communication. The Haute-de-couture brands (Prada and Gucci) reveal to be very similar in the way they communicate, demonstrating a good level of interactivity with consumers. The Sports brand (Nike and Adidas) have a low level of communication with the consumers and low number of photos and videos uploaded, which results in an average online communication of the brands in Instagram. This research highlights that to be successful in the online communication, fashion brands must be always updating photos and videos, they need to interact with consumers and make them feel a part of the brand, use celebrities to give more notoriety to the brand and be always present in the latest trends.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio