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

Measuring The Flow Experience Of Players Playing Online Games

Nowadays, online games have become a highly profitable e-commerce application. Therefore, researchers increasingly believe that understanding online game player behavior is critical to the success of online game practitioners.The factors influencing the flow of online games are of major concern to academic researchers and online games practitioners. Drawing on the theory of flow, this study empirically explores how the interactivity and intrinsic beliefs impact flow experience, and how flow experience is related to replay intention. Then, confirmatory factor analysis is applied to test and the proposed research model is evaluated with partial least squares (SmartPLS 2.0). The results show that flow experience is a significant predictor ofreplay intention. Four antecedents to flow (telepresence, focused attention, skills and challenges) have positive influence on flow experience. Interactivity (social interactivity and human-machine interactivity) and intrinsic beliefs (perceived attractiveness, personal involvement) influence the antecedents of flow experience. Moreover, social interactivity has a stronger impact on the antecedents of flow experience than human-machine interactivity. This study finds that social interactivity is most crucial to online game success

South African Formula One Grand Prix: a dream or nightmare.

In 2004 a group of South African based companies submitted a bid to the Formula One Management to host a South African Formula One Grand Prix, from 2009 in Cape Town. The group approached the government to establish a public-private partnership, due to the: • escalating hosting and infrastruture development cost, resulting in very few Formula One Grand Prix host countries undertaking hosting without government involvement; and • believe that the economic benefits of hosting the event would stretch further than the business realm of its members, in particulary in the toursim industry. A literature review of the hallmark sporting events revealed that sport has become a major business industry and a perceived tool for improving the economies of host countries, regions or cities. This has empowered the owners of mega sporting events to generate bidding wars amongst prospective host countries. Paying the price has commonly led local event organisers to motivate the allocation of public funding, emphasising the indirect economic benefits that the event will generate. This motivation is though seldom accompanied by a detailed and independent economic impact assessment, to substantiate the claimed benefits. The findings of this study based on a literature survey indicate that: (i) There is a relationship between hallmark events, such as the FIA Formula One Grand Prix Championship, and tourism. However, the increased tourism post the event may be exaggerated, either with regard to the percentage growth or effective period or a combination thereof. If increased tourism is the basis for the subsidy it should be noted that the Western Cape, in particular Cape Town, is already SA’s premier tourist destination. Whereas cities like Johannesburg and Welkom, that have existing motor racing facilities requiring upgrading, do not have Cape Town’s tourism icons. It could further be argued that the tourists visiting SA for the F1 GP event would more likely tour to the Western Cape than vice versa. (ii) Although the SA F1 Bid Company has provided indicative numbers with regard to job creation and expected tourists as a result of the event, they rely on industry norms and experiences with other current F1 GP event host countries rather than critically assessing the economic and social impact of the event in a South African context. The overall lack of a detailed economic impact assessment and the reluctant feedback from the Government has made it impossible to assess conclusively whether the event will have positively or negatively impact on South Africa. However, literature sources reveal that in the majority of cases and mainly for the government partner, the hosting mega sporting events do not yield a profitable return.Mr. S.M. Nchabalen

Sport Fans and Online Data Collection: Challenges and Ethics

The growth of online communities and social networking has provided opportunities to investigate sport fans from a wide range of perspectives. Motivations to consume online media and engage in interactive web functions are areas providing new and innovative research opportunities. There are several ethical considerations when conducting research in an online environment. This article discusses four major ethical values of honesty, responsibility, justice, and beneficence and how each relates to online data collection. Specifically, these four values will guide the discussion focused on issues of intrusion, interaction, and invitation in online communication contexts. Researchers and administrators must consider fans and other stakeholders’ core moral and ethical values in the data collection process

Application of Web 2.0 technologies in e-government: A United Kingdom case study

Electronic government (e-Government) has endured significant transformation over the last decade and currently, it is making further leaps by incorporating modern technologies such as second generation web (Web 2.0) technologies. However, since the development and use of this kind of technology is still at its early stages in the public sector, research about the use of Web 2.0 in this domain is still highly tentative and lacks theoretical underpinning. This paper reports the preliminary findings of an in-depth case study in the United Kingdom (UK) public sector, which explore the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the local government authority (LGA). The findings elicited from the case study offer an insight into information systems (IS) evaluation criterions and impact factors of Web 2.0 from both a practical setting and an internal organisational perspective. This paper concludes that a combined analysis of the evaluation and impact factors rather than a singular approach would better assist the decision making process that leads to effective application of Web 2.0 technologies. It also highlights the significant impact and perceived effect of adoption of such technologies

From sPassion to sWOM: The role of flow

Purpose - Social commerce websites entail a completely new scenario for sharing experiences and opinions due to its richness in terms of social interactions. Nowadays, users can interact with the company and with other users; hence, it seems important to study how social stimuli affect users. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework and flow theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose that the social stimulus (named social passion (sPassion)) has a positive effect on the organism (state of flow), which leads to a users' positive response (via social word of mouth (sWOM)). Design/methodology/approach - The data were collected through an online survey in 2015. The sample consists of 771 users of social commerce websites, of which 51 percent are male and 49 percent female, aged between 16 and 80 years old. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data with the statistical software SPSS version 22 and EQS 6. Findings - The empirical results confirm that passionate users are prone to experience a state of flow and, as a consequence, share positive sWOM. Originality/value - This study contributes to the literature on customers' online participation, and the findings are hoped to help companies in developing social commerce websites that boost users' exchange of information

Shoppers’ loyalty in online marketplace: The impact of interface quality, application incentives, and security/privacy through flow experience

This study investigated the effects of Interface Quality, Application Incentives, and Security/Privacy on marketplace E-Loyalty through Flow experience. By prioritizing and improving these factors, marketplaces can foster a relational perspective that encourages users to develop a long-term relationship with the application, leading to sustained growth and success. Central to marketplace E-Loyalty is the relational perspective, which emphasizes consumers’ intention to establish a relationship with a marketplace application without shifting to competitors. Respondents were selected purposively to participate in an online survey, resulting in 305 usable responses. A partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to establish the measurement and structural fit of the data. The results confirmed that Interface Quality and Flow directly influenced E-Loyalty, while Interface Quality and Security/Privacy indirectly influenced Flow. Application Incentives were not found to bolster E-Loyalty directly and indirectly through Flow experience. This study provides a broader view of the importance of Interface Quality and Security/Privacy in promoting E-Loyalty with Flow while also offering a new perspective on the effect of Application Incentives on marketplace E-Loyalty from a relational standpoint

Cognitive absorption and behavioural intentions in virtual health communities : a focus on posters

Abstract: Purpose - This paper aims at providing a conceptual model that elucidates the role of cognitive absorption in explaining behavioural intentions in virtual health communities. Design/methodology/approach - Data was collected from 361 contributing members of virtual health communities from Gauteng, South Africa using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling using AMOS software was used to analyse the data. Findings - The findings show that cognitive absorption has significant direct positive influence on members’ intentions to continue participating on virtual health community platforms. Cognitive absorption was also found to have indirect influence on behavioural intentions through its influence on members’ attitude. It was also found to play a mediating role on the influence of perceived usefulness and behavioural intention. Research limitations/implications - The study shows the value of linking the flow theory and the technology acceptance model to provide a comprehensive understanding of behavioural intentions in virtual health community forums. Practical Implications - Managers of virtual health communities need to pay attention to experiential aspects of their sites. Success in ensuring that community members are cognitively absorbed is key to the development of positive attitude and intentions towards virtual health community forums. Originality/value - Virtual health communities play a new and growing role in the way health-related information and support is offered and accessed by those in need. Despite their importance, not much research has been done to explain the role of consumer experience on member behaviour on such forums. The study contributes to this understanding by demonstrating the value of cognitive absorption..

How does sport-related mobile apps usage motivation affect consumer perceptions of the sport organizations?

The current study was to examine the relationship how the usage motivation features (i.e., perceived customization, involvement, and liking) of sport related mobile applications(apps) affect users' perception on sport organizations' reputation which were modified from the previous research (Guillory & Sundar, 2014). Results indicate that all the three usage motivation factors of sport related mobile apps positively influenced perceived sport organizations' reputation. Specifically, the results revealed that the higher level of customization of the mobile apps, the more positive apps users' perception of sport organization reputation. The current study could provide the implications that understanding the usage motivation factors of sport related mobile apps is crucial to foster a positive relationship between the public and sport organizations. Thus, understanding what motivation factors drives sport consumers to use of sport related mobile apps is one of the keys to successful mobile apps marketing in sport business and need to be further studied

Flourishing for Sport Consumers: The Case of Fantasy Baseball and Social Media Engagement

Digital technology transformation within the sports industry has led to increasing attention being given to how digital services can influence fans’ positive psychological perspectives. In particular, through this study I aimed to understand the effects of fantasy sports and social media engagement on positive psychological benefits, such as perceived value and flourishing. In the current study, regulatory engagement theory was applied to understand whether the digital engagement of sports consumers is positively associated with perceived value and flourishing as a form of well-being. In the implementation of the pre-, mid-, or post-consumption model, three groups were created based on the participants\u27 habits of using fantasy sports and social media before, while, and after watching television. I then attempted to explore how the aforementioned relations can differ across these three groups. Responses from a total of 629 sports fans were collected via an online Qualtrics panel. Data analysis was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modeling analysis (SEM), multi-group CFA, and multi-group SEM to verify the hypotheses. It was found that engagement in fantasy sports and social media had a positive effect on perceived value and well-being. In addition, perceived value mediated the relationship between fantasy sports or social media engagement and flourishing. The findings of the group comparison showed that there were no differences across the three groups in the effects of fantasy sports and social media engagement on perceived value and flourishing. This empirical study contributed to supporting that digital consumption among sports consumers plays a positive role in their lives, suggesting the need to develop strategic management in the digital sports field. In addition, the digital activity patterns of sports consumers were successfully classified based on game schedules, providing a better understanding of their digital consumption journey in the future