Toward a conceptualization of the online shopping experience

International audienceThis research article explores the content of consumers 's experience when they shop online and proposes a first step in conceptualizing the 'online shopping experience ' (OSE). First, we carried out an extended literature review and proposed an integrative conceptual framework. Then, we relied on a consumers discourse analysis with four focus groups with consumers who differ in terms of age, gender and online shopping experience. We define the OSE and propose a conceptualization through four core dimensions: the physical, ideological, pragmatic and social dimensions. Connections are established between the flow concept and the 'traditional' dimensions of experience, and specific shopping values are identified. Moreover, an appropriation process of commercial websites is revealed; beyond purchase intentions and rituals, the OSE is embodied by the use of online tools and patronage routines. Finally, social interactions with Facebook friends are one of the new practices considered

Contemporary Research on Business and Management

This book contains selected papers presented at the 4th International Seminar of Contemporary Research on Business and Management (ISCRBM 2020), which was organized by the Alliance of Indonesian Master of Management Program (APMMI) and held in Surubaya, Indonesia, 25-27 November 2020. It was hosted by the Master of Management Program Indonesia University and co-hosts Airlangga University, Sriwijaya University, Trunojoyo University of Madura, and Telkom University, and supported by Telkom Indonesia and Triputra. The seminar aimed to provide a forum for leading scholars, academics, researchers, and practitioners in business and management area to reflect on current issues, challenges and opportunities, and to share the latest innovative research and best practice. This seminar brought together participants to exchange ideas on the future development of management disciplines: human resources, marketing, operations, finance, strategic management and entrepreneurship

Local food systems: concepts, impacts, and issues

Consumer demand for food that is locally produced,marketed, and consumed is generating increased interest in local food throughout the United States. As interest grows, so do questions about what constitutes local food and what characterizes local food systems. What Is the Issue? This study provides a comprehensive literature-review-based overview of the current understanding of local food systems, including: alternative defi nitions; estimates of market size and reach; descriptions of the characteristics of local food consumers and producers; and an examination of early evidence on the economic and health impacts of such systems. What Did the Study Find? There is no generally accepted definition of “local” food. Though “local” has a geographic connotation, there is no consensus on a definition in terms of the distance between production and consumption. Definitions related to geographic distance between production and sales vary by regions, companies, consumers, and local food markets. According to the definition adopted by the U.S. Congress in the 2008 Food, Conservation, and Energy Act,the total distance that a product can be transported and still be considered a “locally or regionally produced agricultural food product” is less than 400 miles from its origin, or within the State in which it is produced. Definitions based on market arrangements, including direct-to-consumer arrangements such as regional farmers’ markets, or direct-to-retail/foodservice arrangements such as farm sales to schools, are well-recognized categories and are used in this report to provide statistics on the market development of local foods. Local food markets account for a small but growing share of total U.S. agricultural sales. • Direct-to-consumer marketing amounted to $1.2 billion in current dollar sales in 2007, according to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, compared with$551 million in 1997. • Direct-to-consumer sales accounted for 0.4 percent of total agricultural sales in 2007, up from 0.3 percent in 1997. If nonedible products are excluded from total agricultural sales, direct-to consumer sales accounted for 0.8 percent of agricultural sales in 2007. • The number of farmers’ markets rose to 5,274 in 2009, up from 2,756 in 1998 and 1,755 in 1994, according to USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. • In 2005, there were 1,144 community-supported agriculture organizations, up from 400 in 2001 and 2 in 1986, according to a study by the National Center for Appropriate Technology. In early 2010, estimates exceeded 1,400, but the number could be much larger. • The number of farm to school programs, which use local farms as food suppliers for school meals programs and promote relationships between schools and farms, increased to 2,095 in 2009, up from 400 in 2004 and 2 in the 1996-97 school year, according to the National Farm to School Network. Data from the 2005 School Nutrition and Dietary Assessment Survey, sponsored by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, showed that 14 percent of school districts participated in Farm to School programs, and 16 percent reported having guidelines for purchasing locally grown produce. Production of locally marketed food is more likely to occur on small farms located in or near metropolitan counties. Local food markets typically involve small farmers, heterogeneous products, and short supply chains in which farmers also perform marketing functions, including storage, packaging, transportation, distribution, and advertising. According to the 2007 U.S. Census of Agriculture, most farms that sell directly to consumers are small farms with less than $50,000 in total farm sales, located in urban corridors of the Northeast and the West Coast. In 2007, direct-to-consumer sales accounted for a larger share of sales for small farms, as defi ned above, than for medium-sized farms (total farm sales of$50,000 to $499,999) and large farms (total farm sales of$500,000 or more). Produce farms engaged in local marketing made 56 percent of total agricultural direct sales to consumers, while accounting for 26 percent of all farms engaged in direct-to-consumer marketing. Direct-to-consumer sales are higher for the farms engaged in other entrepreneurial activities, such as organic production, tourism, and customwork (planting, plowing, harvesting, etc. for others), than for other farms. In 2007, direct sales by all U.S. farms surpassed customwork to become the leading on-farm entrepreneurial activity in terms of farm household participation. Barriers to local food-market entry and expansion include: capacity constraints for small farms and lack of distribution systems for moving local food into mainstream markets; limited research, education, and training for marketing local food; and uncertainties related to regulations that may affect local food production, such as food safety requirements. Consumers who value high-quality foods produced with low environmental impact are willing to pay more for locally produced food. Several studies have explored consumer preferences for locally produced food. Motives for “buying local” include perceived quality and freshness of local food and support for the local economy. Consumers who are willing to pay higher prices for locally produced foods place importance on product quality, nutritional value, methods of raising a product and those methods’ effects on the environment, and support for local farmers. Federal, State, and local government programs increasingly support local food systems. Many existing government programs and policies support local food initiatives, and the number of such programs is growing. Federal policies have grown over time to include the Community Food Project Grants Program, the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, Federal State Marketing Improvement Program, National Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, and the Community Facilities Program. State and local policies include those related to farm-to-institution procurement, promotion of local food markets, incentives for low-income consumers to shop at farmers’ markets, and creation of State Food Policy Councils to discuss opportunities and potential impact of government intervention. (WIC is the acronym for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children). As of early 2010, there were few studies on the impact of local food markets on economic development, health, or environmental quality. • Empirical research has found that expanding local food systems in a community can increase employment and income in that community. • Empirical evidence is insuffi cient to determine whether local food availability improves diet quality or food security. • Life-cycle assessments—analyses of energy use at all stages of the food system including consumption and disposal—suggest that localization can but does not necessarily reduce energy use or greenhouse gas emissions. How Was the Study Conducted? Existing analyses of local food markets by universities, government agencies, national nonprofit organizations, and others of local food markets were synthesized to evaluate the definition of local foods and the effects of local food systems on economic development, health and nutrition, food security, and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The report’s content relies on data collected through the 2007 Census of Agriculture, as well as other surveys by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, the National Farm to School Network, university extension departments, and others, to provide a comprehensive picture of types of local food markets, their characteristics, and their importance over time.Local food systems; farmers’ markets; direct-to-consumer marketing; direct-to-retail/foodservice marketing; community supported agriculture; farm to school programs; Farmers’ Market Promotion Program; food miles; ERS; USDA

Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues

This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. There is no consensus on a definition of “local” or “local food systems” in terms of the geographic distance between production and consumption. But defining “local” based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers’ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Findings are mixed on the impact of local food systems on local economic development and better nutrition levels among consumers, and sparse literature is so far inconclusive about whether localization reduces energy use or greenhouse gas emissions.local food systems, farmers’ markets, direct-to-consumer marketing, direct-to-retail/ foodservice marketing, community supported agriculture, farm to school programs, Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, food miles, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Generating a framework for the evaluation of structural layout preferences within e-commerce websites

Global businesses are increasingly reliant on sales through electronic channels, and the importance of aesthetic satisfaction for e-commerce visitors is crucial to survival. A study by Kogaonkar and Wolin (Korgaonkar et al., 1999) shows that consumers are motivated to make purchases online based on the aesthetic enjoyment and positive experience of emotion online, enhancing the need for websites that appeal to a visitors aesthetic preferences. Pursuing a competitive foothold within a shifting global marketplace, companies often seek out new visual bases for web presences, generating web designs based on perceived preferences of design. These designs are often assumed to be attractive to visitors, which may be inaccurate. The goal of this research is to generate a framework that analyzes target audience structural design preferences for e-commerce websites. This study hypothesizes that clearly identifiable structural design preferences exist within e-commerce applications, and can be generalized within individual demographic profiles. Forty-four websites were selected from publicly available listings of the most frequently visited global e-commerce websites. Service, rental, and listing websites were excluded from this research. A full size website image was taken using automated processing software for each website, and each image was analyzed to obtain a list of common features including: primary navigation, secondary navigation, company promotions, advertising from external advertisers, logo size and placement, and featured products. A secondary script was created to analyze each image that calculated the exact number of pixels, location, and percentage of space dedicated to each feature. A global pool of participants completed a user profile survey, an online purchasing evaluation assessing current and past online purchase behavior, and then were presented a series of questions. Each question screen evaluated only a single feature, and included between 2 - 6 variations of images of a custom e-commerce website created specifically for this study. Results showed that clearly identifiable structural design preferences could be analyzed, that preferences could be generalized within both grouped profiles, and individual demographic profiles, and variable connections did travel together with consistent patterns

Applying the Technology Acceptance Model to Explore the Cambodian Consumer’s Intention to Purchase Beauty and Personal Care Products Online

Master of Business Administration (International program), 2021This study aims to study applying the technology acceptance model to explore the Cambodian consumer’s intention to purchase beauty and personal care products online. The Technology Acceptance Model (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) was used as the base of the conceptual framework. The researcher added two more independent variables: perceived risk and perceived value following previous research. Online trust was considered as a mediator variable between independent variables (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, and perceived value) and dependent variable (intention to purchase). The scope is aged at least 18 years, having experience purchasing beauty and personal care products online, living in Phnom Penh. The sample size was 385 samples. The online survey of the questionnaire was made through Google Forms. The questionnaire was posted and shared via social media such as Facebook status in public, messenger, and public groups of Telegram with the help of a Cambodian research assistant. The path analysis using SPSS AMOS 23 was utilized to analyze the data. The data was cleaned using univariate and multivariate analysis. Then, data was used to find reliability, validity, and correlation. Afterward, the researcher analyzed data to demographic information of respondents. Finally, the researcher used path analysis to find the relationship between variables. The result found that perceived usefulness, perceived value, and online trust had a positive relationship with intention to purchase. Perceived ease of use had a positive relationship with perceived usefulness. The result also showed an insignificant relationship. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived risk were not significant with online trust. In conclusion, the researcher suggested that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are needed for technology adoption for beauty and personal care products online. Perceived value was essential to encourage online trust and intention to purchase beauty and personal care products online in Cambodia. Online trust was a mediator with a medium effect size between perceived value and intention to purchase

Moveable Feasts: Locating Food Trucks in the Cultural Economy

In this thesis, I consider the emergence of a new generation of food trucks and question their popularity, narration and representation. I examine the economic and cultural discourses that have valorized these food trucks, and pay attention to the everyday material and embodied practices that constitute them. This research is situated in Chicago, where proposed changes to the existing mobile food vending ordinance spurred contentious debates about food safety, regulations, rights to the city and livelihoods. I follow the myriad actors involved in the food truck movement to understand the strategies employed to change the mobile food vending ordinance on behalf of these food trucks. As part of this, I raise questions about what interests are prioritized, and what interests are marginalized especially in light of Chicago’s long history of policing Latino street vendors. I conclude by considering what food trucks can elucidate about the city, the changing economy, and the molding of laboring and consuming subjects

Digital nudging: a human component automation tool

Technological advances make people increasingly use computer systems to perform various actions such as shopping, watching the news, making payments, etc. Through digital nudges, which are the change of the user interface to choose a certain previously determined option, it is possible to implement human component automation tools that facilitate the integration of nudges in different sites. The implementation of nudges on websites is not simple and requires technical knowledge to change the interfaces previously chosen so that users can make choices predetermined by the site managers. Currently, there are no defined methods or tools that help site managers to implement nudges for their users, thus it is intended to take an initial step towards the creation of a tool that allows this first step to be taken and facilitates the implementation of nudges on the various websites without the need of specialized staff to provide nudges. Through the nudging tool we implemented, it is intended to automate the human component so that site managers can add nudges to their websites through a plugin. The addition of a nudge will be done in a simple way and require little technical intervention by the site managers. A plugin was developed in WordPress, through which three nudges were created. To validate the tool that was developed two similar sites (one without nudges and another with nudges) were made available to a set of users and the interaction of users with both sites was collected through Google Analytics. The results show that applying digital nudging through the variation of the default slider and the size variation of the content has changed users’ behavior. On the website with nudges, 75% of the actions performed by users were the intended ones. The website with nudges equally gathered a higher percentage of clicks (more 32.35% in comparison to the no nudges website). The very positive results encourage the continuous use of nudges in digital environments and shed some light to future works.O avanço tecnológico faz com que as pessoas cada vez mais utilizem os sistemas informáti cos para realizar diversas ações tais como compras, ver noticias, efetuar pagamentos, etc. Através dos nudges digitais, que são a alteração da interface do utilizador para a escolha de uma determinada opção previamente determinada, possibilita-se a implementação ferramen tas de automação da componente humana que facilitam a integração de nudges nos diversos websites. A implementação de nudges em websites não é algo simples e requer algum con hecimento técnico para que se consiga alterar as interfaces previamente escolhidas para que os utilizadores efetuem escolhas predeterminadas pelos gestores dos websites. Atualmente, ainda não existem métodos definidos nem ferramentas que ajudem os gestores de websites a implementar nudges perante os seus utilizadores, deste modo, pretende-se dar um passo inicial para a criação de uma ferramenta que permita dar este primeiro passo e facilite a im plementação de nudges nos diversos websites sem que seja necessário pessoal especializado na disponibilização dos nudges. Através da ferramenta de nudging que se implementou, pretendeu-se automatizar a componente humana de modo que um gestor de websites con siga adicionar um nudge ao seu website através de um plugin. A adição de um nudge será efetuada de forma simples e irá requerer pouco intervenção de forma técnica por parte dos gestores do website. Foi desenvolvido um plugin no WordPress, através deste foram cria dos três nudges. Para validar a ferramenta que se desenvolveu foram disponibilizados dois sites semelhantes (um sem nudges e outro com nudges) a um conjunto de utilizadores, onde através do Google Analitycs se recolheu a interação dos utilizadores perante ambos os websites. Os resultados mostram que a aplicação de nudges digitais através da variação da posição inicial do scroll e da variação do tamanho do conteúdo, alterou o comportamento dos utilizadores. No website com nudges, 75 % das ações relizadas pelos utilizadores foram as esperadas. O website com nudges também obteve uma maior percentagem de cliques (mais 32,35 % em comparação com o site sem nudges). Os resultados são muito positivos e incentivam o uso contínuo de nudges em ambientes digitais, proporcionando um avanço para trabalhos futuros

Narrative motion on the two-dimensional plane: the “video-ization” of photography and characterization of reality

"Art is not truth. Art is a lie that enables us to recognize truth" Pablo Picasso Time, as known to many, is an indispensable component of photography. Period(s) included in “single” photographs are usually and naturally much shorter than periods documented in video works. Yet, when it comes to combining photos taken at different times on one photographical surface, it becomes possible to see remnants of longer periods of time. Whatever method you use, the many traces left by different moments, lead to the positive notion of timelessness (lack of time dependence) due to the plural presences of time at once. This concept of timelessness sometimes carries the content of the photo to anonymity, the substance becomes multi-layered and hierarchy disappears. This paper focuses on creating photographical narratives within the two-dimensional world. The possibility of working in layers with transparency within the computer environment enables us to overlay succession of moments seized from time on top of each other, in order to create a storyline spread in time that is otherwise not possible to express in a single photograph, unless properly staged. Truth with the capital T is not taken as the departure point in this article; on the contrary, personal delineations of temporary yet experienced smaller realities is suggested

Visual analytics of geo-related multidimensional data

In recent years, both the volume and the availability of urban data related to various social issues, such as real estate, crime and population are rapidly increasing. Analysing such urban data can help the government make evidence-based decisions leading to better-informed policies; the citizens can also benefit in many scenarios such as home-seeking. However, the analytic design process can be challenging since (i) the urban data often has multiple attributes (e.g., the distance to supermarket, the distance to work, schools zone in real estate data) that are highly related to geography; and (ii) users might have various analysis/exploration tasks that are hard to define (e.g., different home-buyers might have requirements for housing properties and many of them might not know what they want before they understand the local real estate market). In this thesis, we use visual analytics techniques to study such geo-related multidimensional urban data and answer the following research questions. In the first research question, we propose a visual analytics framework/system for geo-related multidimensional data. Since visual analytics and visualization designs are highly domain-specific, we use the real estate domain as an example to study the problem. Specifically, we first propose a problem abstraction to satisfy the requirements from users (e.g., home buyers, investors). Second, we collect, integrate and clean the last ten year's real estate sold records in Australia as well as their location-related education, facility and transportation profiles, to generate a real multi-dimensional data repository. Third, we propose an interactive visual analytic procedure to help less informed users gradually learn about the local real estate market, upon which users exploit this learned knowledge to specify their personalized requirements in property seeking. Fourth, we propose a series of designs to visualize properties/suburbs in different dimensions and different granularity. Finally, we implement a system prototype for public access (http://115.146.89.158), and present case studies based on real-world datasets and real scenario to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our system. Our second research question extends the first one and studies the scalability problem to support cluster-based visualization for large-scale geo-related multidimensional data. Particularly, we first propose a design space for cluster-based geographic visualization. To calculate the geographic boundary of each cluster, we propose a concave hull algorithm which can avoid complex shapes, large empty area inside the boundary and overlaps among different clusters. Supported by the concave hull algorithm, we design a cluster-based data structure named ConcaveCubes to efficiently support interactive response to users' visual exploration on large-scale geo-related multidimensional data. Finally, we build a demo system (http://115.146.89.158/ConcaveCubes) to demonstrate the cluster-based geographic visualization, and present extensive experiments using real-world datasets and compare ConcaveCubes with state-of-the-art cube-based structures to verify the efficiency and effectiveness of ConcaveCubes. The last research question studies the problem related to visual analytics of urban areas of interest (AOIs), where we visualize geographic points that satisfy the user query as a limited number of regions (AOIs) instead of a large number of individual points (POIs). After proposing a design space for AOI visualization, we design a parameter-free footprint method named AOI-shapes to effectively capture the region of an AOI based on POIs that satisfy the user query and those that do not. We also propose two incremental methods which generate the AOI-shapes by reusing previous calculations as per users' update of their AOI query. Finally, we implement an online demo (http://www.aoishapes.com) and conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed AOI-shapes