Internet retailing: the past, the present and the future

The primary aim of this paper is to critically review the literature that explicitly addresses the adoption, application and impact of internet technologies, by retailers, for the promotion and sale of merchanidise. In particular, this paper seeks to present a holistic and critical review of the early predictions, with regard to the uptake and impact of internet retailing; critically reappraise these claims in light of current trends in internet retailing; and explore where e-tailing may be heading in the coming years. The study adopts an extensive and critical review of the literature, with regard to the adoption, uptake and impact of Internet retailing, as published in the academic literature over the past twenty years. In hindsight it can be seen that many of the original predictions, made at the dawn of the Internet era, have not become a reality: retailers aren’t cannibalising their own custom, virtual merchants aren’t dominating the market-place, and the high-street hasn’t, as yet, been put out of business. By contrast other predications have come to pass: electronic intermediaries are playing an increasingly important role, ‘one-to-one’ marketing has become a reality, prices are more competitive, and perhaps most importantly the consumer has become more powerful. Providing a brief review of the past, present and future of online retailing is an extremely ambitious undertaking, especially given the vast amount of literature that has been published in this area. In attempting to provide an overall impression of the broad themes, and most important findings, to emerge from this important body of literature, it is inevitable that we will have either missed or underplayed many important pieces of work. Consequently, there is a need for follow-up studies that aim to provide deeper and richer reviews of more narrowly defined elements of this vast landscape. This study presents one of the first and most thorough reappraisals of the initial literature with regard to the likely development, implications and impact of Internet retailing. Moreover the paper seeks to break new ground by attempting to use the current literature to help predict future directions and trends for on-line shopping

Selling Rooms Online: The Use of Social Media and Online Travel Agents

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on the reason why hoteliers choose to be present in online travel agent (OTA) and social media web sites for sales purposes. It also investigates the technological and human factors related to these two practices. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a survey sent to a wide range of hotels in a Swiss touristic region. The empirical analysis involves the specification of two ordered logit models exploring the importance (in terms of online sales) of both social media and the online travel agent, Booking.com. Findings – Findings highlight the constant tension between visibility and online sales in the web arena, as well as a clear distinction in social media and OTA web site adoption between hospitality structures using online management tools and employing personnel with specific skills. Practical implications – The research highlights the need for the hospitality industry to maintain an effective presence on social media and OTAs in order to move towards the creation of a new form of social booking technologies to increase their visibility and sales. Originality/value – This research contributes to understanding the major role played by OTAs and social media in the hospitality industry while underlining the possibility of a major interplay between the two

The Rise and Fall of the dot com Entrepreneurs

This paper looks at the dot com phenomenon drawing mainly on examples from the USA where the boom started and was most pronounced, but also from the UK which had a number of high profile dot coms. It starts by asking the question, ‘Who were the dot coms?’. it then goes on to consider the factors which led to the emergence of the dot coms such as the emergence of the commercial Internet, the lowering of entry barriers which followed from this and the funding available for new businesses through venture capital. The article also looks at the reasons why it was believed that the dot coms represented a threat to established businesses. The article then looks at the booming IPO market for dot coms and the opportunities this provided for exit by venture capital investors. The crash of 2000 is considered, lessons are drawn for entrepreneurs and investors and finally the article will look at future prospects for the dot com sector

Travellers’ choice of information sources and information channels for domestic trips

The topics of disintermediation and re-intermediation, both offline and online, have captured the attention of researchers and practitioners alike. Relying on an information search perspective, this study aims to identify which factors (i.e. different socio-demographic characteristics and travel-related variables) best predict whether a traveller will seek information from a travel agency or from a service provider (i.e. information source choice) and if this will be done face to face or through the Internet (i.e. choice of communication channel). Contribution to the body of knowledge and managerial implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are given

Multichannel business strategies and performance

[ES]El uso de Internet y las nuevas tecnologías de información está en continuo crecimiento. En el pasado año el comercio electrónico en España supuso 12.383 millones de euros, con 27.2 millones de usuarios (ONTSI, 2012). Estos nuevos instrumentos suponen una revolución en la gestión tradicional de las relaciones con los clientes. Resulta fundamental entender que las empresas tienen que atender las demandas del consumidor de manera efectiva e inmediata. Este nuevo consumidor 360º supone considerar al cliente desde una perspectiva integrada, puesto que dispone de información multicanal completa y actualizada. Las empresas necesitan por lo tanto sacar partido de sus fuentes de información internas y externas para evaluar los requerimientos de compra del consumidor y atenderlos de manera que el proceso de compra sea una experiencia plenamente satisfactoria. Las empresas (especialmente las PYMES) nunca se habían encontrado con este desafío (los consumidores tienen más acceso que nunca a información instantánea de manera gratuita), por lo que resulta fundamental atender las necesidades del cliente multicanal

E-marketing in perspective: a three country comparison of business use of the Internet

Presents an inter-country comparison of the business use of the Internet as part of a competitive marketing strategy. Firstly, examines online marketing strategy, reporting that the professed benefits from Internet use are mostly illusory, particularly for the small business sector. Next, describes a survey of 400 businesses in Australia and New Zealand plus a questionnaire survey of 140 business-to-business marketing organizations in the UK and compares the results in terms of the strategic function, marketing communication function, marketing logistics function and relationship management function. Discovers that there are both similarities and differences in the way the three countries use the Internet. Reports that the major difference is in the strategic use of the Internet to gain competitive advantage, improve cost-effectiveness and relationship management, with Australian and New Zealand firms using the Internet to communicate with local firms and maintain relationships at a local level to support sales made through traditional channels.<br /

Mortgaging the Meme: Financing and Managing Disruptive Innovation

Traditional financing of innovative companies emphasizes the use of patents and associated intellectual property rights to secure debt and provide assets for valuation. Although the model suffices for incremental innovation, it does not account for investments in disruptive innovation, those that undermine traditional business models, supply chains or industry relationships. Disruptive innovation can be described as the introduction of a new conceptual idea or meme into an existing system that causes the system to be fundamentally altered. Assembly lines, air conditioning, digital film, and personal computers represent such innovations, all of which led to fundamental paradigm shifts. The convergence of globalization, a networked economy, and digital technologies have made disruptive innovation a threat in almost every industry. Changes to publishing, music, and television distribution – along with the rise of social media – highlight this transformation, but they are not alone; manufacturing, retail, payment systems, transportation and other industries are struggling with volatile upheaval caused by such change. Disruptive innovation, however, follows predictable patterns. Investors can anticipate these shifts if their financial transactions are properly structured and effectively documented. The model requires a holistic intellectual property approach which looks beyond just patents. It must explicitly incorporate the underlying meme, and it must account for the inflection points in the transformation pattern. Utilizing this model, inventors, private equity investment structures and established firms can maximize value and promote innovation. This article provides an overview of disruptive innovation from examples of the past decade, identify the underlying patterns of change common to disruptive innovation, highlight strategies to mitigate disruption for existing industry, and address the intellectual property securitization aspects to structure effective deals for both the investors and innovators

A Movie Weekly Box-office Revenues Prediction Model Based on Online Reviews

To predict the movie weekly box-office revenues, this paper proposes a new prediction model based on ensemble machine learning method. Firstly, we extract some important features from movie online reviews. Then, due to the limited ability of the single machine learning model, an ensemble machine XGboost is employed to predict the movie weekly box-office revenues in this paper. Finally, we collect the movie online reviews from Douban.com, and use about 600 movies to verify the performance of the model. The experimental results show that the effectiveness and practicability of this model

Mortgaging the Meme: Financing and Managing Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovation can be described as the introduction of a new conceptual idea or meme into an existing system that causes the system to be fundamentally altered. Assembly lines, air conditioning, digital film, and personal computers represent such innovations, all of which led to fundamental paradigm shifts. The convergence of globalization, a networked economy, and digital technologies have made disruptive innovation a threat in almost every industry. Changes to publishing, music, and television distribution – along with the rise of social media – highlight this transformation, but they are not alone; manufacturing, retail, payment systems, transportation and other industries are struggling with volatile upheaval caused by such change. Disruptive innovation, however, follows predictable patterns. Investors can anticipate these shifts if their financial transactions are properly structured and effectively documented. The model requires a holistic intellectual property approach which looks beyond just patents. It must explicitly incorporate the underlying meme, and it must account for the inflection points in the transformation pattern. Utilizing this model, inventors, private equity investment structures and established firms can maximize value and promote innovation. This article provides an overview of disruptive innovation from examples of the past decade, identify the underlying patterns of change common to disruptive innovation, highlight strategies to mitigate disruption for existing industry, and address the intellectual property securitization aspects to structure effective deals for both the investors and innovators

MARKETING FINANCIJSKIH USLUGA U VREMENU DRUŠTVENIH MREŽA: SLUČAJ MARKETINGA OSIGURANJA

Online social network sites (OSNSs) pose a new trend in social communication that gains an enormous popularity in short time. Consequently, the chance for marketing of products and companies is opening. As well, the question about the possibility of using this channel also for the financial sector, including insurance companies, arises. This idea is followed up by the main goal of the paper: to explore Online Social Network Sites’ (OSNS) role in retail commercial insurance marketing and uncover consumers’ perceptions about the acceptability of insurance company communication and distribution into the environment of OSNSs. The paper contains theoretical analysis of the usability of OSNS as a communication and distribution channel for insurance companies. Besides the theoretical analysis, also the survey of consumers’ perception was conducted. Our results indicate that OSNSs represent a possible channel for insurance company marketing mainly in the area of the communication. However, the distribution of commercial insurance by OSNSs is also not an omissible area. These findings are widely applicable also for other financial services’ marketing.Društvene mreže (OSNS) predstavljaju novi trend u društvenoj komunikaciji, i u kratkom vremenu su stekle golemu popularnost. Stoga se otvara mogućnost za marketing proizvoda i tvrtki. Također se pojavljuje i pitanje mogućnosti korištenja ovog kanala u financijskom sektoru, uključujući osiguravateljne kuće. Ovu ideju slijedi glavni cilj rada: istražiti ulogu društvenih mreža u marketingu komercijanog osiguranja na malo i otkriti percepciju potrošača glede prihvatljivosti komunikacije i prisutnosti osiguravateljne kuće na društvenim mrežama. U ovom radu se teorijski analizira upotrebljivost društvenih mreža kao komunikacijskog i distribucijskog kanala za osiguravateljne kuće. Osim teorijske analize, provedeno je i istraživanje o percepciji potrošača. Naši rezultati pokazuju da su društvene mreže mogući kanal za marketing osiguravateljnih tvrtki uglavnom u području komunikacije. Ipak, mogućnost distribucije komercijalnog osiguranja društvenim mrežama nije zanemariva. Ovi rezultati su primjenljivi i na marketing drugih financijskih usluga