A study of electronic commerce and tourism : e-commerce system evaluation and consumer behaviour in the e-business environment

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The First 25 Years of the Bled eConference: Themes and Impacts

The Bled eConference is the longest-running themed conference associated with the Information Systems discipline. The focus throughout its first quarter-century has been the application of electronic tools, migrating progressively from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS) and eCommerce to encompass all aspects of the use of networking facilities in industry and government, and more recently by individuals, groups and society as a whole. This paper reports on an examination of the conference titles and of the titles and abstracts of the 773 refereed papers published in the Proceedings since 1995. This identified a long and strong focus on categories of electronic business and corporate perspectives, which has broadened in recent years to encompass the democratic, the social and the personal. The conference\u27s extend well beyond the papers and their thousands of citations and tens of thousands of downloads. Other impacts have included innovative forms of support for the development of large numbers of graduate students, and the many international research collaborations that have been conceived and developed in a beautiful lake-side setting in Slovenia

An Experimental Investigation of Regulatory Orientation and Post-Choice Regret in Online Product Selection

Delivering product information effectively is fundamental to customer satisfaction and e-retailer success. In this study we examine the way in which the presentation of online customer reviews in peer endorsement systems (PES) impact perceptions of post-choice regret. The theory of Regulatory Orientation is used to account for individual differences in the way that online review content is processed. Results of a laboratory experiment comparing two peer endorsement system formats show that PES content presentation significantly impacts perceptions of post-choice regret. These perceptions are found to be strong influencers of user intention to use the PES. The study’s findings provide theoretical insights into how individual orientation and PES technology influence online decision-making with regards to product selection. As a result, the study has important implications for managers looking to get the most from investment in PES systems deployment and online web retail space design

THE JOY OF TECHNOLOGY VS. PRIVACY

Few organizations anywhere remain untouched by the profound changes that have swept over their business efforts in the past few years. Customers of all groups have developed much more sophisticated expectations, demands and services patterns than ever before due to the advent of the Web. The Internet provides easy access to extensive information about organization services, as well as a rich array of interaction options. This means customer’s loyalty is tougher than ever to build and maintain. Neither new prospects nor existing customer will respond to business messages that are not timely, relevant and offer recognized value. By reducing time and distance to nearly zero, technology has shifted the power in the customer-organization relationship to the customer. Customer now chooses when, how and where they will interact with organization services. Also customer noticed that current organization web services provide information through a one size fits-all approach where all customer travel through the same network of pages and directories, and that delivers the same information each time the customer logs on. As organization web sites are becoming larger and more complex system, which include huge databases, text search, multimedia, interactive interfaces and advance e-learning tools, from user point of view, it becomes very difficult to find useful updated information and personalized services hidden in huge cover of the organization database

336 A COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR ONLINE STORE FUNCTIONALITIES

ABSTRACT Online retailing today is considered as the most prevalent business model of electronic commerce applications. Research related to online stores is plentiful, but there appears to be a lack of broad and flexible frameworks that can be used to capture the functionalities of online stores in a systematic and modular manner. This paper presents such a comprehensive functionality framework in the form of a two-dimension grid, with one dimension distinguished between store functional architecture and another distinguished between store system goals. This framework provides a crucial guidance for the analysis, design, and development of online stores. Keywords: E-commerce, Online Stores, Information Quality, System Quality, Service Quality INTRODUCITON Online retailing is considered as the most prevalent business model and the fastest-growing retail channel of electronic commerce applications existing today Development and operation of an online store would incur high costs that need to be carefully justified and controlled. Therefore, online store owners need to have a comprehensive view of the stores and be able to systematically indentify and refine system goals to achieve store competitiveness and differentiation. System goals have been recognized as powerful drivers for systems development, because they help relate system requirements to the business and organizational needs and enable traceability of design rationale The objective of this study is to develop such a comprehensive framework. Section 2 discusses the functional architecture of online stores. Section 3 presents a synthesis and summary of system goals for online stores identified from related literature. Section 4 illustrates the framework that integrates both functionalities and system goals of online stores. Finally, section 5 concludes with some limitations of the framework. FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF ONLINE STORES "Ecommerce" is commonly viewed as "the sale and purchase of products and services over the internet, which includes the sharing of business information, maintaining business relationship, and conducting business transaction by way of internet based technology" Several attempts have been made to depict or classify online store functional architecture. Nour and Fadlalla [31] classified the Internet-based virtual markets according to two principal marketing categories: product and delivery. Rowley [38] viewed online stores in terms of five components of marketing activity: promotion, one-to-one contact, closing, transaction and fulfillment. Emphasizing the customer's perspective, Wan [45], added "service" as the sixt

Personalized online promotions : long-term Impacts on customer behavior

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-72).Personalization is widely used by marketers in today's world. It is not only a competitive advantage but is becoming a necessity for companies. Recent information technology advances have helped a lot to improve personalization methods. Companies could collect data about their customers through the Internet more easily and quickly. In return, companies create more values for their customers through personalization in performance as well as personalization in relationship. However, personalization may also bring new problems if customers are concerned about issues such as privacy, choice overload, and perceived fairness. This thesis examines the advantages and disadvantages of personalization from both customers' and companies' perspectives. It also studies how customer reactions to personalization change over time, and suggests a conceptual framework that shows how customer behavior affects companies' profitability. It concludes with recommendations about how companies should act in order to have successful online personalization strategies.by Farnaz Barary Savadkoohi.S.M

E-Commerce Digital Information Transparency and Satisfaction. Can We Have Too Much of a Good Thing?

Despite core product and service quality improvements and advances in shopping processes and technology, customers often report being unsatisfied with their online purchases. One plausible reason for lower customer satisfaction rates is too much or too little information that is shared with the customers about their orders. We show that when forming their perceptions about the purchases, customers form digital information satisfaction (DIS) levels as they evaluate supplementary informational services in addition to the core product being purchased. We believe that DIS is one of the dimensions of overall customer satisfaction. We also show that supplementary informational services are essential in meeting the increased informational needs of online shopping and, thus, can explain the decreased overall customer satisfaction level through the decreases in DIS. We develop and test the Digital Information Transparency and Satisfaction (DITS) model that shows how supplemental informational services influence digital information satisfaction (DIS_ in e-commerce. By doing so, this dissertation introduces a new dimension of satisfaction in the era of online shopping. This helps close the knowledge gap in the current research on overall customer satisfaction by showing that too much information transparency can harm the overall experience of the customers, thus leading to decreases in DIS. The study results provide a platform for future research on the influence of informational services provided during online shopping. Explaining the role of information shared with the customers in their perceptions of transparency and, consequently, DIS may help provide crucial practical business insights. Thus, by proposing the DITS model, this dissertation brings contributions to both theory and praxis by enhancing the understanding of DIS, which can serve as a robust foundation for future research on decreasing levels of overall customer satisfaction in a digital setting, as well as help companies improve their customer relationships

Online Shoppers’ Priority Attributes in Egypt

E-commerce and online shopping have been among the world\u27s fast-growing trends in the past few years. Each year the number of e-commerce deals grows enormously. Furthermore, the tendency will continue because many people are constricted by work and household duties. Simultaneously, the Internet saves much time and allows having a full shopping experience from the comfort of one\u27s home. With the improvement of technology and the continuous progression in web development, retailers are not only seeking e-commerce to expand their sales, but the trend of full online retailing with no physical existence is becoming widespread. Given the expansion, it is becoming challenging for e-retailers to maintain their customers since consumers can easily compare the platforms and pick to place their orders at the platform that best meets their needs. To prevent this fast customer turnover, it is important to consider the consumers\u27 preferences when online shopping to meet their needs better and locate their investments accordingly. This study holds a new perspective in presenting the service business\u27s packaging by materializing the e-commerce business as an example. The author develops a model that guides in enhancing online platforms\u27 efficiency based on online shoppers\u27 preferences and priority attributes. These attributes are considered the packaging elements that augment the main business aspects summarized in the 7 Ps marketing mix module. In the context of interpreting the marketing orientation theory, the study measures consumers\u27 priority attributes, summarized in the E-SERVPACK Model, in online shopping in four different product categories. Results revealed that the highest and lowest priority attributes are common across all four categories, yet the importance level differs from one category to another. It is advised that e-retailers consider developing their platforms and allocate their budgets based on their target consumers\u27 preferences and the business\u27s product type

An investigation of customers' loyalty to social commerce websites

The emergence of web 2.0 has brought new applications that have played a significant role in extending electronic commerce websites with social commerce functionality. Social commerce is a relatively new extension of B2C electronic commerce where customers purchase products and services online with the existence of social cues in the websites (such as reviews, recommendations and sharing). In this thesis, the research examines those websites which fulfil the role of a traditional eCommerce website but have also had added to them a range of social interaction features. There has been little research in the area of customer loyalty to social commerce websites. Drawing upon theories of social presence and trust (and the Delone and McLean model of information systems success) this study aims to determine what factors affect customer loyalty to social commerce websites and to develop a framework that helps in investigating those factors. In order to achieve this objective, a quantitative approach was employed. Data was collected from social commerce users in Australia through an online survey. The quantitative survey of online social commerce customers' opinions regarding the measurement items was based on a probability sample of qualified Australian customers of social commerce websites. A stratified random sampling was used with all Australian states that constitute the strata of the Australian population. The population of the study consisted of male and female customers of multiple social commerce websites who live in Australia. Nine hundred and ninety-seven surveys were collected. After screening the data, 797 surveys were ready to be analysed. An analysis was performed using a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique with SmartPLS 3 software. The findings demonstrated that reputation, satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and social presence positively contribute to explaining the variance in trust. In contrast, communication, and online shopping experience did not contribute to explain the variance in trust. Examining the relevance of significant relationships between the six exogenous constructs with trust, the results showed that satisfaction, reputation, word-of-mouth, and social presence carried comparable weights in impacting trust with path coefficients that were different in magnitude. The results imply that satisfaction, reputation, word-of-mouth and social presence are important factors to predict trust rather than communication, and online shopping experience. Among the exogenous constructs as predictors of satisfaction, service quality and information quality influence satisfaction were the most significant, whereas system quality did not influence satisfaction significantly. Finally, this study found that satisfaction, trust and social presence have a significant influence on customer loyalty to a social commerce website. This study contributes to the social commerce literature through a theoretical framework that shows how the loyalty of customers can be generated in social commerce websites. In addition, it is expected that this study will help businesses to have an understanding of how to retain their customers, which will result in higher profits. From a customer perspective, this study will give customers a way to objectively evaluate whether a social commerce site provides quality products and services. Furthermore, the study will motivate businesses to improve their websites, which in turn will provide customers with better website services