New Horizons for Airlines: Consumers’ Adoption of Metaverse - A Qualitative and Quantitative research

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Driven Marketing, specialization in Digital Marketing and AnalyticsMetaverse technology is increasing its relevance in this digital and connected world and airlines should decide what is their strategy and purpose to engage with consumers in this new dimension. Because the metaverse it’s a new technology, airlines must also understand the factors for its acceptance. Though the technology acceptance is already vastly investigated, the review of acceptance for metaverse technology is still reduced. This research intention is to provide an empirical study of the technology acceptance on an airline metaverse and contribute to the findings that reveal new opportunities to engage with consumers/ passengers. Following the literature review we based on a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework that proved to be the most suitable for the technology adoption dimension. This research focused on qualitative and quantitative analysis and our findings reveal the vision from an airline perspective and the factor of adoption of potential users. Qualitative analysis was based on 3 semi-structured interviews targeting airline experts followed by text mining and data analysis via IRAMUTEQ software. Concerning the quantitative analysis was based on a structured questionnaire that uses a convenience sampling technic. A total of 118 replies were collected and analyzed via SmartPLS4 software. The outcomes of this research are insightful and reveal that Gamification and Perceived Consumer Experience have positive and relevant effects on the intention to use the metaverse of an airline. Management contributions, future studies and academic insights are also present in the final section of the research

Affordant Shapes of Product Holder Influence Product Evaluation and Purchase Intention

Several studies have shown that stocking products on a display stand (vs. on a shelf) favors purchasing. However, little is known about whether the spatial layout of the display stand (i.e., its shape) may influence consumers ’ evaluation of the product and their purchase intention. The present research aims to investigate the role of the shape of an in-store display as a contextual cue potentially able to influence consumers’ evaluation of the exposed product and their subsequent purchasing intention. Two experiments were carried out in which we manipulated the shape of the product holder and the brand name as a function of brand awareness. We found that a meaningful shape representing the product induced a more positive product evaluation and indirectly, a greater intention to purchase in respect to shelf, when the product was a little- known brand (Study 1). Furthermore, the strongest effect occurred when the display stand facilitated product affordance in consumers ’ minds (Study 2). These results confirmed that the ability of the immediate context (i.e., the display stand) to evoke an action with an object (the product) influences the perceiver evaluation and behavioral intention towards the object itself. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

Polluting emissions standards and clean technology trajectories under competitive selection and supply chain pressure

Based on a model of industrial dynamics, this paper examines the impact of polluting emissions standards on trajectories of clean technologies implemented by firms subject to competitive selection and supply chain pressure. The model incorporates a few stylised facts on the relationships between environmental regulation, innovation and diffusion. The main objective is to highlight the forces influencing the long term dynamics of an industry faced with evolving emissions standards in a ‘history-friendly’ way. The paper gives guidance to the conditions of dynamic efficiency of emissions standards taking into account the coevolution of technology, user requirements and market structure. We show that emission standards not only play a significant role in orienting research and innovation activities of supplier firms, but they are also likely to support the diffusion of environmental innovation in the supply chain. In some cases, emission standards lead to prevent both a situation of lock-in on the supply side and a situation of behavioural inertia on the user side. Standards may thus lead to preserve a certain form of technological and behavioural diversity. Based on the computer simulations, it will be shown that the efficiency of standards depends on the nature of performance standards (process or product), on the market structure and on the timing of intervention.environmental innovation; industrial dynamics; environmental supply chain pressure; emission standards

Psychological pricing in mergers & acquisitions

Merger and acquisition (M&A) pricing has traditionally been conducted using Corporate Finance theory that relates to valuation methods like discount cash flow analysis, price-earnings ratio, transaction multiples. However, Behavioural Finance researchers have started to find that there are psychological factors that impact the valuation of financial assets, which includes pricing mergers and acquisitions. An empirical study by Baker, Pan and Wurgler (2009) found that the 52-week high stock price can become an anchor for the price offered to a potential target firm in an M&A transaction. This thesis develops a Two-person Merger & Acquisition model using incomplete information, prospect theory and real options games to model behavioural factors in pricing of such M&A transactions. The results of this thesis show that the mid-point of the offer price provided by the acquirer is usually accepted by the target in incomplete information games. However, this changes when prospect theory and real options games scenarios are considered. In brief, this thesis shows that it is critical to include behavioural biases in the valuation of M&A transactions as it can change the equilibrium price compared to the use of traditional Corporate Finance models

The Mediating Role of Halal Awareness in Purchase Intention for Cosmetic Products: An empirical study in Klang Valley

Halal Trade has received much attention recently due to the increased Muslim population around the world. The rise of Muslim population has given much insights to the marketers as they present another concern in term of their consumption pattern. The religious belief required the Muslim to consume only the halal product. Hence, halal awareness becomes a determining factor for comestic product purchase among the Muslims. Current research paper studies the consumer’s purchase intention through the mediating role of Halal awareness by adopting Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The results revealed there are signficant direct relationships between Attitude, Perceived Behavoiral Control (PCB) and Subjctive Norm towards Halal Awareness. Meanwhile, halal awareness is not mediating attitude-purchase intention relationship. The results explain that halal awareness influences the relationship between subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and purchase intention. This paper contributes by complementing existing research of the mediating role of halal awareness in TPB, particularly in cosmetic products.&nbsp

The role of emotion in a housing purchase: An empirical analysis of the anatomy of satisfaction from off-plan apartment purchases in France

This paper examines empirically the role of an emotion of owning a new build apartment, derived from its representation through mental imaging (‘visualization’) from marketing techniques, in influencing off-plan purchases in France, and how its effect on satisfaction evaluations of the apartment purchased affects buyer ratings of developer performance. Through structural equation modelling we show that psychological measures of perceptions influence buying decisions via satisfaction of the apartment purchased. Buyer evaluations are cognitively dominated by the assessment of utilitarian benefits but emotion plays a significant role among homebuyers as well as investors. Our analysis also sheds light on how buyer satisfaction could potentially augment the reputation of a developer to achieve off-plan sales targets

Combining diverse data sources for CEDSS, an agent-based model of domestic energy demand

CEDSS (Community Energy Demand Social Simulator) is an empirical agent-based model designed and built as part of a multi-method social science project investigating the determinants of domestic energy demand. Ideally, empirical modellers, within and beyond social simulation, would prefer to work from an integrated dataset, gatheredfor the purposes of developing the model. In practice, many have to work with less than ideal data, often including processed data from multiple sources external to the project. Moreover, what data will be required may not be clear at the start of the project. This paper describes the approach to dealing with these factors taken in developing CEDSS, and presents the completed model together with an outline of the calibration and validation procedure used. The discussion section draws together the most distinctive features of empirical data collection, processing and use for and in CEDSS, and argues that the approach taken is sufficiently robust to underpin the model’s purpose – to generate scenarios of domestic energy demand to 2049

To immerse or not? Experimenting with two virtual retail environments

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the determinants of users’ simulated experience in a virtual store and to show the subsequent impact of that experience on engagement. The outcome of that engagement is examined in relation to enjoyment, satisfaction and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The method comprised an experiment comparing users’ perceptions of a standard 2D online clothing store with an enhanced, immersive one that aimed to provide shopping value approaching that of a traditional store by using a 3D experience where participants wore special glasses and a data glove. Findings: Results demonstrate the major role of telepresence components in simulated experience and the critical role of that experience, along with hedonic and utilitarian values, in engagement. Purchase intention is influenced by satisfaction, which is in turn influenced by enjoyment and engagement. Engagement in turn is influenced by utilitarian and hedonic value and the experience of product simulation or telepresence, which is composed of control, colour and graphics vividness, and 3D authenticity. In the immersive, 3D environment experience is more associated with engagement and enjoyment, leading to greater purchase intention. The immersive, 3D environment thus has the potential to rival traditional shopping in terms of experience, resulting in higher sales for retailers and satisfaction for consumers. Originality: This work has evaluated a robust model of purchase intention and demonstrated it to hold not only in a 3D environment on a conventional computer platform, but also in an immersive one, where participants wear special glasses and a data glove

Right here, right now: situated interventions to change consumer habits

Consumer behavior-change interventions have traditionally encouraged consumers to form conscious intentions, but in the past decade it has been shown that while these interventions have a medium-to-large effect in changing intentions, they have a much smaller effect in changing behavior. Consumers often do not act in accordance with their conscious intentions because situational cues in the immediate environment automatically elicit learned, habitual behaviors. It has therefore been suggested that researchers refocus their efforts on developing interventions that target unconscious, unintentional influences on behavior, such as cue-behavior (“habit”) associations. To develop effective consumer behavior-change interventions, however, we argue that it is first important to understand how consumer experiences are represented in memory, in order to successfully target the situational cues that most strongly predict engagement in habitual behavior. In this article, we present a situated cognition perspective of habits and discuss how the situated cognition perspective extends our understanding of how consumer experiences are represented in memory, and the processes through which these situational representations can be retrieved in order to elicit habitual consumer behaviors. Based on the principles of situated cognition, we then discuss five ways that interventions could change consumer habits by targeting situational cues in the consumer environment and suggest how existing interventions utilizing these behavior-change strategies could be improved by integrating the principles of the situated cognition approach

Fuel Panics - insights from spatial agent-based simulation

The United Kingdom has twice suffered major disruption as a result of fuel panics first in September 2000 coincident with a wave of fuel protests and more recently in March 2012 following politcal warnings of possible future supply chain disruption. In each case the disruption and economic consequences were serious. Fuel distribution is an example of a supply chain. Approaches to supply-chain planning based on linear programming are poorly suited to modelling non-equilibrium effects, while coarse-grained system dynamics models often fail to capture local phenomena which contribute to the evolution of global demand. In this Paper, we demonstrate that agent-based techniques offer a powerful framework for cosimulation of supply chains and consumers under conditions of transient demand. In the case of fuel panic crisis, we show that even a highly abstract model can reproduce a range of transient phenomena seen in the real world, and present a set of practical recommendations for policymakers faced with panic-buying