Research Framework, Strategies, And Applications Of Intelligent Agent Technologies (IATs) In Marketing

In this digital era, marketing theory and practice are being transformed by increasing complexity due to information availability, higher reach and interactions, and faster speeds of transactions. These have led to the adoption of intelligent agent technologies (IATs) by many companies. As IATs are relatively new and technologically complex, several definitions are evolving, and the theory in this area is not yet fully developed. There is a need to provide structure and guidance to marketers to further this emerging stream of research. As a first step, this paper proposes a marketing-centric definition and a systematic taxonomy and framework. The authors, using a grounded theory approach, conduct an extensive literature review and a qualitative study in which interviews with managers from 50 companies in 22 industries reveal the importance of understanding IAT applications and adopting them. Further, the authors propose an integrated conceptual framework with several propositions regarding IAT adoption. This research identifies the gaps in the literature and the need for adoption of IATs in the future of marketing given changing consumer behavior and product and industry characteristics

Research Framework, Strategies, And Applications Of Intelligent Agent Technologies (IATs) In Marketing

In this digital era, marketing theory and practice are being transformed by increasing complexity due to information availability, higher reach and interactions, and faster speeds of transactions. These have led to the adoption of intelligent agent technologies (IATs) by many companies. As IATs are relatively new and technologically complex, several definitions are evolving, and the theory in this area is not yet fully developed. There is a need to provide structure and guidance to marketers to further this emerging stream of research. As a first step, this paper proposes a marketing-centric definition and a systematic taxonomy and framework. The authors, using a grounded theory approach, conduct an extensive literature review and a qualitative study in which interviews with managers from 50 companies in 22 industries reveal the importance of understanding IAT applications and adopting them. Further, the authors propose an integrated conceptual framework with several propositions regarding IAT adoption. This research identifies the gaps in the literature and the need for adoption of IATs in the future of marketing given changing consumer behavior and product and industry characteristics

Three Essays on Consumer Demand in Online and Offline Markets

Consumers face various costs when investigating and purchasing products in either online or offline markets: the travel cost to visit a store and the search cost to examine the product attributes once they are at a store. The relative magnitude of the costs may lead to different store pricing and consumer search behavior. This dissertation builds game-theoretic search models and examines the interaction between store pricing and consumer search behavior under travel and search costs, and positive stockout probabilities in Chapter 1. To quantify the difference in consumer demand under different costs, a structural demand model has been developed to empirically examine consumer demand regarding prices and stockouts between online and offline markets in Chapter 2. This dissertation extends the empirical structural demand model and estimates the consumer demand for products across different categories. The contribution of the dissertation is that it advances the knowledge and understanding of consumer demand by: (1) separating the travel and search costs associated with consumer demand during a shopping trip; (2) providing empirical evidence that supports the relevant theories between online and offline markets; and, by (3) shedding light on consumer demand across product categories

The State of e-New Zealand: 2004

This State of E-New Zealand paper revisits the relative international measures of New Zealand's preparedness to utilise and capitalise upon the economic and social benefits promised by the use of technology. In the previous paper the authors concluded that New Zealand remained at the forefront of practically all electronic infrastructure indicators measured. Four years from the initial findings this paper concludes that New Zealand's relative ability to use its infrastructure to gain productive advantage is decreasing. Although it is well prepared in infrastructure New Zealand has slipped from its early leadership position relative to other countries in many as the information and communication technology market indicators as the New Zealand market approaches maturity and other countries catch up

A context-aware model to improve usability of information presented on mobile devices

Online information access on mobile devices is increasing as a result of the growth in the use of Internet-enabled handheld (or pocket-size) devices. The combined influence of recent enabling technologies such as Web 2.0, mobile app stores and improved wireless networks have driven the increase in online applications that allow users to access various types of information on mobile devices regardless of time and location. Examples of such applications (usually shortened to app) include: social media, such as FacebookTM App and TwitterTM App, banking applications such as (Standard Bank South Africa)TM Mobile Banking App and First National Bank (FNB) BankingTM App, and news application such as news 24TM App and BBCTM News App. Online businesses involved in buying, selling and business transaction processing activities via the Internet have exploited the opportunity to extend electronic commerce (e-commerce) initiatives into mobile commerce (m-commerce). Online businesses that interact with end user customers implement business to consumer (B2C) m-commerce applications that enable customers to access and browse product catalogue information on mobile devices, anytime, anywhere. Customers accessing electronic product catalogue information on a mobile device face a number of challenges such as a long list of products presented on a small screen and a longer information download time. These challenges mainly originate from the limiting and dynamic nature of the mobile apps operating environment, for example, dynamic location, bandwidth fluctuations and, diverse and limited device features, collectively referred to as context. The goal of this research was to design and implement a context-aware model that can be incorporated into an m-commerce application in order to improve the presentation of product catalogue information on m-commerce storefronts. The motivation for selecting product catalogue is prompted by literature which indicates that improved presentation of information in m-commerce (and e-commerce) applications has a positive impact on usability of the websites. Usable m-commerce (and e-commerce) websites improve efficiency in consumer behaviour that impacts sales, profits and business growth. The context-aware model aimed at collecting context information within the user environment and utilising it to determine optimal retrieval and presentation of product catalogue in m-commerce. An integrated logical context sensor and Mathematical algorithms were implemented in the context-aware model. The integrated logical context sensor was responsible for the collection of different types of predetermined context information such as device specification or capabilities, connection bandwidth, location and time of the day as well as the user profile. The algorithms transformed the collected context information into usable formats and enabled optimal retrieval and presentation of product catalogue data on a specific mobile device. Open-source implementation tools were utilised to implement components of the model including: HTML5, PhP, JavaScript and MySQL database. The context-aware model was incorporated into an existing m-commerce application. Two user evaluation studies were conducted during the course of the research. The first evaluation was to evaluate the accuracy of information collected by the context sensor component of the model. This survey was conducted with a sample of 30 users from different countries across the world. In-between the context sensor and main evaluation surveys, a pilot study was conducted with a sample of 19 users with great experience in mobile application development and use from SAP Next Business and Technology, Africa. Finally an overall user evaluation study was conducted with a sample of 30 users from a remote area called Kgautswane in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The results obtained indicate that the context-aware model was able to determine accurate context information in real-time and effectively determine how much product information should be retrieved and how the information should be presented on a mobile device interface. Two main contributions emerged from the research, first the research contributed to the field of mobile Human Computer Interaction. During the research, techniques of evaluating and improving usability of mobile applications were demonstrated. Secondly, the research made a significant contribution to the upcoming field of context-aware computing. The research brought clarity with regard to context-aware computing which is lacking in existing, current research despite the field’s proven impact of improving usability of applications. Researchers can utilise contributions made in this research to develop further techniques and usable context-aware solutions

Lessons Learned and Next Steps in Energy Efficiency Measurement and Attribution: Energy Savings, Net to Gross, Non-Energy Benefits, and Persistence of Energy Efficiency Behavior

This white paper examines four topics addressing evaluation, measurement, and attribution of direct and indirect effects to energy efficiency and behavioral programs: Estimates of program savings (gross); Net savings derivation through free ridership / net to gross analyses; Indirect non-energy benefits / impacts (e.g., comfort, convenience, emissions, jobs); and, Persistence of savings

Can Upward Brand Extensions be an Opportunity for Marketing Managers During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond?

Early COVID-19 research has guided current managerial practice by introducing more products across different product categories as consumers tried to avoid perceived health risks from food shortages, i.e. horizontal brand extensions. For example, Leon, a fast-food restaurant in the UK, introduced a new range of ready meal products. However, when the food supply stabilised, availability may no longer be a concern for consumers. Instead, job losses could be a driver of higher perceived financial risks. Meanwhile, it remains unknown whether the perceived health or financial risks play a more significant role on consumers’ consumptions. Our preliminary survey shows perceived health risks outperform perceived financial risks to positively influence purchase intention during COVID-19. We suggest such a result indicates an opportunity for marketers to consider introducing premium priced products, i.e. upward brand extensions. The risk-as�feelings and signalling theories were used to explain consumer choice under risk may adopt affective heuristic processing, using minimal cognitive efforts to evaluate products. Based on this, consumers are likely to be affected by the salient high-quality and reliable product cue of upward extension signalled by its premium price level, which may attract consumers to purchase when they have high perceived health risks associated with COVID-19. Addressing this, a series of experimental studies confirm that upward brand extensions (versus normal new product introductions) can positively moderate the positive effect between perceived health risks associated with COVID-19 and purchase intention. Such an effect can be mediated by affective heuristic information processing. The results contribute to emergent COVID-19 literature and managerial practice during the pandemic but could also inform post-pandemic thinking around vertical brand extensions

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission