Analysis of the evolution and impact of product quality in business

The notion of Product Quality has been explored from different perspectives such as Total Quality Management (TQM), an approach that has emerged in parallel with the development of new technologies. The vast amount of research on this subject has yielded an overload of information making it necessary to develop and apply bibliometric techniques to manage it, assess its scientific performance and identify the thematic areas and their evolution over time. Thus, the present study carried out a bibliometric analysis of 3484 published documents spanning 1989–2019 related to Product Quality in the field of business. The tools serving for the analysis were the Web of Science (WoS) Analyze Results and Science Mapping (SciMAT). The results highlighted the themes of greatest interest and their interconnections throughout each of these three last decades. It is noteworthy that the theme of Price stands out throughout the three decades. The tools also shed light on the evolution of the different themes, the inception of new motor themes and the areas devoid of indepth analyses that require further investigation. The present study therefore serves as a starting point for future research in this field

Localization of computer-mediated communication and corporate impression on online communities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of localizing online communities (OCs) and examines how OC members form impressions of organizations that use OCs in their communication activities. A conceptual framework and measurement scale are developed that consist of complex latent constructs. Design/methodology/approach A sequential multi-method approach is adopted with both qualitative and quantitative investigations. Using Structural equation modeling, the research refines and validates the measurement scales of impression formation in OCs. Findings Findings reveal that comprehensive messages have a direct effect on the impressions that an OC member forms. In particular, social context cues are an important predictor of online community corporate impression (OCCIP). Source credibility, affiliation, characteristics and interpersonal communication are all critical to OCCIP, which in turn, influence members’ attitudes toward the company and the intention to use it again. Surprisingly, relevance, timeliness, accuracy and perceived similarity did not have any significant effect on the corporate impression. Originality/value Three contributions are offered: First, the study provides reliable scales for measuring OCCIP. Second, support is given to the conceptual model that links OCCIP to a set of consequences, namely, attitudes toward the company, intention to use the company, and word-of-mouth. Finally, the study is conducted across two different and unique types of OC contexts, stipulating further insights into the localization of OCs

Perceived value of AI-based recommendations¿ service: the case of voice assistants

The application of artificial intelligence in services is continuously spreading. In particular, one of the most important recent trends is the development of virtual assistants, more particularly; voice assistants, which provide consumers with various services (e.g. information, music) and with product and service recommendations based on their preferences. There is a need to understand how valuable these recommendations are for consumers. This study contributes to the emerging body of research into consumers’ use of the recommendations that voice assistants make in three key ways: (1) by analysing the roles of the benefits (i.e. convenience, compatibility, personalisation) they derive and costs they expend (i.e. cognitive effort, intrusiveness) in the value creation process related to voice assistants’ recommendations; (2) by evaluating the effect of social presence (the key voice assistant feature) on perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations, through the benefits and costs associated with voice assistants and (3) by determining how the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations affects consumer engagement. An online survey was used to collect data. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the conceptual model. The core findings of the study are as follows. First, social presence enhances the benefits (especially personalisation) and reduces the costs (except for cognitive effort) associated with voice assistants. Second, personalisation was shown to be the strongest determinant of the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations, but their intrusiveness is a potential inhibitor in the way of increasing their value. Third, a positive relationship was observed between the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations and consumer engagement with the assistants

Localization of computer-mediated communication and corporate impression on online communities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of localizing online communities (OCs) and examines how OC members form impressions of organizations that use OCs in their communication activities. A conceptual framework and measurement scale are developed that consist of complex latent constructs. Design/methodology/approach A sequential multi-method approach is adopted with both qualitative and quantitative investigations. Using Structural equation modeling, the research refines and validates the measurement scales of impression formation in OCs. Findings Findings reveal that comprehensive messages have a direct effect on the impressions that an OC member forms. In particular, social context cues are an important predictor of online community corporate impression (OCCIP). Source credibility, affiliation, characteristics and interpersonal communication are all critical to OCCIP, which in turn, influence members’ attitudes toward the company and the intention to use it again. Surprisingly, relevance, timeliness, accuracy and perceived similarity did not have any significant effect on the corporate impression. Originality/value Three contributions are offered: First, the study provides reliable scales for measuring OCCIP. Second, support is given to the conceptual model that links OCCIP to a set of consequences, namely, attitudes toward the company, intention to use the company, and word-of-mouth. Finally, the study is conducted across two different and unique types of OC contexts, stipulating further insights into the localization of OCs

Online customer engagement on instagram: An analysis of subscription video-on-demand services’ posts

Social media has become one of the most influential and important virtual platforms, both for users and businesses. Thus, there has been a growing necessity for insight into what works for each industry. That leads to this study’s main goal, which is to investigate the influence of social media posting of subscription video-on-demand services (Netflix Portugal, Disney Plus Portugal and HBO Portugal) on Portuguese customer engagement. Therefore, a literature review was conducted about customer engagement, social media post characteristics, eWOM comment valence and the relationship between SVoD services and social media. As a netnography, posts from Netflix Portugal, Disney Plus Portugal and HBO Portugal were collected, over the period of one month, for a total of 142 posts. Also, 3402 comments were analysed using VADER lexicon and sentiment analysis tool. The statistical analyses allowed to conclude that an image and emotional appeal increases the number of likes, the use of a carousel increases the number of likes and comments, while interactivity decreases the number of likes and comments. It is also possible to do a reliable prediction for the number of likes based on the use of a carousel, the interactivity and the post appeal, as well as for the number of comments based on the use of a carousel and interactivity. There was no statistically significant relation between the post characteristics and eWOM comment valence. Managers of SVoD brands can be guided by this research with regard to deciding which characteristics they should use when posting

Modelling fashion microblogs to increase the influence of social media marketing in Ireland and China

With the breakthrough of social media in the 21st century, microblogging has become an influential medium for marketing fashion brands and products online. For this reason, this study explores ten Irish and another ten Chinese fashion microblogging influencers’ microblogs using Text Mining and Netnography. By this comparison, the study finds a current model of how fashion microblogs influence fashion consumption in Ireland and China. With the help of this model, the study proposes a typology of Irish and Chinese fashion microblogging influencers and their basic microblogging strategies. The proposed typology intends to help fashion marketers to model their fashion microblogs in order to increase the influence of social media marketing in Ireland and China. Furthermore, the proposed typology is applied to develop a digital artefact that not only can deal with Irish and Chinese fashion microblogs at the same time but also show the results employing text visualisation. This bilingual digital website tries to make up for the lack of attention to text analysis on fashion-related words in the development of text mining tools. Finally, the methodological combination of Text Mining and Netnography employs digital tools and computer programming to conduct studies in the field of arts and humanities. The success of methodological combination in the study opens up a bright prospect for interdisciplinary research methodology