Web Home Page Complexity and Communication Effectiveness

To date, little research has been conducted to explore how consumers perceive and use the Web as an advertising medium. Although numerous guidelines for Web home page design exist, the vast majority of advice is based on opinion, personal experience or observation, not necessarily on empirical evidence. A combination of research methods (focus groups, interviews, and experiments) is used to identify design elements that influence consumers\u27 perceptions of Web page complexity. The study reports that perceived complexity is a result of four major factors: number of links, number of graphics, home page length, and animation. Also, we find evidence that Web page complexity is related to communication effectiveness. The managerial implications are discussed

A Research Agenda toward Assessing Perceived Affective Quality of IT

Most IT evaluation and usage studies emphasize cognition or high-order affective reactions that come from more deliberate cognitive processing. A primitive concept, perceived affective quality (PAQ) of IT, has not yet attracted much attention. PAQ refers to an individual’s perception of IT’s ability to change his/her affective state. IS and psychology literature shows that PAQ has significant impacts on higher-order affect, cognition, and behaviors. Thus understanding the nature and measurement of PAQ is of great importance. However, there is no PAQ instrument specifically designed for IT. This study intends to develop and validate such an instrument based on literature review and surveys. This scale will provide researchers with a useful tool to identify favorable affective quality of IT. It will also help IT managers and designers to provide better products and enhance profits

The Effects of Website Personalization on User Intention to Return through Cognitive Beliefs and Affective Reactions

This study developed a fine-grained, multidimensional view of perceived personalization of website design based on and extending upon previous research. Moreover, we have drawn from the vast body of research on elaboration likelihood model, the technology acceptance model (TAM), and flow theory to (i) develop an integrated model of the stimuli of personalization, and the alternative modes of influence processes which lead to the intention to continue to use a website (i.e. user intention to return); (ii) empirically test the integrated model (iii) suggest a personalization model that enhances the positive environmental and psychological determinants of user intention to return. In particular, we investigate the role of information personalization, presentation personalization, and navigation personalization in influencing the cognitive and affective determinants of the intention to continue to use a website. Our findings have important implications for Information Systems (IS) research and managerial decision making on personalization implementation issues in website design

The Impact of Webpage Visual Characteristics on Consumer\u27s Initial Trust In E-Vendors

In making decisions regarding transacting with web-based vendors, consumers typically consider the uncertainty about vendor behavior or the perceived risk of having personal information misused by vendors. To mitigate these concerns vendors convey cues to improve consumer trust at a very early stage. Initial trust plays a central role in helping consumers overcome perceptions of risk and insecurity and makes them feel comfortable about interacting and transacting with an e-vendor. Therefore, initial trust is critical to both researchers and practitioners. The present paper describes a research-in-progress study that concentrates on webpage visual complexity and order as central factors in the design of web pages to enhance consumers’ initial trust in an online e-vendor

Web Aesthetics: How Does it Influence the Sales Performance in Online Marketplaces

Web aesthetics is advocated as one of the key factors influencing consumers’ attitude and behavior in the websites they visited. However, its real effects on the sales performance of websites remain largely unknown. This study is one of the first empirical studies to evaluate web aesthetics quantitatively and directly measure its effects on sales performance by using real-life transaction data. In this study, we identify the representative factors of three primary determinants of web aesthetics (unity, complexity, and intensity) in online marketplaces. Drawing on cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias theory, we further investigate how the influence of web aesthetics on sales performance is contingent on different levels of the seller’s reputation. A set of interaction relationships are proposed and will be tested using real-life transaction data collected from Taobao.com (the largest online marketplace in China). Potential theoretical implications are discussed and potential practical implications are offered for practitioners

Business-to-Consumer Web Site Quality and Web Shoppers\u27 Emotions: Exploring a Research Model

Based on the literature on consumer behavior, psychology, and information systems, this paper explores relationships between Web site quality, the cognitive appraisal of situational state (a key cognitive antecedent to emotions) and a set of positive and negative emotions. A theoretical model is tested on data collected from 215 different Web shopping episodes. Results show that when shopping on business-to-consumer Web sites for low-touch products (music CDs and movies in DVD format), customers felt emotions, namely liking, joy, pride, dislike, frustration, and fear. Even though the mean intensity levels of these emotions is low to moderate, for a substantial number of shoppers (near a third of the sample population) the emotions of liking and joy were felt intensely. Results also indicate that Web site quality, measured by several Web site design components, has a positive impact on the cognitive appraisal of situational state, operationalized as the satisfaction level of the overall online shopping experience. In turn, this appraisal affects all emotions felt by shoppers except fear. This study is particularly addressed to designers and managers of B2C Web sites as it invites them to consider Web shoppers’ emotions while designing and developing their electronic platform

Research Models in Information Systems

The use of research models in driving scholarly investigation is of great importance in any field, including information systems (IS). As such, a taxonomy of IS research models should be of substantial value to the discipline. Such a taxonomy is developed in this article based on the IS research literature. Eleven model types are examined in detail in order to investigate how they are used by researchers, in articles published in seven leading IS journals during a recent six year period. Interesting results emerge in the use of models overall, as well as trends over time and relationships with specific methodologies and IS journals. Multi-tier influence diagram is the most used research model in IS research, while the no model, listing of variables, mathematical model, and simple influence diagram also find significant usage among the IS research community. Patterns of model use were also identified based on top journals and prevalent research methodologies