Strategic Usability and Response in Ecommerce Marketing: A Framework and Investigation

In the literature usability is presented as an objective standard to which firms aspire to assist in the consumer decision-making process. In this paper, we introduce the concept of strategic usability, which we define as the variation of usability components to influence mindset formation and response that are most desired by the firm. We further illustrate how laws of UX design identified in the literature can impact usability components in different ways to influence response. A strategic usability framework is then presented and examined using preliminary data collected from Amazon.com. Results suggest that firms can indeed implement strategic usability to heighten motivation and response to the offers most desired by the firm and minimize response and interactions towards those less desired. However, such a strategy can pose risks for the firm. Implications for consumer welfare and accessibility are discussed

Identifying The Salient Dimensions Of Student Cheating And Their Key Determinants In A Private University

Extensive research has been conducted over the years about the academic dishonesty or cheating among university students. Most of these studies usually involve surveys of students to determine the extent of their participation in unethical practices, reasons for their participation in these practices and how each unethical academic behavior is related to some student characteristics. While that approach offers good insights it fails to uncover the underlying salient dimensions or commonalties among these behaviors and motivations. This paper reports the results of a survey of business students concerning their academic honesty. Student self-reports on participation and reasons for participating in unethical practices are factor analyzed to uncover three salient dimensions of cheating and four compelling motivations for student cheating. Key determinants of the various forms of cheating are identified and policy implications are discussed

Protecting the Brand: Evaluating the Cost of Security Breach from a Marketer’s Perspective

Cyberattacks have increased over the years both at the individual and firm level. Yet, the organizational budgets directed toward information security remains low. One reason is that the ramifications of information breach, such as increased consumer perception of risk and brand equity erosion remain, to the senior executives and board of directors in organizations, almost invisible. The second reason is that managers are required to justify budgets. The cost of system breach is often difficult to quantify. There are direct and enduring costs of information breach. As such, it has implications that impact not just the downtime during a data breach but loss of customers, trust, loyalty and brand equity, all of great concern to marketing managers. This paper analyzes the impact of a breach announcement on the market valuation of the company. Such an analysis using the event study methodology provides a clear indication of how the market reacts to the firm’s breach in information. The results of the study indicate that the market punishes the firm with a small but significant negative abnormal return on the announcement of the breach, and this trend persists. This result, together with the indirect or enduring costs related to brand erosion, provides a good justification to senior executives for protecting the integrity of information, and by so doing, protecting the equity of the brand

Leveraging the Power of Branded Apps: An Exploratory Study of Salient Performance

Branded mobile apps are applications developed by companies that carry the names of the organizations and their logos. Consumers personally select and download these apps. They encounter them multiple times as they scroll through their smartphones during the course of the day. Branded apps are like billboards on personal smartphones. They represent significant potential to marketers to reach and engage with their consumers. The question of what service attributes to include in the branded apps remains unclear. This research identifies key factor dimensions of branded mobile apps and examines their impacts on satisfaction and quality of shopping experience in hybrid stores and exclusively online retailers. The findings contribute toward an understanding of BrandApp-Qual and has managerial implications

Even on eBay it Pays to Buy in Volume: An Imitation of a Controlled Experiment

ABSTRACT In this study, we replicate a controlled experiment setting by following a single established seller with a standardized method of listing items on eBay to investigate the effect that the quantity of items in a listing has on the bidder's willingness to pay as captured by the realized auction price. The investigation focuses on a "commodity" like item, namely, a silver dollar coin in identical condition. Our results demonstrate that the per-item price in multi-item listings is a decreasing and non-linear function of the number of items in the listing. These results are important because they are the first to report on the effect of quantity of items in a listing on realized auction price on eBay

Even on eBay it Pays to Buy in Volume: An Imitation of a Controlled Experiment

In this study, we replicate a controlled experiment setting by following a single established seller with a standardized method of listing items on eBay to investigate the effect that the quantity of items in a listing has on the bidder’s willingness to pay as captured by the realized auction price. The investigation focuses on a “commodity” like item, namely, a silver dollar coin in identical condition. Our results demonstrate that the per-item price in multi-item listings is a decreasing and non-linear function of the number of items in the listing. These results are important because they are the first to report on the effect of quantity of items in a listing on realized auction price on eBay

Preparation of a soft and interconnected macroporous hydroxypropyl cellulose methacrylate scaffold for adipose tissue engineering

This study describes the preparation and characterization of a biodegradable 3D hydrogel constructed from hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), modified with bifunctional methacrylic anhydride (MA) to form hydroxypropyl cellulose methacrylate (HPC-MA), for adipose tissue engineering applications. The hydrogels were prepared from three different concentrations (10 wt percent, 15 wt per cent and 20 wt percent) of HPC-MA with 0.35 degree of substitution. HPC-MA hydrogel scaffolds with open biphasic features were prepared by exploiting the thermal responsive phase behavior of HPC and temperature mediated phase separation of HPC-MA. The resulting scaffolds exhibited pore sizes ranging from 30 to 300 mm and an interconnected porosity ninety percent. The swelling ratio (SR) and storage modulus of HPC-MA scaffolds were in the range of 12.94 to 35.83 and 0.75 to 4.28 kPa, respectively. The swelling ratio and storage modulus suggested that the scaffold exhibits high water retention, allowing medium exchange during cell culturing and that it is suitable for adipose tissue regeneration. The HPC-MA scaffolds were found to be biocompatible to human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs). ASCs were successfully differentiated into the adipocytes inside the scaffolds, and therefore demonstrated the potential application of these HPC-MA scaffolds for adipose tissue engineering

A periosteum-inspired 3D hydrogel-bioceramic composite for enhanced bone regeneration

A 3D injectable hydrogel-bioceramic composite consisting of gelatin-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl) propionic acid (Gtn-HPA) and carboxymethyl cellulose-tyramine (CMC-Tyr), incorporated with fish scale-derived calcium phosphate (CaP), is developed for bone applications. The hydrogel-bioceramic composite has significantly improved the elastic modulus compared to the non-filled hydrogel, of which the addition of 10 w/v% CaP showed zero order fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran release profile and a significantly higher proliferation rate of encapsulated cells. All the samples promote the nucleation and growth of CaP minerals when exposed to 1× SBF. Overall, the hydrogel-bioceramic composite with 10 w/v% CaP can potentially be used as a periosteum-mimicking membrane to facilitate bone regeneration