Toward a contagion-based model of mobile banking adoption

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: Can a bank capitalize on its well-established self-service technologies (SSTs) in order to entice customers to adopt a newly introduced SST, namely, mobile banking More specifically, it proposes an integrative model that simultaneously investigates the transference effects of attitudes, trust and the contagious influences of social pressures on mobile banking adoption intentions. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling is applied to data collected from banks' clients who are actually non-users of mobile banking. Findings: The results indicate that attitude toward and trust in mobile banking along with coercive, normative and mimetic pressures are key antecedents to mobile banking adoption intentions. In addition, attitudes toward automated teller machines (ATMs) and online banking significantly predict attitude toward mobile banking. The results also support the effects of trust in ATMs as well as trust in online banking on trust in mobile banking. Moreover, predicted differences in the relative effects of attitude and trust are supported. Particularly, attitude toward online banking has a stronger impact on attitude toward mobile banking compared to the impact of attitude toward ATMs. In the same vein, the effect of trust in online banking on mobile banking is significantly stronger than the effect of trust in ATMs. Practical implications: The study's results hint at some practical and worthwhile guidelines for banks that can be leveraged in communication campaigns aiming at boosting the adoption rates of mobile banking. Banks can take advantage of the transference effects of the established attitudes toward and trusting beliefs in their mature SSTs as well as the contagious social influences in inducing the adoption of a newly introduced SST. Originality/value: The present study represents a first step toward generating new insights into the role of the joint effects of attitudes, trust and social influences in the adoption of a new SST

Stereotyping human-like virtual influencers in retailing: Does warmth prevail over competence?

Building upon the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), the current research provides insights into how virtual influencers (VIs) influence consumer responses. More specifically, it investigates the associations between the VI's anthropomorphism and stereotypical judgments of the VI's warmth and competence as well as the differential and mediating roles of these stereotypes in influencing consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations and purchase intentions. The results support the idea that anthropomorphizing VIs has a direct bearing on stereotyping VIs along the competence and warmth dimensions of the SCM. Consistent with the “Primacy-of-Warmth Effect” hypothesis, the study's findings show that perceived warmth, compared to perceived competence, is positively more associated with consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations. Furthermore, the findings reveal that perceived warmth mediates the association between the VI's anthropomorphism and consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations. However, the findings lend partial support to the mediating role of competence. The willingness to follow the VI's recommendations, in turn, is positively associated with purchase intention. The paper wraps up with some implications for research and practice

Consumers motivations and roles in rooting for or against underdog consumer

When wronged customers feel powerless they could bring publicly their fight against offending firms. Doing so could help to put the perpetrator firms under pressure and urge them to restore fairness. While some consumers could express their commitment to wronged consumers, others may disagree and disapprove their fight. This paper investigates consumers' motivations and roles in supporting and rooting against powerless customers- referred here as underdogs. Using a netnography approach to analyse online participants' postings, we identified two types of roles: supportive and unsupportive roles. The former consist of five consumers' roles that are endorsed when rooting for underdogs, namely the Admirer, the Rebel, the Learner, the Opportunist and the Lawyer. The latter consists of four roles adopted by opponent consumers when rooting against underdogs, namely the Sarcastic, the Elitist, the Conformist and the Schadenfreudist. Understanding consumers' roles and motivations in rooting for the underdogs, is helpful for firms in managing their defensive marketing efforts and reduce the anti-corporate attitudes. Likewise, knowing what motivates consumers to root against an underdog may help in capitalizing on supportive attitudes and to reinforce the commitment toward the firm.Scopu

Data for: Image transfer from malls to stores and its influence on shopping values and mall patronage: The role of self-congruity

Covariance matrix (N=658

Data for: Image transfer from malls to stores and its influence on shopping values and mall patronage: The role of self-congruity

Covariance matrix (N=658

The effects of app-related factors on app stickiness: The role of cognitive and emotional app relationship quality

Prior research tends to examine the effect of a narrow set of app-related factors on the construct of app relationship quality holistically. However, it is well-established that app relationship quality consists of cognitive and emotional aspects. To address these two issues, our study takes a more nuanced approach by examining a comprehensive set of app-related factors, including functional, offerings, experiential and relational factors, and their differential impacts on two distinct components of app relationship quality, namely cognitive app relationship quality (CARQ) and emotional app relationship quality (EARQ). It also examines the differential impact of CARQ and EARQ on app stickiness, which has long been considered as a managerial challenge. A ‘modular design approach’ was used to collect the data from an online UK consumer panel. 605 responses were analyzed using AMOS 24. The results indicated that functional and offering factors produced greater effects on CARQ than on EARQ. In contrast, experiential and relational factors were found to have stronger effects on EARQ than on CARQ. Further, CARQ was found to have a stronger effect on app stickiness compared to EARQ. The current study offers a detailed understanding of the factors that contribute to each component of app relationship quality and empirically demonstrates the differential effects of the cognitive and emotional aspects on app sickness. Such results are expected to help e-retailers to develop a strong digital presence, build future readiness for their brands, and design app-focused strategies using a consumer centric approach

Conceptual foundation for a town centre physical/digital integration measurement tool

The purpose of this research is to propose a theoretical framework for the assessment of Town Centre Management from an omni-channel perspective. Moreover, there is a need for more multi-dimensional and empirical methods of measuring the Digital High Street performance (i.e., the integration of the physical/digital Town Centre experience or health of the Digital High Street). Earlier measurement tools do not consider measures of different stakeholders, such as their digital skills and involvement in the Digital High Street. There are also methodological considerations as previous tools are mainly based on survey measures, which are difficult to be updated regularly. Therefore, this study fills these research gaps by means of an holistic theoretical framework that uses a wide set of observed measures from different primary and secondary sources

Experience economy and the management of shopping centers: The role of entertainment

This chapter applies the experience logic perspective to the retail industry by analyzing the role and the management of entertainment strategies in the shopping center format. The purpose is twofold: (i) proposing a conceptual classification of entertainment based on the existing literature; (ii) examining the influences of entertainment strategies on shopping centers’ market per-formances to provide suggestions in regards to the effectiveness of such strat-egies. After a short description of the shopping center industry, the study ana-lyzes the changing role of the format occurring over the last decades and pro-poses a classification of entertainment that includes recreational services (food and leisure) and special events. Changes occurring in these areas of entertainment, alongside those concerning the market performance indicators of shopping centers (i.e., number of receipts, average amount of receipts, number of visitors who buy, visitors frequency), are explored by discussing the results of a qualitative study focused on 16 Italian shopping centers over a three-year period. Practical implications for shopping center managers are provided via empirical findings, while limitations of the study are underlined for suggesting future research directions