Effects of Persuasive Claims on Desirability and Impulse Purchase Behavior

Group buying websites are getting increasingly popular in the recent years. These websites typically work with merchants to offer group deals at attractive prices. They need a pre-determined minimum number of buyers for a deal before that deal is on. It is therefore important for marketers to understand how they can encourage consumers to buy these online group deals early. Using the right persuasive claims that reflect a deal’s scarcity or popularity can help in heuristics information processing and shape a consumer’s desirability in that deal. This desirability can in turn tempt him or her to purchase immediately. As consumers are usually not informed of the deals prior to visiting the group buying websites, such buys can be termed as “impulse purchases”, i.e. unplanned or unintended buys. In particular, we investigate how one’s need-for-uniqueness can influence the effectiveness of these persuasive claims. In view of the snob and bandwagon effects, marketers learn to appreciate which persuasive claims work better for what type of consumers

Internet brand loyalty and technological attributes: An empirical investigation

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

The Influence of Technology on Internet Brand Loyalty: An Exploratory Study

Acquiring new consumers is an expensive process. More often, profits are generated only during the later stage of serving loyal consumers. An increase in the number of e-businesses results in an urgency to better understand the concept of e-loyalty. This research therefore aims to provide some insights as to how technological aspects, namely Website quality and product/technology innovation, may contribute towards the building and strengthening of a loyal consumer base through the mediating influence of satisfaction. By performing confirmatory factor analysis on a set of survey data, we show that high Website quality and innovative products/services or technologies could reinforce consumer satisfaction, which in turn positively enhances the loyalty to an Internet brand

Determinants of Brand Equity in E-Businesses: An Exploratory Study

Previous research suggests that brand equity is affected by marketing mix elements, such as store image or distribution intensity. However, because the Internet has no boundaries, some of these elements may not be applicable in building the brand equity of online companies. In this study, we identify factors pertaining to online contexts that may affect consumersí perception on quality and brand knowledge, both of which are found to be important determinants of brand equity. By performing confirmatory factor analyses on a set of survey data, we show that having a high quality Website and innovative products and technologies may help reinforce consumersí perceived quality. However, popular online marketing instruments, such as offering value-added services and features or advertising, may not contribute much to the formation of online firmsí brand equity

INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH DIGITAL PLATFORMS: ENABLERS AND INHIBITORS OF GROWTH IN EMERGING ECOSYSTEMS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Enabling Aging-in-Place: Lessons Learnt from Piloting an Elderly Care Provisioning Solution in the Community

Rising trend of elderlies aging in place and leading more independent living has prompted us to explore instrumented homes for ambient assisted living. We introduce the Smart Homes and Intelligent Neighbors to Enable Seniors project in 2014 where we study the feasibility of using sensors to derive insights into the cognitive and physical wellbeing of elderlies. Sense making of the data provides insights into the daily activities and living habits of elderlies to enable responsive care provisioning by their caregivers and/or volunteers. Complex data mining and analysis work also enables the possibility of more pre-emptive care provisioning. From a nationwide perspective, addressing such issues early is likely to prevent or at least, reduce the medical resources necessary in the future in caring for this aging population. Here we share some key learning points from the project so that they can value add to future deployments of similar solutions