Factors Influencing Online Shopping During Diwali Festival 2014: Case Study of Flipkart and Amazon.In

The Indian retail sector is witnessing a dramatic change because of changing mindset of the urban consumers. These consumers are spoilt for choices and are presented not only with different products and brands but also with diverse retailer formats such as departmental stores, specialty stores, and online shopping platforms. The prospect of online shopping is increasing in India because of many factors such as increased Internet literacy, perceived usefulness, ease of use, increased number of working women, entry from the global and local participants, and the increased visibility of online players, to name a few. E-tailing is the process of selling retail goods using the internet. The Indian e-tailing sector has matured enough to deal with the rapid transformations from the era of offline to online platform to be used by the consumers and addresses the challenges faced in this process. The paper examines the growth and opportunities in the Indian e-tailing sector by focusing on the current and future wave of the two big giant e- tailers in India, namely Flipkart and Amazon.in. The purpose of this research is to understand the positive and negative factors influencing the online shopping in India during the festive season. It also aims to explore the role of online shopping festival in driving the shopping explosion from consumer’s perspective. The study is basically to understand the strategies adopted by Flipkart and Amazon.in to capitalize on the “Diwali festive season 2014” to keep their consumers captivated and thereby increase their profits dramatically

MOTIVATIONS FOR SOCIAL NETWORK SITE (SNS) GAMING: A USES AND GRATIFICATION & FLOW PERSPECTIVE

The penetration of the internet, smart-phones and tablets has witnessed tremendous increase in the number of people playing online games in the past few years. Social networking site (SNS) games are a subset of digital games. They are platform based, multiplayer and reveal the real identity of the player. These games are hosted on social networks such as Facebook, where in people play with many other players online. The risks associated with social network gaming are addiction, theft, fraud, loneliness, anxiety, aggression, poor academic performance, cognition distortion etc. This study aims to understand the user motivations to continue to play social networking games and spread a word of mouth for these games. To understand this phenomenon, Uses and Gratification theory (U&G) along with flow and immersion have been considered as the antecedents. A total of 242 respondents comprising of 125 participants who play social networking games and 117 participants who do not play social networking games completed the survey. This aided in understanding the participants’ motivations and inhibitions towards playing social networking games. The present findings indicate that gratifications, flow and immersion are significantly related to the continuance motivation, which in turn is significantly related to word of mouth

Privacy Risks and Security Threats in mHealth apps

mHealth (Mobile Health) applications (apps) have transformed the doctor-patient relationship. They help users with varied functionalities such as monitoring their health, understanding specific health conditions, consulting doctors online and achieving fitness goals. Whilst these apps provide an option of equitable and convenient access to healthcare, a lot of personal and sensitive data about users is collected, stored and shared to achieve these functionalities. Little is known about the privacy and security concerns these apps address. Based on literature review, this paper identifies the privacy risks and security features for evaluating thirty apps in the Medical category across two app distribution platforms in India namely Google Play and App Store. Factors identified through the review formed a basis of the scoring model which helped to arrive at the ‘Privacy Risk Score’ and ‘Safety Score’ for each app. A comparative analysis of the selected apps was performed by studying their privacy policies. The results indicate that adopting these apps pose a risk. Finally, recommendations are provided to consumers such as examining the app before downloading it, customizing the app settings, and to developers to develop robust and transparent privacy policies

Understanding Fitness App Users’ Loyalty and Word of Mouth through Gameful Experience and Flow Theory

In this study, we examine the effect that a gameful experience and personalization have on the flow experience of fitness app users. We also test the association between flow experience and satisfaction in using fitness apps and whether satisfied users remain loyal and spread word of mouth regarding fitness apps. We use the belief-attitude- behavior framework as a theoretical lens and flow theory to explore the proposed relationships. Four hundred thirty- one fitness app users from India participated in the study. The results indicate that gameful experience and personalization lead to flow experience. We found a positive association between flow and satisfaction wherein satisfied fitness app users spread word of mouth and remained loyal to using fitness apps. Our findings will help fitness app developers identify factors to retain fitness app users and attract new ones

What leads consumers to spread eWOM for Food Ordering Apps?

Restaurants are using innovative ways to engage with consumers using Food Ordering Apps (FOAs). The purpose of this article is to identify the influence of consumers’ eSatisfaction, perceived value, trust, and eLoyalty on eWOM for FOAs in India. The study also verifies if eWOM for FOAs varies based on age, gender, family size, order value, and online shopping experience. The research followed a multi-stage approach. In the first stage, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify the various factors that lead to eWOM. In the second stage, a survey was distributed among the FOA users. 375 responses were obtained. In the third stage, a binary multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the predictive power of the proposed research model. The results indicated that eLoyalty, trust, and perceived value were statistically significant in predicting consumers’ intent to spread eWOM for FOAs. eSatisfaction, age, gender, order value, shopping experience, and family size were insignificant in shaping the customer’s intention to spread eWOM for FOAs. The findings of this study can be used to understand the factors that influence users to spread eWOM for FOAs. Managers in food delivery business can use the findings from this study to address the most relevant constructs shaping eWOM as it has an impact on the survival prospects and profitability of the business

The dark side of FinTech in financial services: a qualitative enquiry into FinTech developers’ perspective

Purpose: FinTech offers numerous prospects for significant enhancements and fundamental changes in financial services. However, along with the myriad of benefits, it also has the potential to induce risks to individuals, organisations and society. This study focuses on understanding FinTech developers’ perspective of the dark side of FinTech. Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 Nigerian FinTech developers using an exploratory, inductive methodology The data were transcribed and then thematically analysed using NVivo. Findings: Three themes – customer vulnerability, technical inability and regulatory irresponsibility – arose from the thematic analysis. The poor existing technological infrastructure, data management challenges, limited access to data, and smartphone adoption pose challenges to a speedy integration of FinTech in the country, making customers vulnerable. The lack of privacy control leads to ethical issues. The lack of skilled developers and the brain drain of good developers present additional obstacles to the development of FinTech in Nigeria. Research limitations/implications (limit 100 words) FinTech operation in a developing country differs from that in developed countries with better technological infrastructure and institutional acceptance. This study recognizes that basic banking operations through FinTech are still not well adopted, necessitating the need to be more open-minded about the global practicalities of FinTech. Practical implications (limit 100 words) FinTech managers, banks and policymakers can ethically collect consumer data that can help influence customer credit decisions, product development and recommendations using the mobile app and transaction history. There should be strict penalties on FinTech for selling customers' data, sending unsolicited messages or gaining unnecessary access to the customer's contact list. FinTech can offer to educate consumers about their financial management skills. Originality/value: Whereas other studies have focused on the positive aspects of FinTech to understand client perceptions, this study offers new insights into the dark side of FinTech by analysing the viewpoints of FinTech developers. Furthermore, the study is based in Nigeria, an emerging economy adopting FinTech, adding a new dimension to the body of knowledge

Investigating the role of data-driven innovation and information quality on the adoption of blockchain technology on crowdfunding platforms

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of data-driven innovation and information quality on the adoption of blockchain technology on crowdfunding platforms through adopting a mono method quantitativae approach. Micro-level theoretical perspectives have been less explored in studies of successful crowdfunding innovation than macro-level theoretical perspectives. Furthermore, crowdfunding platforms’ performance varies because of issues like trust, information asymmetry, and transparency of funds flow, among others. There is a solution to these issues in the form of Blockchain Technology (BCT). While BCT has been adopted and used by other businesses, its adoption and usefulness for crowdfunding platforms have not been studied. We investigate crowdfunding platform success using the “task-technology fit theory” and “resource-based view theory”. Authors collected primary level data from task owners of crowdfunding platforms to test the hypotheses. The proposed theoretical model is tested with a sample size of 314 business units, and the proposed hypotheses are tested using Warp PLS 7.0. We also control for the type of crowdfunding activities for our study. The study will help in understanding and improving the success of crowdfunding tasks on crowdfunding platforms. Additionally, it will contribute to TTF and RBV theory as well