Antecedents and Consequences of Trust Development within a Network Marketing Comp

Studies within different fields indicate that the most successful social and business relationships are trustworthy, where partners willingly strengthen the ties with the other part. Trust has been also identified as the catalyst in network marketing companies of direct selling, which is predominantly based in human relationships. The present study aims to investigate trust development in terms of trust antecedents, components and consequences within the Amway Network Company in Greece. Field research was conducted by utilizing a structured questionnaire, which was developed by adopting relative constructs reported in literature. The research target sample consisted of Amway’s Independent Business Owners (IBOs). Two hundred and twenty five questionnaires were distributed during company’s big and small conferences in Greece. Moreover, an online version of the questionnaire was created and communicated to IBOs from various regions of Greece via the web, while the same link was also emailed to a small number of IBOs. The resulting sample comprised 151 correctly answered questionnaires. Principal Component Analysis was initially performed to identify latent factors within the questionnaire items measuring the trust antecedents, components and consequences, which led to alterations of the initial model. The emerged trust antecedents were named cultural similarity, privacy concerns and conflict. The trust components were named ability, integrity and goodwill, while the trust consequences were named commitment and perceived continuity. The results of the regression analyses conducted showed that cultural similarity is the most significant antecedent of trust. Moreover, goodwill was found to be the trust component that leads to higher levels of both commitment and perceived continuity.     Keywords: trust, antecedents, consequences, network company, Greec

Cues adopted by consumers in examining corporate website favorability: an empirical study of financial institutions in the UK and Russia

The purpose of this paper is to explore, reconcile and depict corporate website favorability (CWF), its antecedents and consequences in the financial setting in the UK and Russia context. To achieve the goals of this study, the research adopted a mixed method research design by using a survey, which is supported by insights from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to gain insight into the various influences and relationships. The paper develops and empirically validates the framework of CWF antecedents and consequences. The paper indicates essential guidance for cross-functional managers and designers regarding the integrated and holistic utilization of building favorable corporate websites as part of the corporate identity management. The paper adds to the understanding of CWF and discusses the antecedents of CWF by drawing upon the existing literature. Furthermore, it offers possible consequences of CWF and provides a framework for future testing

A holistic framework of corporate website favourability

This paper extends the current knowledge of corporate website favourability (CWF) by developing a comprehensive conceptual model of its influence on corporate image, corporate reputation, loyalty and identification. The paper reviews previous studies on corporate websites from the perspectives of marketing, management, corporate identity and corporate visual identity in order to inform our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of CWF. The propositions and the conceptual framework present an approach by which a corporation can design and manage a favourable corporate website. A number of important contributions are offered: First, the paper adds to the understanding of CWF; second, it discusses the antecedents of CWF by drawing upon the existing literature; third, it is beneficial for practitioners in shaping CWF strategies, and fourth, it offers possible consequences of CWF and provides a framework for future testing

Investigating the Determinants of Internet Banking Adoption in Greece

AbstractSince its first introduction in the ‘90s, internet banking is increasingly being adopted by bank customers all over the world. This relatively new banking transactions channel offers its users “round the clock” access to bank services, reduced time, direct access from anywhere in the world, lower costs and elimination of the anxiety caused by cash carrying. However, internet banking has not yet been widely embraced by Greek bank customers. In fact Greeks have also been rather slow in adopting internet as well. This reality prompted the pursuance of the present research, whose aim is to identify the most salient factors that influence Greek bank customers regarding internet banking adoption. Field research was conducted by utilizing an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on an adaptation of the widely used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), incorporating also external variables found in relevant literature and was initially successfully pilot-tested by the directors of 3 bank branches and 11 bank customers. The field research target sample consisted of internet experienced bank customers in the Greek region of Thessaly, while the final sample comprised 266 correctly answered questionnaires. Principal component analysis was initially conducted to identify latent factors within the questionnaire items measuring customer perceptions and inter-item analysis was used to verify the scale's factors for internal consistency and reliability. The Cronbach's alpha values, calculated for each construct, ranged between 0.88 and 0.93. Finally, linear regression analysis was performed to investigate the effect of the external variables and TAM-based constructs on internet banking adoption. Data analysis confirmed the significant influence that customer perceptions about usefulness, credibility and easiness of use of internet banking have on intentions towards using this banking channel. Moreover domain specific innovativeness and satisfaction with ATMs were also proved strong predictors of customer use intentions

Using E-S-QUAL to measure internet service quality of e-commerce web sites in Greece

The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of the electronic service quality measurement instrument E‐S‐QUAL and its factor structure in the context of e‐commerce in Greece. Also, to investigates the effects of E‐S‐QUAL factors on customer perceived overall quality, value and loyalty. Field research was conducted by using a structured questionnaire, utilizing the E‐S‐QUAL model and replicating the work of the model's developers. Principal component analysis, reliability tests and multiple regression analyses were performed to both confirm the scale factor structure and answer the research questions. The analysis of the research data confirmed the four factor structure of E‐S‐QUAL in the context of e‐commerce in Greece and produced similar results to those of the initial research. Efficiency was proved to be the highest ranked dimension since it has a significant positive effect on all three dependent variables, namely perceived overall quality, value and loyalty. Privacy has a positive significant effect on both perceived overall quality and value. Fulfilment was found to have a significant positive effect only on perceived overall quality, while service availability affects positively only perceived value. The present study contributes to the examination of E‐S‐QUAL's applicability in different settings and to the verification of its factor structure. Moreover, the study provides useful insight into the effect of electronic service quality on customer perceived value and loyalty

Antecedents and Consequences of Trust Development Within A Network Marketing Comp

Studies within different fields indicate that the most successful social and business relationships are trustworthy, where partners willingly strengthen the ties with the other part. Trust has been also identified as the catalyst in network marketing companies of direct selling, which is predominantly based in human relationships. The present study aims to investigate trust development in terms of trust antecedents, components and consequences within the Amway Network Company in Greece. Field research was conducted by utilizing a structured questionnaire, which was developed by adopting relative constructs reported in literature. The research target sample consisted of Amway's Independent Business Owners (IBOs). Two hundred and twenty five questionnaires were distributed during company's big and small conferences in Greece. Moreover, an online version of the questionnaire was created and communicated to IBOs from various regions of Greece via the web, while the same link was also emailed to a small number of IBOs. The resulting sample comprised 151 correctly answered questionnaires. Principal Component Analysis was initially performed to identify latent factors within the questionnaire items measuring the trust antecedents, components and consequences, which led to alterations of the initial model. The emerged trust antecedents were named cultural similarity, privacy concerns and conflict. The trust components were named ability, integrity and goodwill, while the trust consequences were named commitment and perceived continuity. The results of the regression analyses conducted showed that cultural similarity is the most significant antecedent of trust. Moreover, goodwill was found to be the trust component that leads to higher levels of both commitment and perceived continuity.     Keywords: trust, antecedents, consequences, network company, Greec

An Ontology based Conceptualization of Data Integrity Regulatory Compliance in Pharmaceutical Industry: The SPuMoNI Case

Data integrity plays a pivotal role in the pharmaceutical regulatory landscape, where data must be attributable, legible, contemporaneous, original, accurate, complete, consistent, enduring, and available, in other words, must be ALCOA compliant. Data in the pharmaceutical industry are complex and come in large amounts and various types, thus making the utilization of information technology systems in managing data integrity compliance, necessary. This study, has been conducted in the context of the SPuMoNI project, and it presents the conceptual design of a regulatory framework for the pharmaceutical domain, which is aligned with the data integrity ALCOA principles and based on ontology engineering technology. In doing so, it proposes the Data Integrity Ontology (DIOnt), which provides a solid basis for the semantic representation of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process and data, and the modeling and management of regulatory requirements. Moreover, a proof-of-concept prototype has been implemented and validated with real world pharmaceutical data in ALCOA principle violation scenarios. © 2021 ACM

An SQWRL-Based Method for Assessing Regulatory Compliance in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Nowadays, data integrity has become a critical issue in the pharmaceutical regulatory landscape, one that requires data to be compliant to ALCOA principles (i.e., data must be Attributable, Legible, Contemporaneous, Original, and Accurate). In this paper, we propose a method which exploits semantic web technologies to represent pharma manufacturing data in a unified manner and evaluate in a systematic manner their ALCOA compliance. To this purpose, in the context of a pharma manufacturing environment, a data integrity ontology (DIOnt) is proposed to be utilized as the basis for the semantic representation of pharma production data and the associated regulatory compliance management processes. We further show that semantic annotations can be used to represent the required ALCOA compliance information, and that semantic reasoning combined with SQWRL queries can be used to evaluate ALCOA compliance. The proposed approach has been implemented in a proof-of-concept prototype and validated with real world pharma manufacturing data, supporting the combined execution of SWRL rules and SQWRL queries with the aim to support the ALCOA compliance assessment and calculate non-compliance percentages per each ALCOA principle. © 2022 by the authors