The effect of the acculturation process on consumers’ acceptance of e-commerce platforms

The Internet has revolutionised the way in which business is conducted in the twenty-first century. It has changed the face and pace of business offering an indispensable opportunity to operate on digital platforms. Through those digital platforms, businesses find new sources of competitive advantage; thus, they are increasingly incorporating e-commerce, m-commerce and, more recently, social commerce platforms. But before businesses can benefit from the Internet and its global reach, they must understand the effect of culture on consumers’ acceptance of digital platforms, as cultural misunderstandings can cause business failure. Understanding consumers’ culture-specific behaviour, however, is increasingly complex nowadays. This is because of the phenomenon of acculturation, caused by globalisation and mass migration, which can change consumers’ culture-specific behaviour, as well as their attitudes, values and beliefs. Thus, the effect of the acculturation process on consumers’ acceptance of digital platforms should be investigated, and its consequences understood. This is the first study that aims to assess the effect of the acculturation process on consumers’ acceptance of e-commerce platforms. In order to reach this objective, two-phase transformative sequential research is conducted on the sample of Polish immigrants residing in the UK. In this two-phase research, first on the basis of a quantitative study (n=305), consumers’ attitudes, values and beliefs towards e-commerce are compared and contrasted from the perspective of two cultures (Polish- native and British- non-native culture) to reveal the factors which initially, due to cultural determinants, seem to prevent consumers from accepting e-commerce, can be overcome once the culture is changed. Such a change is accounted for as an effect of the process of acculturation on consumers’ acceptance of an e-commerce platform. The explanation of the revealed effect along with factors facilitating it is sought through a qualitative investigation (n=25) and their impact is verified quantitatively (n=298). This not only advances knowledge of the effect of culture on e-commerce acceptance, but it also derives a number of practical implications, which may serve as a guideline for designing global e-commerce strategies

Revealing the effect of acculturation process on e-commerce acceptance: The case of intra-European acculturation

The popularity of e-commerce has increased significantly over recent years. However, this growth is not shared by all European Union states. One reason for this discrepancy is culture which impacts on e-commerce acceptance. The purpose of this research is to reveal the effect of acculturation process on e-commerce acceptance. Structural equation modelling is employed to test three research models: Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour Model and Motivational Model. The findings show that attitudes towards e-commerce change in relation to the perception of control and the influence of subjective norms, which impact intentions to use e-commerce before movement to a host country’s culture. However, its effect diminishes after the exposure to the influence of a host culture. This is the first study to demonstrate the existence of the effect of acculturation process on mingling and migrating consumers and their changing attitudes towards e-commerce acceptance

The role of social media presence, responsiveness, and interactivity in enhancing key relationship strength indicators within B2B contexts : the customer's perspective

Extant research on use of social media by firms has mostly focused on B2C contexts, yet given their benefits for firms (e.g. creating awareness, enhancing brand image, etc.), scholars' attention has increasingly turned to the role and usage of social media for B2B brands. In such contexts, research has primarily examined the challenges relating to the use of social media from the seller's perspective. This paper extends this line of research by investigating the impact of B2B brands' social media presence, interactivity, and responsiveness on key supplier-customer relationship indicators (commitment, interactivity, satisfaction, and partner quality) from the customer's perspective. Data from an online survey (N=200) with customers of B2B brands were analysed using structural equation modelling. We reveal that social media presence has a positive impact on all indicators, responsiveness positively influences commitment, while interactivity enhances perceptions of brand partner quality

‘Just be there’:Social media presence, interactivity, and responsiveness, and their impact on B2B relationships

Purpose: In business-to-business (B2B) settings, research on social media sites (SMS) has primarily examined the benefits and challenges relating to their use, as well as factors driving their adoption. Recently, attention has turned to the consequences of using SMS in B2B markets. The purpose of this paper is to extend this line of research by investigating the impact of B2B brands’ social media presence, interactivity and responsiveness on customers’ perceptions of four indicators of brand relationship strength (commitment, intimacy, satisfaction and partner quality). Design/methodology/approach: Data from an online survey (N = 200) with customers of UK-based B2B firms were analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings: The study reveals that a supplier’s presence on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook has a positive impact on all four brand relationship strength indicators; interactivity enhances perceived partner quality, while responsiveness positively influences commitment. Differences across the three SMS are also observed. Research limitations/implications: The research was conducted on a sample of UK-based firms with varying degrees of SMS use that may influence the impact on B2B brand relationship strength. Practical implications: This study indicates that B2B brands ought to focus primarily on presence on SMS, given its positive impact on brand relationship strength. At the same time, however, B2B brands should be active in responding to customers’ queries on SMS, as well as interacting with them to enhance commitment and perceived partner quality, respectively. Originality/value: This study contributes to the digital marketing and B2B relationships interface and is the first to examine the role of B2B brands’ presence, interactivity and responsiveness on SMS in enhancing relationships with customers

An ANN-based approach of interpreting user-generated comments from social media

The IT advancement facilitates growth of social media networks, which allow consumers to exchange information online. As a result, a vast amount of user-generated data is freely available via Internet. These data, in the raw format, are qualitative, unstructured and highly subjective thus they do not generate any direct value for the business. Given this potentially useful database it is beneficial to unlock knowledge it contains. This however is a challenge, which this study aims to address. This paper proposes an ANN-based approach to analyse user-generated comments from social media. The first mechanism of the approach is to map comments against predefined product attributes. The second mechanism is to generate input-output models which are used to statistically address the significant relationship between attributes and comment length. The last mechanism employs Artificial Neural Networks to formulate such a relationship, and determine the constitution of rich comments. The application of proposed approach is demonstrated with a case study, which reveals the effectiveness of the proposed approach for assessing product performance. Recommendations are provided and direction for future studies in social media data mining is marked

Balancing service productivity by the means of digital technologies

This research builds on the theory of service productivity by Rust and Huang (2012). Specifically, this two-phase research assesses internal and external service productivity and evaluates how the use of digital technologies would impact the optimal productivity levels. This conference paper presents the results of the first research phase where through the course of qualitative investigation a range service producer and service consumer inputs/ outputs as well as technologies used during inputs/outputs transformation processes were identified. The study reveals the need to balance the use of technologies in service provision as they may have negative impact on external productivity outputs

Adoption of social media sites by B2B companies in China

Social media sites have been perceived to be irrelevant in B2B sector. This is because of the perception of poor usability of those sites for B2B marketing. This study while extending Technology Acceptance Model by Nielsen’s Model of Attributes of System Acceptability assesses the impact of usability, utility and perceived usefulness on adoption and use of social media sites in B2B context. The empirical investigation, carried out on a sample of 181 Chinese B2B companies, reveals that users’ perception of the usefulness, usability and utility of social media sites drive their adoption and use in the B2B sector. The usefulness is subject to the assessment of whether social media sites are suitable means through which marketing activities can be conducted. Users’ ability to use social media sites for B2B marketing purposes, in turn, is due to those sites learnability and memorability attributes

Usability perspective on social media sites' adoption in the B2B context

While social media sites have been successfully adopted and used in the B2C context, they are perceived to be irrelevant in B2B marketing. This is due to marketers’ perception of poor usability of these sites in the B2B sector. This study investigates the usability of social media sites when adopted for B2B marketing purposes in the one of world’s largest social media market: China. Specifically, by extending the Technology Acceptance Model with Nielsen’s Model of Attributes of System Acceptability, we assess the impact of usefulness, usability and utility on the adoption and use of these sites by B2B marketing professionals. The empirical investigation reveals that marketers’ perception of the usefulness, usability and utility of social media sites drive their adoption and use in the B2B sector. The usefulness is subject to the assessment of whether social media sites are suitable means through which marketing activities can be conducted. The ability to use social media sites for B2B marketing purposes, in turn, is due to those sites learnability and memorability attributes