Initial Online Consumer Trust (IOCT): The Influence of Third-Party Service Provider Reputation, Website Utility, Electronic Word-of-Mouth, and Previous Experience with Similar Websites

Objectives: The objectives of the study were 1) to conceptualize Initial Online Consumer Trust (IOCT) and 2) to examine the effects of website utility, electronic word-of-mouth, consumer past experiences with similar websites, and third-party service providers\u27 reputation on the development of IOCT. Methods: To explore the research objectives, the study deployed a 2X3 experimental design that involved six experimental groups. Subjects were recruited from the undergraduate student pool at the University of Mississippi, School of Business. The vignettes used in the study was hypothetical book selling websites, one with the presence of third-party service providers and the other without any third-party service providers. Hypothetical customer feedbacks -positive or negative - were provided to the subjects to manipulate the effect of electronic word-of-mouth. The website utility effects, i.e., perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were measured with multi-items scales adapted from the literature. Consumer past experiences with similar websites were conceptualized as historically positive effect and historically negative effect invoked by the new website and measured with a three-item scale each. Results: The result of this study suggested that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use supported the development of IOCT. In addition, historically positive affect and historically negative affect invoked by an unknown website were significantly associated with the development of IOCT. ; Electronic word-of-mouth and effect of third-party service providers were not significant. Conclusion: This study discussed and delineated initial online consumer trust and explored its antecedents that may explain the importance of IOCT. New web vendors may employ the insights from this research to address typical business challenges within online environment

Exploration of Health Technology Nonuse: The Case of Online Medical Records

Online Medical Records (OMR) platforms remain a key enabler to health management. Yet, how beliefs toward OMR and its subsequent nonuse are related is not understood. Applying the status quo bias (SQB) theory and the privacy paradox paradigm the study examines OMR nonusers and contributes to the health technology use literature. Using the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) iteration 5, Cycle 1 and 3 data, mediation analysis reveals that inertia expressed as preference for speaking directly with healthcare providers predicts perceived need for OMR and partially mediates the relationship between perceived privacy concerns and need; having a chronic disease partially moderates such relationships. Thus, not all nonusers are created equal. Attaining benefits that come with capabilities and functionalities of OMR necessitates meaningful use of OMR by individuals. Healthcare providers or policymakers should intervene to dispel inertia or patient concerns to expand OMR use to facilitate healthcare decision making

An Exploration of Trends in Patient Health Data Safety Concerns: Does Heterogeneity Matter?

There have been ongoing discussions on threats to patients' electronic health information/records (EHR). This study aims to examine the 1) trend in electronic data safeguard concerns and 2) factors associated with such perceptions. Using the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data from 2014, 2017, and 2018, the study analyzed 7527 patients (representing approximately, 175 million US adult subjects) for their perceptions on information safeguard and withholding information from providers due to privacy/security. About 24%, 24%, and 15% respondents reported not confident about data safeguard in 2014, 2017, and 2018, respectively. A large population is not firmly confident about data safety and many would withhold information. Although there is a significant trend in improvement of safeguard concerns, there is patient characteristics-related heterogeneity and there are communication quality effects on adverse outcomes of privacy/security concerns. The results will be useful for improving patient utilization of EHRs benefiting patients or healthcare systems

Consumer Feedback: Does Rating Reflect Reviewers’ Feelings?

Consumer feedbacks have been widely used for product improvement. These consumer reviews revealcustomer sentiments (e.g., like/dislike, fulfilled/unfulfilled etc.) about products and the degree of sentiments aswell. These reviews are good sources to gauge customer feelings, which are important to make essentialbusiness decisions. In this research, we analyzed textual movie reviews semi-automatically using linguisticanalysis instead of using manual mechanisms. Generally, adjectives in text reviews express reviewers’ feelingsabout a product while adverbs (gradable) explain the degree of these feelings. Using a well-known moviereview database, we analyzed the pattern of adjectives and adverbs that appeared in reviewers’ comments. Wecompared the frequencies of these adjective and adverbial words with the symbolic ratings (A+ to F) of therespective reviews and found strong correlation between the positive/negative terms (adjectives and adverbs)embedded in the text and their corresponding symbolic ratings

Barriers Driving Nonuse of Online Medical Records: Latent Class Analysis of Chronic Patients

Online Medical Records (OMR) platforms can provide benefits to chronic disease patients. Yet, OMR use among them is suboptimal. The study identifies clusters among nonusers of OMR among chronic patients. The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) iteration 5, Cycle 3 data were used to analyze 1071 respondents. Latent Class Analysis was run on the six reasons for nonuse (no record, speaking directly, privacy or security of the website, no Internet, login issues, and no need to access) and resulted in 3 clusters. About 19% subjects expressed multiple reasons and 69% just one strong reason. Demographic and clinical attributes were partially associated. For electronic wearable/tracking device use or electronic communication, differences among clusters were noted; persistent resisters showed lower propensities to use. Interventions to improve patient use of Internet-based health technologies should be customized and help produce patient-generated data facilitating healthcare decision-making