The impact of religious affiliation on trust in the context of electronic commerce

There is currently a growing literature on the role that trust plays in encouraging consumers to engage in e-commerce transactions. Various models have been proposed which aim to identify both the antecedents and outcomes of trust displayed towards e-commerce web sites. Increased trust is generally shown to increase positive user attitude which in turn is linked to increased willingness to buy. Studies have shown the antecedents of trust include variables such as the perceived reputation and size of the vendor organisation. The current paper explores the role of cultural variables as antecedents of trust with the main emphasis being on religious affiliation. Participants recruited from Christian, Muslim and other faiths were asked to interact with online bookstores identified as Christian, Muslim or Neutral. Trust and attitudes towards the web sites were measured and this data was used to test the hypothesis that same-religion sites would be trusted and liked more than other religion or neutral sites. This hypothesis was partially supported, but only for the Muslim participants. It was found that the Muslim group expressed significantly more trust in the Muslim site compared to the Christian site. They also expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards the Muslim online bookstore than the other two sites. The implications of these result for theories of web based trust and attitude are discussed along with the practical implications of the findings

Cultural influences on consumer interactions in the context of electronic commerce

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Researchers and academics from diverse disciplines have highlighted the role of 'trust' for establishing and strengthening existing relationships between individuals and organisations in the commercial and the social context. Trust in the cultural context specifically, is credited with being the social 'glue' for sustaining bonds between members of cultural groups. The 'trust' phenomenon has become a 'hallmark' of success for organizations as they become more involved with Information Technology (IT). A precondition for trust to manifest is the natural presence of risk or uncertainties in a potential decision. Since the fears and risks associated with online transactions in the context of ecommerce are high, gaining a customer's trust becomes a must. Some studies have found the ingrained cultural values, which form an essential part of the cultural heritage of a person, to be influential in evoking an individual's trust. Various sources in the marketing and consumer behaviour literature have highlighted the role that religious subcultures play in the purchase decisions of their members. The customs, values, and norms set by a religious group are highly esteemed by its members. The objective of this thesis is to investigate if religious Web sites are more likely to instil trust in online fellow-members than their generic counterparts. From a HCI point of view, we can say that our research will investigate an "abstract" interface of e-commerce systems: the 'theological' interface of a commercial Web site. Consequently, we can also ascertain if religious consumers basing their purchasing decisions on 'religious' trust alone overlook more important issues such as the privacy and security problems associated with financial transactions performed over the Internet. Our empirical findings have discovered that conservative Muslims, who are not very familiar with the Internet, trust a Muslim Web site more than a Christian Web site and a generic Web site. In contrast, conservative Muslims with higher Internet experience were found to be more cautious. They based their 'trust' on more appropriate criteria such as the extent of privacy and security safeguards adopted by a Web site. A qualitative analysis of the post-experimental interviews that we conducted purports that Web-based trust develops with a company's good reputation, previous personal purchasing experiences, and through word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family or peers. In light of our findings, we argue that the time experience gained in using the Internet plays a major role on how consumers perceive culturally or religiously oriented Web sites. We believe that less experienced Internet users are unaware of the security vulnerabilities inherent in the Internet environment. Therefore, we assume that they are context-blind: they do not differentiate between traditional and the digital marketing environments. Consequently, they would trust purchasing from an electronic store (Web site) in the same manner they would trust purchasing from a 'brick-and mortar' store. In contrast, experienced Internet users deem reputable Web sites adopting good security and privacy safeguards for online transactions to be trustworthier than Web sites designed with a 'religious' interface. We conclude that in the context of e-commerce, one cannot expect to establish a trustworthy commercial relationship based on religious trust alone. From the findings of this study, it has become apparent that the trait of strict religious affiliation seems to disappear in the context of e-commerce. The threats and risks inherent in online transactions seem to restructure the religious community by merging it into a traditional global community of e-consumers. When contemplating a purchase from a Web site, traditional e-consumers pay more attention to the company's reputation and the extent of data security measures adopted by a Web site rather than basing their purchase decisions on the religious affiliations and cultural values taught by parents and ancestors. Thus, Web sites aiming to sell products behind a 'religious' interface could become disappointed. Having said that, we reiterate that the time experience in using the Internet seems to play an influential role in how users' perceive cultural or religious Web sites.Funding was obtained from the Lybian Interest Section

Revisiting two-sided stability constraints

We show that previous filtering propositions on two-sided stability problems do not enforce arc consistency (AC), however they maintain Bound(D) Consistency (BC(D)). We propose an optimal algorithm achieving BC(D) with O(L) time complexity where L is the length of the preference lists. We also show an adaptation of this filtering approach to achieve AC. Next, we report the first polynomial time algorithm for solving the hospital/resident problem with forced and forbidden pairs. Furthermore, we show that the particular case of this problem for stable marriage can be solved in O(n2) which improves the previously best complexity by a factor of n2. Finally, we present a comprehensive set of experiments to evaluate the filtering propositions

The Impact of a ‘Theological’ Web Interface on Trust in the Context of Electronic Commerce

Researchers and academics from diverse disciplines have highlighted the role of ‘trust’ for establishing and strengthening existing relationships between individuals and organisations in the commercial and the social context. Various models have been proposed which aim to identify both the antecedents and outcomes of trust displayed towards e-commerce Web sites. Increased trust is generally shown to increase positive user attitude, which in turn is believed to increase the intention to buy. Studies have shown the antecedents of trust include variables such as the perceived reputation and size of the vendor organisation. The current paper investigates the role of trust on e-consumers from a cultural perspective. Religious sub-cultures have been targeted as the main study area for this paper’s research investigation. Participants recruited from Christian, Muslim and other faiths were asked to interact with online bookstores that identified with a Christian, Muslim or Neutral orientation. Neutral Web sites were those sites classified as devoid of any religious marketing, branding and logos. Trust and attitudes towards the Web sites were measured and this data was used to test the hypothesis that same-religion sites would be found more trustworthy and appealing than other religion or neutral sites. This hypothesis was partially supported, but only for the Muslim participants. It was found that the Muslim group expressed significantly more trust in the Muslim site compared to the Christian site. They also expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards the Muslim online bookstore than the other two sites. The implications of these results for theories of web based trust and attitude are discussed along with the practical implications of the findings

Exchange rate pass-through and monetary policy in transition economy : evidence from Tunisia with a disaggregated VAR analysis

Relying on monthly and quarterly data, from 2000 to 2015, this paper keeps up with SVAR modeling and price chain study, through a disaggregate approach that aims at analyzing the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) on the various components of consumer price index (CPI). To our knowledge, this study is the first attempt at ERPT estimation through a disaggregate approach for the CPI. The results show that the total ERPT is about 20%. Specifically, 10% of PT on the administered prices after 2011 revolution date (6% of PT for food administered prices and 7% of PT for energy prices), which contradicts the prevailing theory that admits the inexistence of PT for administered prices. Our findings confirm the importance of a disaggregate analysis for studying ERPT to contain inflation.peer-reviewe

THE WEAK FORM OF INFORMATIONAL EFFICIENCY: CASE OF TUNISIAN BANKING SECTOR

This paper investigates the weak form of market efficiency hypothesis over eleven Tunisian banks listed on the Tunisian Stock Exchange during the period July 2012 to June 2013. GARCH (1, 1) and its extension EGARCH (1,1) are developed in order to describe the sign and size of financial volatility asymmetry. The results indicate that the Tunisian stock market, in particular the banking sector would not show characteristics of market efficiency. Some of the bank securities asymmetrically reacted to good and bad news. The presence of the leverage effect would imply that negative innovation (news) has a greater impact on volatility than a positive innovation (news). This implies that this sector is not efficient under the weak form of the hypothesis. The implication of rejecting the weak form of efficiency for investors is that they can better predict stock price movements and abnormal earnings

Do personality traits predict ‘complaining’ consumers?

Although the effects of personality traits on complaining behaviour emerged in the early 1980s, there is limited research in the service industry. The purpose of this study is to examine whether consumer personality traits influence intentions to complain and whether product price and product types moderate the relationship between personality traits and intentions to complain in the retail industry. The research model is tested by logistic regression analysis on two groups of consumers who report passive and active complaining intentions. The study reveals that conscientious consumers who are open to new experiences tend to have higher intentions to complain. Being extroverted does not have any influence on complaining behaviour. Whilst price levels (low/high) and product types (grocery, clothing and electronics) improve the predictive ability of the complaining behaviour, the interaction effects relating to the three personality traits are statistically insignificant. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed