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Although the metaverse is still in the early stages of development and implementation, it has the potential to revolutionize the way how businesses can interact with customers through both the virtual and real world. In particular, service industries are already exploring the opportunity to utilize the metaverse to provide more immersive, interactive and engaging customer experiences. However, the holistic overview of the future applications, opportunities, and challenges of a metaverse in the context of service industries from academic and expert perspectives is limited. By employing a multi-perspective approach, this study looks into these unexplored aspects of the metaverse in the context of service industries through informed and multifaceted narratives by leading academics and experts from cross-disciplinary backgrounds from media and communication, education, hospitality, financial services, retail, tourism and healthcare. The main opportunities identified include the development of new experiences, the introduction of novel inter-world interactions, and new business-consumer relations within the metaverse. The key challenges covered include current technological boundaries, limitations of the experiences in the metaverse, health issues, and data privacy, security, and legal issues. The paper concludes with formulating future research agendas and presenting contributions to literature and implications for practice. • It explores future applications, opportunities, challenges, and research agenda of the metaverse in service industries. • Opportunities include new experiences development, novel inter-world interactions, and new business-consumer relations. • Key Challenges are technological boundaries, limited experiences, health, data privacy, security, and legal issues. • The paper concludes with formulating future research agendas and presenting contributions to literature and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation on urban commercial centers' attractiveness not only benefits business strategy making and location choice, but also helps traffic management and urban planning. Traditionally, it is studied using questionnaires and field research, which are labor-intensive and time-consuming. To overcome these problems when evaluating the urban commercial centers' attractiveness, massive data analytics with datasets from taxi traffic, population, area, and road networks are adopted in this paper. Taking fifteen commercial centers at Shenzhen as a case study, a Cyber-Physical-Social System is built up to deal with these massive data for statistical analysis. An "Attractiveness Degree Model" is proposed to describe the degree to which customers desire to visit a commercial center. Then attractiveness thematic maps are drawn. Results show that YiTianJiaRiGuangChang has the highest attractiveness degree even though it has a small size and low commercial value. The attractiveness degree rankings are corroborated by annual customer satisfaction survey from Shenzhen Retail Business Association. Attractiveness thematic maps show that about 50–65% visits by taxis are within 5 km range. These results can be applied to support market analysis, urban planning, traffic management, and related areas. • Commercial center is precisely defined geographically and sociologically. • Attractiveness degree is the proposed metric to evaluate the attractiveness. • A Cyber-Physical-Social System is implemented for massive data processing. • Statistical analysis and thematic maps shed new insights into attractiveness. • Commercial centers are classified into four representative types in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Engagement with social networking sites is influenced by the cognitive and learning processes which in turn is influenced by culture. This paper aims at unbundling the effect of culture on the use of social network sites and thus contributes to our understanding on the way cognitive and learning processes influence the engagement with social networks. The study of over 600 social networking users addresses how professional and leisure use of social networks differs across cultures, gender and other demographics. Firstly, by utilising ANOVA techniques we associate users' behaviour with nationality and furthermore through the use of an ordered logistics regression we delineate clusters of users by the purpose of social networking adoption and their cultural characteristics. Our study helps bridge the gap in literature on identifying how cultural traits, nationality and gender affect both business and leisure use of social networking. The implications of differences in user behaviour driven by nationality and gender warrant further need for applying learning analytics in social platforms to enhance user experience. Future directions of research on social networking in relation to cognition and culture are offered for discussion. Highlights • We unbundle the cognitive and learning processes that influence engagement with SNS. • We investigate how cultural traits, nationality and gender affect the use of SNS. • Utilising ANOVA techniques we associate individual behaviour based on a study of over 600 users. • Application of learning analytics in social platforms is needed to enhance experience. • Future directions of research in relation to cognition and culture are offered for discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations are increasingly flooded with large amounts of data on which they base their business decisions. It is thus crucial to visualize relevant data efficiently so that employees are able to extract relevant information most accurately and quickly. However, at present, information visualization research lacks a coherent and evidence based theoretical framework providing clear guidelines on how to design efficient visualizations. When it comes to the use of redundant elements in charts like commonly used data labels, cognitive fit theory and cognitive load theory make different predictions. Whereas the latter assumes that redundant labels generally reduce visualizations’ efficiency due to increased cognitive load, cognitive fit theory predicts increased efficiency for some task types that shall be solved by means of the visualization. In the online experiment presented in this paper, we investigated the effect of data labels in line and bar charts on users’ accuracy and speed in solving chart-related business tasks dependent on different task types. Our results reveal that users perceive charts with redundant labels as significantly more efficient and answer related questions significantly more accurate and faster, which we explain by the help of cognitive fit theory. We provide valuable insights into cognitive processing of charts and encourage graph designers to consider redundant elements as a possible means to increase efficiency under particular circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of research into the impact of information technologies on communication satisfaction and organizational learning in companies in Serbia. The data were obtained by means of a questionnaire completed by 380 middle managers from 102 companies in Serbia. The main conclusions of the study are: 1. The average scores for the information technologies items are slightly above average. 2. All the correlations between the information technologies dimension and information technologies items and the dimensions of communication satisfaction as well as those between the information technologies dimension and information technologies items and the dimensions of organizational learning are statistically significant, strong and positive. Information technologies have a stronger connection with the performance at organizational level and a weaker connection with performance at individual levels 3. The moderators of professional respect for the leader and confidence in the actions of management have a weak moderating effect on the observed relations. The effects of these moderators indicate that good professional aspects of leaders lead to a greater influence of information technologies on performance at individual levels and that good strategic aspects of leaders' work lead to a bigger influence of information technologies on performance at organizational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opportunity to capture the opinions of the general public about multiple topics such as social events, marketing campaigns, and product preferences has raised more and more interest in the business world. This paper aims to find the users' level of expectation associated with multiple types of opinion. In addition, the study also aims to find the effect of sentiment words on customer satisfaction at the post-purchase stage. In this work, the positive, negative and neutral sentiment words relating to the users' satisfaction were analysed. Firstly, the questionnaire comprising seven sections was proposed to collect data. The study used the expectancy disconfirmation theory (EDT), and a set of seven hypotheses. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to analyse the data and evaluate the research model. The findings of this study imply that regular, comparative and suggestive opinions have a positive effect in raising users’ expectations. This study also predicted a strong relationship between expectation, performance and disconfirmation. In addition, sentiment words proved to be a full mediator in predicting user satisfaction with a purchased item. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisited the role of trust in Business to Business Electronic Commerce (B2B EC) settings in Jordan, using an alternative view on trust suggesting that this variable has a moderating effect rather than having a direct impact on the intentions of firms to adopt B2B EC. An interactionist model among trust and technological, organizational, and environmental factors was developed. A survey of 239 supply chain managers in Jordan was used to test the proposed model. Analyzed data shows that the moderating impact of trust was significant in one path, which was perceived desirability (stemming from the diffusion of innovation theory and representing the technological view). Trust did not moderate the impacts of organizational and environmental variables. The findings provided insights into how existing relationships between trading partners may not be flexible enough to absorb new technology. In a context in which trust beliefs are well established and critical such as Jordan, the flexibility of firms in responding to adoption motivations may be hampered rather than enabled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objected of this paper is twofold: on the one side to analyze the role of cooperative learning and information and communication technologies (ICT) use as drivers of new service innovation success. On the other, identify if the nature of the performance indicator used influences on the high and significance of the dependence relationships. For that we analyze a sample of 287 Spanish SME, which in the last two years have developed new service. Also, it is consider that the new service innovation results can be measured in objective terms – abiding by financial measurements – as well as on the basis of the entrepreneur’s perception. The results evidence the direct influence of co-learning, as well as the direct, moderating role of the ICT use in obtaining the maximum level of objective and perceived results. Relevant differences can be observed, depending not only the performance indicator used (objective versus subjective) but also on the contribution of each of the variables to obtaining the maximum result and, therefore, their success. The study provides evidence that enable us to offer certain strategic recommendations of interest for the management of small and medium sized companies (SME). This research provides evidence for the necessity of considering explicit measures of results based on subjective indicators such as the entrepreneur’s perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and practitioners have argued on the importance of business-IT alignment (BITA) for organizations to maximize the business value of IT. As a result, a vast number of BITA models have been designed to support organizations in achieving, assessing and maintaining BITA. These models focus on different components (i.e. concepts/aspects of alignment) and emphasize different perspectives of the alignment (i.e. how alignment is perceived by practitioners). This makes it difficult for practitioners to choose an appropriate BITA model for a specific organization. In this paper, an evaluation framework to support practitioners in choosing appropriate BITA models is proposed. The framework was constructed following design science as a research approach. The design science activities were carried out in an iterative manner until reaching a final artefact. The process started with an extensive literature survey that led to designing a tentative model. Following that, different empirical iterations contributed to the framework development. The final framework consists of 25 criteria categorized into four groups. It was tested on six major BITA models, demonstrating its feasibility. Finally, the framework was evaluated by interviewing five business consultants and seven IT managers from large Swedish organizations. The evaluation shows that the framework has a complete set of criteria with a sufficient level of coherence, but its usability and efficiency is argued differently. The framework, additionally, is argued to potentially be used as a collaborative learning tool on requirement of BITA between practitioners from both business and IT domain or serve in the academic world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of businesses and consumers talk about, invest, and engage in social commerce, which is a form of commerce mediated by social media. Despite the growing recognition and adoption of social commerce, its practice is often driven by fast-paced technological evolutions, hype, and ad-hoc business cases. In parallel, social commerce has been the target of limited scientific inquiries, and it remains ill conceived, which constitutes an obstacle to theory development and cumulative research. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a focus on social commerce networks (SCNs). SCNs refer to the digital network ties created and leveraged by consumers and business entities as they connect and interact among and between each other. Based on this definition, the paper develops a typology of key SCN structures, and it proposes a framework depicting the value that consumers and businesses can gain from creating and exploiting them. We explain how the proposed SCN concept, typology, and framework can guide future conversations on the topic of social commerce, and how they can provide researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of social commerce and its considerable value potential. • Social commerce involves digital networks composed of consumers and business entities. • Social commerce networks (SCNs) are proposed as a new anchor to study social commerce. • Social commerce value relies on consumers and businesses developing and exploiting SCNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As technology further expands, the relationship between customers and organizations becomes even more idiomatic, as witnessed by personalized recommendations on websites and applications such as Amazon, Google, and Netflix. Through a service-dominant logic lens, this paper examines the effects of perceived personalization when using augmented reality (AR) and web-based stores on customers' intentions to co-create value. We utilize an experimental design whereby participants would either use the IKEA Place AR application or visit the IKEA website. This is then followed by a survey to a) compare AR and website-based shopping attitudes, b) explore the role of personalization on intentions to co-create as well as the moderating influence of perceived value and c) investigate the mediating influence of customer perceived trust and risk on the relationship between perceived personalization and intention to co-create. Employing SEM, our findings show that perceived personalization significantly predicts value co-creation intention for website-based shopping, but not for AR-powered shopping. Additionally, the results show that trust and risk mediate the relationship between perceived personalization and intention to co-create value within the AR group with perceived value moderating the relationship between perceived personalization and risk, but not between personalization and trust. Our study is one of the first to explore the impact of personalization on intentions to co-create value and to compare perceptions of personalization between shopping through web-based stores and AR technology. Moreover, the results of this study highlight the importance of perceived risk, perceived trust, and perceived value, on customer intention to co-create. The practical implications for these findings assist managers in developing omnichannel marketing strategies while the theoretical implications contribute to the AR, technology, and co-creation literature by offering insights into the unique role of perceived personalization on AR technology and web-based store shopping via website-based retailing. • Perceived personalization leads to heightened perceptions of risk and trust in both AR, and online environments. • Perceived trust and risk fully mediate perceived personalization and intention to co-create within AR shopping. • Perceived trust partially mediates perceived personalization and intention to co-create within online shopping. • Perceived value moderates the relationship between perceived personalization and risk but not trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although reward-based crowdfunding projects have experienced high growth in recent years, it is necessary to emphasize that not all the campaigns have success. Under these circumstances, this paper studies the influence of two potential funders' motivations (i.e., project attachment and business viability) on their behavioral intentions (i.e., the intention to fund a crowdfunding project, and the intention to spread positive physical and electronic word-of-mouth about it). It also explores how the effect of these motivations is moderated by two campaign characteristics: the percentage of target capital pledged and the time remaining until the funding deadline. With this aim, this paper simulates a crowdfunding project and collects 311 survey responses about it. Subsequently, a PLS-SEM approach is applied to test the model proposed. Findings demonstrate that potential funders' intentions are mainly influenced by their attachment to the project. For its part, the business viability, as perceived by potential funders, plays a secondary role mainly influencing their word-of-mouth intentions. Finally, the campaign characteristics moderate the effect of attachment and viability on electronic word-of-mouth intentions. • Project attachment is the strongest determinant of the funder's behavioral intentions. • Business viability influences the funder's WOM and eWOM intentions. • Campaign characteristics moderate the effect of attachment and viability on eWOM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Virtual world technologies have been utilized in gaming for a number of years but only recently have they been applied as a serious tool for business. Many business applications have been identified, including the use of virtual worlds for team collaboration, training, and education, but a question remains about whether users will accept the premise that virtual worlds represent useful environments for engaging in business functions. We address this question by examining user reactions to virtual worlds. The first study looks at attitudes of users of the virtual world Second Life during three time periods (i.e., before exposure to the environment, after an information session and discussion of Second Life, and after use of the environment). Two variables, user acceptance of virtual world technologies and user self-efficacy, were examined as the primary dependent measures. Results show that while self-efficacy increases over time, user acceptance decreases in a highly correlated pattern. A second study investigates the underlying causes of the observed pattern of user acceptance using a content analysis of written reflections of user experiences. Both studies paint a detailed picture of user intentions and some of the reasons these intentions developed after use. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for business managers and researchers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Information ethics codes play a vital role in clarifying the responsibilities of MIS (management information systems) professionals and providing them with a point of reference when dealing with ethical issues. In view of the important 21st Century role played by China, particularly Mainland China, which represents a hugely significant market to all global enterprises, it is hoped that this study will assist the business world in understanding the culture in which Chinese business is conducted, and will facilitate the building of a suitable information ethics code in the future. Academically, this paper aims to explain how Confucian ethics and the guanxi [1] Guanxi: literally means “relationships,” and stands for any type of relationship. In the Chinese business world, however, it is also understood as the network of relationships among various parties that cooperate together and support one another. The Chinese businessmen’s mentality is very much one of “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” In essence, this boils down to exchanging favors, which are expected to be done regularly and voluntarily. Therefore, it is an important concept to understand if one is to function effectively in Chinese society. 1 culture perspective affect MIS professionals’ ethical dilemmas and reactive processes. Specifically, it examines the reactive processes of MIS professionals in CHSyst (pseudonym) in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. In practice, this study provides a good reference for enterprises such as the above that wish to find the most appropriate way to create an ethics code suitable for a Chinese company context to prevent Chinese MIS professionals from behaving unethically in their workplace. Such a code will serve to reduce the negative consequences of unethical conduct for the organization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The popularity of Electronic Sports (esports) have grown tremendously in the last few years, becoming one of the most popular forms of digital entertainment. Despite continued growth, definitions and classifications of esports remain elusive, and the industry is still considered by many to be in its infancy. Understanding of esports originate from diverse, sometimes conflicting fields, which has created fragmented interpretations of its definition, positioning and core components. This has hindered esports from embracing opportunities afforded by emerging digital technologies and progressing as a distinct field. The purpose of this conceptual paper is threefold, to redefine esports, propose a unified framework to capitalise on esports business potential, and inspire a more structured future esports research agenda. The proposed esports Matrix, presents four distinct realms that distinguish esports; esports as a representation of current physical sports (sports digitalisation), esports as traditional (multi-player) game experience (competitive multiplayer computer games), esports that modify existing sports, player rules and setups through digital augmentations (digitally enhanced sports), and new types of esports involving emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality (immersive reality sports). The esports Matrix was developed incorporating industry expertise thus verifying its suitability and relevance to advance conceptual and empirical understanding, and importantly, facilitating a more structured approach, to enable businesses to realise the potential of esports. • Redefines current, disparate, esports perceptions, proposing a more holistic working definition. • esports Matrix, a unified framework to capitalise on esports potential proposed. • Outlines recommendations for further research, to inspire a more structured future research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a new perspective on the effect of social media use in SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of social media on firm performance with mediating role of marketing capabilities in the UK, hotel industry. In this research, a structural equation modelling method has been employed for data analysis. The survey data has been collected by mail survey from a sample of 384 hotels in the UK. Results from the data analysis demonstrate the positive and significant relationship between social media use and firm performance. However, the findings highlighted that marketing capabilities, namely branding and innovation, positively and significantly mediate the association between social media use and firm performance. • This research proposes a new perspective on the effect of social media in SMEs. • Investigating the effect of social media use on hotel's performance. • Found a positive relationship between social media use and hotels' performance. • Marketing capability mediates the relationship between social media and performance. • Branding and innovation capabilities positively effects on hotels' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approach and avoidance are typical behavioral tendencies of consumers when exposed to a new environment. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this study investigates the effects of atmospheric cues on consumers' approach and avoidance intentions in social commerce environments. We elucidate the interaction mechanisms between atmospheric cues (task, aesthetic and social cues) and consumers' evaluations through the lens of perceived affordances. Then we investigate how three types of perceived affordances (utilitarian, hedonic and connective) influence consumers' approach and avoidance behavioral intentions. A three-way factorial experiment provides strong evidence that task cues, aesthetic cues and social cues elicit perceived utilitarian, hedonic and connective affordances, respectively. Approach behavioral intentions were affected by all three types of perceived affordances, yet avoidance intentions were only affected by perceived utilitarian and hedonic affordances. This paper discusses both theoretical and practical implications for social commerce research. • Different types of atmospheric cues stimulate perceived affordances differently. • More task cues induces a higher level of perceived utilitarian affordances. • The presence of aesthetic cues induces perceive hedonic affordances. • The presence of social cues induces perceive connective affordances. • Approach and avoidance intentions are influenced by different perceived affordances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), together with social commerce initiatives, collaborative economy and education, are working together to move the gears of sustainable development. All of these aspects have the potential to revolutionize social business and contribute to future sustainable development. In the past few years, the economy has seen the emergence of modern business models and innovative ideas, mainly driven by ICT. Concepts such as social commerce, collaborative economy and virtual currencies establish new business models, in which participants seek equity exchanges, trust, cooperation, and a better redistribution of incomes. Education cannot be exempted from this evolution. Education should play an important role in society since it generates and transfers new knowledge and contributes to developing appropriate competencies on this matter. The objective of this paper is to analyse the role played by these components to promote sustainable development. The research method conducted in this work is twofold. First, a conceptualization of the key terms involved in this research was. Next, a constructivist approach centred on the student was conducted to enable the creation of learning proposals to prepare students to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the progress of technology to promote sustainable development and social commerce initiatives. ∙ Social economy is rapidly progressing both in human and economic domains. ∙ Collaborative economy is a type of behaviour that contributes to sustainable living. ∙ Virtual currencies play an important role in social commerce and sustainability. ∙ New digital skills need to be added to education curriculums to foster sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What challenges present themselves in the virtual team experiential learning environment for students and educators? More so, have these challenges morphed over time? This paper outlines a longitudinal content analysis of student experiences in an experiential learning activity (2007–2016). The Global Enterprise Experience (GEE) is designed to support integrated learning for business content and global competencies, including leadership skills, in a global virtual team (GVT) context. Students, in teams comprising eight diverse members, engage to achieve the development of a business plan. They, themselves, determine their use of communication technologies. This longitudinal study explores the challenges comprising a learner's experiences and, in so doing, implicitly explores the educator's role within a student-focussed approach. It contributes to literature focussing on the development of individuals' GVT competences, characterising the experience of this learning space. In this way, it offers pragmatic insight to educators regarding how to direct efforts to support learning. It concludes with suggestions for future research. • Cohorts each echo the experiences of previous cohorts, regardless of technology used. • Shifting technology usage patterns do not dilute global virtual team leadership needs. • Experiential learning in global virtual teams encompasses emotional experiences. • Educators should foster emotional understanding, resilience and confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]