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Purpose: Technology has been witnessing a rapid growth. The advent of artificial intelligence has further enhanced the satisfaction level of consumers, which makes it even more vital in the current scenario. This paper aims to explore the factors affecting practical implacability of artificial intelligence and its impact on consumers' online purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach: This paper has used a technology-based model as the base to explore the different factors affecting consumers' purchase intention towards e-retailing. This study has formulated a model that demonstrates the integration of artificial intelligence in retailing by the business organizations so as to understand the needs of customers and help them accept technology. This study has further explored faith, subjective norms and consciousness as constructs which enhance the implacability of artificial intelligence. Findings: This study shows that artificial intelligence positively influences consumers' buying behaviour. This study through a model also shows that integration of artificial intelligence enhances consumers' purchase intention. Research limitations/implications: The study has been focusing on a portion of target population. So there is scope to include the whole set of the population to get closer-to-accurate results. Practical implications: The study offers useful inputs for academicians as well as marketers for predicting buying behaviour of consumers. Marketing managers can use artificial intelligence–embedded technology to enhance online purchase intention. Social implications: The study shows that an increase in consciousness towards e-retailing has made consumers keenly analyse and purchase products on the basis of merit and usefulness of the products. Originality/value: The contribution has been made with the best of knowledge in formulating an integrated artificial intelligence model for consumers' purchase intention in e-retailing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To understand the new non-linear pricing in E-commerce. The present paper aims to put forth an idea of using tie-in agreement in the electronic commerce market in the name of trust in India. According to the Indian antitrust law, tie-in agreement is not allowed to use as compulsory in an offer to the buyer. This means that a tie-in agreement cannot be a compulsion or only an option to the buyer. This means it can be an extra option. Design/methodology/approach: The paper shows that using this logic the sellers are giving two options simultaneously to the buyer: (1) a commodity with a tie-in agreement and (2) the same commodity without a tie-in agreement. Therefore, there are two price mechanisms that are present. Now it is the decision of the buyer to choose between the two. These two price mechanisms create a new variable called trust. If the buyer selects the first option, then that buyer will not be treated as a trustworthy buyer, but in the second case, the buyer would be treated as a trustworthy or the affianced buyer. Therefore, the buyer would be leaning toward the second option. The paper proves that in the second option it would be difficult to minimize the consumer expenditure. As a result, there would be a situation of non-linear pricing in the name of trust which is hidden in the offer. The present work gives both theoretical models and empirical justifications. Findings: We find that E-wallet is often used when a consumer orders food online but offline cash payment is preferred. Therefore, the offer does matter for the consumer. Hence, the offer can be used to make a tie-in arrangement. Therefore, even if there is a tie-in arrangement in online food servicing applications, the Competition Commission of India can restrict such practices as for illegal tying, the firm has to have the monopoly power in one market and there should be compulsory tie-arrangement in another market. But it does not mean that E-wallet tie-arrangement cannot be ignored as the monopoly power in the online food servicing market can influence the market share in the E-wallet market. Tie-in arrangement is also important, as the consumer has to spend more under cashback offer conditions which reduce the long-run gain of consumers. Originality/value: The paper considered trust as a new element in forming non-linear pricing. This is new to this literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The hosts' third-party certifications in the sharing accommodation platforms have largely overlooked how the provision of such certification information could facilitate the trust-building process and subsequently influence consumers' purchase intention. Adopting an institution-based trust perspective, the authors differentiate various types of hosts' certification information (i.e. financial certification and social certification) and examine their role in the trust-building process between the hosts and the customers on sharing accommodation platforms. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses the property-month level data of Airbnb Beijing from January 2019 to June 2020. Econometric analyses are adopted to evaluate the impact of institution-based trust on consumers' purchase intention. Specifically, the ordinary least square is used to testify the relationship between institution-based trust and purchase intention. Findings: The empirical results show that the information on institution-based trust increases the likelihood that customers would reach purchase decisions. More importantly, results show that both financial certification and social certification affect consumers' purchase intention. The results further show that listings' attributes moderate the relationship between institution-based trust and customer purchase intention. Moreover, the authors find that "Superhost" and "Experience" positively moderate such relationships. Originality/value: This paper confirms that the host certification fosters institution-based trust and reveals the impact of hosts' certification on consumers' purchase intentions. This study is among one of the first studies to incorporate institution-based trust into the trust formation on the sharing economy platform, which can improve the understanding of trust in the sharing economy context. The authors emphasize the importance of trust types on sharing economy platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to measure the supply chain competitiveness of the e-commerce industry in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a multi-criteria decision-making model based on the analytic hierarchy process. Four main criteria are used to measure the supply chain competitiveness, i.e. cost, differentiation, sustainability and infrastructure. Findings: The findings of this study show that cost is the most important criterion with a degree of importance of 33.19%, followed by infrastructure of 29.40%, differentiation of 27.96% and sustainability of 9.45%. It shows that the internally controlled strategy contributes about 70% of supply chain competitiveness. The internal infrastructure criterion that consists of software and hardware contributes 65.92% to the whole infrastructure criterion. The internal infrastructure then contributes 19.38% to supply chain competitiveness. Therefore, the internally controlled strategies and internal infrastructure contribute up to 90.08% to the supply chain competitiveness of e-commerce in Indonesia. This result implies that to attain the supply chain competitiveness, the company must carry out strategies focusing on the performance such as cost, differentiation, sustainability as well as on the internal infrastructure such as software and hardware. Research limitations/implications: In this paper, the authors limited their study to the business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) players because these two platforms have been experiencing a very rapid growth. While e-commerce business can take many platforms besides B2B and B2C, the future research should include other platform such as consumer to consumer as well. Because the focus in this study is more the information and material flows, it will be of great interest if the future research covers the platform of mobile payment as well that guarantee the ease of cashflows within supply chains. Also, with the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic when this paper was written, in the near future, it is then of great interest to incorporate the pandemic context into the proposed model used in this study. The further study should analyze long-term changes happened as the result of pandemic such as behavioral changes of online shopping from customer side or shift in e-commerce supply chain infrastructure and inventory practice. Practical implications: With this study, it is expected that it can be determined which criteria contribute the most to the supply chain competitiveness of the e-commerce industry in Indonesia that will be useful for industry player. Originality/value: E-commerce development in Indonesia is still facing serious challenges. The multi-criteria decision making approach used in this research lays a foundation of how supply chain competitiveness is determined based on the judgment of experts coming from major companies within the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how COVID-19 may alter the vulnerability levels of older persons, and how this may change their potential for fraud victimisation. This is particularly focused on the government's use of isolation, restrictions on activity and physical distancing to combat the virus. Design/methodology/approach: In the absence of statistics, this paper examines what is currently known about older persons and fraud, as well as the recent knowledge of COVID-19-related fraud. On this basis, the paper hypothesises the conceivable changes to vulnerability that potentially expose older persons to fraud. Findings: This paper argues that COVID-19 has not seen "new" fraudulent approaches, rather offenders have used COVID-19 as a context to their existing schemes. Further, the current response to COVID-19 can substantially increase the number of older persons experiencing levels of vulnerability, and therefore increase their fraud risk. Research limitations/implications: The current paper applies existing knowledge into the current circumstances of COVID-19 and lays the foundations for empirical work to be conducted in this area. Practical implications: This paper provides an impetus to target the well-being and connectivity of older persons, (regardless of the COVID-19 context), to reduce their vulnerability to fraud victimisation. Social implications: This paper highlights the importance of connectivity for older persons, and the need to focus on overcoming social isolation and loneliness. Originality/value: This paper is the first to hypothesise the effects of COVID-19 and its associated government responses to the overall vulnerability of older persons, with a focus on the potential for fraud victimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Although the business model field of study has been a focus of attention for both researchers and practitioners within the past two decades, it still suffers from concern about its identity. Accordingly, this paper aims to clarify the intellectual structure of business model through identifying the research clusters and their sub-clusters, the prominent relations and the dominant research trends. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses some common text mining methods including co-word analysis, burst analysis, timeline analysis and topic modeling to analyze and mine the title, abstract and keywords of 14,081 research documents related to the domain of business model. Findings: The results revealed that the business model field of study consists of three main research areas including electronic business model, business model innovation and sustainable business model, each of which has some sub-areas and has been more evident in some particular industries. Additionally, from the time perspective, research issues in the domain of sustainable development are considered as the hot and emerging topics in this field. In addition, the results confirmed that information technology has been one of the most important drivers, influencing the appearance of different study topics in the various periods. Originality/value: The contribution of this study is to quantitatively uncover the dominant knowledge structure and prominent research trends in the business model field of study, considering a broad range of scholarly publications and using some promising and reliable text mining techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to build a research model to study how the use of different enterprise social media platforms affects employees' relationship capital, and the moderating role of innovation culture is also examined. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling was performed to test the research model and hypotheses. Surveys were conducted in an electronic commerce company in China that uses different social media platforms, generating 301 valid responses for analysis. Findings: First, private social media used for work-related purposes can contribute to employees' relationship capital, and public social media QQ used for work-related purposes can contribute to employees' communication quality. WeChat used for social-related purposes has a positive effect on employees' information exchange. Second, innovation culture acts as a positive moderator between work-related media use and employees' information exchange, while innovation culture acts as a negative moderator between social-related WeChat use and employees' information exchange. Third, innovation culture acts as a positive moderator between work-related QQ use and employees' trust, while innovation culture acts as a negative moderator between social-related QQ use and employees' trust. Originality/value: First, this paper contributes to the information system (IS) social media literature by studying the effect of the use of different enterprise social media platforms used for different purposes on employees' relationship capital. Second, the authors contribute to relationship capital theory by clarifying that use of public and private social media platforms for social- and work-related purposes is an important driver of the formation of employees' relational capital. Third, the present study also contributes to enterprise social media literature by confirming that innovation culture acts as a different moderator between use of different enterprise social media platforms and employees' relationship capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how two online marketing orientations of land-based retailers in product category and price could change retail brand attitude when retail brand familiarities differ.Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a research model with two orientations in product category and price as antecedents of retail brand attitude change and retail brand familiarity as a moderator. Empirical data were collected from 684 shoppers across three land-based retailers to test the research hypotheses.Findings Both orientations in product category and price can improve customers' retail brand attitudes. Retail brand familiarity plays a significant moderator in some of the situations. Online-offline product category congruence and online-prototypical price congruence have significantly positive effects on retail brand attitude change whether retail brand familiarity is high or low. The effect of online-offline price congruence is significant only among high-familiarity customers, while the effect of online-prototypical product category congruence is found to be significant only among low-familiarity customers.Research limitations/implications The study identifies the moderating effects of retail brand familiarity on the relationships between two online marketing orientations in product category and price and retail brand attitude change. Based on the moderating effects, this study will help researchers to better understand the effectiveness of two online marketing orientations subject to varying degrees of retail brand familiarity in a multichannel retailing context.Practical implications The findings of this study can guide land-based retailers to focus on the right orientations in product category and price to improve customers' attitudes toward the retail brand when existing or new customers are targeted.Originality/value This study provides a first study to empirically assess the change in retail brand attitude prompted by homogenous and prototypical orientations in product category and price and subject to varying degrees of retail brand familiarity. Overall, the results offer insights of how land-based retailers could manage their overall performance by designing more effective online product category and pricing strategies for existing or new customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of online cross-recommendation of products from e-retailers on consumers’ instant cross-buying intention, and compare the effect between the contexts that the decision making on focal product is difficult and easy.Design/methodology/approach Based on the information adoption model, this paper develops a theoretical model to investigate how online cross-recommendation of products from e-retailers influence consumers’ instant cross-buying intention. Empirical data were collected from 224 online shoppers. The Partial Least Squares technique was used to test the proposed research model.Findings Choice confidence on focal product and perceived usefulness of cross-buying is the antecedents of instant cross-buying intention. Brand awareness of recommended product, one-stop shopping convenience, and perceived price advantage are the antecedents of perceived usefulness of cross-buying and choice confidence on focal product when the decision making on focal product is difficult, whereas brand awareness is not when it is easy to make focal product decision. Choice confidence on focal product positively affects perceived usefulness of cross-buying when it is easy to make focal product decision, whereas the effect is not significant when the decision making on focal product is difficult.Originality/value Knowledge about the effect of online cross-recommendation of products on instant cross-buying intention is scarce. This study reveals the psychological mechanism of the effect of online cross-recommendation of products on consumers’ instant cross-buying intention and finds that decision-making difficulty on focal product is an important moderator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Social network services (SNS) gifting is a new business model, but many SNS providers continue to face challenges as they explore ways to increase their revenues from gifting. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors involved in gift giving via SNS platforms. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a mixed methods approach through qualitative and quantitative research. In the first stage (qualitative study), the authors extract factors from interviews with users of SNS gifting services. In the second stage (quantitative study), the authors interpret decisional factors explored in the first stage on the basis of customer value theory, develop a research model and empirically test it. Findings: The results show that five factors – convenience of SNS gifting, symbolic representation of SNS gifting, relationship support of SNS gifting, pleasure of SNS gifting, and an SNS gifting norm – directly or indirectly affect SNS gifting decisions. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to electronic commerce research by extending the customer value theory and adding to the literature on SNS gifting and gift giving in general. Practical implications: The study informs SNS providers regarding the promotion of SNS gifting services for revenue generation. Originality/value: This study is among the first to comprehensively examine decision-making in SNS gifting through the lens of customer value theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With the proliferation of virtual reality (VR) applications in electronic commerce, investigations on the effects of VR on consumer responses are important. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of online presentation modes (i.e. situational VR, pure VR and picture) on consumer responses for three product types (i.e. geometric, material and mechanical). Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted a 3×3 between-subjects experiment to validate the research model and hypotheses. Findings: The results revealed that both the situational VR mode and the pure VR mode had a greater impact on product knowledge and purchase intention than the picture mode. The situational VR mode yielded a higher level of product knowledge and purchase intention than the pure VR mode although it was not statistically significant. Furthermore, the pattern of VR modes superiority was found to be consistent across geometric, material and mechanical product types. Originality/value: This research study contributes to the VR literature by investigating a new type of VR: situational VR, and offering a more comprehensive picture of consumer responses to online product presentations. The authors then drew the implications from the findings to suggest guidelines for practitioners to efficiently allocate resources and maximize the effectiveness of online presentation modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present competing risks models and show how dwell times can be applied to predict users’ online behavior. This information enables real-time personalization of web content.Design/methodology/approach This paper models transitions between pages based upon the dwell time of the initial state and then analyzes data from a web shop, illustrating how pages that are linked “compete” against each other. Relative risks for web page transitions are estimated based on the dwell time within a clickstream and survival analysis is used to predict clickstreams.Findings Using survival analysis and user dwell times allows for a detailed examination of transition behavior over time for different subgroups of internet users. Differences between buyers and non-buyers are shown.Research limitations/implications As opposed to other academic fields, survival analysis has only infrequently been used in internet-related research. This paper illustrates how a novel application of this method yields interesting insights into internet users’ online behavior.Practical implications A key goal of any online retailer is to increase their customer conversation rates. Using survival analysis, this paper shows how dwell-time information, which can be easily extracted from any server log file, can be used to predict user behavior in real time. Companies can apply this information to design websites that dynamically adjust to assumed user behavior.Originality/value The method shows novel clickstream analysis not previously demonstrated. Importantly, this can support the move from web analytics and “big data” from hype to reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of Hall’s cultural dimension on the mobile banking (m-banking) individual performance in the m-banking post-adoption stage.Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes using the DeLone and McLean IS success model moderated by Hall’s cross-cultural dimensions of high-low context and monochronic-polychronic time perception to evaluate the m-banking individual performance in the post-adoption stage.Findings The results reveal that usage and user satisfaction are important precedents of individual performance, and it also reveals the importance of the moderating effects of monochronic inclination between the usage and user satisfaction to individual performance. The system, information, and service quality affect user’s satisfaction positively.Originality/value While the majority of earlier research focuses on potential adopters, this study seeks to understand the significance of cultural effects on the m-banking individual performance in the post-adoption stage, as these are important to explain use and attract potential adopters of m-banking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: to build a theoretical model that identifies textual cues to distinguish between authentic and fictitious reviews, and to empirically validate the theoretical model by examining reviews of positive, negative as well as moderate polarities.Design/methodology/approach Synthesizing major theories on deceptive communication, the theoretical model identifies four constructs – comprehensibility, specificity, exaggeration and negligence – to predict review authenticity. The predictor constructs were operationalized as holistically as possible. To validate the theoretical model, 1,800 reviews (900 authentic + 900 fictitious) evenly spread across positive, negative and moderate polarities were analyzed using logistic regression.Findings The performance of the proposed theoretical model was generally promising. However, it could better discern authenticity for positive and negative reviews compared with moderate entries.Originality/value The paper advances the extant literature by theorizing the textual differences between authentic and fictitious reviews. It also represents one of the earliest attempts to examine nuances in the textual differences between authentic and fictitious reviews across positive, negative as well as moderate polarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions of e-retailing ethics from the consumers’ perspective and to develop a reliable and valid measurement instrument.Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a quantitative survey conducted among Egyptian consumers aged 18 and above. These were measured on a five-point Likert scale. The reliability and validity of this six-factor scale are verified using empirical data collected randomly from Egyptians’ online consumers. Structure equation modelling used to test the suggested model.Findings The results showed that buyer perceptions about seller ethics (BPSE) is a second order construct composed of six factors (e.g. privacy, security, reliability, non-deception, service recover, and shared value). The results also showed that the BPSE has strong predictive capability in relation to online customer satisfaction and repurchase intention.Originality/value This project is one of the first empirical studies that develop a reliable and valid measurement instrument of BPSE. The findings provide several important theoretical and practical implications for online retailing and academic researchers as well as making a significant contribution to the body of knowledge in the online retailing context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of multichannel integration quality in enhancing online perceived value and online purchase intention via the online store operated by a land-based retailer.Design/methodology/approach This paper develops a research model based on the “quality-value-purchase” chain, with four dimensions of multichannel integration quality as antecedents and three dimensions of online perceived value as mediators of online purchase intention. Empirical data were collected from 390 multichannel shoppers and structured equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.Findings Among the four multichannel integration quality dimensions, transparency of service configuration, process consistency and business ties positively affect online purchase intention through online perceived value, whereas the effects of information consistency are not significant; process consistency exerts a stronger influence on online perceived value than business ties; the effect of online convenience on online purchase intention is weaker than that of online monetary savings and online hedonic value.Research limitations/implications The study identifies the theoretical principles of the relationships among multichannel integration quality, online perceived value and online perceived value in multichannel context. Based on these theoretical principles, this study will help researchers to better understand consumers’ online purchase intention and the creation of online perceived value in the integrated multichannel context.Practical implications The findings of this study can provide retailers with useful strategies to increase online purchase intention depending on improvement of multichannel integration quality and online perceived value.Originality/value This study provides a first study to empirically assess various types of online perceived value attached to multidimensional properties of multichannel integration quality and the corresponding effects on online purchase intention. Overall, the results offer insights of how land-based retailers could manage their online performance by integrating multiple channels and improving online perceived value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore online discussions about the 2014 World Cup on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. Because China did not qualify for the World Cup, the study focusses on the role of online discussions surrounding a worldwide international event from an outsider perspective. Doing so will uncover not only the depth of dialogue surrounding issues of nation and sport, but – perhaps more importantly – also aid in uncovering the utility of online platforms in creating online communities even among presumed outsiders.Design/methodology/approach A content analysis of the discussions on Sina Weibo is used to identify differences between fanship comments and non-fanship comments in terms of the focus of the content and the degree of valence.Findings Overall, fans were more likely than non-fans to use positive valence in their comments to enhance the value of the World Cup. Moreover, fans were also more likely to discuss topics closely related to the event itself, such as teams, athletes, and factual information/news about the World Cup, establishing identification with in-group participants. Moreover, the findings also imply important insight regarding electronic commerce opportunities.Originality/value This paper is among the first to investigate the online discussions about World Cup in China. Theoretically, this paper provides a comprehensive framework to examine the online discussions of mega-sporting events in China based on theories of social identity theory and nationalism. Practically, it provides baseline data for the sports industry and public relation practitioners to promote a sports event when the direct nationalistic interests are absent. Moreover, it also aids in uncovering the substantial changes in sports-related communication, experiences, and mediated participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Avatars are known to be influential in gaming communication. However, little is known about how avatar attractiveness and customization impact online gamers' flow, i.e., the experience of total concentration with intrinsic enjoyment and loyalty. Grounded in social identity and flow theories, the purpose of this paper is to construct a model to explain how avatar attractiveness and customization can impact online gamers' flow and loyalty.Design/methodology/approach The responses of 1,944 online gamers are collected. Structural equation modeling is used for analyses.Findings The analytical results indicate that avatar attractiveness and customization are positively related to avatar identification, which is positively related to flow, and then to online gamer loyalty. In addition, avatar identification and flow are important process variables in the above relations.Originality/value This study is novel in being the first attempt to apply social identity and flow theories to explain how avatar attractiveness and customization contribute to online gamers' flow and loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of the underlying social motivation, including collective norm and subjective norm, which shapes users' decisions to revisit a social commerce site.Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the research model using data from a survey of 531 social commerce users.Findings Results support the importance of subjective and collective norms as measures of social norm. Both norms were combined to: develop a parsimonious higher order measure of social motivation, and examine the consequent impact on social commerce continuance behavior. In addition, the authors demonstrate that the factors that influence the social impact theory variables, specifically time spent during each visit, affective experience and gender can moderate the impact of social norm on social commerce continuance use intention.Practical implications Social commerce website designers can provide visibility of the number of a user's close contacts (or contacts that the user either interacts with or follows) as well as the total number of people using the same technology as a visual cue to encourage user retention on the site.Social implications The results indicate that customers' social commerce revisit intentions are strongly influenced by a combination of how they perceive the behavior as endorsed both by their friends and by the majority view in their social network.Originality/value This study examines and validates sources of social influence that affect continuance use intention with social technologies such as social commerce sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the behavioral lessons and managerial implications of deep discount strategies used by e-commerce firms to gain a competitive advantage over rivals. The paper seeks to understand the behavioral aspects of consumer and competitor response to such online sales, particularly with reference to e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. The case study seeks to: understand the behavioral aspects of utility and customer satisfaction; understand the behavioral aspects influencing customer attitudes, preferences and choice; understand heuristics involved in consumer decision-making; and understand possible firm strategies based on a thorough analysis of behavioral influencers of customer decisions.Design/methodology/approach The paper follows a case study approach. Secondary data sources from the library, company website and newspaper articles have been used to build a case which would encourage students to discuss and analyze the application of principles of behavioral economics to marketing problems faced especially by e-retailers. It uses Flipkart’s botched-up Big-Billion Day sale to drive home lessons in behavioral economics to marketers.Findings With growing internet penetration, e-retail presents high potential in India along with its BRICS peers. However, the task of grabbing customer mindshare, as also a share of wallet of the growing Indian purchasing power through monster discounts and deals by e-tailers may not work. Firms such as Flipkart may strategize using principles of behavioral economics including confirmatory bias, framing effects, reference points, principles of loss aversion, heuristics and the peak–end rule to influence customer decision-making in their favor. They must also guard against any incidents/events which invoke the representativeness heuristic or negative confirmatory biases towards e-commerce portals.Practical implications E-tailers in countries like India should understand the behavioral implications of deep discount strategies and deals offered by them as a means of gaining competitive advantage. Attention to e-service outcome quality and e-service recovery is important.Originality/value The case is unique in its applications of behavioral economics principles to e-retailing in India. It seeks to apply behavioral principles to a major e-commerce marketing event in India. With the e-commerce industry likely to boom in India, the case study provides unique insights into competitive pricing strategies adopted by e-retailers and the feasibility thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the correlations among entrepreneurial environment, market-oriented strategies, and entrepreneurial performance. Design/methodology/approach – Entrepreneurial environment is measured by institutional environment and industrial environment. A survey of 176 large Chinese automobile firms is conducted. The structural equation model is applied to perform analysis. Findings – The uncertainty of the institutional environment is positively related with market-oriented strategies and market-oriented strategies are positively related with firms’ performance. The stronger the uncertainty of the industrial environment is, the larger impact that market-oriented strategies have on firms’ performance will be. There is no distinct positive relationship between the uncertainty of industrial environment and firms’ market-oriented strategies. The hypothesis, that the stronger the uncertainty of institutional environments is, the larger the impact that market-oriented strategies will be on firms’ performance, is not supported. Research limitations/implications – In terms of research design, this paper does not select survey samples randomly. This paper only takes institutional and industrial environments into consideration while the environmental characteristics are omitted. Originality/value – This paper expands entrepreneurship research by integrating previous studies. Findings in this paper are helpful for firms in emerging countries to implement “going abroad strategies,” to start up new businesses in other countries, and to achieve the goals of improving competitiveness and integrating with international firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of trust management on the fundraising performance in reward-based crowdfunding. Design/methodology/approach – A research model was constructed based on elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and literatures with five hypotheses developed. Data were collected from www.demohour.com - the first and one of the largest reward-based crowdfunding platforms in China. In total, 829 reward-based crowdfunding projects were analyzed to test hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, partial least squares was used to analyze data of entrepreneur/sponsor profiles, entrepreneur/sponsor behaviors, and crowdfunding projects. Findings – Results indicated trust management significantly promoted fundraising performance via central (entrepreneur’s creditworthiness) and peripheral (entrepreneur-sponsor interactions) routes. The peripheral route (entrepreneur-sponsor interaction) showed significantly higher effects than the central route (entrepreneur’s creditworthiness). The finding aligns with authors’ assumptions derived from unique characteristics of reward-based crowdfunding – community and collaboration because personal, dynamic message interactions were more effective than static, historical success records on the trust establishment. In addition to the main effects, the results also showed entrepreneur’s prior success crowdfunding records positively moderated the effect of entrepreneur-sponsor interaction on fundraising performance. Originality/value – This study is the first paper that reveals the value of trust management in reward-based fundraising, especially the effect of dynamic entrepreneur-sponsor message interactions. Entrepreneur-sponsor interactions not only promoted community benefits in crowdfunding, but also cultivated trust relationships between entrepreneurs and sponsors. Previous studies mainly focussed on the entrepreneur’s popularity level on third-party social media (such as Facebook) toward fundraising performance. This study examines the effect of direct entrepreneur-sponsor interactions on the crowdfunding platform. Additionally, this study found one moderating effect from the central route to the peripheral route. It is a rare case in studies based on ELM. Finally, this study demonstrates how to incorporate a theoretical framework guiding the analysis of structured and unstructured data for in-depth analysis, result interpretation, and corresponding intervention strategy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – User-generated content (UGC), i.e. the feedback from consumers in the electronic market, including structured and unstructured types, has become increasingly important in improving online businesses. However, the ambiguity and heterogeneity, and even the conflict between the two types of UGC, require a better understanding from the perspective of human cognitive psychology. By using online feedback on hotel services, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of satisfaction level, opinion dispersion and cultural context background on the interrelationship between structured and unstructured UGC. Design/methodology/approach – Natural language processing techniques – specifically, topic classification and sentiment analysis on the sentence level – are adopted to retrieve consumer sentiment polarity on five attributes relative to itemized ratings. Canonical correlation analyses are conducted to empirically validate the interplay between structured and unstructured UGC among different populations segmented by the mean-variance approach. Findings – The variety of cognitions displayed by individuals affects the general significant interrelationship between structured and unstructured UGC. Extremely dissatisfied consumers or those with heterogeneous opinions tend to have a closer interconnection, and the interaction between valence and dispersion further strengthens or loosens the relationship. The satisfied or neutral consumers tend to show confounding sentiment signals in relation to the two different UGC. Chinese consumers behave differently from non-Chinese consumers, resulting in a relatively looser interplay. Practical implications – By identifying consistent opinion providers and promoting more valuable UGC, UGC platforms can raise the quality of information generated. Hotels will then be able to enhance their services through the strategic use of UGC by analyzing reviews with dispersed low-itemized rating and by addressing the differences exhibited by non-Chinese customers. This analytical method can also help to create richly structured sentiment information from unstructured UGC. Originality/value – This paper investigates the variety of cognitive behaviors in the process when UGC are contributed by online reviewers, focussing on the consistency between structured and unstructured UGC. The study helps researchers understanding emotion recognition and affective computing in social media analytics, which is achieved by exploring the variety of UGC information and its relationship to the contributors’ cognitions. The analytical framework adopted also improves the prior techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – With the popularity of e-commerce, shilling attack is becoming more rampant in online shopping websites. Shilling attackers publish mendacious ratings as well as reviews for promoting or suppressing target products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate group shilling, a new typed shilling attack, behavior in a real e-commerce platform (e.g. Amazon.cn). Design/methodology/approach – Several behavioral features are proposed for modeling the shilling group, and thus an unsupervised ranking method based on principal component analysis (PCA) is presented for identifying shilling groups from real users on Amazon.cn. Findings – As indicated by the behavior analysis, the proposed method has successfully identified a number of shilling groups on Amazon. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the proposed features and accuracy of the proposed unsupervised method are carefully validated. Originality/value – This paper presents a set of solutions for discovering shilling groups when the ground truth labels are hard to be obtained in real environment, including candidate groups generation, behavioral features definition and unsupervised detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – In recent years, there has been much debate about the value generated by the firms’ investments in information technology (IT). Although literature suggests that technology itself will rarely create superiority, web infrastructure can be critical for knowledge sharing and the formation of virtual teams to execute innovation processes which, in turn, may enhance e-innovation and business value. Building on these antecedents, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how web infrastructure and e-innovation can create business value by complementing each other. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm this paper develops a conceptual model to assess the effects of web infrastructure and e-innovation on business value as well as the complementarity between these resources. To test the associated hypotheses, a regression model was estimated and tested on a large sample of Spanish firms from different industries. Findings – The results show that web infrastructure is not positively related to business value, but on the contrary e-innovation has a positive impact on business value. However, support for complementarity between web infrastructure and e-innovation was not found. Originality/value – The present study tests the RBV logic, arguing that not all IT resources are source of competitive advantage. In the same vein, this study shows that e-innovation, as it requires combination of IT infrastructure with other unique intangible resources, is much more difficult to imitate, leading to competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a fuzzy-rule-based model to classify spare parts inventories considering multiple criteria for better management of maintenance activities to overcome production down situation. Design/methodology/approach – Fuzzy-rule-based approach for multi-criteria decision making is used to classify the spare parts inventories. Total cost is computed for each group considering suitable inventory policies and compared with other existing models. Findings – Fuzzy-rule-based multi-criteria classification model provides better results as compared to aggregate scoring and traditional ABC classification. This model offers the flexibility for inventory management experts to provide their subjective inputs. Practical implications – The web-based model developed in this paper can be implemented in various industries such as manufacturing, chemical plants, and mining, etc., which deal with large number of spares. This method classifies the spares into three categories A, B and C considering multiple criteria and relationships among those criteria. The framework is flexible enough to add additional criteria and to modify fuzzy-rule-base at any point of time by the decision makers. This model can be easily integrated to any customized Enterprise Resource Planning applications. Originality/value – The value of this paper is in applying Fuzzy-rule-based approach for Multi-criteria Inventory Classification of spare parts. This rule-based approach considering multiple criteria is not very common in classification of spare parts inventories. Total cost comparison is made to compare the performance of proposed model with the traditional classifications and the result shows that proposed fuzzy-rule-based classification approach performs better than the traditional ABC and gives almost the same cost as aggregate scoring model. Hence, this method is valid and adds a new value to spare parts classification for better management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a theoretical model that considers the predictors of an individual’s perceptions of information privacy, and also how it relates to his/her behavioral intention toward approaching hospital web sites. Design/methodology/approach – This paper collects data using survey methodology. A total of 331 usable participants are gathered and analyzed via structural equation modeling. Findings – Significant predictors of information privacy concerns include a stated online privacy policy and a hospital’s reputation. Further, online privacy policy predicts a hospital’s reputation. Finally, hospital reputation and information privacy concerns significantly predict an individual’s behavioral intention toward approaching hospital web sites. Research limitations/implications – The study confirmed that an online privacy policy and reputation can effectively alleviate specific information privacy concerns; therefore, this may indicate that these two factors should be considered whenever investigating individuals’ information privacy concerns. Practical implications – To acquire a good reputation and to diminish individuals’ information privacy concerns toward hospital web sites, hospitals should pay attention to the posting of an online privacy policy and communicating such policies to given individuals. Originality/value – This paper fulfils the gap of exploring the relationship among online privacy policy, organization reputation, and information privacy concerns. Further, the hypothesized model and its findings could also provide useful information for managers who are intent on boosting hospital web site usage frequency patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer reactions to product categories, online seller reputation, and brand name syllables. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses four experimental designs to explore the seller reputation, product category, and brand name syllable effects in internet shopping. The authors chose sellers of (low/high) repute from Yahoo Mall. ANOVA is used to evaluate the results. Findings – Seller reputation moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase intention and product category moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase on internet (experiment 1). Consumers take the longest time to make purchasing decisions when buying credence goods or buying from sellers of low repute and that the response time mediates the moderating role of the product category (experiment 2) or reputation (experiment 3). Moreover, the effect of brand name syllable levels chosen/assigned by sellers of low repute is weakened for consumers with low (vs high) skepticism toward non-store shopping (experiment 4). Practical implications – This study is helpful to online sellers if they can identify their reputation, product category and those consumers have skepticism, they can create extra profit through brand name syllable practice. Originality/value – This paper extends the literature on consumers' brand name syllable processing by identifying important moderators and probing into the decision process. The results allow us to substantiate prior research and suggest prescriptive strategies for internet retailers. Keywords Purchase intention, Product category, Brand name syllable, Non-store shopping, Seller reputation, Skepticism Paper type Research paper [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated information systems–consumer behavior (IS-CB) model for e-shopping to examine the antecedents and consequences of e-shopping and usage behavior. Design/methodology/approach – The study tests 320 usable responses collected from e-shoppers against the integrated model using structural equation modeling. Findings – The main research results support the use of antecedents of e-shopping acceptance and usage by drawing from unified knowledge of IS and CB underpinnings. The findings show the significance of perceived value, social factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, entertainment gratification (EG), web irritation (WI), emotional state, and web atmospherics (WA) in the process of e-shopping. Practical implications – The results suggest that e-retailers should establish positive perceived value in consumers' minds and uphold trust to foster favorable attitudes and intentions toward e-shopping and actual e-shopping purchase. Proper and good construction of WA can lead to useful and easy-to-use e-shopping sites, EG, and minimization of WI. Capitalizing on online social influences also would be an advantage. Originality/value – This paper bridges a gap in the studies of IS and CB, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the influence of IS and CB antecedents on acceptance and usage of e-shopping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose As technology-created gamers’ representations, avatars are influential in communication among online gamers. However, there is scant research on how avatars’ characteristics impact gamers’ friendly behaviour via avatars, i.e., avatar friendliness, and how avatar friendliness is related to online gamer loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model grounded in the theory of embodied cognition to examine the impacts of perceived avatar appearance agreeableness, attractiveness and height on avatar friendliness and online gamer loyalty.Design/methodology/approach The authors collect 1,384 responses from online gamers and use structural equation modelling for hypothesis testing.Findings The authors find that perceived avatar appearance agreeableness and attractiveness are positively related to avatar friendliness, while perceived avatar height is negatively related to avatar friendliness. Avatar friendliness, in turn, is positively related to online gamer loyalty.Research limitations/implications This study assessed gamers’ perceptions using a cross-sectional design. Future works could use a big data approach to collect behavioural and longitudinal data. Moreover, future works could measure avatar height using pixels.Originality/value The authors contribute to the e-commerce literature by inventing the new constructs of perceived avatar appearance agreeableness and avatar friendliness, and conducting the first study of using avatar friendliness to explain the impacts of the three avatar characteristics on online gamer loyalty. The findings also provide novel insights for e-commerce managers to effectively build a loyal gamer base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an experimental study designed to better understand the role of online product reviews, both valence and volume, in the formation of initial online trust during a consumer’s exploratory stage with an e-tailer. This is done within the context of simultaneously varying e-tailer reputation and product type.Design/methodology/approach Participants take part in a conjoint task that involves viewing fictitious web pages and indicating their level of trust in using the site to purchase the product displayed. The web pages are developed by manipulating four attributes (e-tailer reputation, product type, summary product star rating and number of online reviews) according to a full factorial design. Conjoint models are estimated to determine the relative influence of each attribute on trust perceptions, the significance of selected two-way interactions among the four attributes, and potential moderating effects of varied prior online experiences, including previous usage frequency of online reviews.Findings Results reveal that e-tailer reputation has the greatest impact on initial trust perceptions, followed by the summary review star rating of the product. Significant two-way interactions show that a large number of reviews enhance the effect of a positive summary review on trust while shopping for high priced experience products diminishes the positive influence of e-tailer reputation. Prior online experiences moderate the relationship between these website attributes and perceived trust by interacting with the two strongest trust cues in the model. The effects of these attributes on trust perceptions are less for those with higher levels of prior online experiences.Originality/value The study uses conjoint analysis, which requires participants to implicitly “tradeoff” among website attributes in making overall judgments about e-tailer trustworthiness. Consequently, the relative influence of online reviews (both valence and volume) on initial trust perceptions is derived empirically in a realistic setting that involves online shopping contexts with different risk (by varying product type). Moreover, the authors are able to estimate interaction effects. A significant interaction between summary product star rating and number of reviews implies that online review volume may be more important to perceived e-tailer trustworthiness than earlier studies suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Online reviews have shown important information that affects consumers’ online shopping behavior. However, little research has examined how they may influence consumers’ online impulse buying behavior. The purpose of this paper is to bring theoretical and empirical connections between them.Design/methodology/approach The framework of this study was tested on three popular online group shopping websites in China (ju.taobao.com, dianping.com, and meituan.com). An online survey with 315 participants who had experience using these websites was recruited to verify the effects of consumers’ perceived value from reading online reviews on urge to buy impulsively and impulse buying behavior.Findings The empirical findings show that consumers’ perceived utilitarian and hedonic value from reading online reviews enhance their browsing behavior. Browsing positively affects consumers’ urge to buy impulsively and finally affects their impulse buying behavior. Further, this study finds that consumers with high impulsiveness focus more on hedonic value of online reviews, whereas consumers with low impulsiveness put more emphasis on utilitarian value. Browsing demonstrates a stronger effect on urge to buy impulsively for consumers with high impulsiveness.Originality/value This study is one of the early studies to investigate the relationship between social influence (e.g. influence of online reviews) and impulse buying. It draws upon the perspectives of browsing and consumer’s perceived value from the literature. This research also considers consumer differences regarding the level of impulsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between e-buyers and e-sellers in the context of the Chinese culture. It examines the relationships among swift guanxi, trust, uncertainty, and repurchase intentions. This study probes the possible mediation effects caused by the process where consumers form their thoughts and actions.Design/methodology/approach This study developed a theoretical model to examine how swift guanxi, trust, and uncertainty influence repurchase intentions of online auction consumers. The mediation effects of trust and uncertainty were also examined. This study gathered 455 valid samples and analyzed data by applying a structural equation modeling.Findings The results confirm that swift guanxi has significant and positive effects on trust and repurchase intentions, but swift guanxi has a significant and negative effect on uncertainty. In addition, trust has a significant and positive effect on repurchase intentions. On the other hand, uncertainty has a significant and negative effect on repurchase intentions. Finally, both trust and uncertainty have partial mediation effects between swift guanxi and repurchase intention.Research limitations/implications The findings extend the current state of knowledge about the relationships among swift guanxi, trust, uncertainty, and repurchase intentions, as well as reveal the psychological mechanism of the effects of trust and uncertainty on repurchase intentions.Practical implications The findings provide a deeper understanding of the effect of customers’ swift guanxi on repurchase intentions under different perspectives of the double-edged sword of trust and uncertainty in Yahoo! Online auction.Originality/value This study decomposes the constructs of swift guanxi, trust, and uncertainty into various dimensions and investigates the relationships between these dimensions and repurchase intentions. It has not been done in this way previously. The results contribute to the understanding of online auction customers’ behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanism of building trust during the transition from online payment to mobile payment, as well as to examine the effect of trust on the satisfaction and continuance intention of mobile payment users. Based on trust transfer theory, this study proposes that trust in online payment (i.e. trust in source) and two source-target relationship factors, namely, perceived similarity and entitativity, affect trust in mobile payment (i.e. trust in target). In turn, the resulting trust influences user satisfaction and continuance intention toward mobile payment in an online-mobile payment context.Design/methodology/approach The model was empirically tested on data collected from 219 mobile payment users of a famous payment enterprise in China.Findings The results indicated that the trust transfer process positively influences the continuance intention of mobile payment through satisfaction. Satisfaction is an important factor affecting continuance intention. Moreover, trust in online payment, perceived similarity, and perceived entitativity between online and mobile payments can positively influence trust in mobile payment.Originality/value This study investigates the post-adoption usage of mobile payment from the trust transfer perspective. It focuses on the trust-building process and emphasizes the importance of trust on the continuance intention toward mobile payment in an online-mobile payment context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of online service quality on swift guanxi that influences customer repurchase intention and the moderating role of gender in the relationship between online service quality and swift guanxi.Design/methodology/approach Based on survey data obtained from 274 college students, structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.Findings The results show that the dimensions of online service quality (i.e. perceived control, convenience and customer service) are positively related to buyer-seller swift guanxi, which influences repurchase intention. Additionally, men are driven mainly by perceived control and service convenience when establishing swift guanxi, whereas women care more about customer service.Originality/value Online service quality is the key factor underlying customer repurchase intention. In addition, gender differences exist in many aspects of online shopping including information processing, perceived service, and perceived risk. This is one of the first empirical studies that empirically examine the effects of three dimensions of online service quality on swift guanxi and take gender differences into consideration. Based on the conceptual and empirical evidence, this study provides the practical and theoretical implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the new construct online shopper confusion and to identify online confusion causes and consequences.Design/methodology/approach Data obtained from a projective technique and a quantitative study were analyzed to identify online shopper confusion causes. Two experiments employing different stimulus materials tested the conceptualized consequences of online shopper confusion.Findings Confusing online store elements are classified into three online confusion causes. Data yielded from two experiments using fictitious and real shopping scenarios as stimulus material show that a confusing internet retail process leads to negative consumer reactions.Research limitations/implications The resulting taxonomy of confusing online store elements offers guidance on the creation of non-confusing online shopping trips, and highlights the relevance of a non-confusing internet retail process. Online shopper confusion is linked to negative behavioral reactions. Consequently, this research offers an explanation for undesirable consumer reactions in internet retailing.Practical implications The findings provide practitioners with concrete insights into how the internet retail process confuses shoppers which help to assess the confusion potential of their existing online stores and consider confusion issues in the development of new online stores.Originality/value This research is the first to explore confusion during the internet retail process. The multi-method approach offers highly valid insights into the causes and consequences of online shopper confusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Online retailers widely use self-service parcel delivery as a solution to the last-mile logistics problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the consumer’s intention to use self-service parcel delivery service.Design/methodology/approach The authors integrate prior research and propose a comprehensive three-factor model. The study combines individual and situational factors and proposes a socialized factor.Findings This study found that location convenience, optimism, innovation, and the need for human interaction positively affect the consumer’s intention to avail of the self-service parcel delivery service. It also identifies that socialized factor positively influences the consumer’s intention to use self-service parcel delivery services.Research limitations/implications The test results show that the explanatory power of the individual factors of the model is better than that of the situational factors. However, this does not imply that the situational factors cannot explain the consumer behavior well. Future studies should employ additional situational factors to explain the consumer behavior.Practical implications This study offers valuable theoretical and managerial implications. Delivery service providers should concentrate on their marketing force and customize their services for consumer groups who have specific individual characteristics, such as optimism and innovation.Social implications Strengthening service interactions in the social factor and choosing optimal locations for self-service pickup machines are also essential for the expansion of the users’ population and enhancement of service experience.Originality/value The authors combined situational and individual factors, proposed a socialized factor, and presented the three-factor model of the consumer’s intention to use self-service parcel delivery service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]