Search results
1 – 10 of 48Amit Bhatnagar, Atish P. Sinha and Arun Sen
Online search effort is routinely measured by the duration of visit at the website as obtained from clicksream data or surveys. Measuring search effort by the time spent at a…
Abstract
Purpose
Online search effort is routinely measured by the duration of visit at the website as obtained from clicksream data or surveys. Measuring search effort by the time spent at a website assumes that all consumers who search for the same duration obtain the same amount of information. This would be acceptable if all consumers possessed the same navigational ability. In practice, different consumers have different levels of ability to navigate a website. The purpose of this study is to find whether an individual’s navigational ability has an influence on visit duration and purchase likelihood.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use visit duration data from a real website which makes it possible to partition the visit duration into the times spent on relevant and irrelevant pages. The data were collected through an experimental study. The authors develop an empirical model, comprising hazard and choice models, to assess the relationship between navigational ability and elements of website usage.
Findings
A consumer with poor navigational ability spends more time searching on the Web and has lower purchase probability compared to a consumer with superior ability.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to one data.
Practical implications
This research has managerial implications for website design, such as link-structure, appearance, size and the number of graphics.
Originality/value
This is the first study to research navigational ability’s influence on online consumer behavior.
Details
Keywords
Individuals use the web for shopping for both personal and professional objectives. The purpose of this paper is to show that the demographic profile of individuals who shop…
Abstract
Purpose
Individuals use the web for shopping for both personal and professional objectives. The purpose of this paper is to show that the demographic profile of individuals who shop online for personal reasons is different from that of those who shop for professional reasons.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on marketing literature, hypotheses were generated regarding the relationships between proclivity to purchase online and demographics. The data were collected through online surveys, and the hypotheses tested with an ordinal regression model.
Findings
This research indicated that individuals with children, high incomes, and large internet experience are more likely to shop online for personal purposes and younger men with large internet experience are more likely to shop online for professional purposes.
Research limitations/implications
One of the limitations of this study is that it focuses on only the demographic determinants, and ignores others, such as reputation and size, service quality, overall ease of use and usefulness of the web site, etc.
Originality/value
This paper would be valuable to online retailers, as it will help them to identify their target customers.
Details
Keywords
The last few years have witnessed the an increase in the importance of web‐based call service centers, which can effectively manage the consumer communications necessary for…
Abstract
The last few years have witnessed the an increase in the importance of web‐based call service centers, which can effectively manage the consumer communications necessary for consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Many small firms lacking the financial and manpower resources to establish a wholly owned call center outsource these activities to independent call centers. However, managers are generally hesitant to outsource their communication management tasks to call centers which also service their competitors, fearing leakage of sensitive information. Independent call centers can counter this fear by having exclusive contracts with retailers in each product category. This will require independent call centers to have clients in different product categories, even though it is preferable to pick products to maintain synergies in their operations. It is hypothesized that managers can obtain these synergies by using the product classification scheme of search‐experience goods to pick products. The hypothesis is validated through empirical testing.
Details
Keywords
Gyan Prakash, Sangeeta Sahney and Divyan Kavdia
E-commerce.
Abstract
Subject area
E-commerce.
Study level/applicability
The case study is specific to the marketing demographics of online Indian shoppers and therefore, the inter-relationship between certain customer requirements and design elements and the relative importance of items in the latter may not follow the same pattern elsewhere.
Case overview
At a time when e-commerce is booming in India and when online retailers are posting multifold year-on-year growth, it becomes increasingly important to identify the factors pertaining to online stores which can influence the buying behavior of consumers. This case aims to explore such factors relevant to businesses as well as consumers so as to enable the next generation of leaders in online retail business to gain maximally. It deals with critical design characteristics of online retail stores in India which can prove crucial to their success. These characteristics are manifestations of various customer requirements. Two surveys are conducted to establish a hierarchy of design elements and quantify the inter-relationships between customer requirements and design characteristics. This is followed by leads as to which factors may or may not have contributed toward the declining sales volume of an e-commerce start-up, namely, E-Bazaar.
Expected learning outcomes
The learning objectives of the case include: the study of design characteristics with respect to their relative importance; the analysis of the degree of relationships between the design characteristics and customer requirements; and the interpretation of real-life signs in taking strategic business decisions in the field of e-commerce. The case aims to prepare a new breed of leaders in the e-commerce sector with a good level of relevant business acumen to help them make informed strategic choices.
Supplementary materials
Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Details
Keywords
Rajiv Kumar, Amit Sachan and Arindam Mukherjee
The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that enable citizens to adopt e-government services at different maturity levels: information, two-way communication…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that enable citizens to adopt e-government services at different maturity levels: information, two-way communication, transaction and political participation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a grounded approach by conducting semi-structured interviews.
Findings
The study reveals that the factors influencing the adoption of e-government services vary at different levels. It identifies 27 influencing factors. In total, 13 of these factors influence adoption at the information level; 13 at the two-way communication level; 25 at the transactional level; and 16 at the political participation level. Auxiliary facilities, connectedness, corruption avoidance, transparency and fairness, customer support and forced adoption, not commonly discussed as influencing factors for e-government adoption in the extant literature, have been revealed in this study.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses qualitative research and rather than generalization, the focus is explicitly on obtaining an in-depth understanding. Although the sampling used is sufficient for the purpose of this study and allows reasonable conclusions to be drawn; however, it cannot be considered representative of a vast country like India. Academicians and information systems researchers can use these findings for further research.
Practical implications
This study advances the understanding of e-government adoption. The findings have potential implications for public administrators and policymakers in successfully designing, developing and implementing e-government services at different maturity levels.
Originality/value
Existing e-government adoption theories are of limited scope and do not capture and specify the complete essence of citizens’ adoption characteristics at different levels of e-government services. Hence, a theoretical gap exists, which this study aims to fill.
Details
Keywords
Sandeep Gundeti, Amit Jain and Deepali Bhatnagar
The growing interest of the scientific community in film marketing research can be discovered by the large scale published writings on the subject. Although, in this field…
Abstract
The growing interest of the scientific community in film marketing research can be discovered by the large scale published writings on the subject. Although, in this field, comprehensive and systematic research is still lacking. The important aim of this article is to merge the latest research results of film marketing through bibliometric research on articles published from 1976 to 2020, and to examine and introduce the research outcome from the view of the growth trend of the field; the most productive and influential countries, authors, articles, institutions, and research journals; keywords, author patterns, and international linkages. Research outcomes show that film marketing research increased gradually from 1976 to 2020, especially in the last five to 10 years. During this period, all 500 scholarly articles were published in 331 journals and listed in Scopus. Comparison is drawn between institutions from developing countries (in terms of number of articles) and developed countries (in terms of citation rate). On the basis of key points and three-factor examination, a conclusion is drawn that in the last 10 years, ‘film marketing’ as a keyword has attracted widespread attention.
Details
Keywords
With talent management becoming an area of growing concern in the literature, the purpose of this paper is to investigate talent management and its relationship to levels of…
Abstract
Purpose
With talent management becoming an area of growing concern in the literature, the purpose of this paper is to investigate talent management and its relationship to levels of employee engagement using a mixed method research design.
Design/methodology/approach
The first phase was a survey on a sample of 272 BPO/ITES employees, using Gallup q12 or Gallup Workplace Audit. Focus group interview discussion was based on reasons for attrition and the unique problems of employee engagement. In the second phase, one of the BPO organizations from the phase I sample was chosen at random and exit interview data was analyzed using factor analysis and content analysis.
Findings
The results were in the expected direction and fulfilled the research aims of the current study. In the first phase low factor loadings indicated low engagement scores at the beginning of the career and at completion of 16 months with the organization. High factor loadings at intermediate stages of employment were indicative of high engagement levels, but the interview data reflected that this may mean high loyalty, but only for a limited time. In the second phase factor loadings indicated three distinct factors of organizational culture, career planning along with incentives and organizational support. The first two were indicative of high attrition.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of the research design was a sample size of 272 respondents. Some of the Cronbach's alpha scores of the subscales of Gallup q12 were low. The strength of the study lies in data triangulation, which was obtained through a mixed method approach, a survey and unstructured focus group interviews. There are theoretical implications for the construct of employee engagement. There seems to be a construct contamination from the fields of employee satisfaction, employee commitment and employee involvement, which is beyond the scope of this paper. Future studies in India may look into this area and construct an independent scale of employee engagement, focusing on the antecedent variables and testing them for theoretical underpinnings.
Originality/value
The present study indicated that a good level of engagement may lead to high retention, but only for a limited time in the ITES sector. The need for a more rigorous employee engagement construct is indicated by the study. Practical implications for retention in the BPO/ITES sector are referred to.
Details
Keywords
Rajiv Kumar, Ritu Kumar, Amit Sachan and Piyush Gupta
E-government quality (e-GovQual) and e-government user value (e-GUV) are multidimensional concepts. While previous studies have identified apparent factors influencing…
Abstract
Purpose
E-government quality (e-GovQual) and e-government user value (e-GUV) are multidimensional concepts. While previous studies have identified apparent factors influencing e-government satisfaction (e-GovSat) and e-government adoption intention (e-GovAI), such as e-GovQual and e-GUV, but they have neglected to explain the influence of the dimensions of these two concepts. The purpose of this research is to study e-government service value chain (e-GSVC) one-GovQual dimensions, e-GUV dimensions, e-GovSat and e-GovAI.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a quantitative method to test the hypotheses and validate the proposed model. Data are collected from 378 e-government users across different parts of India comprising of different demographic characteristics. The model is analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings highlight the impact of the dimensions of e-GovQual (efficiency, trust, reliability and citizen support) on the dimensions of e-GUV (functional, economic, social and emotional value) as e-GUV dimensions affect e-GovSat, which in turn influences e-GovAI. The results validate the e-GSVC and also stress the partial mediating role of the dimensions of e-GUV on the relationship between the dimensions of e-GovQual and e-GovSat.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size of 378 may not be a proper representation of a country like India, which has huge diversity within its vast population.
Practical implications
The study offers practitioners a clear picture and a useful guide to better understand the drivers of value, satisfaction and adoption in the case of e-government users.
Originality/value
This study is probably the first attempt toward demonstrating the process influencing e-GovSat via e-GUV dimensions originating from excellent e-GovQual dimensions to ultimately trigger e-GovAI.
Details