The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumer experience of flow in an online consumer shopping environment and use online consumer participants to examine how consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumer experience of flow in an online consumer shopping environment and use online consumer participants to examine how consumer pursuit of shopping value links in turn affects their satisfaction and unplanned purchase behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The research model was tested using the data collected from 363 valid questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was employed to verify and validate the research model.
Findings
The results of this study show that perceived control of flow and concentration will positively affect consumer utilitarian value, while concentration and cognitive enjoyment will positively affect hedonic value. Further, the effect of utilitarian value on satisfaction is greater than that of hedonic value. Finally, hedonic value positively affects unplanned buying behavior. This research results may serve as a reference for online store operators.
Research limitations/implications
This study used cross-sectional data for its cause and effect analysis. Long-term conclusions based on this study are not possible. Future scholars may consider using a longitudinal approach.
Practical implications
The results of this study clearly demonstrate that e-commerce operators must construct environments that create flow experiences for shoppers by increasing their perceived control, concentration, and cognitive enjoyment. Doing so will create both utilitarian and hedonic values, making consumers feel satisfied with their shopping experience and leading them to make purchases not originally planned in their shopping list.
Originality/value
This study’s major contribution is its successful linkage of the dimensions of flow experience to purchase values. Moreover, it confirms that when online shoppers have an unselfconscious flow experience, they will experience both utilitarian and hedonic values, thus increasing their satisfaction.
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Clyde A. Warden, Tsung‐Chi Liu, Chi‐Tsun Huang and Chi‐Hsun Lee
Consumer travel and multinational service corporations have increased the opportunity for service failures where consumers from one culture experience service problems in another…
Abstract
Consumer travel and multinational service corporations have increased the opportunity for service failures where consumers from one culture experience service problems in another cultural setting. This study extended the Stauss and Mang model, which proposed the possibility that intercultural service failures exhibit lower seriousness ratings due to the customer's attributing errors to cultural distance. Such a possible outcome has important implications for service providers whose customers are from different cultures, such as tourist or visiting businesspeople. A pretest, employing the critical incident technique, established descriptions of common service failures and recovery strategies for the sample frame. Domestic (in Taiwan) and foreign (outside Taiwan) service encounters were then compared in both failure and recovery stages, reported in an online survey employing a modified critical incident technique. Results showed that the apparent reduction in intercultural failure seriousness can be attributed not to the error itself, but to increased acceptance of the recovery strategy. These findings broaden the Stauss and Mang model by including the importance of recovery strategies, and the benefit gained by any recovery attempt within an intercultural service setting.
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Cristina Rubino, Sabrina D. Volpone and Derek R. Avery
The aim of this paper is to draw on gender role theory and the stressor‐strain literature to examine sex differences in emotional exhaustion. The paper also investigates a…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to draw on gender role theory and the stressor‐strain literature to examine sex differences in emotional exhaustion. The paper also investigates a mediating mechanism (i.e. work‐family conflict) and a boundary condition (i.e. ratio between actual and desired work hours, termed overemployment/underemployment) of the sex – emotional exhaustion relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 3,114 respondents, the paper analyzes the hypothesized moderated mediation model using Edwards and Lambert's framework.
Findings
The paper found support for the authors' model, suggesting that overemployed women are more likely to experience work‐family conflict and emotional exhaustion than men. However, when individuals work fewer hours than desired, men are more susceptible to emotional exhaustion than women by first experiencing work‐family conflict.
Research limitations/implications
Although support exists for the relationship between work‐family conflict and burnout, stressor/strain models also should include sex and overemployment/underemployment as predictors of emotional exhaustion.
Practical implications
These results suggest organizations can reduce employee work‐family conflict and subsequent emotional exhaustion by adjusting the ratio of currently worked to desired work hours. Additionally, organizations can minimize emotional exhaustion by implementing work‐family balance workplace policies.
Originality/value
To address inconsistencies in studies exploring the sex‐emotional exhaustion relationship, the paper explores a mediating mechanism and boundary condition underlying the relationship between sex and emotional exhaustion. Exploring this relationship is important for organizations and employees, as both benefit by minimizing emotional exhaustion to avoid the physical and psychological consequences with which it is associated.