In the complex environments of online personalization, multiple factors have been considered to explain consumers’ online behaviour, but largely without considering the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
In the complex environments of online personalization, multiple factors have been considered to explain consumers’ online behaviour, but largely without considering the role of specific configurations of variables and how they may affect consumer behaviour. This study aims to show how trust towards online vendors, privacy, emotions and experience combine to predict consumers’ purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on complexity theory, a conceptual model followed by research propositions is presented. The propositions are empirically validated through configurational analysis, using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on 182 customers with experience in personalized online shopping. Predictive validity analysis is also performed.
Findings
Five solutions of trust, privacy, emotions and experience increase intention to purchase, and six solutions inhibit it. The findings verify the importance of trust and happiness in successful personalized online shopping. Their absence inhibits purchase intentions. Also, high experience may help to overcome low trust or negative emotions, whereas low experience requires the combination of high trust and happiness. None of the examined factors are indispensable to explain purchase intentions.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses fsQCA, differentiating from traditional studies in the area that use variance-based methods and identifies multiple solutions explaining the same outcome. The proposed approach contributes to theory development in the field.
Practical implications
The multiple solutions lead to new ways on how companies may approach their customers, as each one covers a specific part of the sample, adding to the fact that in personalized marketing there is not one single optimal solution explaining customer purchase intentions.
Originality/value
This study contributes by extending existing knowledge on how trust, privacy, emotions and experience combine to increase or mitigate intention to purchase towards the development of new emotion-centric theories and the design and provision of personalized services and presenting a step-by-step methodological approach for how to apply fsQCA in e-commerce studies.
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Ilias O. Pappas, Patrick Mikalef, Michail N. Giannakos and Panos E. Kourouthanassis
In the complex ecosystem of mobile applications multiple factors have been used to explain users’ behavior, without though focusing on how different combinations of variables may…
Abstract
Purpose
In the complex ecosystem of mobile applications multiple factors have been used to explain users’ behavior, without though focusing on how different combinations of variables may affect user behavior. The purpose of this paper is to show how price value, game content quality, positive and negative emotions, gender and gameplay time interact with each other to predict high intention to download mobile games.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on complexity theory, the authors present a conceptual model followed by research propositions. The propositions are empirically validated through configurational analysis, employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on 531 active users of mobile games.
Findings
Findings identify ten solutions that explain high intention to download mobile games. Alternative paths are identified depending on the gender and the time users spend playing mobiles games. The authors highlight the role of price value and game content quality, as well as that of positive emotions, which are always core factors when present.
Originality/value
To identify complex interactions among the variables of interest, fsQCA is employed, differentiating from traditional studies using variance-based methods, leading to multiple solutions explaining the same outcome. None of the variables explains the intention to download on its own, but only when they combine with each other. The authors extend existing knowledge on how price value, game content quality, emotions, gender and gameplay time combine to lead to high intention to download mobile games; and present a methodology for how to bridge complexity theory with fsQCA, improving our understanding of intention to adopt mobile applications.
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Denis Dennehy, Ilias O. Pappas, Samuel Fosso Wamba and Katina Michael
Patrick Mikalef, Ilias O. Pappas and Michail Giannakos
Video-based learning (VBL) is gaining increased attention as an educational means in settings such as the flipped classroom and massive open online courses. The value of VBL has…
Abstract
Purpose
Video-based learning (VBL) is gaining increased attention as an educational means in settings such as the flipped classroom and massive open online courses. The value of VBL has been recognized in a range of contexts due to the ability to extend opportunities for life-long education for all socio-economic levels, removing geographical boundaries while at the same time alleviating time constraints. Yet, despite the advantages featured by VBL and some promising early outcomes regarding its effectiveness, little is known about what influences individuals to adopt VBL systems and technologies. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on behavioral and adoption-acceptance theories as well as on past empirical studies on e-learning, a conceptual model of VBL adoption is proposed. By analyzing survey data from 260 VBL learners, the conceptual model is put to test by means of structural equation modeling.
Findings
Outcomes indicate that performance expectancy (PE) and computer self-efficacy (CSEF) have a positive direct effect on behavioral intention to adopt VBL. In addition, effort expectancy (EE) and social influence positively impact PE, while CSEF is found to enhance EE and perceived behavioral control.
Originality/value
This study integrates several theoretical perspectives that are applied to adoption of novel information technologies and in addition builds on findings of past empirical research on learning technologies. In effect, the conceptual model along with outcomes provide an integrative perspective of adoption determinants.
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Ilias O. Pappas, Adamantia G. Pateli, Michail N. Giannakos and Vassilios Chrissikopoulos
Satisfaction and experience are essential ingredients for successful customer retention. This study aims to verify the moderating effect of experience on two types of…
Abstract
Purpose
Satisfaction and experience are essential ingredients for successful customer retention. This study aims to verify the moderating effect of experience on two types of relationships: the relationship of certain antecedents with satisfaction, and the relationship of satisfaction with intention to repurchase.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies structural equation modelling (SEM) and multi-group analysis to examine the moderating role of experience in a conceptual model estimating the intention to repurchase. Responses from 393 people were used to examine the differences between high- and low-experienced users of online shopping.
Findings
The research shows that experience has moderating effects on the relationships between performance expectancy and satisfaction and satisfaction and intention to repurchase. This study empirically demonstrates that prior customer experience strengthens the relationship between performance expectancy and satisfaction, while it weakens the relationship of satisfaction with intention to repurchase.
Practical implications
Practitioners should differentiate the way they treat their customers based on their level of experience. Specifically, the empirical research demonstrates that the expected performance of the online shopping experience (performance expectancy) affects satisfaction only on high-experienced customers. Instead, the effort needed to use online shopping (effort expectancy) and the user's belief in own abilities to use online shopping (self-efficacy) influence satisfaction only on low-experienced customers. The effect of trust and satisfaction is significant on online shopping behaviour on both high- and low-experienced customers.
Originality/value
This paper investigates how different levels of experience affect customers' satisfaction and online shopping behaviour. It is proved that experience moderates the effect of performance expectancy on satisfaction and the effect of satisfaction on intention to repurchase. It also demonstrates that certain effects (effort expectancy and performance expectancy) are valid for only one of the two examined groups, while only one effect (trust) is valid for both (high- and low-experienced).
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Panagiotis Liargovas, Nikolaos Apostolopoulos, Ilias Pappas and Alexandros Kakouris
The aim of this chapter is to examine the way in which small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adapt their financial and operational planning in order to develop green…
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to examine the way in which small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adapt their financial and operational planning in order to develop green entrepreneurship. This is examined through two different practices which may be followed by companies: policies and strategies that lead enterprises to energy upgrade and policies and strategies relating to environmental protection. This chapter draws upon the dataset from 100 Greek SMEs. The process of data collection was conducted by delivering questionnaires to the sample of companies in question. The novelty of this research, in comparison with other surveys, is that the level of adopting green strategies is approached not only in the fields of energy or environmental efficiencies but also attempts to introduce techno-economic parameters with related items in the questionnaires delivered to the SMEs. Hence, a more thorough analysis for the greenness of Greek SMEs is discussed based on 10 (i.e. techno-economic) research hypotheses. The results indicate that the SMEs should be supported more effectively by the Greek government and European Union through funding initiatives. The funding initiatives do not have the expected results so far towards this direction. However, it seems that the SMEs realize the importance of green strategies as they believe the consumers are willing to pay more for green products.
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The purpose of this paper is to empirically study the necessary and sufficient antecedents of customer loyalty to logistics service providers (LSPs). Despite the abundance of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically study the necessary and sufficient antecedents of customer loyalty to logistics service providers (LSPs). Despite the abundance of loyalty studies, few studies have empirically examined the complex causal relationships between loyalty and its antecedents using the appropriate research methods.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses fuzzy sets qualitative comparison analysis (FsQCA) to uncover the antecedents and antecedent configurations of customer loyalty. This study examined the necessity and sufficiency of five antecedents (operational collaboration, strategic collaboration, trust, service satisfaction and price satisfaction) and on five dimensions of loyalty (repurchase intension, switching costs, exclusiveness, referrals and overall loyalty). This study developed six research hypotheses based on existing literature and tested them empirically in a manufacturing context. This study compared results from FsQCA with regression analysis.
Findings
The findings reveal that only a few antecedent configurations lead to customer loyalty, including a combination of strategic and operational collaboration, bundling of service offerings and combining competitive price with strategic collaboration. Further, the absence of trust negatively affects loyalty, but the presence of trust does not lead to loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to business to business literature by demonstrating how to use FsQCA analysis to test the presence of equifinality, conjunction and causal asymmetry of complex relationships. This study applies FsQCA between antecedent factors and customer loyalty. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to compare and integrate FsQCA with conventional regression analysis which is based on correlation-bounded logic.
Practical implications
This study shows that no single antecedents that can generate loyalty, yet, few antecedent configurations work better than others: collaborating at both strategic and operational level with your partner has the highest impact on loyalty. Another configuration that leads to loyalty is to combine competitive prices with strategic collaboration, which particularly stimulates repurchase decisions. Price is are not sufficient enough to lead to customer loyalty.
Originality/value
This study applied a novel analysis to uncover necessary and sufficient conditions that conventional methods such as regression analysis and structural equation modelling have limited power.
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Abstract
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Diabetes mellitus is the most common non-communicable medical condition worldwide, yet little is known about the relationship this disease has to the built environment. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Diabetes mellitus is the most common non-communicable medical condition worldwide, yet little is known about the relationship this disease has to the built environment. The purpose of this paper is to throw some much needed light on the matter by shifting attention away from the epidemiology of the medical condition and towards the anthropology of the unhealthy lifestyles whose habit-persistent practices are associated with the spread of the disease.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the delicate relation between diabetes, unhealthy lifestyles and built environments. It discusses the potential of smart city technologies to promote healthy lifestyles, particularly for diabetic patients.
Findings
Smart cities currently being developed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) do not highlight the health-related benefits of their design and layout and there are currently no plans for the community to address the unhealthy lifestyles of existing neighbourhoods as part of a sustainable urban development programme. So, realising the health-related benefits of smart city neighbourhoods in the KSA shall be challenging.
Research limitations/implications
In attempting to tackle diabetes, cities not only need to be “green and lean” in planning the healthy lifestyles they set out for the development of communities, but also “get smart” about the digital technologies and platform of electronically enhanced services which are required to meet the design and layout challenges smart city neighbourhoods pose.
Originality/value
Gulf and Saudi cities should adopt the IntelCities analogy, so the virtual planning and development of “smart city neighbourhoods”, along with their design and layout of buildings, can tackle the underlying causes.