Yan Guo, Min Zhang and Valerie Lynette Wang
This study examines consumers' channel attitudes and choices leading to webrooming and showrooming, and how product attributes (informational vs experiential and perceived risk…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines consumers' channel attitudes and choices leading to webrooming and showrooming, and how product attributes (informational vs experiential and perceived risk) moderate the effects of channel attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
A research framework is built upon the heterogeneity of channel attitudes, the lack of intrachannel lock-in and interchannel synergy. A questionnaire-based survey yields 868 multi-channel consumer responses in China. Simultaneous equation modeling and STATA 12.0 are used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Consumers webroom when buying high-risk informational products (e.g. personal computers or mobile phones). They webroom as well as showroom for high-risk experiential products (e.g. clothing or cosmetics). Moreover, a single channel is preferred to webrooming or showrooming for purchasing low-risk informational (e.g. books or stationery) and low-risk experiential (e.g. snacks or toys) products. The results also show that webrooming is more frequently used than showrooming by consumers.
Research limitations/implications
This study extends current understanding on multi-channel and omnichannel shopping behavior and highlights the role of product attributes in customer journey mapping.
Practical implications
This study offers retailers and other downstream firms a fresh perspective on multi-channel customer experience management and channel design.
Originality/value
This study offers a clear explanation on the commonalities and differences between webrooming and showrooming.
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Keywords
Abstract
Subject area
Crisis management.
Study level/applicability
Graduate and MBA.
Case overview
This case analyzes the event of disappearing flight MH370 belonging to Malaysia Airlines which attracted worldwide attention from a third-party perspective. This case describes clearly the entire process of the crisis, mainly focusing on the decisions made and action taken by the Malaysian Government, and then illustrates the assessment and diagnosis of the crisis.
Expected learning outcomes
This case not only provides a sample for the teaching of strategic and crisis management but also supplies effective guidance for the measures a nation can take regarding a huge crisis.
Supplementary materials
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Yan Guo, Minxi Wang and Xin Li
The purpose of this paper is to make the mobile e-commerce shopping more convenient and avoid information overload by a mobile e-commerce recommendation system using an improved…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make the mobile e-commerce shopping more convenient and avoid information overload by a mobile e-commerce recommendation system using an improved Apriori algorithm.
Design/methodology/approach
Combined with the characteristics of the mobile e-commerce, an improved Apriori algorithm was proposed and applied to the recommendation system. This paper makes products that are recommended to consumers valuable by improving the data mining efficiency. Finally, a Taobao online dress shop is used as an example to prove the effectiveness of an improved Apriori algorithm in the mobile e-commerce recommendation system.
Findings
The results of the experimental study clearly show that the mobile e-commerce recommendation system based on an improved Apriori algorithm increases the efficiency of data mining to achieve the unity of real time and recommendation accuracy.
Originality/value
The improved Apriori algorithm is applied in the mobile e-commerce recommendation system solving the limitation of the visual interface in a mobile terminal and the mass data that are continuously generated. The proposed recommendation system provides greater prediction accuracy than conventional systems in data mining.
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Yan Guo, Liran Chen, Shih-Chieh Fang and Chen-Wei Yang
The purpose of this study is to develop a cross-level model of legitimacy-driven institutional change in a Chinese management context; in other words, changes that start out as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a cross-level model of legitimacy-driven institutional change in a Chinese management context; in other words, changes that start out as legitimacy gaining processes by green enterprises but result in a shift in field-level market logic.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study using a historical inquiry approach and in-depth interviews has been used to qualitatively analyze the authors’ case in the Chinese photovoltaic industry.
Findings
The study proposes a cross-level explanation of institutional change by demonstrating how institutional change can create market forces at a field level that seemingly originate from an increase in the number of legitimated enterprises. This may negatively influence enterprises’ ongoing legitimacy gaining process for their survival at the organizational level in an institutional environment.
Research limitations/implications
The theoretical perspective helps improve descriptions of institutional change and develop a much-needed multi-level understanding of green enterprises in the highly institutionalized green industry. However, this case study may raise the concern of generalizability; thus, an additional survey is necessary.
Practical implications
As organizational field-level market forces are endorsed and transformed in the legitimacy gaining activities of green enterprises, a green enterprise manager should be aware of its negative impact on their legitimacy gaining process and ultimate survival.
Originality/value
The authors’ model proposes a cross-level explanation of institutional change by demonstrating how institutional change can create market forces at a field level that seemingly originate from an increase in the number of legitimated enterprises. Consequently, this may negatively influence the enterprises’ legitimacy gaining process.
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Yan Ru Guo, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh and Brendan Luyt
The purpose of this paper is to investigate tertiary students’ acceptance of digital game-based learning (DGBL). Specifically, it investigated the influence of learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate tertiary students’ acceptance of digital game-based learning (DGBL). Specifically, it investigated the influence of learning motivation, enjoyment, and perceived usefulness on students’ behavioral intention to play an information literacy (IL) game.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 150 tertiary students were recruited to play an IL game, and fill in a survey questionnaire. Multiple linear regression was performed.
Findings
Results indicated that attention, satisfaction, affective enjoyment, and perceived usefulness were significant determinants for the behavioral intention to play IL games. However, relevance, confidence, cognitive enjoyment, and behavioral enjoyment were not found to predict their behavioral intention.
Research limitations/implications
The authors did not consider other factors in the hypotheses, such as the mediating effects of enjoyment on behavioral intention, and the influence of students’ individual characters such as learning styles or personalities on their behavioral intention of using DGBL. Further, the IL game used in the study, Library Escape, may reduce generalizability of the results. The study used self-reported attitudinal data from survey questionnaires, while behavioral data were not considered.
Practical implications
The results showed that pedagogical features, enjoyment factors, and perceived usefulness remain critical in the uptake of IL games by students. Further, the study demonstrated that instead of behavioral or cognitive dimensions of enjoyment, players are more concerned with affective enjoyment. Hence, developing DGBL with affective features should be pursued.
Originality/value
By taking into consideration both pedagogical and gameplay characteristics of DGBL to explain students’ acceptance of IL games, this study integrates and extends previous studies in the context of IL games. Additionally, instead of using perceived enjoyment as a single dimensional construct, this study adopted a multifaceted, more nuanced perspective on the perceived enjoyment of DGBL.
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Yan Guo, Qichao Tang, Haoran Wang, Mengjing Jia and Wei Wang
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has largely promoted the emergence of “autonomous decision-making” (ADM). This paper aims to establish a personalized…
Abstract
Purpose
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has largely promoted the emergence of “autonomous decision-making” (ADM). This paper aims to establish a personalized artificial intelligent housekeeper (AIH) that knows more about our hobbies, habits, personality traits, and shopping needs than ourselves and can replace us to do some habitual purchasing behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
We propose an AI decision-making method based on machine learning algorithm, a novel framework for personalized customer preference and purchase. First, the method uses interactive big data to predict a potential consumer’s decision possibility. Then, the method mines the correlation between consumer decision possibility and various factors affecting consumer behavior. Finally, the machine learning algorithm is used to estimate the consumer’s purchase decision according to the comprehensive influencing factors data of the target consumer.
Findings
The experimental results show that the method can predict the regular consumption behavior of consumers in advance and make accurate decision-making behavior. It can find correlations from a large amount of data to help predict many simple purchase decisions in our life, and become our AIH.
Originality/value
This study introduces a new approach that not only has the auxiliary decision-making function but also has the decision-making function. These findings contribute to the research on automated decision-making process of AI and on human–technology interaction by investigating how data attributes consumer purchase decision to AI.
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Chengxin Yin, Yan Guo, Jianguo Yang and Xiaoting Ren
The purpose of this paper is to improve the customer satisfaction by offering online personalized recommendation system.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the customer satisfaction by offering online personalized recommendation system.
Design/methodology/approach
By employing an innovative associative classification method, this paper is able to predict a customer’s pleasure during the online while-recommending process. Consumers can make an active decision to recommended products. Based on customer’s characteristics, a product will be recommended to the potential buyer if the model predicts that he/she will click to view the product. That is, he/she is satisfied with the recommended product. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed recommendation system is validated through a Taobao shop.
Findings
The results of the experimental study clearly show that the online personalized recommendation system maximizes the customer’s satisfaction during the online while-recommending process based on an innovative associative classification method on the basis of consumer initiative decision.
Originality/value
Conventionally, customers are considered as passive recipients of the recommendation system. However, customers are tired of the recommendation system, and they can do nothing sometimes. This paper designs a new recommendation system on the basis of consumer initiative decision. The proposed recommendation system maximizes the customer’s satisfaction during the online while-recommending process.
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Yongqiang Lu, Li Ma and Haona Yao
The contractors’ consummate performance behavior is the key to achieving the project’s value added, but existing research has paid little attention to how to stimulate this…
Abstract
Purpose
The contractors’ consummate performance behavior is the key to achieving the project’s value added, but existing research has paid little attention to how to stimulate this behavior. Based on contractual functions and regulatory focus theory, this study examined how the allocation of contractual functions and the contractors’ regulatory focus affect their consummate performance behaviors. At the same time, considering the important position of guanxi between owner and contractor, this study also examined the moderating effect of guanxi on the relationship between the contractors’ regulatory focus and consummate performance behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
This study first constructs a conceptual model that incorporates contractual functions (control, coordination and adaptation), contractors’ regulatory focus (promotion focus, prevention focus) and the effect of guanxi on contractors’ consummate performance behavior. Next, partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze the survey data of 297 Chinese construction project professionals.
Findings
This study has the following four findings. First, contractual control has a negative effect on contractors’ promotion focus but a positive effect on their prevention focus. Contractual coordination and adaptation have a positive effect on contractors’ promotion focus but a negative effect on their prevention focus. Second, contractors’ promotion focus has a positive effect on their consummate performance behaviors, while their prevention focus has a negative effect on such behaviors. Third, both of contractors’ promotion focus and prevention focus play a mediating role in the relationship between contractual functions and their consummate performance behaviors. Finally, guanxi plays a moderating role in the relationship between contractors’ regulatory focus and their consummate performance behaviors.
Originality/value
Theoretically, this study enriches the research on the antecedents of contractors’ regulatory focus and extends the literature on contractual and guanxi management in construction projects. In practice, this study can provide guidance for improving contractors’ consummate performance behaviors and reasonable allocation of contractual functions.
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Min Li, Wenyuan Huang, Chunyang Zhang and Zhengxi Yang
The purpose of this paper is to draw on triadic reciprocal determinism and social exchange theory to examine how “induced-type” and “compulsory-type” union participation influence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw on triadic reciprocal determinism and social exchange theory to examine how “induced-type” and “compulsory-type” union participation influence union commitment and job involvement, and how union participation in the west differs from that in China. It also examines whether the role of both organizational justice and employee participation climate (EPC) functions in the Chinese context.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional data are collected from 694 employees in 46 non-publicly owned enterprises, both Chinese and foreign, in the Pearl River Delta region of China. A multi-level moderated mediation test is used to examine the model of this research.
Findings
Union participation is positively related to organizational justice, union commitment and job involvement. In addition, organizational justice acts as the mediator among union participation, union commitment and job involvement. Specifically, the mediating role of organizational justice between union participation and union commitment, and between union participation and job involvement, is stronger in high-EPC contexts than low-EPC contexts.
Originality/value
Instead of examining the impacts of attitudes on union participation, as per most studies in the western context, this research examines the impacts of union participation in the Chinese context on attitudes, including union commitment and job involvement. It also reveals the role of both organizational justice and EPC in the process through which union participation influences union commitment and job involvement.
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Xin Wang, Xiaoling Xu, Zuowan Zhou and Jihua Gou
This paper aims to exploit shape memory polymer (SMP) composite as multifunctional coatings for protecting substrates from surface wear and bacterial. The efficiency of added nano…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to exploit shape memory polymer (SMP) composite as multifunctional coatings for protecting substrates from surface wear and bacterial. The efficiency of added nano or micro-sized particles in enhancing the properties of SMP was investigated. This study also attempts to use a low-cost and effective spraying approach to fabricate the coatings. The coatings are expected to have good conformability with the substrate and deliver multi-functional performance, such as wrinkle free, wear resistance, thermal stability and antimicrobial property.
Design/methodology/approach
High-performance SMP composite coatings or thin films were fabricated by a home-made continuous spray-deposition system. The morphologies of the coatings were studied using the scanning electron microscope and the transmission electron microscope. The abrasion properties were evaluated by Taber Abraser test, and thermo-gravimetric analysis was carried out to investigate the thermal properties of prepared composites. The antimicrobial property was determined by the inhibition zone method using E. coli. The thermally responsive shape memory effect of the resulting composites was also characterized.
Findings
The morphology analysis indicated that the nanoclay was distributed on the surface of the coating which resulted in a significant improvement of the wear property. The wear resistance of the coatings with nanoclay was improved as much as 40 per cent compared with that of the control sample. The thermo-gravimetric analysis revealed that the weight loss rate of composites with nanoclay was dropped over 40 per cent. The SMP coating with zinc oxide (ZnO) showed excellent antimicrobial effect. The shape recovery effect of SMP/nanoclay and SMP/ZnO composites can be triggered by external heating and the composites can reach a full shape recovery within 60 s.
Research limitations/implications
This study proposed a continuous spray-deposition fabrication of SMP composite coatings, which provides a new avenue to prepare novel multi-functional coatings with low cost.
Originality/value
Most studies have emphasized on the sole property of SMP composites. Herein, a novel SMP composite coating which could deliver multi-functionality such as wrinkle free, wear resistance, thermal stability and antimicrobial property was proposed.