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1 – 10 of 242Matthew K.O. Lee, Christy M.K. Cheung, Kai H. Lim and Choon Ling Sia
The proliferation and advance of web‐based technologies create expanded opportunities for retailers to gain a better understanding of their customers. However, the success of…
Abstract
Purpose
The proliferation and advance of web‐based technologies create expanded opportunities for retailers to gain a better understanding of their customers. However, the success of these web‐based discussion boards depends solely on whether customers are willing to share their knowledge and experience with other customers in these discussion boards. Thus, this study aims at identifying the factors that drive knowledge sharing among customers in web‐based discussion boards.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory study with 104 respondents was conducted to identify and categorize the key factors of customer knowledge sharing in web‐based discussion boards.
Findings
The results indicate that the enjoyment of helping others is the most frequently cited reason for customer knowledge sharing in web‐based discussion boards. On the other hand, the lack of knowledge self‐efficacy is the mostly cited reason explaining why customers do not want to share knowledge with others.
Research limitations/implications
The exploratory analysis suggests that the underlying reasons that motivate and inhibit customers to share are very different. There is a need to integrate multiple theoretical perspectives from across the social and technical domains if this phenomenon is to be better understood.
Practical implications
Building upon the findings of this study, some generic guidelines for retailers and web designers for promoting customer sharing in web‐based discussion boards are outlined.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first studies to use the socio‐technical perspective to investigate customer knowledge sharing phenomena in web‐based discussion boards.
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Huifang Li, Yulin Fang, Youwei Wang, Kai H. Lim and Liang Liang
In the competitive e-marketplace today, sellers are using an increasing number of signals to entice customers to make online purchases. However, how differential these signals are…
Abstract
Purpose
In the competitive e-marketplace today, sellers are using an increasing number of signals to entice customers to make online purchases. However, how differential these signals are in terms of their capacity to improve sales performance has not yet been investigated. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on signaling theory and grounded in the context of China’s largest e-marketplace, Taobao, this study investigated the different effects of five commonly used signals on the sales performance of e-marketplace sellers.
Findings
The authors find that warranty has the highest effect on sales performance, followed by overall rating, mean detailed seller rating, percent of positives, and web site quality.
Originality/value
First, this study builds on signaling theory and contributes to the e-marketplace literature by providing new insights into how specific signals differentially affect sales performance in the e-marketplace (with evidence from a large-scale empirical analysis). Second, the study extends the applicability of signaling theory to the e-marketplace domain by incorporating distinctive features of the e-marketplace into the original signaling theory. Finally, the findings lend practical support to e-marketplace sellers’ investment decisions on signals and provide guidelines for deployment of such signals.
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Carmen M. Sabiote, Dolores M. Frías and J. Alberto Castañeda
The aim of this study is to analyze differences in the overall perceived value of a service purchased online, and the consequences for international consumer behavior, taking…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to analyze differences in the overall perceived value of a service purchased online, and the consequences for international consumer behavior, taking consumers' uncertainty avoidance as a moderating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was administered to 300 international consumers (150 British and 150 Spanish) who had purchased a service via the internet. SEM was chosen to analyze the effect of uncertainty avoidance on the formation of overall perceived value.
Findings
The results reveal that in the formation of overall perceived value – which embraces both the online purchase and also enjoyment of the service – uncertainty avoidance has a moderating effect.
Research limitations/implications
In this study just two cultures were to analyze the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance on an overall perceived value model.
Practical implications
The paper helps in understanding the role played by uncertainty avoidance in interactions with web‐based businesses.
Originality/value
This paper represents an advance in the study of overall perceived value. It explores how overall perceived value is formed when the entire purchasing process is taken into account, and the variations that occur in this process depending on whether it relates to Spanish or British consumers.
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Ha Minh Vu, Hing Kai Chan, Ming K. Lim and Anthony S.F. Chiu
The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measure business sustainability in food service operations. The main objectives are to understand the concepts of business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measure business sustainability in food service operations. The main objectives are to understand the concepts of business sustainability and, after constructing a framework based on a literature review, to assess the relation between the proposed framework and the empirical case study in a fast food retailer chain.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to examine the applicability of the proposed framework, focus group interview and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Additionally, some other secondary data such as official websites or company reports were also used to support the interview results.
Findings
Finding of the research result has shown most of the factors of business sustainability employed to measure sustainability food service operations are supported.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by showing that environmental and social sustainability are significantly recognized in the corporation. More importantly, through the data analysis, a new factor of social sustainability, namely, community contribution has been found. The contribution of this paper is certainly applicable to other food service operations who wish to achieve a good degree of business sustainability.
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Kai-Qi Yuan, Hui Li, Sai Liang and Qian-Xia Chen
The impact of a mixture of positive and negative media coverage on long-run hotel survival remains unknown. This paper aims to investigate how the mixed positive and negative…
Abstract
Purpose
The impact of a mixture of positive and negative media coverage on long-run hotel survival remains unknown. This paper aims to investigate how the mixed positive and negative media coverage, namely, inconsistent media coverage, influences long-run hotel survival.
Design/methodology/approach
A yearly panel data set covering 792 news-reported hotels in Guangdong province of China, over the period 2010–2020, is analyzed using an inconsistency analysis framework consisting of text mining and survival analysis. The estimates of exponential models on the same observations and Cox estimates on alternative observations are used for robustness checks.
Findings
The inconsistency calculation method proposed here can measure the controversy degree well. There exists a U-shaped relationship between inconsistency of media coverage and hotel longevity, and hotel survival is significantly reduced only when the degree of inconsistency is within the range of 17.8%–53.6%. The U-shaped relationship is moderated by negative hotel image and by online media coverage on hotel operation strategy topics.
Practical implications
This study provides suggestions for hotel managers to use media coverage inconsistency to increase long-run hotel survival in the digital era.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first to investigate long-run hotel survival factors from the perspective of media coverage inconsistency. It also proposes a method to calculate the degree of media coverage controversy, which helps to quantify the relationship between the degree of inconsistency and hotel survival.
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Explores the extent of employee surveillance in the western world and queries why the USA uses surveillance measures to a greater extent than other developed nations. Suggests…
Abstract
Explores the extent of employee surveillance in the western world and queries why the USA uses surveillance measures to a greater extent than other developed nations. Suggests that American managers choose surveillance methods which include the control of workers’ bodies in the production process. Lists the batteries of tests and monitoring to which US employees can now be subjected – including searching employee computer files, voice/e‐mail, monitoring telephone calls, drug tests, alcohol tests, criminal record checks, lie detector and handwriting tests. Notes also the companies which are opposed to worker and consumer privacy rights. Pinpoints the use of surveillance as a means to ensure that employees do not withold production. Reports that employees dislike monitoring and that it may adversely affect their performance and productivity. Argues that Americans like to address complex social problems with technological means, there are no data protection laws in the USA, and that these two factors, combined with the “employment‐at‐will” doctrine, have all contributed to make it possible (and easy) for employers to use technological surveillance of their workforce. Outlines some of the ways employers insist on the purification of workers’ bodies.
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There are times when the present state of an organisation cannot be fully appreciated without reference to the past. This is certainly true of Singapore International Airlines.
Kai-Xiang Sun, Keng-Boon Ooi, Garry Wei-Han Tan and Voon-Hsien Lee
This research examines the relationships between the components of supply chain integration (SCI) (i.e. internal integration (INI), customer integration (CI) and supplier…
Abstract
Purpose
This research examines the relationships between the components of supply chain integration (SCI) (i.e. internal integration (INI), customer integration (CI) and supplier integration (SI)), supply chain risk management (SCRM) and supply chain resilience (SCRE), with disruption impact (DI) as the moderator, among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
271 useable data were collected from Chinese SMEs to test the research model with two statistical approaches of PLS-SEM and ANN analysis.
Findings
Results show that SCI (i.e. INI, CI and SI) positively affects SCRM, and subsequently affects SCRE. Moreover, SCRM has also been found to fully mediate the relationship between INI, CI and SI with SCRE. Additionally, DI was also found to moderate the relationship between SCRM and SCRE.
Research limitations/implications
This study expands the supply chain management-related knowledge by empirically validating the mediating role of SCRM between the elements of SCI and SCRE, as well as empirically identifying DI as the moderator between SCRM and SCRE.
Practical implications
The findings offer valuable understanding that can guide SME managers, owners and stakeholders in developing strategies for integrating with customers, suppliers and internal departments, as well as implementing SCRM practices to enhance SCRE performance.
Originality/value
The research expands the existing literature on the elements of SCI and SCRM in maintaining SCRE from an Asian developing country's perspective.
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Chunxiao Yin, Yongqiang Sun, Yulin Fang and Kai Lim
Although microblogs have become an important information source, the credibility of their postings is still a critical concern due to the open and unregulated nature. To…
Abstract
Purpose
Although microblogs have become an important information source, the credibility of their postings is still a critical concern due to the open and unregulated nature. To understand the antecedents of microblog information credibility, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the dual-role of cognitive heuristics (i.e. the additivity and bias roles) and the effect of gender differences.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data via an online field survey of active microblog users, and a total of 204 valid responses was received.
Findings
This study demonstrates the dual-role of source credibility and vividness, the additivity role of microblog platform credibility, and the bias role of social endorsement. Furthermore, this study also found out gender difference that the additivity role of cognitive heuristics was stronger for men while bias role was stronger for women.
Research limitations/implications
This research enriches the microblog literature by examining the cognitive heuristic determinants as key predictors of microblog information credibility, and contributes to the information credibility literature by identifying and analyzing the dual-role effect of cognitive heuristics and corresponding gender differences.
Practical implications
This study can help organizations better manage their reputation, especially during the reputation crises, and also serves as a reminder to microblog platform operators of the importance of their microblog platform credibility.
Social implications
This study can help organizations better manage their reputation, especially during the reputation crises, and serves as a reminder to the microblog platform operators of the importance of their microblog platform credibility.
Originality/value
This study investigates the dual-role effect of cognitive heuristics (i.e. the additivity role and bias role) and corresponding gender differences that are less touched on before, and thus provides a more nuanced understanding of the more complex effects of cognitive heuristics.
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