Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2158596
Sahar Mousavi, S. Roper
ABSTRACT This study establishes the importance of considering both posters (interactive members) and lurkers (non-interactive members) for a clearer understanding of online brand communities. Based on organizational support theory and social identity theory, this study proposes a model a model that illustrates the impacts of perceived brand support in brands’ online communities upon members’ community identity and brand trust, leading to their positive behaviors toward the brand (i.e., purchase intention, resistance to negative information, and positive word of mouth) and how these effects differ between posters and lurkers. Using structural equation modeling, results reveal that in firm-hosted online brand communities, perceived brand support (i.e., recognizing contributions, encouraging interactions, and providing quality information) relates to members’ satisfaction by fulfilling their socioemotional needs (community identity) and increases their brand trust. Furthermore, multigroup analyses indicate significant differences in the paths to brand trust between posters and lurkers. Brand knowledge, providing quality information, and encouraging members to interact drive brand trust for lurkers. For posters, trust is driven by their sense of community identity and encouraging members to interact. This research advances the literature on online brand communities by shedding light on the scant knowledge of lurkers in online communities. It demonstrates how perceived support from brands can improve both posters’ and lurkers’ relationships with the community and the brand itself. The findings provide actionable managerial recommendations regarding how brands can manage their relationships with all members (both posters and lurkers) in their online communities.
{"title":"Enhancing Relationships Through Online Brand Communities: Comparing Posters and Lurkers","authors":"Sahar Mousavi, S. Roper","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2158596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2158596","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study establishes the importance of considering both posters (interactive members) and lurkers (non-interactive members) for a clearer understanding of online brand communities. Based on organizational support theory and social identity theory, this study proposes a model a model that illustrates the impacts of perceived brand support in brands’ online communities upon members’ community identity and brand trust, leading to their positive behaviors toward the brand (i.e., purchase intention, resistance to negative information, and positive word of mouth) and how these effects differ between posters and lurkers. Using structural equation modeling, results reveal that in firm-hosted online brand communities, perceived brand support (i.e., recognizing contributions, encouraging interactions, and providing quality information) relates to members’ satisfaction by fulfilling their socioemotional needs (community identity) and increases their brand trust. Furthermore, multigroup analyses indicate significant differences in the paths to brand trust between posters and lurkers. Brand knowledge, providing quality information, and encouraging members to interact drive brand trust for lurkers. For posters, trust is driven by their sense of community identity and encouraging members to interact. This research advances the literature on online brand communities by shedding light on the scant knowledge of lurkers in online communities. It demonstrates how perceived support from brands can improve both posters’ and lurkers’ relationships with the community and the brand itself. The findings provide actionable managerial recommendations regarding how brands can manage their relationships with all members (both posters and lurkers) in their online communities.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44601326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2158598
Haiyue Zhang, Xumei Zhang, B. Dan, Ronghua Sui
ABSTRACT When an online manufacturer suffers from demand reduction and product return caused by product fit uncertainty, it could display products in a retailer’s store to provide the chance for consumers to examine whether the product fits their needs. According to whether the product the retailer sells is noncompetitive or competitive, this study considers that there are cooperation and co-opetition strategies for the online manufacturer to realize an offline showroom partnership. In addition, the retailer would provide retail service for consumers who visit the store, while the service cost information is private. Thus, this study explores the optimal offline showroom partnership for an online manufacturer under information asymmetry. The results show that although partnering with a competitive retailer causes product competition, the online manufacturer would prefer the co-opetition strategy if (i) the competition intensity between the two products is low or (ii) the competition intensity is high and the cost to handle the returned product is low, and would prefer the cooperation strategy otherwise. Under the optimal strategy, the online manufacturer should design the contract according to the return handling cost. Nevertheless, the online manufacturer could set a higher price under the co-opetition strategy than that under the cooperation strategy. After comparing the online manufacturer’s optimal strategies and profits in different information environments, we find that product competition could reduce the online manufacturer’s profit loss caused by information asymmetry under certain conditions, and the online manufacturer with low return handling cost is more willing to adopt the co-opetition strategy under information asymmetry.
{"title":"Cooperation or Co-Opetition? Optimal Offline Showroom Partnership for an Online Manufacturer Under Information Asymmetry","authors":"Haiyue Zhang, Xumei Zhang, B. Dan, Ronghua Sui","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2158598","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2158598","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT When an online manufacturer suffers from demand reduction and product return caused by product fit uncertainty, it could display products in a retailer’s store to provide the chance for consumers to examine whether the product fits their needs. According to whether the product the retailer sells is noncompetitive or competitive, this study considers that there are cooperation and co-opetition strategies for the online manufacturer to realize an offline showroom partnership. In addition, the retailer would provide retail service for consumers who visit the store, while the service cost information is private. Thus, this study explores the optimal offline showroom partnership for an online manufacturer under information asymmetry. The results show that although partnering with a competitive retailer causes product competition, the online manufacturer would prefer the co-opetition strategy if (i) the competition intensity between the two products is low or (ii) the competition intensity is high and the cost to handle the returned product is low, and would prefer the cooperation strategy otherwise. Under the optimal strategy, the online manufacturer should design the contract according to the return handling cost. Nevertheless, the online manufacturer could set a higher price under the co-opetition strategy than that under the cooperation strategy. After comparing the online manufacturer’s optimal strategies and profits in different information environments, we find that product competition could reduce the online manufacturer’s profit loss caused by information asymmetry under certain conditions, and the online manufacturer with low return handling cost is more willing to adopt the co-opetition strategy under information asymmetry.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44832025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2158595
Yuan Liu, Yuzhu Zheng, June Wei, Yang Yang
ABSTRACT Big data has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges, prompting global firms to grow big data analytics (BDA) investments, especially in a turbulent business environment. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence in scholarly research on whether and how using BDA functions of various types creates business value. The current study divides BDA into inside-out and outside-in types and explores whether and how firms can create value by using functions of these two types of BDA. Then, the knowledge-based view (KBV) is applied as a theoretical foundation to investigate the independent and combined impacts of inside-out and outside-in BDA usage on firms’ sales performance. Furthermore, we build a quantile regression model to analyze the heterogeneity of independent and combined impacts among firms with different performance levels. The empirical study is based on a unique dataset collected on one of the largest electronic platforms (e-platforms) in China from 785 firms in 35 weeks. The results of the benchmark model based on two-way fixed effects show that both inside-out and outside-in BDA usage, as well as their interactions, are positively related to the sales performance of firms on e-platforms. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that inside-out (outside-in) BDA functions have a greater degree of impact on firms with lower (higher) sales performance. Through the theoretical and empirical analysis of the complex performance impacts of BDA usage, this study enriches the understanding of value creation in using multiple BDA functions and extends the theoretical account of KBV in the field of BDA.
{"title":"The Use of Inside-Out and Outside-In Big Data Analytics on E-Platforms: Performance Impacts and Heterogeneity Analysis","authors":"Yuan Liu, Yuzhu Zheng, June Wei, Yang Yang","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2158595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2158595","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Big data has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges, prompting global firms to grow big data analytics (BDA) investments, especially in a turbulent business environment. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence in scholarly research on whether and how using BDA functions of various types creates business value. The current study divides BDA into inside-out and outside-in types and explores whether and how firms can create value by using functions of these two types of BDA. Then, the knowledge-based view (KBV) is applied as a theoretical foundation to investigate the independent and combined impacts of inside-out and outside-in BDA usage on firms’ sales performance. Furthermore, we build a quantile regression model to analyze the heterogeneity of independent and combined impacts among firms with different performance levels. The empirical study is based on a unique dataset collected on one of the largest electronic platforms (e-platforms) in China from 785 firms in 35 weeks. The results of the benchmark model based on two-way fixed effects show that both inside-out and outside-in BDA usage, as well as their interactions, are positively related to the sales performance of firms on e-platforms. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that inside-out (outside-in) BDA functions have a greater degree of impact on firms with lower (higher) sales performance. Through the theoretical and empirical analysis of the complex performance impacts of BDA usage, this study enriches the understanding of value creation in using multiple BDA functions and extends the theoretical account of KBV in the field of BDA.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48133575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-26DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2158594
Joni O. Salminen, B. Jansen, M. Mustak
ABSTRACT Businesses are increasingly delegating activities in the advertising process to dominant online advertising platforms. This delegation yields the ad platforms tremendous power, akin to the principal–agent dilemma discussed in economics. One of the major platforms is called Google Ads—this platform is the focal point of our study. Over the years, Google has made substantial changes to its platform’s features, which, in turn, govern what is possible and what is not for the advertisers. These changes impact the advertisers’ ability to act independently and make their own choices, referred to as human agency. To better understand this impact, we examined 362 industry news articles reporting changes in Google Ads from 2015 to 2020. The findings indicate that while most changes increase human agency, this effect is becoming weaker over time, driven by automation. To better understand advertisers’ attitudes towards automation, we surveyed 193 advertisers with Google Ads experience. Contrary to the popular belief that marketers are afraid of being replaced by algorithms, we found this to not be the case. Even though most advertisers indicated appreciation for maintaining their human agency, they did not perceive this agency being violated by the ad platform. However, we did observe interesting variability among respondents, reflected in three computational advertising attitude types: tinkerers, instrumentalists, and shepherds. We discuss the implications for advertisers in terms of strategizing in the face of reduced human agency and for ad platforms in terms of designing features that advertisers perceive as fair.
{"title":"How Feature Changes of a Dominant Ad Platform Shape Advertisers’ Human Agency","authors":"Joni O. Salminen, B. Jansen, M. Mustak","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2158594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2158594","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Businesses are increasingly delegating activities in the advertising process to dominant online advertising platforms. This delegation yields the ad platforms tremendous power, akin to the principal–agent dilemma discussed in economics. One of the major platforms is called Google Ads—this platform is the focal point of our study. Over the years, Google has made substantial changes to its platform’s features, which, in turn, govern what is possible and what is not for the advertisers. These changes impact the advertisers’ ability to act independently and make their own choices, referred to as human agency. To better understand this impact, we examined 362 industry news articles reporting changes in Google Ads from 2015 to 2020. The findings indicate that while most changes increase human agency, this effect is becoming weaker over time, driven by automation. To better understand advertisers’ attitudes towards automation, we surveyed 193 advertisers with Google Ads experience. Contrary to the popular belief that marketers are afraid of being replaced by algorithms, we found this to not be the case. Even though most advertisers indicated appreciation for maintaining their human agency, they did not perceive this agency being violated by the ad platform. However, we did observe interesting variability among respondents, reflected in three computational advertising attitude types: tinkerers, instrumentalists, and shepherds. We discuss the implications for advertisers in terms of strategizing in the face of reduced human agency and for ad platforms in terms of designing features that advertisers perceive as fair.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41427026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2123643
Vladimir Zwass
Much of the power of the Internet derives from the capability it furnishes for collective action. Thus, people may deploy the Internet–Web in the realm of politics, notably in a bottom-up aggregation for organization and continuing activity of collectives of a great variety of sizes, organizations, and objectives. Such power is also reflected in social commerce and in the collective co-creation of economic value. Internet-based collective action is supported by myriad social networks and allied systems that help produce the value and may disrupt the existing value webs, existing economic arrangements, and—as in a number of cases—the existing social order. Notably, economic value may be co-created by the innovation and knowledge-sharing communities, ranging from those autonomously acting on behalf of independent contributors, to the communities sponsored by brands and involving the users of their products. Two articles opening the present issue of the International Journal of Electronic Commerce investigate the operation of such communities. In the first of these, Qingfeng Zeng, Lanlan Zhang, Qian Guo, Wei Zhuang, and Weiguo Fan present their empirical study of the factors that influence the idea selection in a community sponsored by a major manufacturer of mobile phones. Grounding themselves in persuasion theory, the authors deploy a large database of user ideas to determine the factors that led to the selection of some of those for adoption. Notable here, among other factors, is the role of the emotion expressed along with a proposed idea. The results will help in developing a disciplined, and partly automated, selection process, including debiasing in the cases when one of the tangential factors would cloud the selection of a worthy idea. The quality of the selected ideas depends, of course, on the pool of ideas to select from. This is, in turn, conditioned in the first place by the participation of users in the open innovation community. In the next article, Sohaib Mustafa and Wen Zhang present an empirical study of user participation in technical versus nontechnical questions-andanswers communities. The authors deploy the technique of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to surface the conditions for maximum participation. The revealed conditions are overlapping, yet different, for these two types of communities. However, in both cases social interaction is key to building and sustaining them. As said at the opening of this introduction, the power of the Internet is to a large degree in collective action. The default settings have great power, often insidious as they are unrecognized, in many virtual halls and corners of computing in general, and e-commerce in particular. They remain very often unchanged, to the chagrin of security experts and firms that employ them. Here, Efthalia Dimara, Emmanouela Manganari, Evangelos Mourelatos, and Nikos Michos empirically study the differential effects of three potential defaults in receiving (or
{"title":"Editor’s Introduction","authors":"Vladimir Zwass","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2123643","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2123643","url":null,"abstract":"Much of the power of the Internet derives from the capability it furnishes for collective action. Thus, people may deploy the Internet–Web in the realm of politics, notably in a bottom-up aggregation for organization and continuing activity of collectives of a great variety of sizes, organizations, and objectives. Such power is also reflected in social commerce and in the collective co-creation of economic value. Internet-based collective action is supported by myriad social networks and allied systems that help produce the value and may disrupt the existing value webs, existing economic arrangements, and—as in a number of cases—the existing social order. Notably, economic value may be co-created by the innovation and knowledge-sharing communities, ranging from those autonomously acting on behalf of independent contributors, to the communities sponsored by brands and involving the users of their products. Two articles opening the present issue of the International Journal of Electronic Commerce investigate the operation of such communities. In the first of these, Qingfeng Zeng, Lanlan Zhang, Qian Guo, Wei Zhuang, and Weiguo Fan present their empirical study of the factors that influence the idea selection in a community sponsored by a major manufacturer of mobile phones. Grounding themselves in persuasion theory, the authors deploy a large database of user ideas to determine the factors that led to the selection of some of those for adoption. Notable here, among other factors, is the role of the emotion expressed along with a proposed idea. The results will help in developing a disciplined, and partly automated, selection process, including debiasing in the cases when one of the tangential factors would cloud the selection of a worthy idea. The quality of the selected ideas depends, of course, on the pool of ideas to select from. This is, in turn, conditioned in the first place by the participation of users in the open innovation community. In the next article, Sohaib Mustafa and Wen Zhang present an empirical study of user participation in technical versus nontechnical questions-andanswers communities. The authors deploy the technique of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to surface the conditions for maximum participation. The revealed conditions are overlapping, yet different, for these two types of communities. However, in both cases social interaction is key to building and sustaining them. As said at the opening of this introduction, the power of the Internet is to a large degree in collective action. The default settings have great power, often insidious as they are unrecognized, in many virtual halls and corners of computing in general, and e-commerce in particular. They remain very often unchanged, to the chagrin of security experts and firms that employ them. Here, Efthalia Dimara, Emmanouela Manganari, Evangelos Mourelatos, and Nikos Michos empirically study the differential effects of three potential defaults in receiving (or ","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49661771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2123646
Emmanouela E. Manganari, Evangelos Mourelatos, Nikos Michos, Efthalia Dimara
ABSTRACT Opt-in, opt-out, and forced choice are the three policies most frequently used to engage consumers’ willingness to receive e-mail communication. This research examines the effectiveness and the persistence of these policies in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication, while the effects of consumer mood and personality traits are embedded in the research framework. Three experiments served as the vehicle for data collection. Interaction effects between the default policies and consumer mood and personality traits are examined using logit and multiple regression models. Results show that opt-out is more effective than opt-in and forced choice in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication. Interestingly, opt-in is the most effective policy in engaging a more permanent consumer consent. Although negative mood results in a higher consumer consent rate for e-mail notifications, positive mood results in a higher consent rate for future engagement. Higher levels of neuroticism lead to higher willingness to receive e-mail notifications, but higher extraversion leads to higher future engagement. The article contributes to the literature on defaults, mood, and personality traits. The findings advance the theory and have important managerial implications.
{"title":"Harnessing the Power of Defaults Now and Forever? The Effects of Mood and Personality","authors":"Emmanouela E. Manganari, Evangelos Mourelatos, Nikos Michos, Efthalia Dimara","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2123646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2123646","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Opt-in, opt-out, and forced choice are the three policies most frequently used to engage consumers’ willingness to receive e-mail communication. This research examines the effectiveness and the persistence of these policies in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication, while the effects of consumer mood and personality traits are embedded in the research framework. Three experiments served as the vehicle for data collection. Interaction effects between the default policies and consumer mood and personality traits are examined using logit and multiple regression models. Results show that opt-out is more effective than opt-in and forced choice in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication. Interestingly, opt-in is the most effective policy in engaging a more permanent consumer consent. Although negative mood results in a higher consumer consent rate for e-mail notifications, positive mood results in a higher consent rate for future engagement. Higher levels of neuroticism lead to higher willingness to receive e-mail notifications, but higher extraversion leads to higher future engagement. The article contributes to the literature on defaults, mood, and personality traits. The findings advance the theory and have important managerial implications.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46887529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2123647
D. Brylla, G. Walsh
ABSTRACT Online retailers assume that customers expect speedy delivery. To ensure that customers receive at least part of the order sooner, they often split deliveries into smaller quantities, spread out over different dates. Yet split deliveries may increase customers’ hassle costs, such that they have to receive multiple deliveries, as well as their perceptions of environmental harms due to more packaging and transportation. Three experiments and a field study test how delivery speed and split (vs. consolidated) deliveries affect key customer outcomes. In the case of split deliveries, faster delivery does not affect customers’ order completion, satisfaction, and word of mouth (Study 1); only when the deliveries are consolidated does faster delivery enhance them, and then only partially. Split deliveries also negatively affect the three outcomes more powerfully when the deliveries are fast (vs. slow) (Study 2). Study 3 reveals that the effects are mediated by perceived hassle costs and environmental impacts. Study 4, using apparel sales transaction data from a U.S. online retailer, shows that split (vs. consolidated) deliveries decrease the number of repeat purchases. These results carry important theoretical implications, as they show that delivery speed matters only under certain conditions and that rather the delivery mode (split vs. consolidated) may be a key unexplored factor associated with customer hassle costs and environmental concerns. The results are practically relevant because they suggest that retailers should not split deliveries to increase delivery speed; instead, shipments of multi-item orders should be consolidated to make receiving them hassle-free with environmentally friendly delivery in order to achieve positive customer outcomes.
{"title":"When Faster Online Delivery Backfires: Examining the Negative Consequences of Split Deliveries","authors":"D. Brylla, G. Walsh","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2123647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2123647","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Online retailers assume that customers expect speedy delivery. To ensure that customers receive at least part of the order sooner, they often split deliveries into smaller quantities, spread out over different dates. Yet split deliveries may increase customers’ hassle costs, such that they have to receive multiple deliveries, as well as their perceptions of environmental harms due to more packaging and transportation. Three experiments and a field study test how delivery speed and split (vs. consolidated) deliveries affect key customer outcomes. In the case of split deliveries, faster delivery does not affect customers’ order completion, satisfaction, and word of mouth (Study 1); only when the deliveries are consolidated does faster delivery enhance them, and then only partially. Split deliveries also negatively affect the three outcomes more powerfully when the deliveries are fast (vs. slow) (Study 2). Study 3 reveals that the effects are mediated by perceived hassle costs and environmental impacts. Study 4, using apparel sales transaction data from a U.S. online retailer, shows that split (vs. consolidated) deliveries decrease the number of repeat purchases. These results carry important theoretical implications, as they show that delivery speed matters only under certain conditions and that rather the delivery mode (split vs. consolidated) may be a key unexplored factor associated with customer hassle costs and environmental concerns. The results are practically relevant because they suggest that retailers should not split deliveries to increase delivery speed; instead, shipments of multi-item orders should be consolidated to make receiving them hassle-free with environmentally friendly delivery in order to achieve positive customer outcomes.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48562426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2123648
Qi Fu, Gaoyan Lyu
ABSTRACT We study platform competition in two-sided markets, where consumers value not only the number of providers on the other side of platforms but also their quality. In this context, enhancing provider quality is critical in the competition, and platforms may incentivize high-quality providers to join the platforms with a subsidy. The article examines a two-stage competition game between two platforms who decide their quality-based subsidization strategy and access fees charged to both sides of the platforms. We derive the equilibrium outcomes of the two competing platforms under different subsidization strategy scenarios, and provide insights on the impact of subsidization on platforms’ pricing, network sizes, quality, profits, and social welfare in a competitive setting. Our study shows that in competitive environment, subsidization is a double-edged sword that can lead to a prisoner’s dilemma for platforms, despite quality improvement. We also find that while subsidization has a positive quality effect that always increases consumer surplus, it may hurt provider surplus if the same-side competition effect among providers is too strong, which negatively affects provider surplus and may drive out low-quality providers under subsidization. As a consequence, the total social welfare also hinges on the provider side competition intensity.
{"title":"Competition Between Two-Sided Platforms With Quality-Based Subsidization","authors":"Qi Fu, Gaoyan Lyu","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2123648","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2123648","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We study platform competition in two-sided markets, where consumers value not only the number of providers on the other side of platforms but also their quality. In this context, enhancing provider quality is critical in the competition, and platforms may incentivize high-quality providers to join the platforms with a subsidy. The article examines a two-stage competition game between two platforms who decide their quality-based subsidization strategy and access fees charged to both sides of the platforms. We derive the equilibrium outcomes of the two competing platforms under different subsidization strategy scenarios, and provide insights on the impact of subsidization on platforms’ pricing, network sizes, quality, profits, and social welfare in a competitive setting. Our study shows that in competitive environment, subsidization is a double-edged sword that can lead to a prisoner’s dilemma for platforms, despite quality improvement. We also find that while subsidization has a positive quality effect that always increases consumer surplus, it may hurt provider surplus if the same-side competition effect among providers is too strong, which negatively affects provider surplus and may drive out low-quality providers under subsidization. As a consequence, the total social welfare also hinges on the provider side competition intensity.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43352042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2123645
Sohaib Mustafa, Wen Zhang
ABSTRACT Low user participation in online questions-and-answers (Q&A) communities to contribute knowledge is a serious threat to the sustainability of online forums. This subject is rarely addressed in the context of content shared at these forums. Furthermore, no study has introduced solutions to reduce low participation exclusively considering participants’ age, gender, and education level. User participation in the online question and answer (Q&A) communities to contribute knowledge was mostly examined by applying variance-based methodologies using primary and secondary datasets. This study has targeted the asymmetrical relationship between variables to achieve users’ participation in technical and nontechnical knowledge-sharing communities. We have collected valid responses, 382 from nontechnical and 395 from technical knowledge-sharing communities, and applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to get various equally effective configurations. These configurations explain maximum users’ participation in sharing knowledge in online Q&A communities. fsQCA results have also revealed that to achieve maximum user participation and knowledge contribution in technical knowledge-sharing communities, a sense of reciprocation and online social interaction are the necessary conditions, whereas for nontechnical knowledge-sharing communities, online social interaction is the necessary condition. Study findings are important for online Q&A community managers to minimize low user participation and achieve maximum knowledge contribution in online communities.
{"title":"How to Achieve Maximum Participation of Users in Technical Versus Nontechnical Online Q&A Communities?","authors":"Sohaib Mustafa, Wen Zhang","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2123645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2123645","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Low user participation in online questions-and-answers (Q&A) communities to contribute knowledge is a serious threat to the sustainability of online forums. This subject is rarely addressed in the context of content shared at these forums. Furthermore, no study has introduced solutions to reduce low participation exclusively considering participants’ age, gender, and education level. User participation in the online question and answer (Q&A) communities to contribute knowledge was mostly examined by applying variance-based methodologies using primary and secondary datasets. This study has targeted the asymmetrical relationship between variables to achieve users’ participation in technical and nontechnical knowledge-sharing communities. We have collected valid responses, 382 from nontechnical and 395 from technical knowledge-sharing communities, and applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to get various equally effective configurations. These configurations explain maximum users’ participation in sharing knowledge in online Q&A communities. fsQCA results have also revealed that to achieve maximum user participation and knowledge contribution in technical knowledge-sharing communities, a sense of reciprocation and online social interaction are the necessary conditions, whereas for nontechnical knowledge-sharing communities, online social interaction is the necessary condition. Study findings are important for online Q&A community managers to minimize low user participation and achieve maximum knowledge contribution in online communities.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46014871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2022.2123644
Qingfeng Zeng, Lanlan Zhang, Qian Guo, Zhuang Wei, Weiguo Fan
ABSTRACT It is becoming an important innovation strategy for firms to gather the user-idea extensively through open innovation communities (OICs). However, screening out valuable ideas from massive user ideas in an OIC is a huge challenge for the firm. It is very important to identify the relevant factors that influence user-idea selection. Drawing upon persuasion theory, we develop a conceptual model integrating idea quality characteristics, idea contributor characteristics, and idea emotion characteristics to explain the likelihood of idea selection, using 23,165 user ideas in the MIUI Community hosted by Xiaomi, a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer ranked among the Fortune Global 500. The empirical results show that these characteristics variables have significant impacts on user-idea selection. Specifically, the length of the idea and title has an inverted U-shaped relationship with idea selection. The emotions contained in user ideas have a significant positive impact on idea selection, and user attention negatively moderates the relationship between emotion and idea selection. This study contributes to the user co-creation literature by offering a persuasion perspective to explain user-idea selection in OICs. It also offers novel insights for building reasonable rules in OICs to guide user behavior for managers.
{"title":"Factors Influencing User-Idea Selection in Open Innovation Communities","authors":"Qingfeng Zeng, Lanlan Zhang, Qian Guo, Zhuang Wei, Weiguo Fan","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2022.2123644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2022.2123644","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT It is becoming an important innovation strategy for firms to gather the user-idea extensively through open innovation communities (OICs). However, screening out valuable ideas from massive user ideas in an OIC is a huge challenge for the firm. It is very important to identify the relevant factors that influence user-idea selection. Drawing upon persuasion theory, we develop a conceptual model integrating idea quality characteristics, idea contributor characteristics, and idea emotion characteristics to explain the likelihood of idea selection, using 23,165 user ideas in the MIUI Community hosted by Xiaomi, a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer ranked among the Fortune Global 500. The empirical results show that these characteristics variables have significant impacts on user-idea selection. Specifically, the length of the idea and title has an inverted U-shaped relationship with idea selection. The emotions contained in user ideas have a significant positive impact on idea selection, and user attention negatively moderates the relationship between emotion and idea selection. This study contributes to the user co-creation literature by offering a persuasion perspective to explain user-idea selection in OICs. It also offers novel insights for building reasonable rules in OICs to guide user behavior for managers.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45607399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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