Electronic Commerce Research最新文献

One of the impacts of the COVID pandemic has been to force people to find alternates sources for daily supplies, turning to online to offline (O2O) platforms. The service quality of the O2O platform naturally affects the satisfaction which in turn has an impact on customer retention. The aim of this study is to evaluate the service quality of O2O platform to find strategies to improve consumer satisfaction. This study proposed a hybrid RS-DANP-CoCoSo model, which applies the rough set (RS) method to obtain the factors which influence the service quality of O2O platforms. The Analytic Network Process based on the Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method (DANP) is applied to obtain the relationships and weights of the factors. The results indicate that empathy, social interaction and recommendation quality are the three most important factors. The practicability of our evaluation model is verified using the combined compromise solution (CoCoSo) method to evaluate the service quality of four O2O platforms in China. The hybrid model proposed in this study is applied to evaluate and diagnose online consumer satisfaction levels, providing personalized solutions for merchants to improve services. Finally, management implications based on the findings are also discussed.

Abstract

Rural e-commerce promotes the rapid development of the rural economy with advanced digital technology. Digital dividend attracts farmers to participate in rural e-commerce entrepreneurial activities. Using the survey data of Taobao villages in China, this study examines the impact of social capital on farmers’ participation in e-commerce entrepreneurship. The results show that social capital has a positive effect on farmers’ e-commerce entrepreneurial behavior. Additionally, different dimensions of social capital have different impacts on farmers’ e-commerce entrepreneurship. The impact of social networks and social norms on farmers’ e-commerce entrepreneurship is greater than that of social trust and social participation. The higher the educational level of farmers, the more pronounced the influence of social networks on their e-commerce entrepreneurial behavior. Moreover, we find that social capital influences farmers’ e-commerce entrepreneurship by enhancing the information capability of farmers. Information capability plays a partial mediating role in the impact of social networks and social norms on farmers’ e-commerce entrepreneurial behavior, and plays a complete mediating role in the impact of social participation. Our study emphasizes farmers’ social capital plays an important role in expanding information channels and promoting farmers’ participation in e-commerce, which provides valuable references for other countries and regions to develop rural e-commerce.

This paper explores how a region in a developing country can trigger and strengthen the positive impacts of the Internet on farmers’ income, using the case of flower and tree industry cluster in Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province, China. It finds that the combination of macro-level Internet popularization, micro-level Internet use, and local endowment conditions triggers the effect of the Internet on increasing farmers’ income. The case also shows that the continuous enhancement of this effect is essentially because internal supply can adapt to the continuous online migration of external demand and make creative adjustments, thereby achieving the cumulative fit of internal supply and external demand. This study can provide empirical evidence from China for the digital dividend issue in rural areas of developing countries, and provide a reference for developing countries to promote the role of the Internet in empowering farmers and increasing their incomes.

Abstract

Since customers’ demands usually exhibit a greater degree of diversity and personalization, and suppliers’ service capacity fluctuates dynamically, the disruptions of service supply chain (SSC) will occur when focal firm cannot find appropriate suppliers that completely meet customers’ requirements at specific time and place. To address this challenge, a novel SSC resource orchestration mechanism has been proposed based on large-scale researches on Chinese service enterprises. From the theoretical lens of viability supply chain framework and resource orchestration theory, the process of service suppliers reconstructing their capabilities has been scrutinized. On this basis, this study formulates the optimization model for SSC configuration which captures a trade-off between profitability and service quality, and adopts the improved NSGA-II algorithm to solve the bi-objective optimization model. For verification and validation of the proposed mechanism and algorithm, the presented methodology has been applied in a real-business case of a Chinese leading transportation technologies consulting service enterprise. This study demonstrates that a more flexible and profitable SSC can be reached in the changing business environment through the reconstruction of suppliers’ capability and the reconfiguration of the entire supply chain. Besides, all the participants can benefit from the configuration schemes since the interest-sharing strategy has been considered in the optimization model.

This paper optimized the e-commerce live streaming atmospheric cues scale and then used the SOR model to study the impact of atmospheric cues on consumers' impulse buying behaviors while considering the mediating role of social presence. Questionnaires were collected from consumers with e-commerce live streaming shopping experience, and Mplus 7.4 was utilized for analyzing the measurement model and structural models. We optimized the existing atmospheric cues scales by adding interactive cues, music design, and other elements to better measure the atmospheric cues in e-commerce live streaming. The findings confirm the reliability and validity of the e-commerce live streaming atmospheric cues scale, comprised of four dimensions: information, navigation, design, and interactive cues. Additionally, information, design, and interactive cues were positively associated with consumers' impulse buying behaviors, while the mediating role of social presence partially explains these relationships. However, the relationship of navigation cues on impulse buying behaviors is not significant. This optimized scale provides a valuable measurement tool for measuring atmospheric cues in future research. Furthermore, the empirical study sheds light on the antecedents of impulse buying behaviors by examining the impact of atmospheric cues and the mediating role of social presence. The results offer practical suggestions for e-commerce live streaming operators to increase consumer purchases: (1) Optimize the design cues by carefully designing colors and layout, appropriately using and coordinating colors and lighting, and playing suitable background music. (2) Provide diversified and personalized information by enhancing the professionalism of the broadcasters and promptly addressing viewer questions from the bullet chat. (3) Actively engage consumers by inviting them to participate in the live streaming sessions, creating an immersive shopping experience.

Considering the increasing inclination of modern consumers to frequent large retail chains capable of promptly fulfilling their diverse needs, there is a noticeable surge in the prevalence of contemporary shopping complexes. Subscription services, customer-focused strategies, and efficient supply management are driving the progression of intelligent commerce within these expansive retail platforms. The Internet of Things (IoT) presents the foundation for “smart” retailers that can monitor inventory levels, diminish equipment failures, and provide better customer experience. Many models, as one of the widely used methods in this domain, Markov Logic Network (MLN), can simultaneously use activity knowledge and data by unifying probability and logic. In this research, we determine a smart deals system (SDS), consider the improved machine learning algorithms to meet performance, and develop secure human-centric consumer applications to render the system workable. From the results, and based on the percentage of efficiency, around 10% of clients are connected randomly, which has a minor impact on the outcomes from LR (logistic regression). Similar outcomes are delivered when the number of customers in the scope of 30–40% is connected for NB (Naive Bayes). Hence, prospective shopping sales will increase along with the efficiency and speed at which it operates.

In the realm of smart homes, a smart speaker functions as the central control hub, seamlessly connecting platforms, consumers, and manufacturers. The emerging smart home platforms such as T-Mall and Amazon face the trade-off between quality investment of such IoT product which exhibits two-sided network externalities as well as expanding the smart ecosystem. This paper first extracts consumers’ functional preferences from online review data and then constructs an analytical model based on two-sided market to explore the interplay between quality investment and two-sided pricing decisions. This paper carries out a full analysis of three distinct settings: monopoly, duopoly, and partial multihoming. The conclusions indicate that when one side benefits from network externalities, the platform should not reduce the charges to the other side; In cases where consumers are single-homing while manufacturers are multihoming, the platform can subsidize both sides and reap commission revenues. However, in multihoming scenarios, the interdependence between the platform's two sides diminishes, rendering the subsidy strategy potentially inefficient. The success of this strategy hinges on consumers' varying preferences for standalone value and ecosystem effect. This research enriches two-sided market theory and furnishes practical guidance for platforms navigating quality investment and pricing decisions within the smart home industry.

Retail is one of the sectors that Metaverse will strongly implicate. Given the hypothetical convergence of physical and the Metaverse shopping experiences, retailers in grocery segment must identify and forecast opportunities and emerging challenges to achieve a competitive advantage with appropriate marketing strategies. By anchoring in the brick-and-mortar context, the present paper discusses the sources of competitive advantage for grocery segment retailers in the Metaverse, highlighting differences and similarities with the traditional retail context. Moreover, following a marketing perspective, a research agenda is presented, looking at the retail sources of competitive advantage in the Metaverse.

The popularity of live-streaming (LS) has enforced a great number of e-retailers to introduce such an emerging e-commerce mode. Considering the potential benefits brought by LS e-commerce and the various modes for introducing such a strategy, this study examines three possible modes of LS in a competitive context, namely without LS, third-party LS, and self-run LS. By using a stylized game-theoretical model, we explore the impacts of such a selling strategy on both online and offline retailers’ decisions and profits. Our findings show that when the consumer’s hassle cost for LS shopping is low, the LS selling always results in a price-increase effect on the online retailer, while only the third-party LS would have the same effect on the offline retailer. Moreover, the offline retailer always obtains the highest demand with third-party LS, but the online retailer obtains the lowest one. Most importantly, when the online retailer introduces third-party LS, it might result in a “win–win” situation for both retailers. In addition, we extend the basic model to the case with a more powerful online retailer.

Time pressure is one of the most commonly promotion methods in live streaming e-commerce (LSE), but can it promote consumers’ impulse buying? There is no answer, and existing research conclusions in traditional commerce context are inconsistent. Is this impact the same for different types of product and consumers with different characteristics? Existing research cannot give a good answer either. Therefore, based on the Construal Level Theory, adopting the situational questionnaire method, this study explored the impact of time pressure on impulse buying in LSE and the moderating effect of product type (search product and experience product) and consumer regulatory focus (promotion focus and prevention focus). The results show that: (1) Time pressure will promote consumers' impulsive buying. (2) For search product, the impact of time pressure will be enhanced, but the impact will be weakened for experience product. (3) For promotion-focus consumers, the impact of time pressure will be enhanced; but for prevention-focus consumers, the impact will be weakened. These empirically tested the impact of time pressure on consumers’ impulse buying in LSE, and clarified the boundary conditions of this impact. Meanwhile, these can explain the inconsistency of existing research conclusions to a certain extent, which enriches researches on LSE and gives implications for LSE merchants to utilize time pressure better.