In-store consumer behavior: How mobile recommendation agents influence usage intentions,product purchases,and store preferences

Product information given in purchase situations influences purchase behavior. In online purchase situations, the use of recommendation agents increases the value of product information as information becomes adaptive and thus more relevant to consumers’ information needs. Correspondingly, mobile recommendation agents (MRAs) may also increase the value of product information in bricks-and-mortar stores. In this sense, product information is not only adaptive but can also be requested at any place such as in front of products consumers are interested in. Because unprecedented, we investigate the use of a MRA that is virtually bound to a physical product via an RFID-enabled mobile device and provides product information. Based on Theory of Planned Behavior, Innovation Diffusion Theory, and Technology Acceptance Model, we develop a model to better understand the impact of MRAs on usage intentions, product purchases and store preferences of consumers. This model is then tested in a lab experiment (n = 47). Among high usability scores, results indicate that perceived usefulness of a MRA influences product purchases, predicts usage intentions and store preferences of consumers. Thus, new business models for retail stores can be considered in which MRAs satisfy both the information needs of consumers and the communication needs of retailers.     

Does online interactivity matter? Exploring the role of interactivity strategies in consumer decision making

Given that the Internet does not afford an opportunity to inspect products before purchase, some customers hesitate to shop online. Online interactivity can supplement online decision-making with added product information. Based on the theories of impression management and deception, this study focuses on sellers’ online interactivity strategies (SOIS) and aims to explore the role of SOIS played in online purchase decision-making process. According to the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) paradigm, this study aims to understand how each component of SOIS affects transaction intention through consumer perceptions (perceived deception and perceived diagnosticity) and how this affect is moderated by product types (search goods and experience goods) in online marketplaces. Data collected from 475 respondents support most of our hypotheses. Product type positively moderates only the link between image creation and perceived deception. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

Designing social commerce platforms based on consumers’ intentions

Social commerce has been gaining momentum over the last few years as a novel form of e-commerce, creating substantial changes for both businesses and consumers. However, little is known about how consumer behaviour is influenced by characteristics on social commerce platforms. The purpose of this research is to elucidate how user intentions to purchase and to spread word-of-mouth (WOM) are influenced by characteristics present on social commerce platforms. More specifically, we adopt a uses-and-gratifications perspective and examine the influence of socialising, personal recommendation agents, product selection, and information availability. Partial least squares structural equation modelling analysis is performed on a sample of 165 social commerce users. Outcomes of the analysis indicate that socialising and personal recommendation agents positively influence purchase and WOM intentions, while product selection is found to only enhance purchase intentions. Interestingly, our findings reveal that information availability has no significant effect on purchase and WOM intentions. Finally, we find that when purchase intentions are triggered, they will tend increase consumers’ intentions to WOM.     

Perceived information transparency in B2C e-commerce: An empirical investigation

Consumers abandon their online purchases at an e-commerce website partly due to the lack of information transparency of the website. We identify the antecedents of consumers’ perceived information transparency of an e-commerce website and its effects on consumers’ online purchase intention. We collected data through a scenario-based survey conducted in a laboratory setting. We found that (1) product transparency, vendor transparency, and transaction transparency significantly influence perceived information transparency; (2) perceived information transparency significantly increases consumers’ online purchase intention; and (3) perceived risk partially mediates the effects of perceived information transparency on purchase intention.     

Information technology adoption for sustainable development: green e-books as an example*

ABSTRACT

In recent years, due to increasing awareness of the need for environmental protection, there have been significant efforts to improve consumers’ acceptance of green information technology(IT) products for sustainable development. This study first investigated how knowledge about a green IT product (e-books) influences consumers’ planning processes by using the technology acceptance model and the theory of planned behavior. Data from 320 respondents were analyzed using structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized relationships in the research model. Results show that perceived usefulness, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have a significant and positive impact on the intention to purchase e-books. Results also show the moderating effect of consumers’ knowledge about the environmental friendliness of e-books on their intention to buy e-books. Finally, important implications of the findings are discussed, and directions for future research are also provided in this paper.     

The effects of product involvement and impulse buying on purchase intentions in mobile text advertising

While research in mobile advertising is abundant, limited attention has been paid to date to how consumers respond to mobile advertisements for different product categories and in which way impulsivity affects intentions to purchase. In this paper, we study the dimensionality of the product involvement construct and its effects on consumers’ purchase intentions via a simulated field experiment (N = 736). We show that the cognitive dimension of product involvement and impulsiveness significantly affect purchase intentions. We also present that the relationship between product involvement and purchase intention is moderated by the consumers’ impulse buying personality traits. These findings progress the current state-of-the-art in mobile advertising research, while also having significant practical consequences for the design of effective mobile SMS advertising campaigns.     

Design shopping as an experience: Exploring the effect of the live-streaming shopping characteristics on consumers’ participation intention and memorable experience

Live-streaming shopping becomes increasingly popular recently. However, little research explored why live-streaming shopping is so successful in continuously promoting sales and engaging consumers. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, we explore the effects of five distinct characteristics (information richness, interactivity, vividness, social presence, and newness) of live-streaming shopping on consumers’ continuous participation intentions, and investigate the underlying organism from both the momentary states (i.e., perceived diagnosticity, perceived enjoyment, and perceived social support) and the reflective state (i.e., memorable experience). The results of a multi-method empirical study indicate that the memorable experience is a strong indicator of continued shopping behaviors.     

How do consumers perceive and process online overall vs. individual text-based reviews? Behavioral and eye-tracking evidence

Building on the Heuristic-Systematic model, we use a survey and two eye-tracking experiments to investigate consumers’ perceived usefulness of overall and individual text-based reviews (OTRs vs. ITRs) for search vs. experience products, and the information processing features. Results indicate that OTRs show higher usefulness than ITRs, regardless of product type. ITRs are perceived to be more useful for experience products than for search products. Furthermore, two eye-tracking studies confirm these results from a physiological standpoint and reveal the attentional allocation during information processing. OTRs affect subjects’ processing of ITRs information differently in purchase search and experience products.     

Understanding online consumers’ purchase intentions: a contribution from social network theory

There is a dynamic and interconnected international setting shaped by the power of the Internet and social media. To gain more consumers, understand their behaviours and needs, and maintain closest relationships with them, businesses should understand how consumers behave in social media and how they vary in their purchase intentions. In the scope of the study, we integrate the social network theory and the theory of planned behaviour to analyse online consumers’ purchase intentions and to investigate their structural positions by analysing their friendships in social networks. We target Twitter users to conduct analysis due to Twitter's popularity in use, market penetration, and opportunity to work with open-source data. This study contributes to a better theoretical understanding of online consumers’ purchase intentions by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives. It expands the literature by considering both online consumers’ friendship network in Twitter and their individual online purchasing intentions. The study also guides e-marketers to design proper strategies for potential and current consumers and target the right sets of people in the social networks.     

The study of perceived adverse effects of digital piracy and involvement: insights from adult computer users

In this study, we focus on two sets of expected negative consequences of engaging in digital piracy among the seldom studied adult computer users rather than student population. We delve into the role of perceived risk and moral intensity as drivers of consumers’ attitudes and behavioural intentions, and explore the rarely examined moderating effect of issue involvement on the relationship between the attitude and intention to pirate. The dominant attitude–behaviour theory is extended with an ethical decision-making theoretical perspective. The hypotheses are tested via mail survey data from a random sample of adult consumers using structural equations modelling. The results of this cross-sectional study show unfailing support for the relationships proposed in our model. Our findings suggest that, in addition to perceived risk, moral intensity (i.e. the expected consequences for others), has a particularly strong total effect on the intention to pirate, and that consumer involvement in illegally downloading files is a salient factor moderating the relationship between attitudes and behavioural intentions. Based on this pattern of results, we offer theoretical and practical implications.     

The online framing effect: the moderating role of warning,brand familiarity,and product type

This study examines the framing effect on online consumer purchase intention. Three framing effect moderators—warning type (text-based/picture-based), brand familiarity (familiar/unfamiliar), and product type (utilitarian/hedonic)—were considered. The results demonstrated that a positive frame message could create more favorable preferences toward the product than a negative frame message could. Further, consumers with text-based warnings who received positive framing messages had higher purchase intentions toward the target product than did those receiving negative framing messages. However, the online framing effect was not significant for consumers receiving picture-based warnings. Moreover, the online framing effect was significant for consumers familiar with the brand. Finally, positive messages resulted in higher purchase intention for hedonic rather than utilitarian products. This study further examined gender differences in framing effects and found women exhibited greater framing effects than men under the negative frame. The findings provide guidance for designing appropriate product strategy to induce online consumer purchase intentions that favor online retailers.     

The influence of eWOM in social media on consumers’ purchase intentions: An extended approach to information adoption

Social media websites have created valuable opportunities for electronic word of mouth (eWOM) conversations. People are now able to discuss products and services of brands with their friends and acquaintances. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of these conversations in social media on consumers' purchase intentions. For this purpose, a conceptual model was developed based on the integration of Information Adoption Model (IAM) and related components of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). The new model, which is named as Information Acceptance Model (IACM), was validated through structural equation modelling (SEM) based on surveys of 384 university students who use social media websites. The results confirm that quality, credibility, usefulness and adoption of information, needs of information and attitude towards information are the key factors of eWOM in social media that influence consumers’ purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as recommendations for further research.     

Effect of Celebrity Endorsements on Consumer Purchase Intentions: Advertising Effect and Advertising Appeal as Mediators

Advertising has become the most efficient way for companies to transmit product information to consumers. Words and images are often used to display the product and thus attract the attention of consumers. Of all types of endorsement, celebrity endorsement is the marketing method most frequently used by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs use celebrity endorsement to increase consumer purchasing motivation. Not only can celebrity endorsements attract consumers to purchase products, but the appeal of statements by celebrities can also affect consumer product image. Different appeal methods result in different advertising effects. This study used the case of advertising spokespersons for cell phones with general consumers as subjects. A total of 202 valid samples obtained through the questionnaire survey and used partial least squares regression analysis. The results showed that celebrity endorsements, advertising appeal, and advertising effect significantly and positively affect consumer purchase intentions. Moreover, advertising appeal and advertising effect exert a partial mediating effect on the relationship between celebrity endorsement and purchase intention. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Examining the impact of rich media on consumer willingness to pay in online stores

This research examines the impact of rich media on purchase intentions and willingness to pay in online stores. Via an online experiment, we tested the effects of two rich media presentation formats: product videos and virtual product experience, and compared them with static displays. The results confirm that the rich media displays enhanced the feeling of informedness about the examined products and increased excitement regarding the shopping experience. Virtual product experience had a direct positive effect on consumer purchase intentions, suggesting that virtual product experience-focused tools have the potential to outperform passive videos. Moreover, consumers showed higher willingness to pay values for experience products than for search products when interaction was possible.     

What Matters the Most? The Key Factors That Lead to a New Service Adoption

On the basis of data collected from an online survey, we used regression analysis to empirically identify the key factors leading to consumers’ adoption intentions toward a new service, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in the United States. This study makes the following contributions to the literature: 1) Our results suggest that the influence of strong ties (i.e., family and friends) has a more significant impact on consumers’ adoption intentions for a new service than that from weak ties. 2) We also find that, for a really new product/service category, such as VoIP service, consumers’ trust toward technology (or the product category itself) matters more than their trust toward the sponsoring company. 3) Consumers’ trust also has a moderating impact on perceived performance and perceived effort level.      

Complements and substitutes in online product recommendations: The differential effects on consumers’ willingness to pay

Online product recommendations have been shown to influence consumers’ preferences and purchasing behaviors for recommended products. However, it remains an open empirical question whether and how recommendations of other products affect a consumer’s economic behavior for a focal product. In many e-commerce websites, a product is presented with co-purchase and co-view recommendations, which potentially contain complementary and substitutable products, respectively. Very little research has explored differential effects of recommending complementary and substitutable products. In this study, we explore how types of other recommended products impact consumers’ willingness to pay for a focal product through interactions with prices of recommended products and consumers’ decision stages. We conducted a 2³ randomized factorial experiment as well as two 2 × 2 experiments to examine these issues. Experimental results provide evidence that there is a significant interaction effect between the recommendation type and decision stage, which highlights the importance of recommendation timing on e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, it also illustrates that the effect of recommending complementary vs. substitutable products is subject to contextual factors such as consumers’ decision stages. Results of our study have significant implications for the design and application of online recommender systems.     

Customized products recommendation based on probabilistic relevance model

Product customization is attracting more attentions in industry as a viable strategy to better meet customer requirements and gain more profit. However the vast number of product variants in product customization process often makes it difficult for consumers to make purchase decisions, a phenomenon referred to as information overload. In this paper we take a two-prong approach to tackle the issue of information overload in customized products recommendation. Basically, the method answers two questions, namely, which products to recommend and in what order to present the recommendations. Firstly, a probability relevance model is deployed to calculate the probability of relevance for each end product. Then a probability ranking principle is exploited to present the recommendations. The approach also takes customer flexibility into consideration and thus mitigates the effect of inconsistent specifications from customers. It does not require any prior knowledge about an active customer’s preference and can accommodate the new customers challenge facing by recommendation approaches. Analytical results show that the method is optimal in terms of customer’s utility and product recommendation efficiency. Numerical experiments are also conducted to test the presented approach.     

Group‐buying coupons considering consumers’ perceived ease of use

This paper examines the design of the online discount coupon, which is a popular marketing tool that offers consumers group‐buying (GB) discounts when they prepay for participating firms’ goods and services. We develop a two‐stage model for a market in which consumers are heterogeneous in their valuation of a product. In our setup, consumers make purchase decisions at the first stage and update their perceptions of the product. As a result, they adjust their repurchase decisions at the second stage. Through the analysis of price discrimination effect and advertising effect, we demonstrate that consumers make their purchase decisions based on not only the discount rate but also the degree of perceived ease of use of the coupons. We then examine both single‐time and double‐time GB mechanisms, and recommend the optimal design for the firm to increase its profitability. Our model also accommodates uncertainty of the degree of consumers' perceived ease of use and shows that the conditions for the optimal GB mechanism are robust.     

Adopting television as a new channel for e-commerce. The influence of interactive technologies on consumer behavior

The aim of this research is twofold. Firstly, it analyzes how the two main features of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), interactivity and personalization, influence both customers’ perceived performance and involvement with a web-based information service. Secondly, it studies whether personalization and interactivity improve customer purchase intentions of this service through IPTV. We developed a 2×2 between-subjects factorial design and applied MANOVA analyses. Findings verify that interactivity and personalization foster customer involvement with the service, perceived performance of IPTV and purchase intentions. Moreover, interactivity promotes the effect of personalization on perceived performance and customer involvement. This research concludes that customers’ involvement and purchase behavior are not derived exclusively from their relationship with the firm, but also from connections established in the channel with other customers. Customers also appreciate participating in the service provision process, so firms should promote personalization activities during the purchase in order to improve customers’ performance evaluation.     

Price-aware matrix factorization model for personalized recommendations

Recommendation methods aim to assist consumers in their decision-making process to find products that they are quite likely interested in. Current recommendation methods generally use online consumer reviews or ratings to predict consumers’ preferences for products. In e-commerce transactions, price plays a significant role in consumers’ purchase decisions. And each consumer's preference for product prices is specific. In this paper, we propose a novel price-aware recommendation method based on the matrix factorization model which fully considers the effect of price. We distill the price preferences of consumers from ratings and discover consumers’ real preferences for products. We further calculate the price sensitivities of consumers, not only considering the difference in price preference between a consumer and others but also focusing on the consumers’ price preferences in a specific price range. The final predicted ratings are calculated by adding the term of price effect into the matrix factorization framework. The results show that the proposed method has achieved high accuracy and performed better than several existing methods in both rating prediction and Top-N recommendation. And the products we recommend for consumers are more in line with their price preferences. Moreover, we find that, to some extent, the proposed method can solve the long-tail product recommendation problem with the consideration of the price effect.