A Factor Analysis of Consumer Expectations for Autonomous Cars

This study explores consumers’ expectations for autonomous cars in Korea, which will soon be available. We applied exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to derive consumer expectations using responses from 1,506 potential autonomous car consumers. Then, we carried out a structural equation analysis to identify relationships among expectations, attitude, and behavioral intention. Seven consumer expectations were identified; of these, convenience, safety, ethics, licensing, and monetary cost were found to have a direct effect on attitude, whereas convenience, safety, and monetary cost were found to have a direct effect on intention. In addition, we demonstrate that attitude has a significant effect on intention. Autonomous cars are driving innovation in the automotive industry, transportation systems, and consumer experience. By analyzing the main factors that affect consumers’ purchasing intentions prior to the release of autonomous cars, this study provides guidance for fields preparing for the launch of autonomous cars.     

The Mechanisms through Which Certain Variables Influence Customer Loyalty: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Value and Satisfaction

This study surveyed 123 bank users who experienced problems with their banks’ online banking services, with the aim of understanding the mechanisms through which certain variables influence customer loyalty. Principally, the possible mediating roles of value and satisfaction on the relationships between recovery and loyalty and between ISO 9001 and loyalty were scrutinized. The dimensionalities of the scales were assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Thereafter, structural equation modeling and multiregression analyses were used to test the proposed model. The overall results showed that service recovery can be used to enhance customers’ satisfaction and perception of value and, therefore, customer loyalty. This study also confirmed the partial mediating roles of customers’ satisfaction and perception of value in the relationship between service recovery and loyalty. In contrast, ISO 9001 has no influence on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty; the mediating roles of both perceived value and satisfaction were not supported in the relationship between ISO 9001 and loyalty. In practice, even though ISO 9001 appeared to offer few extras to satisfy and retain customers, its use is still advisable because of the other potential benefits that it provides.     

Examining the spillover effect of sustainable consumption on microloan repayment: A big data-based research

Social value-oriented consumers perform more sustainable consumption than conventional consumers do because consumers’ choices reflect their latent social values on environmental protection. However, whether sustainable consumption prompts more social value-oriented behaviors outside the consumption domain remains uncertain. The increased availability of consumer-level big data presents an opportunity to investigate consumers’ cross-domain behavior subsequent to sustainable consumption, which broadens the comprehension of sustainable consumption by going beyond the boundary of consumption behavior. Supported by a joint dataset comprising information on both consumers’ consumption behavior and their microloan repayment behavior, this study examines the effects of sustainable consumption on consumers’ subsequent debt default behavior to empirically test the cross-domain spillover effects of sustainable consumption behavior. The results suggest that the default probability of green consumers overall was 4.34 % lower than that of nongreen consumers, even though this positive effect on repayment disappears when sustainable consumption is for health reasons. The findings contribute to research on sustainable consumption by providing empirical evidence indicating that sustainable consumption has positive spillover effects in other domains. The results also provide an alternative perspective for identifying high-quality borrowers for microloan platforms.     

适应于自动驾驶的计算结构与平台综述

信息与通信技术领域的不断发展,推动了自动驾驶汽车的巨大进步。自动驾驶汽车有效解决了用户对出行日益提高的安全、便捷、舒适、高效等个性化需求,有着巨大的商业前景和应用价值。首先从自动驾驶的定义出发,对自动驾驶汽车计算任务进行了分类总结,阐述了自动驾驶汽车集移动端、边缘节点和云端一体的计算结构。然后分类讨论了目前自动驾驶汽车移动端计算平台,呈现出异构多核的特点,并对当前主流的底层计算平台进行了对比分析。最后,从性能与成本和信息安全两个方面总结目前自动驾驶汽车计算结构和平台遇到的问题与挑战。     

Customer participation,value co-creation and customer loyalty – A case of airline online check-in system

Information communication technologies and self-service technologies, such as self-check-in kiosks or online check-in systems, are widely used in the air transport industry. This study proposes a conceptual model to investigate the relationships among customer participation, co-created values and customer loyalty in an air transport context, and empirically tests the model by using questionnaire survey data collected from Taiwanese airline passengers. In particular, three perceived values (i.e. enjoyment value, economic value and relational value) are specified to represent the passengers' co-created values. The empirical results support the following hypotheses. Customer participation in using an online check-in system is positively related to all three values, which further lead to satisfaction with respect to the system. System satisfaction is also related to satisfaction with respect to the company, and both system satisfaction and company satisfaction have positive effects on customer loyalty.     

The antecedents of consumers’ loyalty toward Internet Service Providers

Internet popularity is growing at an impressive rate. Sooner or later, every consumer comes face to face with the decision of choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This study developed and empirically tested a model examining the antecedents of consumer loyalty toward ISPs. It incorporated the concept of expected technology change into the model to examine its effects on the formation of ISP loyalty intention. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modeling techniques were used to evaluate the casual model. Based on an internet survey in Taiwan, this study showed that perceived value is very important in generating overall customer satisfaction and loyalty intention toward an ISP, and that perceived trust of an ISP enhances perceived value, overall satisfaction, and loyalty intention. However, the study demonstrated that future ISP technology expectancy exerted a negative influence on a consumer’s overall satisfaction and loyalty intention toward their ISP.     

Toward an Integrated Decision-Making Model for Consumer Electronic

The study proposes an integrated comprehensive consumer decision-making model by extending the customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty framework to include customer experience as an antecedent to creating value and enhancing satisfaction toward technology continuance intention. Our study incorporates perspectives from information systems (IS) and service marketing, where customer value (hedonic and utilitarian) theory and literature on customer experience with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness as its dimensions are found to be drivers of technology continuance intention for consumer electronics. In addition, partial least squares results from 370 smartphone users indicate that within consumer electronics, price negatively moderates the relationship between utilitarian value and satisfaction but not with hedonic value and satisfaction. Contributions of findings and implications are discussed to provide references for consumer electronic firms in IS and service marketing.     

汽车节能调度方法研究与仿真

研究汽车发动机优化节能问题。针对当汽车变速行驶的过程中,汽车发动机的热机加速运转,发动机转动加快,消耗掉过多的无用能量来保持车速。由于车速不均衡变化产生不必要的耗油量,造成汽车的油耗增加。为了解决上述个问题,提出了模糊平衡的汽车油耗控制算法。利用模糊控制原理,动态调节汽车行驶时发动机参数,使得多个速度和油耗的相关参数同时达到一个最优的平衡状态,汽车的油耗大幅降低。实验表明,改进调节算法,能够有效降低以混合动力汽车在运行时的油耗,取得令人满意的效果。     

A model to evaluate the effects of price fairness perception in online hotel booking

Research on consumer and market behavior related to prices has increased remarkably in recent years. Researchers have paid special attention to the effects of price perception in consumer purchasing processes. In this paper a model of antecedents and consequences of consumer price fairness perception in an online hotel booking setting is proposed. The results show that consumers use reference prices and are guided by their familiarity with online hotel bookings in determining price fairness. Moreover, when consumers perceive prices as fair, they show more confidence in the decisions made and are more satisfied with the price. However, there is no direct influence on loyalty, although this relationship appears indirectly through satisfaction with the price and confidence in the decision.     

Product‐to‐Service Extension: The Impact of Brand Equity on Upscaled Service

A recent trend in the luxury industry shows many companies using brand extension strategies to leverage their assets among competitors. Despite the popularity of brand extensions, limited research has been conducted to determine its effectiveness when using parent product brands in order to introduce new service brands. Thus, the primary purpose of this study is to propose the framework to increase the understanding of luxury brand extensions by focusing on the horizontal category brand extension from product to service. The impact of perceived quality, brand association and brand loyalty of the luxury car brand on consumers’ perception and attitude toward the rental car service brand was observed to differentiate from other research that focuses on brand extension within product categories. A total of 324 samples were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling with AMOS. The brand association of the parent brand showed a significant impact on the evaluation of the extended service brand. In addition, a high level of the brand association was also found to influence the final purchase decision of the extended service brand. However, this study could not find any significant effect of perceived quality and brand loyalty for the parent product brand on the extended service brand. The framework proposed in this study has merit to increase the understanding of service brand extensions by exploring luxury car brands and luxury rental car brands. In the service brand extension, there was a gap in consumer perception between the product brand and the extended service brand. In order to maximize the positive impact of the parent brand, marketers and retailers should investigate the different roles of the brand equity items.     

Understanding consumers’ continuance intention towards mobile advertising: a theoretical framework and empirical study

While issues regarding mobile advertising have captured the interest and attention of both practitioners and academics, in practice success stories are rare. An understanding of the continuance intention to use such services can provide insights into failed mobile marketing campaigns, and help to improve the implementation of future ones. Therefore, it is important to examine the underlying drivers of loyalty with regard to mobile advertising. This study uses the expectation–confirmation model in conjunction with the perspectives of value and trust to derive an integrated model to better understand the motivations behind consumers’ continued use of mobile advertising. We conducted an empirical study consisting of an online survey of 508 consumers who had experience with mobile advertising. The results show that perceived value, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction all directly influence continuance intention. Furthermore, consumer satisfaction has a crucial intervening role in the relationships that perceived value, perceived usefulness, and confirmation have with continuance intention. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. One key limitation of this research is that the majority of respondents were students, although this group is the chief user of mobile advertising. Future research could be extended to consider other drivers of loyalty in this context, such as cultural differences and personal behavioural characteristics.     

Understanding customers' loyalty intentions towards online shopping: an integration of technology acceptance model and fairness theory

As with any other information system (IS), the success of online shopping depends largely on customer satisfaction and other factors that will eventually increase customers' loyalty intentions. This article integrates two major variables of technology acceptance model (TAM), trust, and fairness to construct a model for investigating the motivations behind customers' loyalty intentions towards online shopping. The hypothesised model is validated empirically using data collected from 311 customers of an online shopping store. The results indicated that distributive, procedural and interactional fairness were strong predictors of trust, which in turn influenced satisfaction. Distributive fairness and interactional fairness exhibited significant positive effects on satisfaction. Perceived usefulness and satisfaction influenced loyalty intention towards online shopping. Perceived ease of use acts indirectly on loyalty intention through the mediating effect of perceived usefulness. Implications for theory and practice and future research directions are discussed.     

Why do not satisfied consumers show reuse behavior? The context of online games

Empirical studies have consistently identified consumer satisfaction as a key antecedent to reuse behavior. Business has focused on consumer satisfaction as a way to improve consumer loyalty. However, it remains unknown why there are so many satisfied consumers who do not show reuse behavior. Therefore, the present study examined the potential factors moderating the association between consumer satisfaction and reuse behavior. A literature review and focus groups were used to explore moderating variables, and hierarchical regression analysis was used to test their influence. Results from a study of 490 online gamers in Taiwan showed that the relationship between consumer satisfaction and reuse behavior is contingent upon the moderating effects of customer involvement and perceived specific/upgrading activities. In particular, the relationship between consumer satisfaction and reuse behavior is more sensitive when customer involvement is lower.     

A Review of:“The Remembering Self: Construction and Accuracy in the Self-narrative”, edited by ULRIC NEISSER and ROBYN FIVUSH,Cambridge University Press,New York (1994), pp. x + 301, £30.00, ISBN 0-521-43194-8

Driving is a task that requires the timely detection of critical events and relevant changes in traffic circumstances. Adaptation of speed and safety margins allows drivers to control the time available to react to potential hazards. One of the basic safety margins in driving is the time headway preserved with respect to cars ahead. To avoid rear-end collisions, drivers have to detect decelerations of lead cars. It can be assumed that fast or abrupt decelerations of the lead car are detected faster than slow or gradual decelerations. Moreover, expected decelerations are presumably detected faster than unexpected decelerations. Drivers' responses to rather abrupt and more gradual decelerations of the lead were investigated in a driving simulator. Situational traffic cues were used to manipulate the driver's expectations. Drivers adjusted the timing of their responses very well to the level of deceleration of the lead car. If cues in the environment indicated that the lead car was likely to decelerate, drivers reacted faster. Moreover, drivers increased their headway before the lead car actually started to decelerate, which can be considered an anticipatory response. In general, anticipation allows drivers to maintain their preferred headway and control time pressure in driving.     

Information systems satisfaction,loyalty and attachment: conceptual and empirical differentiation

This study aims to address an important but largely unexplored question of whether loyalty and attachment, which are increasingly relevant to the changing software market, add value as a construct to information systems (IS) use researchers compared with satisfaction. Building on prior work on the three constructs (i.e. satisfaction, loyalty and attachment) in both marketing and IS use research, this study makes two key contributions. First, this study conceptually differentiates the three constructs by articulating their distinct properties. Second, based on the conceptual differences identified, this study finds that the three constructs have a differential impact on contributory behaviours with varying levels of behavioural difficulty. The results of the study also offer other important managerial and further research implications.     

Customer satisfaction and loyalty analysis with classification algorithms and Structural Equation Modeling

Businesses can maintain their effectiveness as long as they have satisfied and loyal customers. Customer relationship management provides significant advantages for companies especially in gaining competitiveness. In order to reach these objectives primarily companies need to identify and analyze their customers. In this respect, effective communication and commitment to customers and changing market conditions is of great importance to increase the level of satisfaction and loyalty. To evaluate this situation, level of customer satisfaction and loyalty should be measured correctly with a comprehensive approach. In this study, customers are investigated in 4 main groups according to their level of satisfaction and loyalty with a criteria and group based analysis with a new method. We use classification algorithms in WEKA programming software and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with LISREL tools together to analyze the effect of each satisfaction and loyalty criteria in a satisfaction–loyalty matrix and extend the customer satisfaction and loyalty post-analysis research bridging the gap in this field of research. To convert developed conceptual thought to experimental study, white goods industry is exemplified. 15 criteria are used for evaluation in 4 customer groups and a satisfaction–loyalty survey developed by experts is applied to 200 customers with face-to-face interviews. As a result of the study, a customer and criteria grouping method is created with high performance classification methods and good fit structural models. In addition, results are evaluated for developing a customer strategy improvement tool considering method outcomes.     

How virtual community participation influences consumer loyalty intentions in online shopping contexts: an investigation of mediating factors

Extant studies generally recognise that virtual community building is an effective marketing programme for forging deep and enduring affective bonds with consumers. This study extends previous research by proposing and testing a model that investigates key mediating processes (via trust, satisfaction and identification) that underlie the relationship between virtual community participation and consumer loyalty intentions. The authors test the hypotheses using data obtained from three large online retailing stores. Virtual community participation significantly enhances loyalty intentions, through both social mechanisms (via community identification) and psychological mechanisms (via trust and satisfaction). Moreover, the findings provide insights into the complex relationship between the two mechanisms in online shopping settings. Community identification is a pivotal factor for enhancing customer loyalty intentions. The results advance understanding of the process by which virtual community building facilitates the development of business-to-consumer relationships in the computer-mediated environment. The authors discuss the managerial implications of the findings, as well as avenues for further research.     

Should we teach in hybrid mode or fully online? A theory and empirical investigation on the service–profit chain in MBAs

Should we teach in hybrid mode or fully online? We examine the teaching model's role (hybrid versus fully online) in the service–profit chain in higher education institutions using survey data from 93 faculty members and 366 students from three American universities. We find that faculty members’ satisfaction and the MBA program expectations improve MBA word-of-mouth by enhancing the MBA quality, MBA value, class satisfaction, and MBA loyalty. Additionally, we discover that the hybrid teaching model more strongly reinforces this chain of effects than the fully online model. IT creates the integration of differential value into a hybrid teaching style.