Consumer attitudes toward blogger’s sponsored recommendations and purchase intention: The effect of sponsorship type,product type,and brand awareness

Sponsored recommendation blog posts, a form of online consumer review, are blog articles written by bloggers who receive benefits from sponsoring marketers to review and promote products on their personal blog. Because national regulations require that marketer sponsorship must be revealed in the blog post, sponsored recommendation posts can no longer conceal their marketing intent. Consumer’s attitudes toward sponsored recommendation posts are thus a vital issue in assessing the effectiveness of the advertisement. This study uses a 2(sponsorship type) × 2(product type) × 2(brand awareness) experimental design and a total of 613 valid samples to examine consumer attitudes toward sponsored recommendation posts and purchase intention. The results show that when products recommended in blog posts are search goods or have high brand awareness, consumers have highly positive attitudes toward sponsored recommendation posts, which improves purchase intention. The directly-monetary/indirect-monetary benefits received by the bloggers have no significant effect on readership attitudes. Using these features in blog writings appears to improve online readers’ trust toward and the credibility of sponsored recommendation posts and thus can be a vital online marketing tool for marketers.     

The impact of uncertainty avoidance, social norms and innovativeness on trust and ease of use in electronic customer relationship management

Social and individual factors and their relationships to trust in electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) are important topics for e-commerce designers and information systems researchers. In spite of several previous studies of online trust and consumer behavior, none has adequately examined the influences of social and individual factors on online trust in eCRM. In this paper, the relationships among uncertainty avoidance, social norms, personal innovativeness in IT, and multidimensions of online trust (integrity, benevolence, and ability) as well as perceived ease of use (PEOU) are tested, based on a PLS analysis with 209 student samples. Social norms influence all three dimensions of online trust, while uncertainty avoidance affects only the benevolence and ability dimensions. Personal innovativeness in IT affects PEOU, and PEOU influences all three dimensions of online trust. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings beneficial to our understanding of customer relationships in the electronic marketplace are discussed in the paper.     

Adoption of e-book among college students: The perspective of an integrated TAM

This study explored factors that affect consumer acceptance of e-book use by applying a model that incorporates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the theoretical basis of the hypotheses. The model differentiated external factors—compatibility, relative advantage, self-efficacy, and subjective norms—from internal factors—perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, satisfaction with e-book usage, and intention to continue using e-books. The study (n = 1030) found statistically significant support for the hypothesized model, indicating that the tested relationships between the revised TAM and user intention to continue using e-books were positive and statistically significant. The study’s findings provide potentially significant implications that can be used to develop guidelines and a framework for assessing e-book users’ behavior.     

Cultural values and Facebook use among Palestinian youth in Israel

Culture is a set of values that influences attitudes and social behavior. Despite the role of culture in shaping attitudes and motivations, most of the extensive research literature on the determinants and patterns of social media use has focused on psychological and social factors. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the role of cultural values in perceptions of privacy, trust and motivations for using Facebook among young Palestinians in Israel. We relied on Hall’s concept of high and low communication contexts and three of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Data from a survey of Arab high school students (N = 567) established that variations in the adoption of cultural values are associated with the motivation for using Facebook through their effect on trust and on privacy concerns. We discuss the findings and their implications.     

Understanding the Different Influences of Online Trust on Loyalty by Risk Takers and Avoiders

In this article, the different influences of online trust, such as integrity, benevolence, and ability, on customer loyalty to the website are tested and discussed with risk taker and risk avoider samples. Specifically, these different influences of trust on customer loyalty is tested with the mediating construct of intention to use the website using a large number of risk taker samples (n = 149) and risk avoider samples (n = 176). In the risk taker samples, the influence of online trust through website ability on customer loyalty is fully mediated by the intention to use the website. However, in the risk avoider samples, online trust beliefs such as ability and integrity as well as intention to use website have direct influences on customer loyalty. There is no relationship of benevolence in this model in both samples. The model explains 43% and 48% of R squares for each sample group. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Clerk agent promotes consumers’ ethical purchase intention in unmanned purchase environment

This study examined the effect of the presence of an artificial individual in a purchase environment on purchase intention for products with fair-trade labels among Japanese consumers. By manipulating the presence of an artificial individual, we assessed consumers’ intentions to purchase fair-trade products under two different experimental unmanned purchase environments: the agent condition, in which task instructions were given by a female clerk-like computer graphic agent throughout the task (N = 118), and the control condition in which task instructions were given through a text box (N = 106). Results demonstrated that participants under the agent condition valuated fair trade higher than those under the control condition, although participants in both the agent and the control conditions were instructed that their responses would remain anonymous. These findings suggest that the implication of the presence of an artificial individual, such as a clerk-like agent in an unmanned purchase environment, enhances the ethicality of purchase intentions as with manned purchase environments.     

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.     

Who puts the best “face” forward on Facebook?: Positive self-presentation in online social networking and the role of self-consciousness,actual-to-total Friends ratio,and culture

The present research investigated how individual, interpersonal, and cultural variables influence positive self-presentation in online social networking. In particular, we examined the role of self-consciousness, actual-to-total Friends ratio, and culture in positive self-presentation on Facebook. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with college-age participants in the United States (n = 183) and South Korea (n = 137). Results showed that self-consciousness (public vs. private) and actual-to-total Friends ratio were not significantly associated with positive self-presentation on Facebook; however, culture showed a statistically significant association with positive self-presentation on Facebook, with the U.S. participants engaging in positive self-presentation on Facebook to a greater extent than the South Korean participants. More interestingly, culture significantly moderated the relationship between public self-consciousness and positive self-presentation as well as the relationship between actual-to-total Friends ratio and positive self-presentation. Specifically, positive self-presentation showed a significant positive association with public self-consciousness and a significant negative association with actual-to-total Friends ratio only among the South Korean participants and not among the U.S. participants. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding cross-cultural differences in self-presentation behaviors on social network sites were discussed.     

The interplay between immersion and appeal in video games

Immersion and appeal are considered to be necessary constituents of the player experience. In this article their relationship is examined through a 2 × 2 factorial study (n = 173) in the context of two games, a first-person shooter and a massively multi-player online role-playing game, and in the context of two types of players: experienced players who have never played the game in one of the genres in question, and experienced players who have played one of the games in question. It is found that immersion and appeal are linearly correlated, and the repercussions of this finding are discussed.     

How does customer self-construal moderate CRM value creation chain?

Most of the existing literature on CRM value chain creation has focused on the effect of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty on customer profitability. In contrast, little has been studied about the CRM value creation chain at individual customer level and the role of self-construal (i.e., independent self-construal and interdependent self-construal) in such a chain. This research aims to construct the chain from customer value to organization value (i.e., customer satisfaction → customer loyalty → patronage behavior) and investigate the moderating effect of self-construal. To test the hypotheses suggested by our conceptual framework, we collected 846 data points from China in the context of mobile data services. The results show that customer’s self-construal can moderate the relationship chain from customer satisfaction to customer loyalty to relationship maintenance and development. This implies firms should tailor their customer strategies based on different self-construal features.     

Sex role stereotyping is hard to kill: A field experiment measuring social responses to user characteristics and behavior in an online multiplayer first-person shooter game

Sex role stereotyping by players in first-person shooter games and other online gaming environments may encourage a social environment that marginalizes and alienates female players. Consistent with the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE), the anonymity of online games may engender endorsement of group-consistent attitudes and amplification of social stereotyping, such as the adherence to gender norms predicted by expectations states theory. A 2 × 3 × 2 virtual field experiment (N = 520) in an online first-person shooter video game examined effects of a confederate players’ sex, communication style, and skill on players’ compliance with subsequent online friend requests. We found support for the hypothesis that, in general, women would gain more compliance with friend requests than men. We also found support for the hypothesis that women making positive utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than women making negative utterances, whereas men making negative utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than men making positive utterances. The hypothesis that player skill (i.e., game scores) would predict compliance with friend requests was not supported. Implications for male and female game players and computer-mediated communication in online gaming environments are discussed.     

On reliability of the folded hypercubes

In this paper, we explore the 2-extra connectivity and 2-extra-edge-connectivity of the folded hypercube FQ_n. We show that κ₂(FQ_n) = 3n − 2 for n ⩾ 8; and λ₂(FQ_n) = 3n − 1 for n ⩾ 5. That is, for n ⩾ 8 (resp. n ⩾ 5), at least 3n − 2 vertices (resp. 3n − 1 edges) of FQ_n are removed to get a disconnected graph that contains no isolated vertices (resp. edges). When the folded hypercube is used to model the topological structure of a large-scale parallel processing system, these results can provide more accurate measurements for reliability and fault tolerance of the system.     

The role of sunk costs in online consumer decision-making

Sunk costs, which can cause inconsistencies between consumer behavior and economic theory, have been widely studied in different research areas and among various consumer groups. Nevertheless, the authors found that to date there has been no empirical research examining how sunk costs affect consumer behavior with regard to online shopping in different product types. Therefore, this study used the following 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design to study the effects of sunk costs on consumers’ online shopping decisions. The results show that (1) sunk costs have significant effects on consumer online shopping behavior. However, due to the different product characteristics, the impacts were weaker effective when consumers bought search goods than when they purchased experience goods; (2) the sunk costs (Membership fee vs. Deposit) of an initial choice and a new choice had interaction effects on consumer intention to purchase a new product; and (3) the sunk costs and service quality of an initial choice and new choice would affect the level of regret felt with regard to the consumer’s initial choice. In addition, some recommendations on market positioning and service quality design are made, which practitioners can refer to when formulating marketing strategies.     

Knowledge sharing and social media: Altruism,perceived online attachment motivation,and perceived online relationship commitment

Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, have become extremely popular. Facebook, for example, has more than a billion registered users and thousands of millions of units of information are shared every day, including short phrases, articles, photos, and audio and video clips. However, only a tiny proportion of these sharing units trigger any type of knowledge exchange that is ultimately beneficial to the users. This study draws on the theory of belonging and the intrinsic motivation of altruism to explore the factors contributing to knowledge sharing behavior. Using a survey of 299 high school students applying for university after the release of the public examination results, we find that perceived online attachment motivation (β = 0.31, p < 0.001) and perceived online relationship commitment (β = 0.49, p < 0.001) have positive, direct, and significant effects on online knowledge sharing (R² 0.568). Moreover, when introduced into the model, altruism has a direct and significant effect on online knowledge sharing (β = 0.46, p < 0.001) and the total variance explained by the extended model increases to 64.9%. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Well-being and problematic Facebook use

Social networking sites are getting more widespread online communication forms all over the world. Especially adolescents and emerging adults use these sites to make connection, and share something. Although, Facebook is one of the most popular sites, research is still in nascent phase on the excessive use of Facebook. Hence, it is fundamental to determine potential predictors of overuse of Facebook. The present study investigated the relationship between well-being and problematic Facebook use. Participants were 311 university students [179_(58%) female, 132_(42%) male, M_age = 20.86 years, SD = 1.61] who completed the questionnaire packet including the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (Andreassen, Torsheim, Brunborg, & Pallesen, 2012), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), the Subjective Vitality Scale (Ryan & Frederick, 1997), the Flourishing Scale (Diener et al., 2010), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999). A stepwise regression analyses was used with four independent variables (life satisfaction, subjective vitality, flourishing, and subjective happiness) to explain variance in problematic Facebook use. The results showed that life satisfaction, subjective vitality, flourishing, and subjective happiness were significant negative predictors of problematic Facebook use. The significance and limitations of the results are discussed.     

A non-linear fuzzy regression for estimating reliability in a degradation process

Since some assumptions such as the function ϕ(·) needs to be completely specified and the relationship between μ and ϕ(s) must have linear behavior in the model μ = a + bϕ(S) used in the accelerated life testing analysis, generally do not hold; the estimation of stress level contains uncertainty. In this paper, we propose to use a non-linear fuzzy regression model for performing the extrapolation process and adapting the fuzzy probability theory to the classical reliability including uncertainty and process experience for obtaining fuzzy reliability of a component. Results show, that the proposed model has the ability to estimate reliability when the mentioned assumptions are violated and uncertainty is implicit; so that the classical models are unreliable.     

Should I trust him? The effects of reviewer profile characteristics on eWOM credibility

For online consumer reviews to serve as decision-making aids, users have to first trust the reviewer. However, unlike face-to-face communication, where trust develops overtime, consumers have to rely on personal profile information to establish confidence in the reviewer in online shopping context. These personal profile characteristics may serve as cues of source credibility. This study adopts a 2 (number of trusted members: small, large) × 2 (profile picture: without, with) × 2 (review valence: negative, positive) between-participants experiment to explore how two personal profile characteristics, reputation cue and profile picture, influence cognitive trust and affective trust towards the reviewer and perceived review credibility respectively and in a combinatory manner. The findings of the study showed that reputation cue and profile picture cue contributed differently to users’ affective trust and cognitive trust towards the reviewer. Reputation cue, generated by the system, was found to influence both affective and cognitive dimensions of trust, whereas the self-generated cue of profile picture affected only affective trust. Reputation cue had a direct influence on perceived review credibility, whereas the influence of profile picture on perceived review credibility was dependent upon review valence. The implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.     

Predicting guild commitment in World of Warcraft with the investment model of commitment

Many MMORPG offer players the possibility to become a member of a guild, a hierarchical organization of characters with common objectives. Guild membership can be beneficial to game progress, and offer opportunities for social interaction. In the current study we focus on the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW), with the main aim to examine whether guild commitment and players’ intention to remain in their guild can be predicted by players’ satisfaction, investments, and perceptions of alternatives to their guild. To this end, 165 WoW players completed an online questionnaire and answered questions related to their guild membership. They also completed the investment model scale which was reworded so all questions pertained to their guild and their fellow guild members. Results show that satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size significantly predict commitment level (p’s < .001), which in turn predicted likelihood of participants’ staying with their current guild (p < .001) and the number of guilds they had been a member of in the past (p < .001). Moreover, high levels of guild commitment were indicative of better mental health, whereas weekly hours of game play was negatively related to mental health. In the discussion, we conclude that interdependence theory and the investment model of commitment are applicable to online gaming environments, and we argue that commitment to one’s guild is one factor that could prevent the risks associated with online game play (i.e. problematic use).     

Highly fault-tolerant cycle embeddings of hypercubes

The hypercube Q_n is one of the most popular networks. In this paper, we first prove that the n-dimensional hypercube is 2n − 5 conditional fault-bipancyclic. That is, an injured hypercube with up to 2n − 5 faulty links has a cycle of length l for every even 4 ⩽ l ⩽ 2ⁿ when each node of the hypercube is incident with at least two healthy links. In addition, if a certain node is incident with less than two healthy links, we show that an injured hypercube contains cycles of all even lengths except hamiltonian cycles with up to 2n − 3 faulty links. Furthermore, the above two results are optimal. In conclusion, we find cycles of all possible lengths in injured hypercubes with up to 2n − 5 faulty links under all possible fault distributions.     

Coarse-Grained Parallel Geometric Search

We present a parallel algorithm for solving thenext element search problemon a set of line segments, using a BSP-like model referred to as thecoarse grained multicomputer(CGM). The algorithm requiresO(1) communication rounds (h-relations withh=O(n/p)),O((n/p) log n) local computation, andO((n/p) log p) memory per processor, assumingn/p⩾p. Our result implies solutions to the point location, trapezoidal decomposition, and polygon triangulation problems. A simplified version for axis-parallel segments requires onlyO(n/p) memory per processor, and we discuss an implementation of this version. As in a previous paper by Develliers and Fabri (Int. J. Comput. Geom. Appl.6(1996), 487–506), our algorithm is based on a distributed implementation of segment trees which are of sizeO(n log n). This paper improves onop. cit.in several ways: (1) It studies the more general next element search problem which also solves, e.g., planar point location. (2) The algorithms require onlyO((n/p) log n) local computation instead ofO(log p*(n/p) log n). (3) The algorithms require onlyO((n/p) log p) local memory instead ofO((n/p) log n).