Managing perceived risk for customer retention in e-commerce

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-Shen Yen

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how perceived risk affects customer loyalty in e-commerce and how switching costs mediate in the relationship between perceived risk and customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, structural equation modeling was conducted, and data on Internet shopping habits of 382 consumers in Taiwan were examined. Findings – The findings of this study revealed that lowering perceived risks can increase switching costs, which leads to customer loyalty with the service provider in e-commerce. Research limitations/implications – A sample bias may exist because the sampling was conducted through an online survey in a specific Web site. This study affirmed the theoretical framework regarding the mediation effect of switching costs on perceived risk and customer-loyalty relationships. Practical implications – To avoid the single effect of reducing perceived risk on customer loyalty, practitioners should be difficult for competitors to imitate. This can increase the barriers to competition, further lock in the customer and can prevent the switch to other service providers. Originality/value – The findings provide a new feasible approach to customer retention: a business can reduce customers’ perceived risk to increase switching costs against the competition for customer retention in e-commerce.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Hsin Chen ◽  
Ching-Jui Keng

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an extended Push-Pull-Mooring-Habit (PPMH) framework in order to better understand users’ intention of switching from offline to an online real-person English learning platform service. Design/methodology/approach Based on 301 valid responses collected from an online survey questionnaire, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model. Findings The causal model was validated using SmartPLS 3.0, and all study hypotheses were supported. The results show that push effects (learning convenience, service quality and perceived price), pull effects (e-learning motivation, perceived usefulness), mooring effects (learning engagement, switching cost and social presences) and habit effects (relationship inertia) all significantly influence users’ switching intentions from offline to an online real-person English learning platform. Practical implications The findings should help online English learning service providers and marketers to understand the intention of offline English learning users to switch to an online real-person English learning platform, and develop related theories, services and regulations. Originality/value The present study extends the prior research of an online real-person English learning platform by providing PPMH as the general framework and demonstrating its efficacy in explaining user switching intentions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 718-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Sultan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of staged customer experiences on customer switching costs in the banking industry. Design/methodology/approach Brand touchpoints in the banking industry are identified by exploratory research using focus group sessions with bank customers and staff and refined by exploratory factor analysis using an independent sample of bank customers to form the staged customer experience construct. The proposed research model is then validated by confirmatory factor analysis with an independent sample using structural equation modeling. Findings Customer experience in the banking industry consists of four related but distinct stages (i.e. pre-touch, in-touch, post-touch and service failure). The first three stages have direct and indirect effects on switching costs that are partially mediated by relationship quality. Research limitations/implications Customer experience is an industry-specific construct with complicated effects on switching costs. Thus, the staged customer experience construct should be examined in different industries and applications to understand its implications. Practical implications Bank customers demand experiences that achieve desirable results in everyday situations and switch to other service providers easily if this demand is not met. Banks should focus on brand touchpoints that are both important to customers and increase switching costs to keep customers from defecting. Originality/value This research expands upon findings in the customer experience literature by exploring factors that link staged customer experiences with switching costs in the banking industry. In addition, a paradox is identified in the staged customer experience model that requires managers’ attention in order to design an effective customer experience strategy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Walsh ◽  
Mario Schaarschmidt ◽  
Stefan Ivens

Purpose Given the strategic importance of firm reputation because of its potential for value creation, extant reputation research focuses on favorable customer outcomes. This study proposes and tests a model that relates the customer-based corporate reputation (CBR) of fashion retailers to customer-perceived risk and two relational outcomes – trust and commitment. In addition, this study aims to test whether or not the hypothesized paths are equally strong for male and female shoppers. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were collected through an online survey approach. Using a sample of more than 300 retail customers and structural equation modeling, the authors tested the hypotheses. Findings Drawing on previous research, the commitment–trust theory of relationship marketing and signaling theory, the authors find support for direct and indirect links between retailers’ reputation and relational outcomes, the intervening role of perceived risk and the partially moderational role of gender. Practical implications The findings of this research suggest that a retailer’s positive reputation can reduce customers’ risk and engender trust, which in turn promotes customer commitment. Originality/value A growing number of examples suggests that retailers (specially fashion retailers) need to manage their reputation, which can come under threat in myriad ways, and its outcomes. However, so far, no individual study empirically investigated any of these reputation outcomes simultaneously or considered gender differences. Thus, the authors address an important research gap by examining the mechanism through which CBR affects relevant customer outcomes and by considering contextual factors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 866-883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung-Kuei Hsieh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate customer loyalty in the online-to-offline (O2O) model by conceptualizing and measuring emotion and cognition. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was used to collect 514 questionnaire responses. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings Three emotional factors influence two cognitive factors, which in turn affect customer loyalty. The type of message source acts as a moderator. In addition to pleasure and arousal, dominance is a key factor of emotion. The effects of social enhancement and store environment on customer loyalty reflect the O2O model’s integration of online and offline environments. Practical implications The moderating role of the type of message source implies that marketers of brick-and-mortar stores can promote positive offline experiences to attract online customers and then encourage these customers to disseminate personal messages in their social circles. By attracting online customers through appealing m-services and retaining these customers through favorable store environments, marketers can maximize the utility of the O2O model. Originality/value Three emotional factors and two cognitive factors are conceptualized to predict customer loyalty in the O2O model. This study shows that the relationships between cognitive factors and customer loyalty are moderated by the type of message source. When check-in activity messages are sent by friends, the perception of social enhancement can lead to greater customer loyalty. In contrast, when check-in activity messages are sent by unfamiliar sources, customer loyalty is driven more by cognition of the store environment than by online interaction. The findings enrich existing knowledge of the O2O model and m-services, and have implications for researchers and marketers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1600-1625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Presi ◽  
Charalampos Saridakis ◽  
Susanna Hartmans

Purpose – This study aims to focus on the motivation of service customers to create user-generated content (UGC) after a negative service experience. In examining this relationship, the moderating role of “extraversion” personality trait is also taken into consideration. Furthermore, the paper examines how differently motivated service customers react to a firm’s service recovery strategies, whilst insights into the relationship between UGC creation and specific online platform usage are also provided. Design/methodology/approach – Structural Equation Modeling is used to test the conceptual model, based on an empirical dataset collected from an online survey research of 239 service customers. The dataset pertains to international travellers and their UGC behaviour after a negative travel experience. Findings – Altruistic, vengeance and economic motivations are strong drivers for UGC creation after a negative service experience. Motivations also correlate to participation in specific online platforms. Furthermore, it is shown that highly extraverted customers create more UGC after a negative service experience when motivated by vengeance. Finally, higher levels of altruistic and self-enhancement motivations correlate with a positive attitude towards a firm’s response, whereas customers who are motivated by vengeance have a negative attitude towards a firm’s response. Practical implications – Customers who share their negative service experience by creating UGC in social media can be segmented according to their motivation. Service providers should inspect the UGC of their customers to understand the motivation behind it. The motivation to create UGC varies across platforms, and hence, customized service recovery strategies are required. Originality/value – This paper examines UGC creation in relation to motivation, extraversion, and attitude towards a firm’s response. This is the first reported application which collectively examines important issues like these in a unified theoretical framework.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bijoylaxmi Sarmah ◽  
Shreekant Sharma ◽  
Shivam Gupta

Purpose Recent advances in information and communication technologies has driven emergence and expansion of the internet with decreased computing and communication costs and paved the way for exploring, creating and delivering value to the stakeholders through e-business adoption by the hotel service providers. Keeping this context in mind, this study aims to develop a conceptual model to investigate the antecedent factors of e-business adoption intention among the owners/managers of Indian micro, small and medium hotel enterprises and empirically validates it. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from micro, small and medium hotel owners/managers with the help online survey method that resulted into 116 usable questionnaires. Structural equation modeling technique was applied to examine the appropriateness of the hypotheses. Findings Findings reveal that attitude toward e-business, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control positively influences e-business adoption intention among the owners/managers of micro, small and medium hotel enterprises in India. Research limitations/implications The context of this study is micro, small and medium hotel enterprises in India only and thereby limits the generalizability of results to other industry and country context. Practical implications This study offers theoretical and managerial implications to be applied by academicians and micro, small and medium enterprise owners/managers for e-business adoption in Indian hotel industry. Originality value This study can be considered as an extension of the study of Crespo and del Bosque (2008) in which they applied the theory of planned behavior to understand the psychological factors that determine e-business adoption among the managers and, thereby, contribute the existing literature, as empirical studies on e-business adoption intention by micro, small and medium hotel enterprises are scantly available.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-334
Author(s):  
Yonghua Cen ◽  
Li Li

Purpose Given a product or service, the number of its installed user base has a significant positive effect on the existing users’ loyalty and new users’ conversion. This effect is conceptualized as network externalities in economics. Network externalities are supposed to be particularly striking in nowadays online business-to-business (B2B) platforms, but yet the mystery behind their effects on user loyalty to online B2B platforms remains to be delicately unraveled. The purpose of this paper is to discover the factors driving users’ loyalty, especially buyers’ loyalty, to online B2B platforms, by highlighting the impacts of network externalities on loyalty and other mediating factors. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model of buyer loyalty under network externalities is elaborated. The reliability and validity of the instruments of the latent model constructs are assessed by confirmatory factor analysis, and the hypothesized causal relationships among the constructs are tested by structural equation modeling, on 710 valid buyer samples collected from a famous online B2B platform in China. Findings The analysis demonstrates that: perceived value, user satisfaction and switching costs are the major predictors of buyer loyalty to online B2B platforms characterized by network externalities; network externalities positively account for buyer loyalty by contributing to perceived value, user satisfaction and switching costs; and direct network externality (measured by perceived network size and perceived external prestige) has a significant effect on indirect network externality (measured by perceived compatibility and perceived complementarity). Originality/value The findings allow the authors to conclude meaningful managerial implications for online B2B service providers to build up loyal user bases through improving users’ perceptions of network externalities, switching costs and value.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Budhi Prihartono ◽  
Muhammad Azhar Ashari ◽  
Aldila Rizkiana

The growth of smartphone users in Indonesia opens up business opportunities for service providers, in particular via m-commerce. However, along with these great opportunities and rivalry, service providers are required to make consumers faithful to the products and services they deliver.  This research aimed to develop a conceptual model for an application based on m-commerce, particularly in the context of the mobile travel agent application.  The research model was based on the application of five dimensions of mobile service quality (M-S-QUAL), customer engagement, and commitment as the predecessor factors of customer loyalty.  The study was conducted on 760 MTA application users who participated in an online survey.  The data were divided into two groups based on the level of income to be further analyzed using the Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).  The Multigroup SEM analysis showed that the concept of customer loyalty was explained differently by the two groups with different income levels.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-153
Author(s):  
Cheng Pan ◽  
Yu Lei ◽  
Jiang Wu ◽  
Yuee Wang

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical framework to explore the influence of green packaging on green purchase intention in the context of online-to-offline (O2O) commerce and to discuss the indirect effects of perceived value, perceived risk and green satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach To cast light on the factors affecting consumers’ intention to purchase in the context of O2O commerce, 295 valid questionnaire responses of O2O consumers in China were collected via an online survey. Data analysis was performed based on structural equation modeling. Findings The empirical results indicated that green packaging significantly affects consumers’ green purchase intention in the O2O commerce context indirectly through perceived value, perceived risk and green satisfaction. Moreover, green loyalty positively and significantly moderates the effects of perceived value, perceived risk and green satisfaction on green purchase intention. Originality/value Research on product packaging has mainly focused on investigating packaging materials, designs, functions and applications but has rarely examined how product packaging affects consumers’ purchase intention in the context of O2O commerce. Moreover, although previous studies have explored the roles of perceived value and perceived risk on purchase intention, they have not investigated the effects of environmental concerns and commerce context. This study attempts to fill these research gaps.


Author(s):  
Daniel Tumpal H. Aruan ◽  
Felicia Felicia

Purpose The growth of information and communication technology and the appearance of the sharing economy have affected the market. This trend will potentially create a competitive transformation, especially in the accommodation sector. While Airbnb has become the leader in the sharing economy, more competitors are coming into the market, some with different business propositions and positioning strategies, thereby offering different points of differences (PODs). The purpose of this study is to identify and compare the factors that influence the usage of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation services for trading activity (renting vs lending), particularly between Airbnb and Couchsurfing. More specifically, this study examines the causal relationships among some major factors that influence customers’ purchase intentions, such as perceived risk, perceived value, price sensitivity and word of mouth. Design/methodology/approach A total of 400 millennial respondents – 200 for each service – who have used the respective mobile applications participated in the online survey. Using structural equation modeling, the analysis revealed that the model acts differently across the groups. Findings The results revealed that Airbnb respondents paid more attention to perceived risks when booking the accommodation, thus indicating that they are more risk-averse, whereas Couchsurfing’s users sought the perceived value that they would receive at the destination. Practical implications The findings of this study are beneficial for Airbnb and Couchsurfing in particular and players in the industry in general. Originality/value This study reveals that factors that influence the intention to use the sharing economy platform work differently based on the form of trading activities.


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