Internet entrepreneurship and “the sharing of information” in an Internet-of-Things context

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Yu ◽  
Sanjit Kumar Roy ◽  
Ali Quazi ◽  
Bang Nguyen ◽  
Yuqing Han

Purpose For entrepreneurs operating in an Internet-of-Things (IoT) environment, it is essential to monitor more systematically, both the interaction with the consumers and the sharing of information among the consumers. The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of word-of-mouth (WOM) in the online SME’s context in terms of consumers “citing the site” to peers in personal communications. A research model integrates the determinants of retail website-specific positive WOM communication, and proposes that WOM about a particular website is influenced by: site-level variables, that is, website quality and interactivity; and consumer-level variables, these being the site user’s satisfaction with and commitment to the website. The research advances the study of IoT entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from graduate and undergraduate students with business and entrepreneurship majors from a reputed school in the Northeast region of the USA, using an online survey. The hypotheses were then tested with SEM using AMOS 18.0. Findings Findings suggest that in an IoT context, WOM is influenced by a variety of factors of which the e-satisfaction and attitude toward website constructs play important roles. The study highlights the importance of the e-satisfaction construct and its metrics. E-satisfaction is not only a critical outcome metric, but also a primary predictor of customer e-loyalty, measured in terms of the customer’s positive attitude, stickiness and propensity to spread positive WOM. Originality/value The paper contributes to the entrepreneurship and IoT literature with a comprehensive framework of information sharing, interactivity and WOM, showing that specific antecedents drive consumers to cite and advocate for a website to fellow customers. The framework helps retail SME entrepreneurs in the IoT context to design appropriate strategies to influence website visitors’ endorsement of the site to fellow customers.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-283
Author(s):  
Soo Kang ◽  
Jeffrey Miller ◽  
Jaeseok Lee

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how festival quality, satisfaction and intention to return among cannabis festival attendees were interrelated by using the 2018 Mile High 420 Cannabis Festival in Denver, Colorado, USA. Design/methodology/approach This study employed an online survey with festival attendees to the 2018 Mile High 420 Festival. A total of 664 attendees participated in the survey. Findings Findings of the study revealed the demographic profile of cannabis festival attendees (i.e. relatively young, single and evenly distributed in terms of gender and residency) and its relationships with respondents’ perceived festival qualities. In addition, two dimensions of festival quality unique to the context of marijuana festival influenced attendees’ satisfaction and intent to return significantly. Festival attendees’ travel characteristics were used to describe attendees’ satisfaction and intent to return to a different degree. This research has also highlighted a lack of research in the area of cannabis events/festivals. Originality/value This study is the first investigation that studied a cannabis-themed festival in the tourism literature. As legalization of recreational cannabis has been embraced in the USA and abroad (i.e. Canada), the findings of this empirical study will help the industry professionals and policy makers to understand this unprecedented SIT market and can be used as the benchmarks for their legal and operational practicality. Further, this study highlights research gaps in the tourism literature, and identifies those areas where future study is unlikely to provide new knowledge.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pantea Foroudi ◽  
Elisa Montes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of corporate logo in organisations’ development of corporate e-communication. Design/methodology/approach This research model was designed based on previous studies on corporate logo, its antecedents on e-communication, corporate image and corporate reputation. Online survey was conducted for consumers and followers of the shopping social networking platforms (Facebook and Twitter) in Colombia. Findings Taking into account previous corporate constructs theories, the authors propose a new conceptual framework to explain how corporate e-communication interacts within an organisation’s structure and also to show that the consumer’s interaction in corporate e-communication platforms is based on the corporate logo perception held by consumers; as a consequence, the corporate reputation is affected. Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding and expansion of the organisation’s structure by introducing a new corporate construct, named “corporate e-communication”, defined as the digital interaction that an organisation has with its stakeholders; it involves everything it says, shows and does. However, there are a few other areas of concern with regard to consequences related to corporate image and corporate reputation, particularly in Colombian retail setting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayoung Yoon ◽  
Devan Ray Donaldson

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the landscape of data curation services among public and academic libraries in the USA, with a focus on library capacity for providing data curation services. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an online survey by employing stratified sampling from the American Library Directory. A total of 198 responses were analyzed. Findings The authors’ findings provide insight into the current landscape of libraries’ data curation services. The survey participants evaluated six capacity dimensions for both public and academic libraries – value, financial, administrative, technical infrastructure, human resources and network. The ratings the participants gave to these capacity dimensions were significantly different between academic and public libraries. Practical implications This study suggests several areas in which libraries will benefit from further developing their capacity to successfully run data curation services. Originality/value This is among the first research study to address the concept of capacity in the context of libraries’ data curation services.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Yang

PurposeRecently, the popularity and growth of social media have boosted the development of social commerce (s-commerce). The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ decisions in s-commerce, for which this study conducted empirical research on WeChat, a very popular social media in China, to validate howguanxielements (e.g.ganqing,renqingandxinren) affect consumers’ decisions in s-commerce.Design/methodology/approachTo examine the research model, an online survey instrument was developed to gather data. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares modeling.FindingsThe results confirm thatguanxielements are positively related to eWOM sharing intention and social shopping intention. Moreover, these effects are mediated by a sense of belonging.Originality/valueThis study enhances the existing literature by introducing the concept ofguanxielements to the context of s-commerce, and linking the concept ofguanxielements and consumers’ decisions. Moreover, this study improves the theoretical and empirical understanding ofguanxielements by investigating its impact on eWOM sharing intention and social shopping intention. Third, the results confirm thatguanxielements not only influence a sense of belonging but also conjointly impacts eWOM sharing intention and social shopping intention in s-commerce.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1234-1261 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Aloysius ◽  
Ankur Arora ◽  
Viswanath Venkatesh

Purpose Retailers are implementing technology-enabled mobile checkout processes in their stores to improve service quality, decrease labor costs and gain operational efficiency. These new checkout processes have increased customer convenience primarily by providing them autonomy in sales transactions in that store employee interventions play a reduced role. However, this autonomy has the unintended consequence of altering the checks and balances inherent in a traditional employee-assisted checkout process. Retailers, already grappling with shoplifting, with an estimated annual cost of billions of dollars, fear that the problem may be exacerbated by mobile checkout and concomitant customer autonomy. The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of mobile checkout processes in retail stores on cybercrime in the form of shoplifting enabled by a technology transformed the retail environment. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an online survey of a US sample recruited from a crowdsourced platform. The authors test a research model that aims to understand the factors that influence the intention to shoplift in three different mobile checkout settings − namely, smartphone checkout settings, store-provided mobile device checkout settings, and employee-assisted mobile checkout settings − and compare it with a traditional fixed location checkout setting. Findings The authors found that, in a smartphone checkout setting, intention to shoplift was driven by experiential beliefs and peer influence, and experiential beliefs and peer influence had a stronger effect for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters; in a store-provided mobile devices checkout setting, experiential beliefs had a negative effect on shoplifters’ intention to shoplift and the effect was weaker for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters. The results also indicated that in an employee-assisted mobile checkout setting, intention to shoplift was driven by experiential beliefs and peer influence, and experiential beliefs had a stronger effect for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters. Originality/value This study is the among the first, if not first, to examine shoplifters’ intention to shoplift in mobile checkout settings. We provide insights into how those who may not have considered shoplifting in less favorable criminogenic settings may change their behavior due to the autonomy provided by mobile checkout settings and also provide an understanding of the shoplifting intention for both prospective and experienced shoplifters in different mobile checkout settings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (12) ◽  
pp. 3338-3349
Author(s):  
Simone Holligan ◽  
Sunghwan Yi ◽  
Vinay Kanetkar ◽  
Jess Haines ◽  
Jana Dergham ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the meal selection and potential vegetable substitution preferences in a sample of university students, to inform design of planned nudge interventions for increasing vegetable intake in on-campus cafeterias. The setting was a public university in southern Ontario, Canada. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was disseminated via multiple channels, and 686 undergraduate students responded. The frequency of purchasing specific meals on campus was queried first to set context, and then preferences for meal types (wraps, pasta, etc.), followed by preferences for vegetables to be added within meal types. Findings For portable meal options such as sandwiches, pitas and wraps, preferred vegetables for modification were cucumbers, spinach, tomatoes and bell peppers, and having vegetable toppings and raw cauliflower or broccoli as sides with pizza. For burgers or hotdogs, preferred sides were garden salad, cucumber slices and carrot sticks. Broccoli was the most preferred vegetable addition and substitution for sit-down meals, such as meals of chicken, beef, pork or fish with a side of potatoes or rice. Practical implications The findings can be used to design nudge interventions in university cafeterias by incorporating preferred vegetables into composite meals frequently purchased by students. Originality/value Few nudge studies to date have incorporated more vegetables into existing composite meals and offering them as the new default. Stated preferences are a reasonable starting point for the design of such interventions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-460
Author(s):  
Nan Hua

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impacts of IT capabilities on hotel competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach This study adapts and extends Hua et al. (2015) and O’Neill et al. (2008) by incorporating the specific measures of IT expenditures as proxies for the relevant IT capabilities to explore the impacts of IT capabilities on hotel competitiveness. Findings This study finds that expenditures on IT Labor, IT Systems and IT Websites exert different impacts on hotel competitiveness. In addition, IT capabilities exert both contemporary and lagged effects on hotel competitiveness. Originality/value This study is the first that uses financial data to capture direct measures of individual IT capabilities and tests the individual impacts of IT capabilities on hotel competitiveness from both contemporaneous and lagged perspectives. It uses a large same store sample of hotels in the USA from 2011 to 2017; as a result, the study results can be reasonably representative of the hotel population in the USA.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-375
Author(s):  
Neil Ewins

Purpose This paper explores the advertising strategy of crockery importers and dealers in relationship to their origins and backgrounds. This is a departure from earlier ceramic-history literature which tended to focus on the Staffordshire producers, with limited awareness on how the identity of importers and dealers influenced what products were sold, and their individual approaches to marketing. Design/methodology/approach Within a context of historical marketing research, this paper analyses newspaper advertising and commentary. It combines an examination of marketing practices with a wider consideration of the cultural identities of ceramic importers and dealers. The digitalization of historical records, combined with sophisticated search engines, makes it more feasible to examine a broader range of sources. Thus, modern research methods can enhance our understanding of production and demand and reveal how marketing strategy was diverse. Findings Awareness on how advertising was influenced by the backgrounds and socio-political views of importers and dealers demonstrates ways in which Anglo-American ceramic trade could be far more market-led. More significantly, marketing approaches were not necessarily responding to American demand, but rather that importers could engage in commissioning goods which reflected their own views on politics, religion or slavery. Originality/value Examining the advertising of importers demonstrates the complex relationship between production and ceramic demand. This paper opens up debates as to how far the advertising of other merchandise in the USA shows evidence of taking a more individual approach by the 19th century.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Christine Babyar

Purpose Physician stress and burnout is a serious and common concern in healthcare, with over half of physicians in the USA meeting at least one criterion for burnout. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A review on current state of physician stress and burnout research, from 2008 to 2016, was undertaken. A subsequent perspective paper was shaped around these reviews. Findings Findings reveal research strength in prevalence and incidence with opportunities for stronger intervention studies. While descriptive studies on causes and consequences of physician burnout are available, studies on interventions and prevention of physician burnout are lacking. Future research on physician stress and burnout should incorporate intervention studies and take care to avoid limitations found in current research. Accountability and prevention of physician burnout is the responsibility of the healthcare industry as a whole, and organizational strategies must be emphasized in future research. Originality/value The value of this research comes in the original comprehensive review, international inclusion and succinct summary of physician burnout research and strategies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul J. Berman ◽  
Peter J. Korsten ◽  
Anthony Marshall

Purpose Digital reinvention helps organizations create unique, compelling experiences for their customers, partners, employees and other stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach Digital reinvention combines the capabilities of multiple technologies, including cloud, cognitive, mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT) to rethink customer and partner relationships from a perspective of fundamental customer need, use or aspiration. Findings The most successful digitally reinvented businesses establish a platform of engagement for their customers, with the business acting as enabler, conduit and partner Practical implications For successful digital reinvention, organizations need to pursue a new strategic focus, build new expertise and establish new ways of working. Originality/value The article offers a blueprint for digital reinvention that involves rethinking customer and partner relationships from a perspective of fundamental customer need, use or aspiration.


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