Exploratory content analysis of direct-to-consumer pet genomics: What is being marketed and what are consumers saying?

Mars Petcare introduced the first direct-to-consumer domestic dog genetic test in 2009 and Basepaws introduced the first direct-to-consumer cat genetic test in 2016. Social science research has evaluated numerous aspects of the human direct-to-consumer market, yet no such exploration has evaluated the occurrence of pet owners pursuing pet genetic tests. Using a mixed methods approach, we conducted an exploratory content analysis of direct-to-consumer pet genetic company webpages and consumer reviews shared on Amazon. Initial data reviews indicated some companies may be key industry players, relative to others. Our results present content frequency for each group (key industry players, all other companies), though the primary themes for each remained the same. Analysis showed genetic companies are primarily sharing product and purchasing information, along with trustworthiness to establish the merit of the company and their products. Companies also used statements directed towards pet owners that are suggestive of both pets and “pet parents” benefiting from the test results. The primary themes identified in consumer reviews involved consumers sharing their perception about the tests (e.g., accuracy), what aspects of the test results they focused on (e.g., breed information), and experiences with using the test (e.g., ease of use). Amazon reviews were primarily positive, though the companies with smaller review numbers had higher percentages of negative and ambiguous sentiments. Of interest, reviews most often indicated tests were being used to determine a pet’s breed identity, while companies most frequently promoted the health advantages of using their products. Reviews revealed some consumers respond to tests by sharing their pet’s results with someone or by altering their pet’s care. Considering these results in addition to the growing popularity of this industry and the advancements of genomic technology, further research is needed to determine the role pet genetic testing may have in society and on human-animal relationships.

Air-Travelers’ Perceptions of Service Quality during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Tripadvisor Sites

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted both healthcare and the economy on a global scale. This pandemic has changed consumer habits and behaviors significantly, primarily because of confinement-related issues. While numerous research has been undertaken to study customer satisfaction using surveys and online passenger ratings, the effect of COVID-19 on passenger satisfaction has not been explored. It is vital to assess satisfaction indicators gathered from online consumer reviews to ascertain consumers’ preferences for airline services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this study is to determine the primary themes that emerged from airline travelers’ internet reviews during the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, it attempts to determine which of these themes relate to higher and lower passenger satisfaction. The article uses qualitative (i.e., narratives) analyses to examine the main components of passengers’ subjective experiences of the airline. Data are represented by passenger reviews posted on the TripAdvisor website. The analyses revealed ten themes in descriptions of airline travel experiences. These include “flight”, “service”, “staff”, “food”, “check-in”, “cancellation”, “COVID-19”, “airport”, “class”, and “luggage”. Dissatisfying concepts are linked with the “cancellation”, “check-in”, “refund”, and “airport” concepts.

Conducting product comparative analysis to outperform competitor’s product using Teardown JST Model

Due to the massive number of products being produced every year in every industry, firms have witnessed a tremendous growth in innovation of methods to create a sustainable competitive advantage. For the past decade and with the availability of online consumer reviews, companies and researchers have developed many approaches utilizing electronic Word-of-Mouth to improve and develop products and services to outperform competitors. The purpose of this study is to construct an effective method to perform a better product comparative analysis based on online consumer reviews. We propose a novel framework called Teardown Joint Sentiment-Topic analysis model consisting of a combination of text analytical approaches incorporated with a developed method of the traditional teardown analysis product comparative approach. The proposed approach is fully unsupervised model that employs Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling to form topics which are classified according to their sentiments. Topics are then analyzed against competitive products and critical topics are identified using a developed teardown method. A case study analyzing online customer reviews of competing products in two domains (i.e., mobile phones and surveillance cameras) is conducted. The identified critical topics are further analyzed in view of products’ specifications perspective. We found that the detected aspects of the selected products are indeed critical, and hence, they need to be improved in order to gain a competitive advantage. The significant result of this study shows that the proposed method is effective in conducting products comparative analysis and provides valuable insights into utilizing the consumer reviews for product development.

Purchase Intention: Can Brand Awareness Mediates Online Consummer Reviews?

This study aims to determine the effect of Online Consumer Review on Purchase Intention with Brand Awareness as an Intervening Variable at Shopee into STEKOM University’s students. The primary data was obtained by distributing questionnaires to buyers who have shopped at Shopee which consists of 23 questions. Samples of 130 respondents taken by random sampling technique. The analytical tool used in data processing uses Multiple Linear Regression with the help of SPSS version 25. The results show that Online Consumer Reviews ( Online Reviews on Website, Consistency of Online Reviews and Website Popularity) have a positive effect on brand awarensess at Shopee. Online Consumer Reviews (Online Reviews on Website, Online Consistency of Reviews and Popularity of Website) variables also have a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention. Meanwhile, the Brand Awareness variable is not able to mediate Online Consumer Reviews on Purchase Intentions at the Shopee shopping platform.

Islamic Branding, Viral Marketing, Online Consumer Review, and Purchasing Decision: The Mediating Role of Purchase Intention

This study aims to determine the effect of Islamic branding, viral marketing, and online consumer reviews on purchasing decisions on e-commerce Shopee with purchase intention as an intervening variable. This study uses quantitative methods with primary data obtained through the distribution of questionnaires. The data collection technique used the purposive sampling technique with the number of respondents as many as 96 respondents. The data analysis used includes instrument tests, statistical tests, classical assumption tests, and path analyses. Based on the test results show (1) Islamic branding has a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions. (2) Viral marketing has a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions. (3) Online consumer reviews have a negative and insignificant effect on purchasing decisions. (4) Purchase intention has a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions. (5) Purchase intention can mediate Islamic branding on purchasing decisions. (6) Purchase intention is not able to mediate viral marketing on purchasing decisions. (7) Purchase intention is not able to mediate online consumer reviews of purchasing decisions.