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This article analyses the role of information in the marketing processes associated with a digital world. The distinctions between information products and goods and services are explored. The unique characteristics of information products may demand a new approach to marketing, defined as information marketing. An analysis of the different levels of product demonstrates that information is often used to augment services or goods, and that it may be difficult to delineate the category “information products”. In marketing communications, digital information can be a rich resource for organisations, consumers and communities. The multi‐faceted role of information in the virtual world has consequences for information producers, consumers and marketers. These groups need to understand the unique features of information marketing.

Information products are analysed in terms of their linguistic, artistic, technological, pragmatic and contextual components and characteristics, and illustrated with examples of how the components are combined in real‐life information products. The conclusion is that the malleability and versatility of the components, and the technological possibilities of combining them provide seemingly unlimited scope for designing and marketing value‐added information products in our increasingly competitive and information technology‐based societies.

The chapter focused on quality assurance and marketing of library services and products at the Midlands State University (MSU). The chapter's main objective was to identify the quality assurance mechanisms at the MSU Library. The major findings of the research were; the MSU library was practising quality assurance, staff was trained on the latest trends in the profession, the collection was multidisciplinary and in different forms, and that there were Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) used in enhancing service provision. The researcher recommended that the library needed to continuously train librarians on issues to do with quality, improve the infrastructure, introduce Research Data Management to enhance the Research Support Services and improve on the Information Literacy Skills training programmes. The author identified some areas for further research and the major one was that there is need for clarification on the concept of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence of product information on purchase intention and evaluate the moderated mediation effect of return policy leniency in cross-border e-commerce.

The methodology is to use multiple regression analysis on 406 qualified online survey responses to determine the influence of product description, product display, and product content on consumer purchasing intention through product involvement as well as the moderated mediation effect of return policy leniency.

The results show that product description and product content were positively associated with product involvement, while product display did not exhibit a significant relationship between it and product involvement. As hypothesized, product involvement mediated the relationship of product description and product content with consumer purchasing intention. The return policy leniency was also found to positively moderate the mediation path of product content on purchasing intention through product involvement.

This study bridges a gap in the literature on the influence of three kinds of product information on purchasing intention through product involvement in a cross-border e-commerce context. Especially the study is one of the first attempts to determine that good return policy do not apply universally due to implied boundary conditions. The results can be used to expand consumption in cross-border e-commerce.

With the continuous development of online shopping, analyzing the competitiveness of products in the fierce market competition is becoming increasingly crucial to position their own product development. However, the information overload brought by the network development makes it getting difficult to obtain the accurate competitiveness information. Therefore, competitiveness analysis research to combine with the perceived helpfulness study needs urgent solution. Furthermore, deviations exist in the three common methods of perceived helpfulness research. Finally, the traditional information fusion analysis only analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of products in competitiveness analysis without taking account of the competitive environment.

This study puts forward a novel prediction model of perceived helpfulness in conjunction of unsupervised learning and sentiment analysis techniques, to conduct the comparison with pros and cons of congeneric products.

This paper adopts Wilcoxon test to demonstrate the significant rectification of our competitiveness analysis to the traditional methods. It is noted that the positive reviews of the products in this study impact more on product word of mouth and competitiveness than negative ones.

To sum up, the results of this study benefit businesses in locating their dynamic market position with competitors in practice and exploring new method for long-term development strategic planning.

This paper aims to analyze the effects of web communities vs company websites in providing tactile information considering different types of product in terms of touch diagnosticity (low- vs. high-touch products).

Three experimental studies were conducted to examine the effect of online information sources (i.e. web communities vs. company websites) in providing tactile information on consumer responses, considering the moderation role of product type in terms of touch diagnosticity (low- vs. high-touch products, Study 1), the moderating role of type of information (tactile vs. generic, Study 2a); and the moderating role of need for touch (NFT) (Study 2a and 2b).

While previous research converges on the idea that the provision of a written description of tactile properties deriving from the product usage is particularly effective for products for which tactile information is diagnostic and for individuals high in NFT, the results demonstrated that the presence (vs. the absence) of the description of the tactile properties provided by web communities (vs. company websites) matters for those products for which touch is not diagnostic and for individuals low in NFT.

The findings have particular relevance for emerging brands intending to commercialize their products in the digital environment. These companies should be present in web communities to describe a product’s tactile characteristics, especially if not diagnostic.

This paper significantly contributes to a better understanding of a little studied area, namely, consumer responses toward haptic compensational strategies providing haptic cues (e.g. written description of tactile information along with pictures of products) aiming at compensating for the absence of touch, underlining the differential influence of online sources of tactile information on consumer responses across different types of products.

As an increasingly popular tool for product exploration, online communities have an important impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how visiting behaviors in online communities affect consumers’ offline purchasing behavior. The moderating role of two dimensions of consumer visiting behaviors (visiting depth and visiting breadth) also receives attention. Moreover, the impact of consumer visiting behaviors on offline sales for different types of online communities is also the focus of this paper.

To test the empirical model, the authors collected data on consumers’ visits to an online real estate platform with local housing sales data. In addition to the baseline regression analysis of the data with the help of Stata 17.0, the study also analyzes the robustness of the results through several methods.

The authors focus on an online community for newly-built housing and find that consumer visits to the focal online community have a positive impact on offline sales. Visiting breadth has a negative moderating effect on this relationship, and no statistically significant moderating effect is found for visiting depth. Further, our empirical exploration finds that consumer visits to competitive online communities have a positive impact on offline focal product sales, but visits to complementary online communities have no statistically significant effect on offline sales.

Our findings contribute to the understanding of consumers’ cross-channel purchasing behavior and provide new insights into how visiting behaviors in online communities affect consumers’ purchasing decisions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of consumers' shopping orientation on their satisfaction level with the product search and purchase behavior using multi‐channels.

A total of 181 students in a large US mid‐western university provided usable responses to the survey. Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analyses were employed to examine the research questions.

The results showed that more than three quarters of the respondents shopped via the internet and catalogs, and about 95 percent shopped at non‐local retailers. About 60 percent reported that they never shopped from TV shopping channels. Confident/fashion‐conscious shopping orientation and catalog/internet shopping orientation were found to be key predictors of customer satisfaction level with information search via multi‐channels. Both confident/fashion‐conscious consumers and mall shopping‐oriented shoppers were more satisfied with store‐based retail channels for apparel purchases, whereas non‐local store‐oriented shoppers and catalog/internet‐oriented shoppers were more satisfied with non‐store‐based retail channels for their apparel purchases.

The sample of this study was biased by gender and age. For the apparel retail industry, this paper offers practical knowledge about the relationships between shopping orientation and consumer search and purchase behavior in a multi‐channel retailing context.

No study has utilized the shopping orientation framework to explain consumer behavior in a multi‐channel environment. This study provides understanding of consumer product information search behavior on four dimensions (price, promotion, style/trends, and merchandise availability) via multi‐channels.

In electronic commerce, businesses require to integrate two kinds of activities – ones that are embedded into the physical value chains and the others that are built through information into the virtual chain. Although the relative importance of these two kinds of chain depends on the characteristics of the products and services, their integration, nevertheless, plays a critical role in the success of e‐commerce. In e‐commerce, more and more value chain activities are conducted electronically, therefore, businesses should understand the implication of the virtual value chain activities. The virtual chain offers a number of distinct advantages over the physical value chain. Some of these advantages lie in forging alliances between customers and manufacturers, advertising products and services selectively with effects of audio, video, and graphics, and saving time and money in efficiently processing customer orders and enquiries. Besides, e‐commerce offers flexibility in option pricing and customization of products and service, by reducing the constraints of time and space.

This paper seeks to develop a conceptual model that enables understanding of consumer purchase decisions in relation to the first customized products, including steps of the decision process, determinants, and consequences of each step.

The classic grounded theory approach was used.

The study found that the process consists of six steps called knowledge learning and preliminary information searching, problem recognition, budget setting, detailed information searching and solution creating, purchase involvement, and use and post‐purchase. The process is distinct from the process of traditional models of consumer decision mainly from three aspects: the process starting from “knowledge learning and information searching”, not from “problem recognition”, while “problem recognition” is the second step; information searched in the process mainly on components of products, with little on products; and the process includes a step “solution creating”, but without steps “alternative evaluation” and “choice”. The consequences of the first step consist of knowledge mastered, market information acquired, pre‐decisions, perceived value of customized PC, positive attitude towards customized PC, and self‐confidence, which are the main determinants of the following steps. Besides these determinants, others included are interest, curiosity, work with computers as tools, sources of knowledge and information on PC, and income.

The study provides a foundation for future quantitative research on determinants of consumers' purchasing the first customized products and provides insights into marketing: for example, target consumers of customized PC are characterized at least by having great self‐confidence in their capability to make an effective decision in purchasing customized PC, and having mastered enough PC knowledge.

Across a variety of domains, consumers are demanding increased customized products. While consumer decision making has become a prominent research topic in various fields of marketing and consumer science over the past decades, surprisingly little research has examined consumer purchase decisions in relation to the first customized personal computer (PC) and factors influencing such a process. The study may fill this gap.