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The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model based on technology acceptance with extended antecedent variables (entertainment and irritation) to examine the impact of use and gratification on e‐consumers' acceptance of B2C Websites.

Data were collected from a total of 238 EMBA and undergraduate students from three different Taiwan universities. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the conceptual model in terms of overall fit, explanatory powers and causal links.

The analytical results showed that entertainment gratification, irritation surfing experience (mass medium), perceived usefulness and ease of Web use (information systems) are important predictors of e‐consumers' use intention. The integrated model was then assessed for variance in explanatory power regarding consumer attitude and intention toward B2C Websites.

Intention to use the Web is the predictor of actual use, purchase and information‐seeking behaviors in e‐consumers. Creating entertaining content and reducing distracting processes can enhance acceptance of B2C Websites.

A theoretical model incorporating U&G constructs into a technology acceptance model was used to investigate e‐consumer behavior in Taiwan. Although ease of use and usefulness are perceived as important issues in traditional IS environments, U&G provides managers with a different perspective.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to present a framework of five “facets,” i.e., distinct but complementary ways in which the observed appeal of a consumer shopping site’s features can potentially be generalized across product/service domains (the authors call this framework the feature appeal generalization perspective); second, to determine if and how observed feature preferences for consumer electronics, bookstores, and sites “in general” generalize across domains; third, to test hypotheses about the impact of frequency of domain usage upon feature generalizability.

Via an online survey administered in a controlled laboratory setting, 313 respondents evaluated 26 website features in three domains (books, electronics, general) for a total of 24,414 preference judgments.

Two facets, individual feature values and within domain evaluative dimensions, revealed minimal generalizability, while there was moderate comparability across all domains in between domain feature correspondence. Personal preference elevation could be generalized between books and general, but not between these two and electronics. Differentiating dimensions showed that preferences were not generalizable from electronics to books and general because consumers wanted electronics features to provide “flashy sizzle” and books/general features to give “comfortable safety.” As hypothesized, patterns of generalizability coincided with frequency of domain usage.

Practitioners should not apply published studies of feature appeal to their domain of interest unless those studies directly analyzed that domain. Scientists should incorporate all five facets in modeling what attracts consumers to commercial websites.

This is the first multidimensional analysis of the generalizability of site feature appeal across business-to-consumer product/service domains, and the first to propose this integrated evaluative framework with its unique facets.

Although considerable evidence shows that online product reviews (OPRs) can greatly affect consumers, how interface designs of OPR systems (i.e. websites where consumers read and write OPRs) impact online buying behavior has not yet been well investigated. Using research on confidence in judgment and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, this study aims to develop a model of the effects of OPR system design on consumer purchase behavior.

A study using a two by two by two factorial experimental design was conducted. The structural model with AMOS 23 based on 319 useable data points was tested.

Findings are very interesting. First, designs that manipulate positions of reviews impact perceived value but surprisingly have no effects on confidence in judgment. Second, designs using default display order based on helpfulness votes rather than on recency of reviews increase confidence to a higher level. Third, although unstructured organization methods are used by many major OPR systems, they are inferior in enhancing consumers’ emotional reactions to structured ones.

This paper highlights the need for more academic research on how interface designs of online product review systems impact purchase behavior. Additionally, this study emphasizes the need for examining how confidence in judgment is impacted in the online environment.

For practitioners, this research provides them with design implications on how to increase consumer purchase behavior.

This research enhances the understanding of the effects of OPR system interface design on purchase behavior. In addition, the current paper sheds light on how confidence in judgment, given its importance in reducing online consumer’s hesitance to buy, is impacted by various interface designs of OPR systems. Furthermore, this study applies the SOR framework to the context of OPR system designs.

Customer centricity has evolved into a success factor for many companies, requiring all corporate activities – including business processes – to be aligned with customer needs. With most existing approaches to business process (re-)design focusing on process efficiency, customers are often treated as second-class citizens. Despite emergent research on customer process management, there is a lack of guidance on how to design customer-centric business processes.

The authors conducted a structured literature review and analyzed companies awarded for outstanding customer centricity to compile design heuristics for customer-centric business processes. The authors iteratively validated and refined these heuristics with experts from academia and industry. Finally, the heuristics was grouped according to their expected impact on interaction capabilities to enable their prioritization in specific settings.

The authors proposed 15 expert-approved and literature-backed design heuristics for customer-centric business processes together with real-world examples. The heuristics aim at increasing customer satisfaction with interaction-intensive core processes, which is an important driver of corporate success.

The design heuristics complement existing efficiency-centered (re-)design heuristics. They reflect cognitive shortcuts that support process analysts in the generation of innovative ideas during process (re-)design. The heuristics also add to customer process management and help put customer centricity into practice.

This paper aims to investigate how apparel product presentation influences consumer decision-making and whether there are any differences between age groups.

A mixed methodology was used including eye-tracking and qualitative in-depth interviews, with a purposive sample of 50 participants between age 20 and 70.

A higher number of product presentation features resulted in increased positive visual, cognitive and affective responses as consumers wanted as much visual information as possible to aid decision-making. Images of models attracted the most attention and were the most influential product presentation feature, followed by mannequin images and the zoom function. The 20 s spent much less time viewing and interacting with the product presentation features than middle age groups (30 s-50 s), had minimal fixations on mannequin images and had a much quicker decision-making process than other age groups.

The research informs retailers which product presentation features are the most effective for their target market to aid consumer decision-making with the aim of reducing returns.

The paper contributes to the literature by providing more in-depth insights than previous studies into the impact of online product presentation on consumer decision-making by using qualitative research and eye-tracking. The research also explores more product presentation features than previous research and investigates the presentation of apparel products, which are notoriously the most difficult products for consumers to assess online. The research is unique in its exploration of age differences in relation to product presentation features.

This paper aims to understand what kind of fashion product picture can arouse greater embodied mental simulation at two distinct steps of consumers' shopping journey (choice between options and purchase intention).

Two experimental studies were developed. Study 1 (n = 169) investigated consumers' purchase intention, and Study 2 (n = 156) investigated consumers' choice for a T-shirt displayed in an e-commerce store. The authors manipulated the product picture by considering pictures with the presence or absence of a human model wearing the product (flat vs. mannequin vs. human model without a face vs. human model with a face).

Consumers demonstrated greater choice and purchase intention for the picture that aroused greater embodied mental simulation. Different pictures aroused greater embodied mental simulation depending on the consumer journey step (choice between two options or purchase intention). Perceived product attractiveness influenced this finding.

The data on men and women were analyzed together due to the low number of male participants in both studies.

The results suggest that mannequin pictures should be used in situations involving product evaluation (e-commerce categories' pages) and that pictures with human models should be used in situations entailing further analysis of the product (e-commerce product page) to encourage purchase decisions. E-commerce managers also need to use pictures of human models when the product is viewed as less attractive.

This research investigated embodied mental simulation around product pictures at two distinct steps of consumers' shopping journey.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the micro-linkages fostering consumers’ e-loyalty in grocery retailers B2C e-commerce context. Specifically, the authors focused on the neglected role of security, privacy and website design. Grocery retailing has been selected as the context of research because grocery retailers too have been required to develop B2C e-commerce platforms to meet their consumers’ evolving preferences.

A survey was distributed to several students from University of Florence (Italy). Structural equation modeling was used to compile the research, and its results reflect the impact on e-loyalty development on specific features of the e-commerce environment.

The main findings of this research are related with the importance of website characteristics as antecedents of e-loyalty in online grocery retailing.

Albeit the explored phenomenon has been subject to extensive study, some of its facets are yet to be fully explored. In particular, though the influence of e-trust, e-satisfaction and e-commitment on e-loyalty has been shown, little attention has been paid to the factors affecting these three antecedents of e-loyalty. In this regard, this research focuses on the importance of B2C e-commerce platform characteristics such as security, perceived relationship investment and website design. In addition, the phenomenon was scarcely explored in grocery retailers B2C e-commerce context.

Taking the perfect perspective of customers' satisfaction, this paper aims to investigate the elements affecting customer satisfaction in business-to-consumer (B2C) online retailing stores, which are divided into five non-monetary dimensions: trust, order fulfillment, website construction, excitement and interaction.

Due to distinguishing the suitability of the data, the authors used exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Next, the authors utilized confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to check their validity. Then, the authors applied Cronbach's alpha to check the reliability of the elements. After that, the authors combined these five elements with structural equation modeling (SEM) to make a model. The authors also performed Friedman tests to prioritize the elements.

The results indicate that each element is undeniably significant and has an extraordinary impact on customers' satisfaction evaluation. Therefore, system providers and electronic retailers need to consider them on their websites to achieve marketing goals in the competitive online environments.

Electronic commerce has resulted in an essential change in B2C marketing, especially in the electronic retailing industry. Online suppliers need to satisfy their customers to receive competitive advantages and increase their income. The purpose of this study is to research the elements affecting customers' satisfaction in B2C online retailing stores.

The purpose of this study is to conceptually integrate business to consumer (B2C) into business to business (B2B), with a holistic consumer-centric, technology-reinforced, long-term vision for tourism industries and companies to survive and succeed in the era of new technologies 4.0. The research suggests that the tourism-marketing-new technologies decision-making involves customers as the center of the design and decision process.

The research design includes a qualitative study with 94 in-depth interviews, a literature analysis and a conceptual proposition. The qualitative study follows the tourism consumer desire data analysis, from categorization to integration. The literature analysis applies a systematic literature review approach based on the 29 most up-to-date new-tech papers from peer-reviewed journals. The analysis compares qualitative research findings and literature analysis results and matches the new technology applications with consumer desire understanding. The conceptual framework of tourism marketing/advertising is proposed based on qualitative research and literature analysis.

The qualitative research deciphers that consumers, based on their imagination and memorization, desire therapy and sceneries and connect such desires to the empathetic and resonating advertising messages. The literature analysis synthesizes the new tech applications in tourism and matches the qualitative research findings with the deciphered desires in tourism. The conceptual model proposes that B2C should be integrated into B2B to provide value for both consumers and businesses and opens avenues of research on this topic.

This research has made the following theoretical contributions: it offers an in-depth understanding of consumer desire, often hidden or subconscious, in the field of tourism. Consumer desires regarding tourism are mostly subconscious and exist long before consumers are exposed to advertising messages. These desires reflect the search for therapy and sceneries and become “embodied” – they exist on multisensorial levels and become part of the body and life and will lead consumers into positive perceptions when marketing communications/advertisements resonate with them. In the latter case, they will subjectively judge advertising as “good,” regardless of the advertising design quality. The research also connects consumer research with a new technologies research review and proposes a conceptual framework to integrate business to consumer (B2C) with business to business (B2B). As such, the research makes theoretical contributions to the integration or the “boundary blurring” between B2C and B2B research and practical suggestions that involved industries and consumers may all benefit from such integration. Conceptually, there is a lack of discussions of the pitfalls of new technologies, a dearth of empirical verification of the applications of new technologies in the proposed fields and a shortage of discussions about ethical issues. Qualitative methods, offering an efficient tool for understanding consumer desires in the tourism industry, have their own limits, as discussed in previous research. The sample is limited to the state of New York population and may be influenced by geographic, demographic and psychological characteristics related to the region.

This research provides advertising practitioners, new technology innovators and tourism industries with a framework to face the combined challenges of understanding hidden consumer desires and applying adequate technologies that resonate with consumer desires to tackle relevant issues. The conceptual proposition of this research fills the gap between qualitative consumer research without concrete practical resolution and new technologies applications without in-depth consumer understanding. Through the conceptual framework, the author provides insights into how industries may benefit from consumer understanding. The business relationships among the industries of marketing, tourism and new technologies should be centered around consumers. Thus, B2C and B2B should be naturally integrated into business practices.

Social implications of this research include three major points: first, the understanding of consumer desire for therapeutic power in tourism, which invites more attention to tourism as part of social well-being design instead of a purely for-profit business. Second, a profound comprehension of what consumers need and desire, without which the applications of new technologies may cause severe societal problems. Third, a way to tailor to consumers’ individuality and desires for advertising/marketing that may be considered abusive, stressful and socially destructive if applied in a nonpersonal manner.

Conceptually, this research adds consumer desire, an originally B2C concept, to the B2B context regarding the new technology applications in tourism marketing/advertising. It contributes to the B2B literature by proposing a strong consumer-centric approach, especially the consumer desire understanding, that is not yet investigated in the B2B literature; and a combination of empirical study and literature analysis and the matching of the two for better practice of advertising/marketing, tourism and new technologies applications.

This study aims to investigate how business-to-business (B2B) companies use message strategies on social media platform and how these strategies are effective in improving customer perceived value and encouraging customer engagement, as well as how B2B companies differ from business-to-customer (B2C) counterparts in terms of utilization and effectiveness of social media message strategy.

Based on content analysis of Sina Weibo brand pages and survey of website visitors, this paper examines the differences of social media message strategies and their impacts upon customer perceived value and customer engagement between B2B and B2C companies.

B2B companies use more rational appeals and less emotional appeals, have lower degree of informativeness and perform better in interactivity and variety than B2C companies. These five dimensions of message strategy have different roles in engaging customers via perceived value across B2B and B2C settings.

The research makes significant contributions to B2B social media marketing literature by answering two interrelated questions, namely, “What companies are doing?” and “What companies should do?” on social media websites. Besides, it provides insightful implications for B2B companies on how to implement appropriate message strategies in their social media marketing efforts by conducting Importance-Performance Analysis.