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1 – 10 of over 8000Sara Herrada-Lores, M. Ángeles Iniesta-Bonillo and Antonia Estrella-Ramón
Websites are the most important element of company strategy in the digital space. Therefore, establishing strategic management of online business is essential to improve firm…
Abstract
Purpose
Websites are the most important element of company strategy in the digital space. Therefore, establishing strategic management of online business is essential to improve firm connectedness and competitiveness and to achieve global company reach. This paper aims to propose the analysis of technical and content quality of websites to identify the main weaknesses and strengths of online business.
Design/methodology/approach
An innovative measurement instrument called IWebQEI is designed to measure web quality level. This instrument is validated with data from 104 international companies. The results are used to verify whether there are quality differences between informative and e-commerce websites.
Findings
The main findings indicate that e-commerce websites achieve greater levels of technical and content quality than informative sites, and companies implementing e-commerce pay more attention to the content quality dimension. In contrast, companies using an informative website are more focused on the technical quality dimension. Based on these results, practical insights are offered to improve the strategic management of e-commerce.
Originality/value
Few studies have focused on analysing the technical and content quality of websites to identify the main weaknesses and strengths of online business. The results offer important theoretical and practical contributions for companies on how to manage their website to improve firm connectivity and competitiveness.
Propósito
Los sitios web son el elemento más importante de la estrategia digital de la compañia. Una gestión estratégica del negocio online es esencial para mejorar su conectividad, competitividad y para conseguir su alcance global. Este trabajo propone el análisis de la calidad técnica y de contenido de sitios web para identificar las principales debilidades y fortalezas del negocio online.
Metodología
Para medir el nivel de calidad web, se ha diseñado un innovador instrumento de medición, denominado IWebQEI. Este instrumento se valida con datos de 104 empresas internacionales. Los resultados se utilizan para comprobar si existen diferencias de calidad entre las webs informativas y los e-commerce.
Resultados
Las resultados indican que los e-commerce alcanzan mayores niveles de calidad técnica y de contenido que las webs informativas, y las empresas que implementan un e-commerce prestan más atención a la calidad de contenido. En cambio, las empresas que implementan una web informativa se centran más en la calidad técnica. A partir de estos resultados se ofrecen ideas prácticas para mejorar la gestión estratégica del e-commerce.
Originalidad
Pocos estudios analizan la calidad técnica y de contenido de los sitios web para identificar las principales debilidades y fortalezas del negocio online. Los resultados ofrecen importantes contribuciones teóricas y prácticas sobre cómo gestionar los sitios web para mejorar la conectividad y la competitividad de la compañia.
目的
企业网站是公司在数字空间中战略的最重要元素。因此, 建立在线业务本身的战略管理对于提高公司的连通性和竞争力以及实现公司的全球影响力至关重要。本文提出对企业网站的技术和内容质量进行分析, 以确定在线业务的主要弱点和优势。
设计/方法/途径
设计了一个创新的测量仪器, 称为IWebQEI, 用于测量网络质量水平。该仪器通过104家国际公司的数据进行验证。结果被用于检查信息网站和电子商务网站之间是否存在质量差异。
研究结果
主要研究结果表明, 总体而言, 电子商务网站的技术质量和内容质量水平高于信息类网站, 实施电子商务的公司更注重内容质量维度。相比之下, 实施信息型网站的公司则更注重技术质量维度。基于这些结果, 为改进电子商务的战略管理提供了实际的见解。
原创性
以前的研究很少关注分析企业网站的技术和内容质量, 以确定在线业务的主要弱点和优势。研究结果为企业提供了重要的理论和实践贡献, 即如何管理企业网站以提高公司的连通性和竞争力。
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The digital economy is expected to revive the countryside and reduce the current level of urban–rural inequality. Nevertheless, whether rural e-commerce can narrow the urban–rural…
Abstract
Purpose
The digital economy is expected to revive the countryside and reduce the current level of urban–rural inequality. Nevertheless, whether rural e-commerce can narrow the urban–rural income gap still requires further analysis. The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether this goal is, in fact, being achieved.
Design/methodology/approach
Taobao villages have become the epitome of rural e-commerce development in China. Therefore, this paper matches the data of Taobao villages and the data of prefecture-level cities from 2014 to 2019, and employs a two-way fixed effect model, nonlinear model, instrumental variable model and interactive fixed effects model to explore the impact of rural e-commerce on the urban–rural income gap.
Findings
Firstly, the ability of urban residents to share rural e-commerce development is higher than that of rural residents, which actually widens the urban–rural income gap. Secondly, the migration to cities of rural families that have profited from e-commerce, and the return of working-class people to the countryside, are two factors that are contributing to the widening of the urban–rural income gap. Thirdly, the farther the distance from the urban area and the higher the spatial agglomeration of the rural e-commerce cluster is, the weaker the impact on widening the urban–rural income gap will be. Finally, while industrial-led rural e-commerce is responsible for widening the urban–rural income gap, agricultural-led rural e-commerce has no significant impact on the urban–rural income gap.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze the impact of rural e-commerce on the urban–rural income gap from the perspective of the coverage of Taobao villages. This empirical study will enrich existing theoretical perspectives on urban–rural integration under the backdrop of the digital economy.
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Gabriel Nery-da-Silva, Marcelo Henrique de Araujo and Fernando de Souza Meirelles
The purpose is to investigate whether Brazilian e-commerce nonusers all have the same reasons not to purchase online or whether different behavior patterns might lead them to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to investigate whether Brazilian e-commerce nonusers all have the same reasons not to purchase online or whether different behavior patterns might lead them to cluster in different groups.
Design/methodology/approach
This study carried out cluster analyses on a large sample (N = 9,065) from a nationwide survey on the use of information and communication technology in Brazil.
Findings
Three clusters of e-commerce nonusers were identified: the first cluster is quite reluctant; the second is characterized by disbelief in e-commerce; and the last cluster includes members who must see a product to believe it. Overall, nonusers have different reasons not to shop online, but they also share some similarities in this regard. Furthermore, socioeconomic factors do not seem to affect their behavior. The findings suggest that merchants’ failure to attract customers’ attention and tangibility are the major barriers to e-commerce use.
Practical implications
Even though nonusers have different reasons not to shop online, the key pattern that emerges is the value of tangibility for these individuals, which is a barrier present in all three clusters. This suggests that current marketing strategies and advertisements are ineffective to reach these consumers. Vendors should therefore try different approaches.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the information systems (IS) literature by bringing a new perspective to the understanding of e-commerce rejection in addition to having managerial implications that involve strategies to attract potential users based on their specificities.
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One way to think about the future challenges is to make benchmarking analysis, where other micro or macro level organisations are compared in relation to own activities and…
Abstract
One way to think about the future challenges is to make benchmarking analysis, where other micro or macro level organisations are compared in relation to own activities and systems. This article includes benchmarking of all the EU‐15 countries. Authors report top 15 lists of various indicators. As a general benchmarking framework, the motivation, access and skills indicators system is used. In the study the authors perform correlation analyses of competitiveness and MAS‐indicators. A special contribution of the article is that it combines competitiveness analysis to macro level MAS framework’s social indicators analysis.
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Octavian Dospinescu, Nicoleta Dospinescu and Ionel Bostan
The purpose of this article is to highlight the relevance of the factors that influence the satisfaction of e-commerce consumers in Romania and Moldova. The study aims to clearly…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to highlight the relevance of the factors that influence the satisfaction of e-commerce consumers in Romania and Moldova. The study aims to clearly define the main influence factors, so that the marketing managers of the online stores can adopt scientific well-founded decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper opted for a study including a large sample of 399 respondents from two countries. For the analysis of the factors influencing the e-commerce satisfaction, multiple linear regression analysis was implemented, and their differentiation within the two countries was highlighted by multivariate analysis of variance.
Findings
The research conducted and the results obtained show that there is a differentiation of the factors that influence the level of satisfaction of e-commerce users in Romania and Moldova.
Research limitations/implications
The research is still limited in terms of population studied to only two countries: Romania and Moldova. Although the study is intended to be exhaustive by analyzing no less than 11 factors influencing the satisfaction generated by e-commerce, it is still limited to this group of representative factors. Another limitation has to do with the limited number of demographic variables the authors have included.
Practical implications
Based on the results, the managerial implications for e-commerce companies that want to uniquely address consumers in Romania and Moldova are related to the decisions of marketing and sales managers who must allocate budgets and resources to improve the eight aspects highlighted in the paper. Also, the e-commerce companies should not allocate resources for the implementation of functionalities such as in-app after sales services, the possibility to cancel an order or the live consultant support feature, because these aspects do not influence the satisfaction of e-commerce consumers in Romania and Moldova.
Originality/value
This paper is the first in the scientific literature that implements a comparative study on the influence factors regarding the e-commerce satisfaction in Romania and Moldova. Also, it is important to mention that the present study is an exhaustive one because it includes many influence factors that were analyzed separately in the previous research papers from literature review.
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Lei Li, Jiabao Lin, Ofir Turel, Peng Liu and Xin (Robert) Luo
This study aimed to investigate the impact of e-commerce capabilities on agricultural firms’ performance gains through organizational agility.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to investigate the impact of e-commerce capabilities on agricultural firms’ performance gains through organizational agility.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was used to collect data from 280 managers of agricultural firms. The proposed model was tested via structural equation modeling.
Findings
The empirical results indicated that organizational agility plays a mediating role in conveying the positive influences of e-commerce capabilities on agricultural firms’ performance gains. Specifically, managerial, talent and technical capabilities have different effects on market capitalization and operational adjustment agility, with talent capability performing the most important role. Market capitalization and operational adjustment agility have positive impacts on financial and nonfinancial performance gains, respectively.
Originality/value
This study provides a new framework to understand the relationships between e-commerce capabilities, organizational agility and agricultural firms’ performance gains.
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Lin Wang, Zhihua Wang, Xiaoying Wang and Yang Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to assess the influence mechanism of the word-of-mouth reputation of influencers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the influence mechanism of the word-of-mouth reputation of influencers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study explored word-of-mouth reputation from four characteristics of information source of influencers: credibility, professionalism, interactivity and attractiveness. The grounded theory was used to extract the characteristic indicators of influencers and used questionnaire surveys to obtain 218 valid samples. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used for the configuration analysis.
Findings
The results revealed the following: (1) a causal asymmetric correlation exists between the driving mechanism of high word-of-mouth reputation and non-high word-of-mouth reputation; (2) influencers matching high word-of-mouth reputation comprises potential, developmental and almighty types, whereas live streaming influencer matching non-high word-of-mouth reputation comprises elementary and groping types; and (3) all factors must be combined to play a role, and neutral permutations of two solutions were found among the three overall solutions to attain high word-of-mouth reputation; (4) the combination of high user activity and high exposure is the core configuration that results in high word-of-mouth reputation.
Practical implications
This study provides recommendation for consumers, live streamers, brand and e-commerce platform on how to promote the sustainable and healthy development of influencer marketing.
Originality/value
This study focused on elucidating how the characteristics of information source affect the word-of-mouth reputation of influencers and have a reference value for the research on word-of-mouth reputation in the context of live commerce.
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Provides brief overviews of new interactive tools and indicators surrounding content analysis on the web, focusing on those windows and tools that are publicly accessible on the…
Abstract
Provides brief overviews of new interactive tools and indicators surrounding content analysis on the web, focusing on those windows and tools that are publicly accessible on the web. Contends emerging Internet indicators need to be further analysed if they are to be applied usefully in assisting the building of strategies. Finishes with a Table showing the structure of different domains mapped by AltaVista.
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Arkadiusz Kawa and Justyna Światowiec-Szczepańska
The purpose of this paper is to identify the components of logistics value and examine their influence on customer satisfaction in e-commerce. This study investigates the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the components of logistics value and examine their influence on customer satisfaction in e-commerce. This study investigates the moderation effect between those two variables using the overall service level in the different industries of e-commerce.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 592 correctly filled questionnaires from telephone and web interviews (computer-assisted telephone interviews and computer-assisted web interviews) were scrutinized. Hierarchical linear modeling (as a part of a wider group of multilevel modeling studies) was used to verify the dependencies between variables from an organization and industry levels.
Findings
The logistics factors indicated and described in the paper differently affect the value for the customer. This value is subjective and dynamic. For this reason, the online seller should develop a system to create a sustainable value proposition. It is plausible due to the possibility of choosing the type of delivery, date of collection and change thereof, as well as that of returning the product. Because of all this, the customer decides on the way of the order execution and creates the value chain.
Research limitations/implications
The developed model is aimed at identifying universal relationships that create the customer satisfaction mechanism for the logistics value. However, this may result in other aspects of customer satisfaction being neglected. The authors are aware that the creation of value by a company in e-commerce must be approached in a systematic manner.
Practical implications
The results obtained and the representativeness of the surveyed sample of companies lead to the formulation of implications for business practice. The conclusions of the research definitely indicate a need to build awareness of logistics value and its influence on customer satisfaction through the service level in the industry. Because of the identified components of the logistics value and industry characteristics, managers of online retailers can better run their businesses, increase customer satisfaction, and thus improve their performance.
Originality/value
It is the first study that concerns e-commerce in individual industries, with particular emphasis on logistics and its impact on customer satisfaction.
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