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1 – 10 of 12G. Ruggeri Stevens and J. McElhill
A huge upsurge in the growth of e‐mail is expected but there has been relatively little published advice on how to take a corporate view of electronic mail, despite demonstration…
Abstract
A huge upsurge in the growth of e‐mail is expected but there has been relatively little published advice on how to take a corporate view of electronic mail, despite demonstration of its operational benefits and of the consequences of its misuse in economic, human and lately in legal terms. This article contributes to formation of such advice. Employing a mix of questionnaire and interview methods, a set of disparate organisations was studied – a global financial services company, an upmarket hotel group, a well‐established mobile‐telecommunications company, and three universities. The results were used to devise a multi‐dimensional “positioning” model, for practical use by managers to understand their organisations’ present use of e‐mail on four dimensions: information management, people influences, corporate culture, and knowledge management. Shows how an organisation can find/change its present position on the model.
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Thouraya Gherissi‐Labben, Roland Schegg and Jamie Murphy
This research replicates and extends Frey et al. (2003), using a typical e‐mail query to investigate e‐mail customer service by 260 Tunisian hotels. Based on the hotel responses…
Abstract
This research replicates and extends Frey et al. (2003), using a typical e‐mail query to investigate e‐mail customer service by 260 Tunisian hotels. Based on the hotel responses, this study found that guests had one chance in ten of receiving a reply within a day and even less chance that hotels answered the inquiry professionally, promptly, politely and personally. Diffusion of innovations failed to explain differences in responsiveness by Tunisian hoteliers but did help explain the quality of e‐mail replies. The results suggest that reply quality differs across hotel size and hotel affiliation. Hotel affiliation as well as hotel category and website presence showed no significant differences in responsiveness. Differences aside, the results highlight that Tunisian hotels can gain an immediate competitive advantage by analysing common e‐mail queries and implementing basic e‐mail procedures.
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Cynthia J. Bean, James S. Boles and Cynthia Rodriguez Cano
The communication environment for buyer‐seller interfaces is being transformed by a variety of new communication choices. The use of electronic mail in business today is…
Abstract
The communication environment for buyer‐seller interfaces is being transformed by a variety of new communication choices. The use of electronic mail in business today is especially prevalent. This investigation explores buyer and seller reactions to electronic mail use in buyer‐seller relationships. Two studies conducted explore themes perceived by buyers and sellers regarding electronic mail use. From in‐depth interviews of sellers, some initial themes are developed. Second, a survey from a sampling frame of business‐to‐business sales people and organizational buyers advances the questions of benefits and barriers perceived to be associated with electronic mail use from both the organizational buyer and seller perspectives. From a sample of 103 buyers and 107 sellers, questions are raised about the communicative and relationship aspects that potentially influence the buyer‐seller interface. Findings suggest sellers need to be attuned to individual buyers’ views in order to benefit from the new communication options regarding communication choices.
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The main purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which employees have benefitted in the internet age and to identify research gaps that surround such activities.
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which employees have benefitted in the internet age and to identify research gaps that surround such activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is a combination of a systematic literature review and an empirical analysis of secondary data drawn from press reports of emergent employee internet activities.
Findings
The internet continues to provide fresh and exciting opportunities for the employee to explore in relation to furthering employment‐related interests. However, the internet very much represents a “double‐edged sword” in that the many advantages of the internet can be quickly cancelled out by employer attempts to monitor, control, and exploit for themselves such activities, for their own ends. It is also evident that a full assessment of some activities cannot be made without further research.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is reliant on extant literature and resources that are known to have limited scholarly application.
Practical implications
A broad and eclectic discussion of employee internet activities is likely to be of interest to academics and human resource practitioners whose interests are based on a blend of employee relations practices and new internet‐based technological developments.
Social implications
The study addresses how a distinct actor in employee relations has faired in an age denoted by shrinking opportunities for collective action, yet also denoted by rapid developments in empowering user‐generated and social networking forms of information communication technology.
Originality/value
This paper synthesises literature and data from a wide range of largely incongruous academic and non‐academic sub‐disciplines to provide a fresh and authoritative account of emergent employee behaviour.
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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how e‐mail may promote effective internal communication in three key areas.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how e‐mail may promote effective internal communication in three key areas.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a case study of a service‐orientated group of social businesses in the not‐for‐profit sector, where a triangulated approach is employed, a three‐factor model of effective e‐mail use is proposed. Using focus groups, diaries and survey, the impact of e‐mail was investigated on four key dimensions of internal communication at Parkside Housing Group.
Findings
Whilst overall e‐mail was found to be less influential than face‐to‐face communication, e‐mail was found to positively and specifically influence: the communication climate, where it provides a mechanism for staff to feed their views up the organisation; shared objectives and goal alignment, where it helps staff to understand the overarching goals of the organisation (the “bigger picture”); and perceived external prestige – the construed external image of the organisation – by helping the organisation to share positive publicity, and its successes, amongst staff.
Practical implications
When e‐mail is used in organisations according to the three‐factor model, it is proposed that it can have a positive impact on internal communication and subsequently organisational performance.
Originality/value
This is the first time the impact of e‐mail on internal communication has been investigated, from a corporate communicator's perspective, and with the number of mailboxes worldwide growing year on year, and an increasing awareness of the importance of employees as key stakeholders, this study is original, relevant and timely.
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Eleni K. Kevork and Adam P. Vrechopoulos
The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on customer relationship management (CRM) to obtain a comprehensive framework of mutually exclusive CRM research areas and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on customer relationship management (CRM) to obtain a comprehensive framework of mutually exclusive CRM research areas and sub‐areas free of all potentially disruptive factors (plethora of CRM definitions, personal judgments, etc.).
Design/methodology/approach
The keywords reported in 396 CRM articles published during the period 2000‐2006 are used to uncover first a great number of detailed keyword sub‐groups and, by subject summation, the CRM‐related research areas. This classification scheme is considered unbiased, in contrast with any direct classification of articles alone among CRM research areas fixed in advance.
Findings
An up‐to‐date conceptual and functional CRM framework emerges, consisting of a total of nine distinct research areas having their own weights, importance and popularity among the research community. Newly emerging CRM research areas are self‐identified as attracting the interest of the researchers and managers.
Originality/value
Keywords are activated, for a first time, as an added value characteristic reflecting genuinely the authors' beliefs about the subject content fields of their articles, important enough to reveal a self‐supported and self‐weighted unbiased and exhaustive CRM framework, useful to researchers and marketing practitioners. The paper offers strong evidence that e‐CRM is too complex to be comprehensively classified by mere procedures and simple criteria alone.
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Don Thi Hong Chau Nguyen, Jamie Murphy and Doina Olaru
This study investigates electronic customer service, e‐service, by Australian organisations, replicating and building on Heuchan et al.’s study of relationships among…
Abstract
This study investigates electronic customer service, e‐service, by Australian organisations, replicating and building on Heuchan et al.’s study of relationships among organisational characteristics and e‐service. Compared to one year earlier, the study found more organisations with Web sites, shorter response times to customer e‐mails and higher response quality to customer e‐mails. Response rate and response quality, however, was virtually the same – poor. Australian organisations have e‐service tools such as Web sites and e‐mail, yet they face an assimilation gap delivering e‐service. Organisational diffusion of innovations provides a theoretical base for these results and future research. The paper gives manager insights into existing e‐service and ways to improve e‐service in their organisation.
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Elaine Ramsey, Pat Ibbotson, Jim Bell and Brendan Gray
The Internet is causing fundamental changes in the economics of service industries as new, network‐based global e‐business models emerge, where small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises…
Abstract
The Internet is causing fundamental changes in the economics of service industries as new, network‐based global e‐business models emerge, where small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have been identified as key users of Internet commerce. Initially the paper contextualises the research issues via a review of the theoretical opportunities afforded firms of all sizes. Correspondingly, an examination of the practical impediments from an SME perspective suggests that, among other things, there are major hurdles for SMEs going online including strategic appreciation of the dynamics of the Web and the development of capabilities for managing the information infrastructure for e‐business. To illustrate the inherent issues, the findings of empirical research are presented. Both inductive and deductive methodological approaches were employed to investigate e‐business awareness, attitudes and activities among a sample of Irish (north and south) service sector SMEs.
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Lynn M. Martin and Harry Matlay
The current push for small firms to be “wired up to the digital marketplace” is evidenced by the number of initiatives targeting small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to…
Abstract
The current push for small firms to be “wired up to the digital marketplace” is evidenced by the number of initiatives targeting small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to promote this activity. Like other governments worldwide, UK Online’s SME targets (together with the supporting DTI adoption ladder) exemplify the “conventional wisdom” view of a homogeneous small business sector, within which firms take an ordered, sequential progression on the route to Internet technology adoption. This approach is questioned by grounding the official rhetoric in the reality of organisational and operational complexity of this important sector of the UK economy. These initiatives are compared and contrasted with similar models of small firm development, most of which neglected to address the diverse nature of small firm needs. The authors recommend a more discriminant approach, focused upon factors such as firm size, age, managerial structure and information and communications technology adoption stages.
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Hsin Hsin Chang, Hamid Rizal and Hanudin Amin
The aim of this study was to develop a theoretical model of email advertising effectiveness and to investigate differences between permission‐based email and spamming. By…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to develop a theoretical model of email advertising effectiveness and to investigate differences between permission‐based email and spamming. By examining different types of email (i.e. permission‐based email and spamming), the present study empirically tested the theoretical linkage between email advertising values, perceived instrusiveness, and the attitudinal‐behavioural dispositions towards email advertising.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted using 221 respondents from Taiwan. Two scenarios were designed for the present study. The questionnaires were equally divided into two sets, with the first half containing a scenario depicting permission‐based email, and the other half containing a scenario describing a spamming email. Each respondent only received one set of the survey.
Findings
Results from a survey of 221 Internet users in Taiwan indicate that values and attitudes toward, and the perceived intrusiveness of, email advertising significantly affect consumers’ behavioral dispositions toward email advertising. The results suggest that permission‐based email is more effective as compared to spam email advertising. For solicited email, consumers perceived less intrusiveness if the email advertisement offered them financial incentives.
Research limitations/implications
The authors acknowledge four limitations in this study. These limitations however provide further direction for future studies in the discipline. The discussion of these limitations is provided.
Practical implications
Importantly, this study yields significant theoretical and managerial implications. Concerned with the context of email advertising, the authors’ work provides theoretical support for both constructs of advertising values and perceived intrusiveness as important. Concerned with the advertisers, this study renders important implications for better planning of marketing mix strategy using email.
Originality/value
This study provides new theoretical insights into factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of email advertising by incorporating perceived intrusiveness as a mediator in the relationship between advertising values and attitudinal‐behavioral dispositions. By empirically comparing the different types of email advertisements of permission‐based email and spamming, the present study also offers better understanding and extending of the current literature on email advertising research.
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