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The purpose of this paper is to propose methods for fast incremental indexing with effective and efficient query processing in XML element retrieval. The effectiveness of a search system becomes lower if document updates are not handled when these occur frequently on the Web. The search accuracy is also reduced if drastic changes in document statistics are not managed. However, existing studies of XML element retrieval do not consider document updates, although these studies have attained both effectiveness and efficiency in query processing. Thus, the authors add a function for handling document updates to the existing techniques for XML element retrieval.

Though it will be important to enable fast updates of indices, preliminary experiments have shown that a simple incremental update approach has two problems: some kinds of statistics are inaccurate, and it takes a long time to update indices. Therefore, two methods are proposed: one to approximate term weights accurately with a small number of documents, even for dynamically changing statistics; and the other to eliminate unnecessary update targets.

Experimental results show that this proposed system can update indices up to 32 per cent faster than the simple incremental updates while the search accuracy improved by 4 per cent compared with the simple approach. The proposed methods can also be fast and accurate in query processing, even if document statistics change drastically.

The paper shows that there could be a more practical XML element search engine, which can access the latest XML documents accurately and efficiently.

Using unique trade credit insurance data from China, we examine whether trade insurance claims are associated with audit efforts and audit quality.

The paper is based on a sample of Chinese firms to study insurance claims of trade credit insurance that affects abnormal audit fees.

In this study, we find that firms with high insurance claims pay higher abnormal audit fees. Further, our findings indicate that firms with high insurance claims have a short audit report lag and tend to select local audit firms.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between trade credit insurance claims and audit efforts. In addition, we contribute to the literature on the agency cost of abnormal audit fees.

This paper aims to first investigate how unit pricing affects consumers’ grocery purchase decisions and perceptions of the shopping task’s information load. The second goal is to test how time pressure enhances the behavioural and perceptual effects of displaying unit prices.

Two on-line experiments were conducted using national samples of shoppers. In Study 1, participants indicated their choices and perceptions in an inter-brand shopping scenario where prepackaged products have conflicting positions on retail price and unit price. In Study 2, participants conducted the same shopping task but now under a condition of time pressure.

Study 1 shows that unit pricing shifts consumer choices towards the lower unit priced options and improves their perceptions of task information load. Study 2 shows that when consumers are under time pressure, unit pricing shows stronger effects on choices but not on perceptions.

The study comprised a fairly homogenous set of low involvement categories and relatively small assortments in a hypothetical purchase setting. Exploration of the role of unit pricing in more complex and more realistic purchase environments pose suitable avenues for future research.

This study shows that consumers benefit from unit pricing because it makes it easier for them to find the lower unit priced items and to more quickly complete their shopping task. Retailers will benefit from increased customer satisfaction and possibly an improved store image.

The study shows that consumers generally benefit from the presence of unit pricing and that unit price information does not create harmful effects in terms of increasing their information load.

This study uses a specifically designed and controlled but nevertheless realistic grocery choice task to study the effects of unit pricing in an inter-brand context where there are only small differences in size and price. The study contributes to the literature by showing that in such conditions, unit prices help consumers compare the economic losses associated with product options. Their heuristic role is more pronounced when consumers are under time pressure. The study shows that consumers generally benefit from the presence of unit prices.

Perceived consumer risk is explored in relation to online (Internet) purchasing using a cross‐national sample (N=562) from the United States, Canada and U.K. Objectives of the study are to determine if experience in online purchasing reduces perceived risk, if perceived risk varies across product/service categories and if certain types of risk are more important in purchasing certain products/services. Lastly, does national culture affect perceptions of risk? Results are discussed and suggestions are offered to managers on how to reduce perceived risk, thus increasing online purchasing in the three countries examined.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach that can detect abnormal deviations in the time series models for technology forecasting. The detected modifications provide a basis for understanding the determinants and impact of the corresponding change.

The proposed approach is based on monitoring residual values (the difference between the observation and the forecasted value) continuously using statistical control charts (SCCs). The residuals that are out of the expected limits are considered an alert indicating a remarkable change. To demonstrate the use of the proposed approach, a time series model was fitted to a number of TV-related patent counts. Subsequently, model residuals were used to determine the limits of the SCCs.

A number of patents granted in the year 2012 violated the upper control limit. A further analysis has shown that there is a linkage between the abnormal patent counts and the emergence of LCD TVs.

Change in technology may dramatically affect the accuracy of a forecasting model. The need for a parameter update indicates a significant change (emergence or death of a technology) in the technological environment. This may lead to the revision of managerial actions in R&D plans and investment decisions.

The proposed methodology brings a novel approach for abnormal data detection and provides a basis for understanding the determinants and impact of the corresponding change.

The purpose of this article is to conceptualize dimensions of price salience. Price salience influences price perceptions and deal evaluations. This is especially true when a price consists of more than a single number (multi‐dimensional prices). Yet, the very notion of what makes a price salient remains unanswered. By providing a clear conceptualization of different dimensions of price salience and their influence on price perception, we integrate and extend extant research findings.

By drawing on extant research on price salience and salience in general, the paper develops a framework of how different dimensions of price salience are defined and influence price perception.

The paper identifies the four basic dimensions of price salience: visual, semantic, computational, and magnitude salience. It is argued that each dimension has a unique influence on price perceptions.

Although widely employed as a key variable in pricing research, price salience has not been clearly defined and issues related to price salience are scattered in the literature. By integrating those issues under a single rubric, the paper enable's pricing researchers to tackle issues related to price salience in a systematic way. Further, it offers several propositions regarding price salience that future research could examine.

This article helps practitioners by providing a clear understanding of how each dimension of price salience influence price perceptions. By digesting this article, practitioners can better understand how their price presentations work and better formulate their pricing strategies.

The role of affective states in consumer behaviour is well established. However, no study to date has examined online affective states empirically as a basis for constructing typologies of internet users and for assessing the invariance of clusters across national cultures. This paper aims to address this issue.

Four focus groups were carried out with internet users to adapt a set of affective states identified from the literature to the online environment. An online survey was then designed to collect data from internet users in four Western and four East Asian countries.

Based on a cluster analysis, six cross‐national market segments are identified and labelled “Positive Online Affectivists”, “Offline Affectivists”, “On/Off‐line Negative Affectivists”, “Online Affectivists”, “Indistinguishable Affectivists”, and “Negative Offline Affectivists”. The resulting clusters discriminate on the basis of national culture, gender, working status and perceptions towards online brands.

Marketers may use this typology to segment internet users in order to predict their perceptions towards online brands. Also, a standardised approach to e‐marketing is not recommended on the basis of affective state‐based segmentation.

This is the first study proposing affective state‐based typologies of internet users using comparable samples from four Western and four East Asian countries.

This paper aims to examine the effects of consumers' perceptions concerning the ethics of online retailers on web site satisfaction and loyalty.

An online survey instrument was administered to a sample of 220 students who were enrolled in various business undergraduate classes at a mid size university located in the southwestern USA. Participants completed a questionnaire based on their latest online purchase. The measurement model and structural relationships were estimated using AMOS 18.

Non‐deception, fulfillment, and security are significant predictors of web site satisfaction. Only privacy is related directly with loyalty. While direct effects of fulfillment and non‐deception on loyalty are not significant; satisfaction mediates these relationships. Results provide a strong support for the web site satisfaction‐loyalty relationship.

Internet retailers must address ethical issues surrounding their web sites by protecting financial and personal information, delivering accurate products, and avoiding deceptive practices.

The current research is one of few studies in online retailing that examines the relationship between perceived online ethics, satisfaction and loyalty. By offering evidence to prior conflicting results in the literature, a strong association between what consumers perceive as ethical online retailing, their satisfaction and loyalty to online retailers was confirmed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze customers’ purchasing behavior with respect to perceived benefit and the perceived risk towards customer competency in firms. In this research, the authors validate the concept of customer competency in eight dimensions (i.e. e-trust, quality of products and services, customer support, application design, reasonable price, availability of user-generated content, replacement and returns and risk in purchasing products) and examine empirically its impression on company’s decision-making performance.

The findings are based on an empirical analysis of survey data from 69 respondents and demonstrate a large, significant and positive relationship between customer competency and firm’s decision-making performance.

The results reveal that majorly three dimensions of competency, i.e. application design, reasonable price and user-generated content (UGC), will impact significantly the decision making performance of firm. This is the empirical study to conceptualize, operationalize and validate the concept of customer competency and to study its impact on decision-making performance. The validity of customer competency constructs as conceived and operationalized suggests the potential future scope by evaluating its relationship with possible antecedents and consequences. For practitioners, the result provides important guidelines for increasing firm’s decision-making performance through the use of customer behavior.

Further in this research, it is critical to understand that other constructs of customer competency may likewise play an important part in the advancement of expectations of customers. These constructs comprise customers’ self-effectiveness, encouragement and innovation thinking (i.e. observed comparative advantage, complexity and compatibility) of business-to-customer firms in e-commerce. Future research studying these constructs could improve the understanding of success factors for e-commerce firms. The model used in this study can further be extended to understand the variance in a firm’s decision-making.

The prime target of this questionnaire was to gather all of the information about how consumers behave while interacting with e-commerce portals. The questions were based on the factors identified in literature reviews. Previous studies also look at consumer competency toward a particular internet portal and its vendors; however, through this survey, the authors want to look at how consumers behave while shopping on e-commerce portals. This was a clear representation of the authors’ research strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to incorporate third-party certification to test a theoretical model that demonstrates the effects of third-party certification on perceived food quality, perceived service quality, and trust and the effects of these factors on word of mouth (WOM) intentions in the context of luxury restaurants. It also investigates the moderating roles of attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) and the education level.

An online survey sent to customers who are patronizing luxury restaurants in the US 317 empirical data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling.

Third-party certification facilitated patrons’ positive evaluation of food and service quality. In addition, this positive evaluation fostered trust in the restaurant. Finally, ATSCI and the education level had significant moderating effects on the relationship between third-party certification and patrons’ trust in the restaurant.

This study proposes risk-reducing effect of third-party certification on the luxury-restaurant business. Third-party certification is employed as a mechanism for communicating restaurant quality in food and service to patrons. Both stakeholders and patrons in the restaurant industry can obtain benefits from the third-party certification because it minimizes uncertainties and information asymmetries in luxury restaurants’ quality and service, and thus generating likelihood of WOM intentions.