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In the context of crowdsourced new product development (NPD), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the optimal level of community involvement (CI) (e.g. zero, limited, and high) when creating products from the perspectives of both ordinary and advanced users. The authors also investigate the influence of design interest and need for social affiliation on users’ attitudes toward and willingness to use community co-design.

The authors conducted two survey studies using ordinary (Study 1, n=199) and advanced users (Study 2, n=131) to evaluate the co-designed T-shirts reflecting varying levels of CI (i.e. zero, limited, and high). The stimuli for both studies were the same and included ten sets of T-shirt co-designs generated from a CI crowdsourced website, Threadless. Fishbein’s (1963) multi-attribute attitude model was used to compute subjects’ overall attitude score toward the T-shirt co-designs.

Results showed both ordinary and advanced user groups rated the design quality of products reflecting limited CI lower than those of zero CI. Advanced users also rated the design quality and sales potential of products from limited CI lower than those of high CI. Further, advanced users indicated that products resulting from high CI reflected significantly better designs with regard to color, shape/line, size, general theme, and overall design as compared to products from limited CI. Design interest as well as need for social affiliation influenced users’ willingness to use community co-design and their attitudes toward a community co-design experience.

The research made an important differentiation between zero, limited, and high CI during the co-design process as well as between ordinary users and advanced users contributed to the extant literature addressing crowdsourcing in NPD.

This paper examines the role that attitudes toward online product reviews (OPRs), perceived credibility of OPRs and perceived benefit of OPRs play as antecedents of consumers’ reliance on OPRs in purchase decisions. A conceptual model of relationships investigated posits that attitudes drive reliance and are in turn driven by perceived benefit and credibility of OPRs. The study also examines gender differences in the constructs and their inter-relationships.

Data from a structured self-administered survey of US consumers are used to estimate parameters of a structural equation model (SEM) of the relationships. Gender differences in the structural relationships are tested using multi-group SEM, while gender differences in reliance, attitudes, benefit and credibility are tested using independent-samples t-tests.

Results show a strong positive effect of attitudes toward OPRs on reliance on OPRs. In turn, perceived benefit and credibility of OPRs are strong positive drivers of attitudes toward OPRs, with benefit having a greater impact. Structural relationships among the constructs are invariant across the two gender groups. However, there is a statistically significant difference between males and females in reliance on OPRs, with males exhibiting a tendency to rely more on OPRs than females.

The study introduces two new constructs to the literature – reliance on OPRs and global attitudes toward OPRs – and provides initial conceptualizations and operationalizations. The specific results underscore the relevance and importance of further research on these constructs and their relationships with other OPR-relevant constructs. They also provide initial indications of gender differences in consumers’ perceptions of OPRs and relationships among these and reliance on OPRs that are worthy of additional research attention.

This study investigates how customer experience mediates the relationship between online innovation and repurchase intention in the hotel industry in Ghana.

Data was collected from 167 clients from a two-star hotel in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationship between the variables.

Results from the analysis indicate that online innovation positively leads to higher repurchase intentions and better customer experience, affirming that customer experience leads to repurchase intentions. Thus, while online innovation leads to repurchase intentions, the strength of this repurchase intention depends on customer experience. Therefore, customer experience mediates the relationship between online innovation and repurchase intention in the hotel industry.

This study addressed only the customer's point of view; future studies could investigate the subject from the managers and other stakeholders' point of view to get a holistic view. Also, the sample size could be improved, and the study could be conducted in other African countries for comparison purposes.

The study shows that online innovation does not automatically lead to increased positive repurchase intention. Hotel managers must, therefore, enforce good customer experience for better profitability.

As far as the researchers know, limited studies have been conducted into how customer experience mediates online innovation and repurchase intention in the hotel industry in Ghana using structural equation modelling. This makes this research unique in Ghana. This study makes an original contribution by measuring the real effect of innovation on repurchase intentions in the hotel industry in Ghana.

Using Amazon.com as a case study, the present research explores first mover (dis)advantages in e.commerce. It examines whether or not Amzon.com has sustained early mover advantages. What are these advantages? And how has Amazon.com reacted to late movers? Evidence generated from the case study suggests that the maintainability of first mover advantages in e.commerce depends on three main factors: continuous innovation, speed of implementation and patenting.

The blogging phenomenon has become a primary mode of mainstream communication for the Web 2.0 era. While previous studies found that campaign web sites did not realise two‐way communication ideals, the current study aims to investigate potential differences in communication patterns between campaign blogs and web sites during Taiwan's 2008 general election, with the aim of exploring whether the blogging phenomenon can improve the process of online political communication.

The study used a content analysis approach, the web style analysis method, which was designed specifically for analysing web content, and applied it to an online campaign context in a different political culture, using Taiwan's general election as a case study.

Results indicated that the themes of both campaign blogs and web sites focused on “attacking opponents” rather than focusing on political policies or information on particular issues. However, campaign blogs and web sites significantly differed in all other dimensions, including structural features, functions, interactivity and appeal strategies. Overall, in terms of the online democratic ideal, campaign blogs appeared to allow more democratic, broader, deeper and easier two‐way communication models between candidates and voters or among voters.

The current study focused on candidates' blogs and web sites and did not explore the other vast parts of the online political sphere, particularly independent or citizen‐based blogs, which play significant roles in the decentralised and participant‐networked public spheres.

The study illuminates the role of hyperlinks on campaign blogs. By providing a greater abundance of external links than campaign web sites, campaign blogs allowed more voters, especially younger ones, to share political information in a manner that is quite different from the traditional one‐way communication model. The paper also argues that interactivity measures should be incorporated into the web style analysis method.

This study examines handmade clothing consumption as a means of self-expression by exploring the interrelationships between consumers' self-expression, brand love and word of mouth.

Using a descriptive research design, data were collected from 295 respondents in South Africa who posted about fashion on social media and who had bought handmade clothing in the 6 months prior to data collection. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the interrelationships between consumers' self-expression, brand love and word of mouth.

Brand love intervenes between consumers' self-brand connections and word of mouth about handmade clothing. More specifically, brand love strengthens positive word of mouth online and mitigates negative word-of-mouth intentions following a handmade clothing product failure scenario.

The study enlightens scholarly understanding of consumers' self-expression motivations for using ready-made handmade clothing that results in brand love and positive word of mouth.

Handmade clothing marketers who tap into consumers' self-expression and who can establish brand love among consumers can similarly create beneficial consumer–brand relationships.

Consumers often use handmade clothing for the purpose of self-expression, which provides subsequent spin-offs for brands in the form of brand love and positive word of mouth. Objective self-awareness theory provides a parsimonious lens to reveal the important role that brand love plays as a mechanism to explain the linkage of consumers' self-brand connections to word of mouth about handmade clothing.

New product design is an established field in the literature. It is either analysed inside the firm; or when using a value chain perspective it is limited to the interactions between manufacturers and suppliers (in producer‐driven commodity chains). The current research adopts a downstream perspective, analysing the relationships between manufacturers and retailers in relation to the new product design process. Seeks to conduct research in the clothing industry; that has the specificity of being a buyer‐driven commodity chain where fashion makes design a key dimension for the success of a product.

The research was empirical in nature, involving 50 semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews in France, the USA and the UK at all points along the clothing value chain.

In the clothing industry, the strategy of integrating design and retail has resulted in a more flexible design process and therefore, in an increased product performance. This strategy has been developed by both retailers and designers. The strategy of integrating design and retail has resulted in a change of boundaries in the clothing value chain.

Results are currently limited to the clothing sectors, and they are yet to be generalised to other buyer‐driven commodity chains.

Managers in clothing retail firms or in clothing design firms, wanting to increase product performance, should implement the strategy of integrating design and retail.

The paper opens a new field of research, namely: the focus on new product design with a value chain perspective that concentrates on downstream in the chain.

Blogging has become part of a consumer's decision making process when shopping online; however, the understanding of blog recommendation's effect on consumer purchase decision is still vague. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the blog reader's trusting belief in the blogger is significant in relation to the perceived usefulness of the blogger's recommendations; and how the blog reader's perceptions influence his/her attitude and purchasing behavior online. The moderating effect of blogger's reputation on readers’ purchasing intentions is also tested.

Based on various theories, a model was proposed in this study. A survey involving 327 blog readers as participants was analyzed in the empirical study to investigate whether the usefulness of bloggers’ recommendations and trusting beliefs toward blogger had influence on consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward online shopping.

The results indicated that perceived usefulness of bloggers’ recommendations and trust had significant influential effect on blog users’ attitude towards and intention to shop online. Moreover, the findings showed that different determinants affected the users of perceived‐high‐reputation and perceived‐low‐reputation blogs.

The findings suggest bloggers’ electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) to be a promising marketing strategy for increasing sales. The marketers should provide free trial products and services to the perceived‐high‐reputation bloggers who, as valued opinion leaders, will influence and prompt others to shop online through a trusting effect. As for perceived‐low‐reputation bloggers, the marketing strategists should strive to emphasize the usefulness of products and services being marketed, so these perceived‐low‐reputation bloggers can focus more on describing the advantages and benefits of products or services discussed in their blogs.

The purpose of the current study is to examine why luxury consumers webroom. The study further examines the intervening effects of social norms, age, and gender.

A cross-sectional data from 374 Indian luxury consumers was collected using questionnaire surveys. Confirmatory factor analysis, covariance-based structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro were used to analyze the data.

Findings suggest that perceived usefulness of searching online, sales-staff assistance, socialization, and need for touch have significant positive effect on attitude toward webrooming. The moderation effect findings suggest that subjective norm significantly moderates the association between attitude toward webrooming and webrooming intention.

Practically, the findings are likely to aid luxury marketers in designing effective channel strategies to maximize their reach via both offline and online channel.

This study provides several contributions to the luxury marketing and retailing literature by examining luxury consumers' webrooming intention.