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1 – 10 of over 20000
Article
Publication date: 3 August 2015

Wen-Lung Shiau and Patrick Y.K. Chau

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether altruistic motivation is a significant factor in online group buying and to examine the effects of altruistic and egotistic…

2062

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether altruistic motivation is a significant factor in online group buying and to examine the effects of altruistic and egotistic motivation on online group buying intention through the psychological processes of trust and satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

A field study on Ihergo (www.ihergo.com/) was chosen because it is the largest online group buying marketplace in Taiwan. An online survey method was used to collect data. Returned questionnaires numbered 302 responses with 20 incomplete data, resulting in 282 valid responses for data analysis. Collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The findings of the study shows that altruism is relevant to online group buying, and trust and satisfaction have significantly positive effects on online group buying intention. The results emphasize that altruism, reciprocity, and reputation of motivations are significantly positive predictors of trust. Altruism and reciprocity have significantly positive effects on satisfaction, whereas reputation does not.

Research limitations/implications

Altruism, reciprocity, and reputation represent three key elements of online group buying behavior. Integration of the altruism, reciprocity, and reputation results in a better explanation on online group buying intention through the psychological process, trust, and satisfaction. This study extends the value of online group buying and sheds light on the potential effects of altruistic and egotistic motivation on online group buying intention.

Practical implications

Online group buying is more complex than individual online shopping and is not easy to fulfill customer requirements. To satisfy online group buying, e-vendors might provide altruistic activities, enhance reciprocal services and products, develop better reputation mechanisms, and present an easier approach to encourage online group buying on the web site.

Originality/value

To the best of the knowledge, this is first paper to examine the effects of altruism on online group buying. The contribution of this study draws attention to the altruistic value of electronic commerce, by theorizing and validating the effects of altruistic and egotistic motivation on online group buying intention through psychological processes (trust and satisfaction).

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 28 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 July 2013

Sharifah Alwi and Shahril Azwan Ismail

This study aims to investigate how price and other service brand attributes (such as website attractiveness, efficiency, privacy, fulfilment) determine e‐brand promise/reputation…

3119

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how price and other service brand attributes (such as website attractiveness, efficiency, privacy, fulfilment) determine e‐brand promise/reputation and the e‐loyalty of shoppers in an online setting.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the convenience sampling method, a survey research was carried out during a two‐day airline exhibition among experienced respondents who had purchased online tickets in the past. To identify what determines online brand reputation and its effect on e‐loyalty, structural equation modelling using the two‐step approach was performed.

Findings

Fulfilment and competitive price offers have the most significant impact on e‐loyalty, with a full mediation impact (via online brand reputation), whilst website attractiveness has a partial impact. These simultaneously confirm the role of e‐brand reputation as a mediator construct and its antecedents and its relationship with e‐loyalty.

Research limitations/implications

The mediation impact further increases the strength of brand reputation as a construct when modelling consumer responses in an online setting. In particular, the full indirect impact (price and fulfilment) was able to explain how online brand reputation was formed and brand promise can be achieved.

Practical implications

The practical contribution of the study and its managerial implications can be seen in the context of defining strategy and positioning. By confirming that different brand enactments are found in different settings (for example, price, fulfilment, site's attractiveness), this study offers some insights into a company's site strategic brand positioning and differentiation. For example, appropriate enactments, such as price, fulfilment and the attractiveness of the site, could be addressed when designing and enhancing online brand reputation and e‐loyalty. Sample size limitation and generalisation is limited to within the internet airline setting.

Originality/value

While existing research mainly focuses on the effect of service quality and image attributes of e‐loyalty, the current research focuses on other aspects of brand differentiation – e‐brand reputation and the important influencing elements, such as price and website attractiveness – which hitherto have often been ignored in an online setting. In other words, this study highlights the most important attributes that will help to “meet” the online service brand promise through e‐brand reputation.

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2017

Chuang Wei, Zhao-Ji Yu and Xiao-Nan Chen

This paper aims to solve the problem of information overload and reduce search costs. It proposes a social e-commerce online reputation formation model and community…

1311

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to solve the problem of information overload and reduce search costs. It proposes a social e-commerce online reputation formation model and community state-introduced model. A system dynamics trend simulation has been run to capture the relationship among the sellers, buyers, social e-commerce platforms and external environment to obtain an online reputation.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical research relating to social e-commerce reputation has been used to confirm the influencing factors in social e-commerce, and a conceptual framework is developed for social e-commerce reputation formation. Thereafter, a trend simulation is generated to classify the relationship among the factors based on system dynamics. Also, the improved algorithm for community detection and a state-introduced model based on a Markov network are proposed to achieve better network partition for better online reputation management.

Findings

The empirical model captures the interaction effect of social e-commerce reputation and the state-introduced model to guide community public opinion and improve the efficiency of social e-commerce reputation formation. This helps minimize searching cost thereby improving social e-commerce reputation construction and management.

Research limitations/implications

There is no appropriate online reputation system to be constructed to test the relationship proposed in the study for a field experiment. Also, deeper investigation for the nodes’ attributes in social networks should be made in future research. Besides, researchers are advised to explore measurement for the reputation of a given seller by using social media data as from Twitter or micro blogs.

Originality/value

Investigations that study online reputation in the social e-commerce are limited. The empirical research figured out the factors which can influence the formation of online reputation in social e-commerce. An SD model was proposed to explain the factors interaction and trend simulation was run. Also, a state-introduced model was proposed to highlight the effect of nodes’ attributes on communities’ detection to give a deeper investigation for the online reputation management.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 46 no. 06
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2023

Francisco Peco-Torres, Ana I. Polo-Peña and Dolores M. Frías Jamilena

This study aims to examine the antecedents and consequences of strategic online-reputation management among tourism firms. It is proposed that customer relationship management…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the antecedents and consequences of strategic online-reputation management among tourism firms. It is proposed that customer relationship management (CRM) is an antecedent of strategic online-reputation management, brand equity is a consequence of strategic online-reputation management and the use of online tools moderates the effect of strategic online-reputation management and CRM on brand equity.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative empirical study is conducted among online marketing managers of chain hotels. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to verify the proposed relationships.

Findings

The results show that CRM is an antecedent of strategic online-reputation management, and that strategic online-reputation management and CRM exert a positive effect on brand equity among firms that frequently use a range of online tools. No such effect is found in cases of limited usage of online tools.

Practical implications

Tourism firms seeking to achieve greater brand equity by means of strategic online-reputation management should implement CRM and make extensive use of online tools.

Originality/value

The main contributions of this study are that it analyzes the antecedents and consequences of strategic online-reputation management jointly and empirically; studies the moderating role of the use of online tools in the effect of online strategies – such as online-reputation management and CRM – on brand equity; and studies the consequences of CRM in online media.

研究目的

本研究探讨旅游公司战略性在线声誉管理的前因和后果。建议 a) 客户关系管理 (CRM) 是战略性在线声誉管理的先决条件, b) 品牌资产是战略性在线声誉管理的结果, c) 在线工具的使用调节战略性在线声誉管理的效果- 品牌资产的声誉管理和 CRM。

研究设计/方法/方法

本研究对连锁酒店的在线营销经理进行了定量实证研究。结构方程模型 (SEM) 用于验证所提出的关系。

研究发现

CRM 是战略在线声誉管理的前身, 战略在线声誉管理和 CRM 对经常使用一系列在线工具的公司的品牌资产产生积极影响。在有限使用在线工具的情况下没有发现这种效果。

研究实践意义

希望寻求通过战略性在线声誉管理实现更大品牌资产的旅游公司应实施 CRM 并广泛使用在线工具。

研究原创性

本研究的主要贡献在于:(i) 本研究联合实证分析战略性在线声誉管理的前因和后果; (ii) 本研究探讨了使用在线工具对在线战略(例如在线声誉管理和 CRM)对品牌资产的影响的调节作用; (iii) 本研究探讨了 CRM 在在线媒体中的影响。

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 November 2019

Anette Rantanen, Joni Salminen, Filip Ginter and Bernard J. Jansen

User-generated social media comments can be a useful source of information for understanding online corporate reputation. However, the manual classification of these comments is…

4727

Abstract

Purpose

User-generated social media comments can be a useful source of information for understanding online corporate reputation. However, the manual classification of these comments is challenging due to their high volume and unstructured nature. The purpose of this paper is to develop a classification framework and machine learning model to overcome these limitations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors create a multi-dimensional classification framework for the online corporate reputation that includes six main dimensions synthesized from prior literature: quality, reliability, responsibility, successfulness, pleasantness and innovativeness. To evaluate the classification framework’s performance on real data, the authors retrieve 19,991 social media comments about two Finnish banks and use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify automatically the comments based on manually annotated training data.

Findings

After parameter optimization, the neural network achieves an accuracy between 52.7 and 65.2 percent on real-world data, which is reasonable given the high number of classes. The findings also indicate that prior work has not captured all the facets of online corporate reputation.

Practical implications

For practical purposes, the authors provide a comprehensive classification framework for online corporate reputation, which companies and organizations operating in various domains can use. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that using a limited amount of training data can yield a satisfactory multiclass classifier when using CNN.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt at automatically classifying online corporate reputation using an online-specific classification framework.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 30 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 September 2019

Marco Cioppi, Ilaria Curina, Fabio Forlani and Tonino Pencarelli

The purpose of this 22-year paper is to synthetize business and management literature in the context of online presence, online visibility and online reputation concepts. In…

2373

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this 22-year paper is to synthetize business and management literature in the context of online presence, online visibility and online reputation concepts. In particular, this paper aims to generalize the analysis by investigating the level of interest of the Internet, digital and interactive marketing-focused literature, as well as the more general business and management one towards these topics.

Design/methodology/approach

To identify the existence or otherwise of an online presence, visibility and reputation definition, as well as an index for measuring them, a systematic review and a content analysis process were performed on 199 articles categorized over 1997-2018.

Findings

The findings highlight the absence of clear and shared online presence, visibility and reputation definitions; the absence of unanimously accepted indexes for measuring them; and the identification of a sequence relationship between the three investigated constructs.

Research limitations/implications

The paper underlines the need for both theoretical and empirical contributions to reduce the complexity characterizing the business and management literature focused on these topics.

Originality/value

The current study brings out interesting directions for future research studies by systematizing all the articles devoted to the online presence, visibility and reputation concepts from a business and management perspective.

Article
Publication date: 21 May 2019

Jia Li, Jie Tang, David C. Yen and Xuan Liu

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of disease risk in terms of the major signals (i.e. status, reputation and self-representation) on the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of disease risk in terms of the major signals (i.e. status, reputation and self-representation) on the e-consultation platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the proposed research hypotheses are tested using the transaction data collected from xywy.com (in Need of Therapy). In fact, xywy.com is one the leading e-consultation service websites in China that provides a platform for the interactions between the physicians and patients (Yu et al., 2016; Peng et al., 2015). Generally speaking, it has all the needed design elements and in other words, a standard e-consultation website should have such items/components as physician homepage, physician review, free consultation, paid consultation and recommendation systems.

Findings

The obtained results reveal that all attributes including status, reputation and self-representation have a positive impact on physician’s online order volume. Moreover, there is a positive moderating effect of disease risk onto the online reputation, indicating a higher effect exists for the diseases with high risk. However, the effect of offline status and online self-representation is not moderated by the disease risk, indicating market signals (online reputation) may have a stronger predictive power than seller signals (offline status and online self- representation), and therefore market signals are more effective when/if the disease risk is high.

Originality/value

E-consultation has gradually become a significant trend to provide the healthcare services, in the emerging economy such as China because of shortage of medical resources but having an adequate access in internet usage. The impacts of signals on the health care market have been validated by previous studies. However, the research focusing on the moderating effect of signaling environment in the health care industry is still lacking. As a result, the value of this research helps to bridge the aforementioned research gap.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 32 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2015

Kuang-Ming Kuo, Paul C. Talley and Chen-Chung Ma

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a theoretical model that considers the predictors of an individual’s perceptions of information privacy, and also how…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a theoretical model that considers the predictors of an individual’s perceptions of information privacy, and also how it relates to his/her behavioral intention toward approaching hospital web sites.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper collects data using survey methodology. A total of 331 usable participants are gathered and analyzed via structural equation modeling.

Findings

Significant predictors of information privacy concerns include a stated online privacy policy and a hospital’s reputation. Further, online privacy policy predicts a hospital’s reputation. Finally, hospital reputation and information privacy concerns significantly predict an individual’s behavioral intention toward approaching hospital web sites.

Research limitations/implications

The study confirmed that an online privacy policy and reputation can effectively alleviate specific information privacy concerns; therefore, this may indicate that these two factors should be considered whenever investigating individuals’ information privacy concerns.

Practical implications

To acquire a good reputation and to diminish individuals’ information privacy concerns toward hospital web sites, hospitals should pay attention to the posting of an online privacy policy and communicating such policies to given individuals.

Originality/value

This paper fulfils the gap of exploring the relationship among online privacy policy, organization reputation, and information privacy concerns. Further, the hypothesized model and its findings could also provide useful information for managers who are intent on boosting hospital web site usage frequency patterns.

Article
Publication date: 10 October 2023

Yanbo Yao, Tian-Yu Han and Jian-Wu Bi

Online employee reviews have a substantial impact on employee recruitment, retention and the overall perception of a company’s image, making them a crucial element of its online…

Abstract

Purpose

Online employee reviews have a substantial impact on employee recruitment, retention and the overall perception of a company’s image, making them a crucial element of its online reputation. Consequently, these reviews play a vital role in shaping the company’s competitiveness in the talent market. This study aims to investigate the role of employee loyalty in online reputation in the tourism and hospitality sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected online reviews posted by 334,428 employees across 173 companies in the tourism and hospitality sector. Then, this study proposed a method for measuring employee loyalty toward the company through text comments. Furthermore, the role of employee loyalty in online reputation through regression models was analyzed.

Findings

Employee loyalty is positively associated with the closed-form evaluations, and the length and readability of open-ended comments is directly and positively associated with review helpfulness and is indirectly associated with review helpfulness through employee online reviews. Employees’ perception of job instability has a significant moderating effect on the above relationships.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to the literature on loyalty in the tourism and hospitality industry, online reputation and employee risk perception. These findings offer a more profound understanding of the extra-role behaviors demonstrated by loyal employees, provide a theoretical foundation for the formation of a company’s online reputation and contribute to helping the tourism and service industry better address risk events. These conclusions provide valuable insights for companies in the fields of human resource management and online reputation management.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to reveal the impact of employee loyalty on the company’s online reputation and provides important theoretical and practical implications for management.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 36 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2023

Hugo Martinelli Watanuki and Renato de Oliveira Moraes

The purpose of this paper is to identify the practices that owners of public profiles in social networking sites can leverage to actively build online reputation and to evaluate…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the practices that owners of public profiles in social networking sites can leverage to actively build online reputation and to evaluate the impact of the adoption of such practices on the initial formation of trust toward these individuals when they are presented as new virtual work partners.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical model was developed and an experiment with 233 participants was utilized to assess the model using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results suggest that individuals can build their online reputations in public profiles of social networking sites via a series of practices of self-disclosure of information and that the adoption of these practices has significant effects on the initial formation of trust toward the profile owner in virtual work contexts. Categorization mechanisms such as stereotyping, unit grouping and reputation categorization have been found to contribute to the initial formation of trust, both from an affect and cognition-based perspectives.

Originality/value

Little is known about the information disclosure practices in public profiles of social networking sites that new work partners can adopt to facilitate the formation of trust between them before they start working together. This study has contributed to the existing body of literature by clarifying these practices and the relative importance of online reputation to the initial formation of trust during the outset of a new virtual work relationship.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 76 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

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