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The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted the habits of customers as well as their shopping behavior. This study aims to critically examine the associated benefits and challenges of online shopping from the perspective of customers in the COVID-19 pandemic.

A systematic review of the relevant literature published between 2020 and 2022 was conducted via performing comprehensive search query in leading scholarly databases “Scopus and Web of Science” with the restriction of their predefined subject category of “Business.” Overall, 30 research studies were selected for the review and a significant number of studies were published in 2021 (n = 15).

The research findings revealed that customers are motivated to shop online because of perceived benefits such as time-saving, convenience, 24/7 accessibility, interactive services without physical boundaries, trust, website attractiveness and cost-saving. However, challenging factors such as financial scams, privacy concerns, poor quality of products and services, fake promotions and reduced social interaction have hindered the growth of online shopping. The recommendations regarding designing marketing strategies, secured transaction, multiple payment options, trust building, protection of privacy, promotion via social media, effective mechanism to secure and timely delivery of product are helpful to improve the service quality of online shopping.

The outcomes of this research are valuable to online retailers and policymakers, as it highlights how the benefits can enhance customers’ shopping intentions and minimize the impact of associated challenges. This study also recommends the redesigning of user-friendly interfaces of online shopping websites and ensures their privacy, security and performance on a regular basis.

The study aims to look at deep eWOM providing behaviour in m-commerce and attempts to explore its antecedents. Personalisation is proposed as an indirect antecedent of deep eWOM providing behaviour mediated by hedonic and utilitarian value perceptions and personal identification.

Based on social-exchange theory, the conceptual model links the study antecedents to deep eWOM providing behaviour. The conceptual model was validated through a multi-country study. A large sample of m-commerce users in the UK (n = 505), India (n = 422) and Vietnam (n = 618) were contacted to collect the data. Data were analysed through structural equations modelling procedure with invariance analysis conducted to ensure that the results from the three samples could be compared. The authors also conducted post-hoc analysis to explore the mediation paths between variables.

The study finds support to the conceptual model across the samples from the three countries. Personalisation is found to increase value perceptions – both utilitarian and hedonic – and personal identification which leads to “deep” eWOM providing behaviour across all the three countries. The serial mediation also provides comparable results across the three countries.

The study contributes to the understanding of deep eWOM providing behaviour – a construct with high practical relevance which has however not been explored sufficiently in current literature. The study also contributes to the literature that analyses the consequences of personalisation in m-commerce.

With the emergence of mobile devices, factors such as interaction and ubiquity have become increasingly important in the use of social media networks. However, regarding hotel guests’ use of social media, knowledge about how those factors contribute to guests’ continued social media use remains limited. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of interaction and ubiquity mediated by trust, benefits and enjoyment on hotel guests’ continued use of social media networks.

To examine the hypotheses, a self-administered questionnaire was posted by ten UK hotels on their social media pages. A total of 258 usable data were collected and analyzed using partial least squares analysis.

Two social media characteristics – interaction and ubiquity – influenced hotel guests’ continued use of social media via the mediating variables of trust, benefits and enjoyment.

This study bridges the gap in research regarding intended continued use of social media networks by offering new empirical evidence concerning the determinants of hotel guests’ continued use of social media.

This paper aims to understand the scholarly contributions to mobile advertising by analyzing the publishing trend from 2001 to 2022 from the documents indexed in the Scopus database.

A total of 348 documents were selected for analysis published between 2001 and 2022. The garnered data was examined using a bibliometric domain mapping analysis technique using computer-aided software R and VOSviewer and manually exploring the articles.

The results of this study discover the most prolific authors in the mobile advertising domain and other seminal works carried out by productive researchers in the field of mobile advertising. The journals in which most instrumental research studies have been published are also identified. Moreover, the co-citation, bibliometric coupling and co-occurrence analysis of literature are also carried out to draw themes concerning mobile advertising research that have been identified and categorized.

This research analyzed a singular, exclusive database, “Scopus,” which limited the sectoral scope of publications. Since the present research uses bibliometric analysis, these studies cannot conduct sentiment analysis of the chosen studies.

Marketing professionals looking after technological advancements may use this study to understand the broad scope of mobile advertising applicability across diverse domains and discuss the trade-offs that may address significant bottlenecks in mobile advertising applications.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the latest attempts in recent times to understand the research work in mobile advertising using a bibliometric domain analysis approach.

This study aims to examine the drivers and outcomes of the usage intention of branded mobile applications (apps), revealing findings of theoretical and practical relevance. First, it uncovers the specific technological features that underpin the perceived usefulness and ease of use of branded apps driving (directly and indirectly) usage intention. Second, it outlines two key outcomes that are relevant to the strategic management of branded apps: willingness to recommend the app and willingness to pay to continue using the app.

This study uses data randomly derived from a panel of one million UK consumers, analyzed via structural equations modeling. The unit of analysis was individual apps prominently displaying a brand identity. The study tested indirect relationships between the key drivers considered and usage intention via perceived usefulness and ease of use.

Consumers who view branded apps as protecting their privacy, customizable and compatible with what they do, will have stronger perceptions of usefulness and ease of use and greater intention to use the app. These effects also occur indirectly. Furthermore, usage intention drives the willingness to recommend the app and to pay to continue using it.

To influence usage intention, managers can improve the perception of usefulness of branded apps by protecting consumer privacy and improving the app’s design and its compatibility with people’s needs and lifestyle. Managers can also enhance the perception of ease of use of the branded app by heightening its security and ubiquity. Combined, these factors can enhance (directly and indirectly) the intention to use the app, which will lead to the willingness to recommend the app and pay for it.

This study extends previous research by examining factors driving the intention to use branded apps and the resulting outcomes. It also offers a model that yields predictions for individual branded apps (not the brand powering the app), thus providing practical recommendations on how to manage, in general, apps with a brand identity.

The purpose of this study is to draw concepts from marketing and information systems research and integrate them in the context of M-commerce. The authors develop a conceptual model of technology readiness (TR) affecting perceived ubiquity (PQ) (of smartphones) and PQ affecting M-commerce adoption (MA) incorporating the moderating effect of privacy concerns (PC) on the relation between PQ and MA along with the constructs perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU).

The conceptual model was formulated using a set of qualitative research procedures (four focus group discussions) and tested using two questionnaire-based surveys (with 372 and 431 respondents each) in India. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted followed by structural equation modeling for the quantitative data.

Results from the quantitative study indicate a significant effect of TR on PQ, PU and PEU. All three latter constructs had a significant effect on MA. A significant moderating effect of PC on the relation between PQ and MA was also observed.

The study findings enhance the literature on the antecedents of successful adoption of M-commerce and establish the role of PQ as a significant influencer of MA.

The study findings would enable service providers with a new and relevant model of M-commerce adoption.

The major contribution of the study is the development and validation of a model that has attitudinal variables related to technology usage and their relations to M-commerce adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to present and test a conceptual model for understanding consumer responses to cause related voucher schemes (CRVS), considering the initiatives of two UK-based grocery retailers (Tesco and Morrisons).

The conceptual model incorporates six theoretically derived exogenous constructs, i.e. status of the cause, company-cause fit, personal involvement with the cause, attitudes to the company, perceived sincerity of the company and perceived ubiquity. These are hypothesized to influence consumer responses to three primary endogenous variables: interest in the company, favourability of attitudes to the company and use (impact on purchasing intentions). The model is tested using survey data (n=401) collected in two UK cities.

All but two of the hypothesized path relationships were confirmed and the percentage of explained variance for the primary endogenous variables compares well against previous models. Attitudes to the company, perceived ubiquity and favourability were identified as significant predictors of behavioural intentions (use).

In selecting a cause, managers need to think carefully about the status of the cause, its degree of fit with the company and how to build personal involvement. CRVS initiatives should be focused, with consistency in communication. If a company suffers from negative consumer attitudes, a CRVS alone is unlikely to turn around their business performance.

The paper represents the first academic assessment of consumer responses to CRVS, introducing and validating a conceptual model.

Do luxury consumers negatively evaluate digital interactions (website and social media) by international luxury brands? The topic has received much debate. The authors argue that luxury brand personality (modern vs. traditional), which encompasses a more stable form of brand identity in global markets, affects evaluations of digital interactions. They further investigate the role of self-brand connection in this process.

Three experiments on Prolific use a European sample and manipulate a single factor between subjects (modernity: less vs. more; traditionality: less vs. more) of French luxury brands and measure evaluations as the dependent variable. Two studies assesses self-brand connection (continuous) as a moderator (studies 2a, 2b). Study 2b rules out some alternative explanations, with culture (independent vs. collectivist) as an independent variable. A fourth study, using a North American sample on CloudResearch, assesses the effect of personality manipulation (more modernity vs. more traditionality) on consumer evaluations of an Italian brand, and assesses ubiquity perceptions as a mediator.

Consumers evaluate digital interactions of international luxury brands less favorably when luxury brand personality exhibits more (vs. less) modernity or less (vs. more) traditionality. Perceptions of ubiquity mediate these relationships. When self-brand connection is high, this effect is attenuated.

The research sheds light on the debate on whether luxury brands should create digital interactions in international markets, given that these global brands operate in multiple channels. Findings show that luxury brands can develop strategies based on aspects of their brand identity, a less malleable feature of brand identity within global markets. Additionally, the research contributes to the conversation about a global luxury market. In short, the findings offer evidence in favor of brand identity (personality) influencing the digital channel strategy a brand should undertake in international markets, first, followed by consumer needs.

The purpose of this paper is to address assumptions about the prevalence of change in human resource management (HRM) and organizational change literature, providing evidence from employee perceptions across three countries. The results indicate change was commonplace even before the pandemic disruptions of 2020.

Given this study's exploratory, employee perspective, a cross-sectional self-report survey was used. Three survey panel samples were collected in 2017: US (n = 718), Australia (n = 501) and New Zealand (n = 516). Analysis of variance was used to test whether the prevalence of change differed significantly between countries or specific groups of employees. An analysis of comments on change types and emotional response provides further insights.

The paper provides evidence of the ubiquity of change: 73% of employees are experiencing change at work and 42% perceived it as moderate to massive, with little variation between countries. Employees commonly experience more than one change, with those experiencing large amounts of change reporting predominantly negative emotional impacts.

The research provides a snapshot across three countries during a prosperous and relatively stable period, providing a point of comparison for the turbulent times we have faced in 2020. Since change can be arduous, the authors recommend that HRM researchers consider change prevalence as a contextual factor, and practitioners heed employee reactions to change, particularly during periods of significant change.

In providing foundational evidence of change ubiquity in contemporary workplaces, this paper enables more accurate discussions regarding change.