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1 – 10 of 334The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether internet experience, process quality, outcome quality, customer satisfaction, and post‐use expectations affect the consistent use…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether internet experience, process quality, outcome quality, customer satisfaction, and post‐use expectations affect the consistent use of health information online by Chinese internet users and how these factors are related to one another.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 219 Chinese university students who are currently using, or have used, the health information services available on the internet. Tertiary students were selected because they are active internet users who frequently use the internet to search for information.
Findings
Internet experience affects process quality, but it has no direct relation to outcome quality or customer satisfaction. Process quality determines customer satisfaction toward health information available on the internet and influences the outcome quality; however, the outcome quality is not related to customer satisfaction. The decision to reuse health information found on the internet is influenced by both customer satisfaction and post‐use expectations. The customers' post‐use expectations are primarily influenced by customer satisfaction.
Practical implications
For a successful internet business, internet marketers should recognise that service quality includes both process quality and outcome quality and plan new campaigns that take this factor into consideration. Tracking post‐use expectations can help predict, with reasonable accuracy, the relationship between customer satisfaction and retention of health information found on the internet.
Originality/value
This study provides a better understanding about the users of health information found on the internet in China by taking into account the above‐mentioned factors: internet experience, post‐use expectation, process quality, and outcome quality.
Reza Biria and Abbas Mehrabi Boshrabadi
This paper aims to develop a multi-aspectual framework for evaluating locally prepared English language teaching (ELT) materials used for Iranian senior high school students. Many…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a multi-aspectual framework for evaluating locally prepared English language teaching (ELT) materials used for Iranian senior high school students. Many practitioners of the field assert that the inappropriate development of ELT materials would leave an adverse effect on the potential value of the realistic ways which translate the educational beliefs on language learning into operational goals defined by local educational systems.
Design/Methodology/Approach
Using a stratified sampling method, 120 high school students along with 60 ex-students attending Isfahan (Khorasgan) University as well as 30 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers teaching English courses at high schools were selected. To measure the participants’ attitudes toward the pedagogical effectiveness of English textbooks (i.e. Right Path to English series), a 30-item questionnaire developed based on the comprehensive guidelines suggested by Nation and Macalister (2010) about materials development was used. To improve the credibility and dependability of respondents’ perceptions, a focused-group interview was further utilized as a source of triangulation.
Findings
The findings revealed that the multi-aspectual framework is a comprehensive and valid model utilized for post-use materials evaluation. The results also depicted that the target textbooks published by the Iranian Ministry of Education did not satisfy the actual needs of students.
Practical implications
The findings may offer certain benefits to teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) teachers, policy makers and materials developers engaged in locally ELT material design.
Originality/value
The present study used a comprehensive list of criteria dominating not only the curriculum development but also the principles governing the EFL classroom practices. Considering the principles as a litmus test for evaluation, the study used a principle-driven approach to evaluate the Iranian English textbooks used in senior high school level.
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Jiyeon Kim and Sandra Forsythe
The purpose of this study is to investigate online shoppers' adoption of visual sensory enabling technologies, showing that these sensory experience enablers provide a dual role…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate online shoppers' adoption of visual sensory enabling technologies, showing that these sensory experience enablers provide a dual role in enhancing online apparel shopping by reducing perceived product risk, and increasing the entertainment value of the online shopping process.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers conducted a focus group interview and pre‐test with a college student sample and a main test with a US national sample of online shoppers. The data were analyzed using single‐ and multiple‐group structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings provide empirical support for perceived usefulness and perceived entertainment value as strong predictors of consumers' attitudes towards using all three of the sensory enabling technologies (SETs) – 2D larger view and alternative views, 3D rotation views, and virtual try‐on. The impact of perceived ease‐of‐use was significant only for 3D rotation views, suggesting that the impact of perceived ease‐of‐use differs by technology. Attitudes towards using sensory enabling technologies had a significant impact on the actual use of all three SETs; however, the impact of technology anxiety and innovativeness on the use of SETs also differed by technology.
Originality/value
The results provide empirical validation of the proposed SE‐TAM model. Based on the current findings, SETs may provide a valuable tool that online apparel retailers can use to increase online purchases, either by reducing the perceived risk through better online product evaluation, or by enhancing consumers' enjoyment of the shopping process on their web site.
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Kyung Young Lee, Lorn Sheehan, Kiljae Lee and Younghoon Chang
Based on the post-acceptance model of information system continuance (PAMISC), this study investigates the influence of the early-stage users' personal traits (specifically…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the post-acceptance model of information system continuance (PAMISC), this study investigates the influence of the early-stage users' personal traits (specifically personal innovativeness and technology anxiety) and ex-post instrumentality perceptions (specifically price value, hedonic motivation, compatibility and perceived security) on social diffusion of smart technologies measured by the intention to recommend artificial intelligence-based voice assistant systems (AIVAS) to others.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from 400 US AIVAS users were collected and analyzed with Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) 18.0 and the partial least square technique using advanced analysis of composites (ADANCO) 2.1.
Findings
AIVAS technology is presently at the early stage of market penetration (about 25% of market penetration in the USA). A survey of AIVAS technology users reveals that personal innovativeness is directly and indirectly (through confirmation and continuance) associated with a stronger intention to recommend the use of the device to others. Confirmation is associated with all four ex-post instrumentality perceptions (hedonic motivation, compatibility, price value and perceived security). Among the four, however, only hedonic motivation and compatibility are significant predictors of satisfaction, which lead to use continuance and, eventually, intention to recommend. Finally, technology anxiety is found to be indirectly (but not directly) associated with a lower intention to recommend.
Originality/value
This is the first study conducted on the early-stage AIVAS users that evaluates the influence of both personal traits and ex-post instrumentality perceptions on users' intention for continuance and recommendation to others.
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Charles R. Duke and Andrew S. Mount
Claims that, as an addition to the product manager’s set of tools, performance‐importance analysis can provide insight into customer perceptions. Managers can use a combination of…
Abstract
Claims that, as an addition to the product manager’s set of tools, performance‐importance analysis can provide insight into customer perceptions. Managers can use a combination of performance perceptions along with importance ratings to understand the relative success of product features. Plots importances for product features of an analytical instrument against the product’s pre‐introduction expectations and post‐product‐test satisfactions. Considers product design issues as well as positioning strategy. Changes in evaluations (“expectations” to “satisfactions”) as well as competitive positioning demonstrated the flexibility of the method.
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Hong Xu, Yuqing Liu and Xingyang Lyu
This study aims to examine how the degree of value co-creation affects Chinese customers’ evaluations of new tourism and hospitality services, and how the outcome quality…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how the degree of value co-creation affects Chinese customers’ evaluations of new tourism and hospitality services, and how the outcome quality moderates this relationship under different conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed hypotheses are tested using a self-reporting questionnaire-based survey and two experimental designs. Data analysis entailed hierarchical multiple regression analysis, a simple slope test and a two-way ANOVA.
Findings
Three component studies assessed boundary conditions for the positive effects of the degree of value co-creation on customers’ evaluations of new services. Studies 1 and 2 indicated that unequivocal high-quality outcomes amplified positive effects, which were reversed by unequivocal low-quality outcomes. Study 3 demonstrated that in Chinese contexts of ambiguous outcomes, the relationship between the degree of co-creation and new service evaluation was positively mediated by self-integration in private contexts and negatively mediated by loss of face in public contexts.
Practical implications
This study identifies critical factors influencing successful service innovation in China within different contexts. Its finding of context-dependent customer engagement in value co-creation has managerial implications for facilitating favorable new service evaluations.
Originality/value
This exploratory study addresses a research gap regarding service innovation, offering insights into positive and negative influences of customer value co-creation on new service evaluation, under different outcome quality conditions in the domestic Chinese hospitality and tourism sector.
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Giuseppe Pedeliento, Daniela Andreini, Mara Bergamaschi and Jane Elizabeth Klobas
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how the intermediation of an online agent in the relationship between prospective clients and professional service providers affects…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how the intermediation of an online agent in the relationship between prospective clients and professional service providers affects individual purchasing processes and decisions, and satisfaction with the professional service provider once the commercial transaction is concluded.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the integrated trust-technology acceptance model, modified to include two additional variables to take into account of the specificities of the context investigated – users’ perceived reduction of information asymmetry and satisfaction with the professional service provider – a research framework is developed and tested with a research design combining a decision tree procedure with structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. Participants are 188 users of an Italian website which incorporates an online agent that refers notaries to prospective clients.
Findings
Decisions to purchase professional services brokered by online agents depend upon trust in the agent, and users’ perceptions of the agent’s ability to reduce information asymmetry, as well as its perceived usefulness. Online agents for professional services can be effective as well as efficient: users who bought the service from an agent-referred notary had higher levels of satisfaction with their professional service provider than users who purchased the service from a different notary.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical effort to investigate the effects of online agents in the specific context of professional service purchasing. The uniqueness of the research context permitted identification of a new type of online agent, the “double-sided online referral agent”.
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Service businesses face a unique challenge: how to effectively communicate the necessarily intangible benefits of their service offering. Their attempts to tangibilize the service…
Abstract
Service businesses face a unique challenge: how to effectively communicate the necessarily intangible benefits of their service offering. Their attempts to tangibilize the service are often ill‐designed, making service benefits more rather than less obscure. This article presents a scheme that identifies the communication task at various stages of consumer decision making and then matches appropriate communication strategies. Rather than embracing misguided tangibilization, the recommended strategies handle the intangibility challenge without necessarily using any tangible props.
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Chun‐Hsiung Liao, Chun‐Wang Tsou and Ming‐Feng Huang
The purpose of this study is to analyse factors influencing subscribers' usage of 3G mobile services in Taiwan.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyse factors influencing subscribers' usage of 3G mobile services in Taiwan.
Design/methodology/approach
The research model, based on a technology acceptance model (TAM) and added perceived enjoyment, was tested by means of a two‐stage structure equation modelling approach. Data were collected from 532 respondents via a web questionnaire survey.
Findings
The findings indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment are positively related to attitude, and perceived enjoyment has a positive influence on perceived usefulness.
Practical implications
The findings suggest users of 3G mobile services need to be provided with more diverse and entertaining ways of communicating, which are at the same time easily accessible and convenient to use.
Originality/value
A new correlation from perceived enjoyment to perceived usefulness was found to have a significant effect. This finding indicates enjoyment as a key factor influences customers' adoption of 3G services.
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Zaid Alwan and Barry J. Gledson
The purpose of this paper is to provide a unique conceptual framework for integrated asset management strategy that includes making use of available facility assessment methods…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a unique conceptual framework for integrated asset management strategy that includes making use of available facility assessment methods and tools such as BREEAM In-Use, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED); and highlights proposes areas of commonality between these and the use of as-built Building Information Modelling, that ultimately becomes the Asset Information Model (AIM). This framework will consider the emerging requirements for the capture of Building Performance Attribute Data (BPAD), and how these can be managed in order to assist with effective post-construction building performance evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the current process relevant to the development of as-built BIMs and AIMs was undertaken which included a discussion of BIM standards and of the COBie process. This was combined with data provided by industry practitioners. This led to the concept of BPADs being developed, to be used within existing green building tool, BREEAM In-Use, COBIE and FM/Asset management methods. In turn these methodologies were used to identify possible synergies and areas of integration in AIM-enabled environments.
Findings
Recognising the cyclical nature of asset management and BIM, a conceptual model was generated. It was found that BPADs could be aggregated within an AIM model which could influence the delivery of effective facilities and asset management. The model considers the use of existing Building Management Systems (BMS) and Computer Aided Facility Management Systems (CAFMs) and identifies issues associated with the overall sustainability strategy.
Originality/value
A conceptual framework is generated that proposes the use of effective information management and aggregation of BPAD within an AIM.
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