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The purpose of this study was to examine consumer data acquired by branded prescription drug websites and the ethics of privacy related to the interconnected web of personal information accessed, packaged and resold by tracker technologies.

The research used the DMI Tracker Tool to collect data on the top 17 branded prescription drug websites, with a specific interest in the tracker technologies embedded in those websites. That data was analyzed using Gephi, an open-source data visualization tool, to map the network of trackers embedded in those branded prescription drug websites.

Findings visualize the interconnections between tracker technologies and prescription drug websites that undergird a system of personal data acquisition and programmatic advertising vehicles that serve the interests of prescription drug marketers and Big Tech. Based on the theory of platform ethics, the study demonstrated the presence of a technostructural ecosystem dominated by Big Tech, a system that goes unseen by consumers and serves the interests of advertisers and resellers of consumer data.

The 17 websites used in this study were limited to the top-selling prescription drugs or those with the highest ad expenditures. As such this study is not based on a random sampling of branded prescription drug websites. The popularity of these prescription drugs or the expanse of advertising associated with the drugs makes them appropriate to study the presence of tracking devices that collect data from consumers and serve advertising to them. It is also noted that websites are dynamic spaces, and some trackers within their infrastructures are apt to change over time.

Branded prescription drug information has over the past three decades become part of consumers’ routine search for information regarding what ails them. As drug promotion moved from print to TV and the Web, searching for drug information has become a part of everyday life. The implications of embedded trackers on branded prescription drug websites are the subject of this research.

This study has significant social implications as consumers who are searching for information regarding prescription medications may not want drug companies tracking them in a way that many perceive to be an invasion of privacy. Yet, as the Web is dominated by Big Tech, web developers have little choice but to remain a part of this technostructural ecosystem.

This study sheds light on branded prescription drug websites, exploring the imbalance between the websites under study, Big Tech and consumers who lack awareness of the system that operates backstage.

This work aims to explore the effects of (equity and non-equity) strategic alliances between banks and FinTechs on FinTechs' online visibility.

For a sample of 124 Italian FinTechs, the authors measured online visibility through their website ranking (Google PageRank) and website traffic (Google Trends). Consistent to the historical depth of these measures, the authors separately investigated the effect of equity and non-equity (contractual) agreements on online visibility by means of ordinal logistic regressions and diff-in-diff analysis.

Strategic alliances with banks enhance FinTechs' online visibility. Although both equity and contractual agreements positively influence the popularity of FinTechs' website achieved through the activity of internal and external online content creators (websites ranking), only equity agreements are effective in attracting Internet users (website traffic).

When deciding to interact with banks, FinTechs' managers should consider that equity agreements may be a powerful strategic choice for enlarging the customer base and boosting visibility of FinTechs.

Fostering strategic alliances between banks and FinTechs contributes to FinTechs' growth, generating virtuous mechanisms of innovation, financial inclusion and better allocative efficiency of the financial system.

This work expands marketing knowledge and literature regarding online visibility determinants, by investigating the benefits of strategic alliances and cooperation in the market, while providing an empirical strategy replicable by future marketing studies.

The effectiveness of a message and its attributes have become important for digital media. This study aims to investigate how different elements of a website including both argument-oriented and emotional stimuli based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) can affect the issue involvement and change the attitude of the website visitors of a healthcare service provider.

The Ministry of Health and Education (MOHME) website was selected to explore how its content and design can persuade visitors. An online survey was conducted on 355 adults engaging in health protection behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that one design element, i.e. website navigation and one social cue, i.e. social connectedness, have positive impact on issue involvement, while social presence and website satisfaction have a negative effect on issue involvement because of the random fluctuation suppressor effect. In addition, prior knowledge significantly influenced the issue's involvement. Further, website satisfaction has impacted attitudes directly. There was no significant relationship between argument quality and issue involvement.

Previous works have studied health-related behaviors in offline contexts; however, the scholars have not focused on the individuals' persuasion using ELM regarding the healthcare services provided in online communities. The results of the current study have theoretical and practical implications for scholars, website designers and policymakers.

Through the use of website usability literature and tourism website analysis and experience, this theory proposes that user satisfaction on the website relates to six key drivers. The six drivers are crucial offerings of a tourism website and without successfully applying them the website may fail to meet the requirements of the end user. The six drivers for high website usability include tourist details, site appearance/usability, deals/promotions, segment marketing, foreign focus, and use of social media. This chapter puts the theory to action during an analysis of three northeastern states’ tourism websites. This study analyzes the tourism websites of New York, Massachusetts, and Maine using the six key drivers. The analysis demonstrates areas of strength and development for each state and directly ties back to the six drivers of user satisfaction for tourism websites.

The ability travelers have to learn about the destination, explore and visualize activities and events, and book accommodations through the destinations' websites likely affects tourism visit behavior. Information availability, utility, and value of information on websites are the essential factors in the process of planning a vacation. This study compares the websites of America's three largest tourist destination states: California (visitcalifornia.com), Florida (visitflorida.com), and New York (iloveny.com). The study compares the three destination websites' quality, quantity, and utility through an evaluation rubric comprised of 22 attributes. One hypothesis that the study examines is that destination websites are assessable in order of good, better, best. The findings indicate that California provides the most useful and valuable information and is easiest to use. The assessment of visitcalifornia.com as the best website is the result of applying attribute rubrics covering hotel booking, events calendars, maps, and ability to create a trip.

This chapter describes means for selecting websites and the resources needed to add them to online catalogs. Reasons are given for including websites in online catalogs such as timeliness and geographic specificity. A historical overview of Choice Reviews, wikis, and web-based sources of websites is given along with an overview of Minnesota state resources from the point of view of using them as collection development tools for finding web resources. Social work librarians in the state were surveyed about their websites selection processes and the authors conducted time/cost studies of cataloging of online web resources. Findings were that librarians had little time to seek out websites and relied on Choice reviews to keep abreast of new and changing sites. Sources from the library literature and logs of staff time for cataloging of websites were used to approximate the costs of providing access. Although the cost/time study applied only to one library, the methodology and findings can be applied in almost any discipline and different types and sizes of libraries. While budgetary hardships will make librarians think hard about adding free resources to their catalogs, this chapter helps to quantify the necessary resources, implications, and reasons for inclusion of free web resources in online catalogs.

Nowadays all luxury brands have their own websites, using them either as a communication and/or distribution tool. However, luxury consumers might still have different perceptions regarding these websites, as it can be seen as a loss of prestige or selectivity. This study aims to have a deeper understanding of luxury consumers’ perceptions of luxury brand websites by identifying a typology and defining the individual characteristics of the groups identified.

The research uses the opposition of personal and interpersonal luxury as theoretical framework and the semiotic square based on this semantic opposition. A qualitative analysis based on 42 semi-structured interviews has been conducted. The interviews have been analyzed and subjected to interpretive content analysis.

The analysis of the verbatims shows that the consumers’ motivations toward luxury consumption (luxury for self or personal, luxury for others or interpersonal, negation of luxury for self and negation of luxury for others) can explain consumer differences in terms of attitudes toward luxury brand websites. The four classes are characterized according to their positive and negative perceptions of e-commerce and interaction tools used in luxury brands websites and also their expectations.

This study defines guidelines for managers to develop luxury brand websites that correspond to their target.

The originality of this study lies in the use of the semiotic square to refine the analysis of luxury consumers’ attitudes and to make more precise contributions. It also relies on using the theory of personal and interpersonal luxury to understand consumers’ expectations toward luxury brands websites.

Today, millions of exporters and importers are using hundreds of business-to-business (B2B) electronic marketplaces to buy or sell goods and services. With this reason, this study aims to provide the related literature sufficient information concerning the most appropriate and beneficiary criteria which should be taken into consideration in the web pages of B2B companies via applying a content analysis method. The analysis results exhibit that globally oriented websites like B2B marketplaces must contain at least two or three language options, since people from different parts of the world speak and learn different languages according to their geography; and that B2B websites which do not provide trade assurances must consider adding this feature to attract more customers. In the scope of the study, it has been found out that all the selected websites take a good care of the information they share. When visiting these companies, it is really easy to learn everything about industries and international trade relations. Some of them even share information about the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on industries. Among all the websites analyzed in the scope of the study, only Alibaba.com meets all the criteria taken into consideration. Moreover, it would be appropriate to suggest that Turkish B2B e-marketplaces, such as Tradeatlas.com, ptttrade.com, and steelorbis.com, should have these criteria to become leading B2B e-marketplaces in the world. Finally, it can be suggested that websites should prepare specific pages for newcomers to enlighten them in the best way they can do.