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21 – 30 of over 50000Bonnie Farber Canziani and Dianne H.B. Welsh
The study aims to offer a general review of website evaluation, with particular application to the winery tourism field. Automated website evaluation is explored as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to offer a general review of website evaluation, with particular application to the winery tourism field. Automated website evaluation is explored as a complementary tool in the evaluation of small and medium enterprise (SME) winery websites.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a mixed-method investigation including a critical review of winery website evaluation literature and analysis of winery website scores generated through a free service of a commercial automated evaluation scoring system.
Findings
No standards currently exist for winery website evaluation metrics and current evaluation processes suffer from human rater bias. An automated evaluation scoring system used in the study was able to discriminate between a sample of known best practice websites and other independently formed samples representing average wineries in the USA and in North Carolina.
Research limitations/implications
Wineries and other small business tourism firms can benefit by incorporating automated website evaluation and benchmarking into their internet strategies. Reported human rater limitations noted in manual evaluation may be minimized using automated rating technology. Automated evaluation system metrics tend to be updated more frequently and offer better alignment with trending consumer expectations for website design.
Originality/value
The current study used an automated website quality evaluation tool that serves to move winery website design efforts forward and supports the goals of reputation management for tourism businesses relying on internet marketing.
Isabel Mariann Silvis, Theo J.D. Bothma and Koos J.W. de Beer
The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated list of heuristics and an information architecture (IA) framework for the heuristic evaluation of the IA of academic library…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated list of heuristics and an information architecture (IA) framework for the heuristic evaluation of the IA of academic library websites as well as an evaluation framework with practical steps on how to conduct the evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach
A set of 14 heuristics resulted from an integration of existing usability principles from authorities in the field of usability. A review of IA literature resulted in a framework for dividing academic library websites into six dialogue elements. The resulting heuristics were made applicable to academic library websites through the addition of recommendations based on a review of 20 related studies.
Findings
This study provides heuristics, a framework and workflow guidelines that can be used by the various evaluators of academic library websites, i.e. library staff, web developers and usability experts, to provide recommendations for improving its usability.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of the usability principles is the evaluation of the IA aspects of websites and therefore does not provide insights into accessibility or visual design aspects.
Originality/value
The main problem that is addressed by this study is that there are no clear guidelines on how to apply existing usability principles for the evaluation of the IA of academic library websites.
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Fasola P. Abifarin, Shaka Apodoghe Imavah and Ayodele S. Olobashola
Academic library websites need evaluation to determine whether users can derive useful experiences while visiting them to perform tasks. This is more so because visiting an…
Abstract
Purpose
Academic library websites need evaluation to determine whether users can derive useful experiences while visiting them to perform tasks. This is more so because visiting an academic library website is by voluntary action rather than compulsion as is the case with university, polytechnic and college sites where students must conduct academic transactions that cannot be reasonably avoided. The result of such an evaluation provides signposts for improvement so that academic library websites can continue to be useful to their users. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to assess the structural effectiveness of academic library websites in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study, research strategy and survey research approach were adopted for the study. Through a Web search, 14 universities, one polytechnic and one college of education were identified while three academic library websites were selected for the study. The evaluation of the websites was un-moderated and conducted remotely by user participants who were recruited across the three tertiary institutions under study. A five-point scale questionnaire served as the research instrument while data were presented in tables and analyzed using the median score. The Kruskall–Wallis test by ranks was used to test the null hypothesis at a five per cent level of significance.
Findings
Out of the 20 items presented for assessment, Group 1 and 2 disagreed to 11 (55 per cent) while agreeing on the remaining 9 (45 per cent) on Lib 1 and Lib 2 websites. Group 3 agreed to 11 (55 per cent) while disagreeing on 9 (45 per cent) on the Lib 3 website. The null hypothesis proposed for the study was rejected as the p-value of 0.04 was significant at p < 0.05. This indicated that most of the critical issues pertaining to design effectiveness were perceived to be ineffective.
Originality/value
The findings from this study call for a review of the design of academic library websites in Nigeria so that users can identify which websites are easier to use.
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Rajugan Rajagopalapillai, William Gardner, Elizabeth Chang and Tharam S. Dillon
Today, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is fast emerging as the dominant standard for storing, describing, representing and interchanging data among various enterprises systems…
Abstract
Today, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is fast emerging as the dominant standard for storing, describing, representing and interchanging data among various enterprises systems and databases in the context of complex web enterprises information systems (EIS). Conversely, for web EIS (such as ecommerce and portals) to be successful, it is important to apply a high level, model driven solutions and meta‐data vocabularies to design and implementation techniques that are capable of handling heterogonous schemas and documents. For this, we need a methodology that provides a higher level of abstraction of the domain in question with rigorously defined standards that are to be more widely understood by all stakeholders of the system. To‐date, UML has proven itself as the language of choice for modeling EIS using OO techniques. With the introduction of XML Schema, which provides rich facilities for constraining and defining enterprise XML content, the combination of UML and XML technologies provide a good platform (and the flexibility) for modeling, designing and representing complex enterprise contents for building successful EIS. In this paper, we show how a layered view model coupled with a proven user interface analysis framework (WUiAM) is utilized in providing architectural construct and abstract website model (called eXtensible Web, xWeb), to model, design and implement simple, usercentred, collaborative websites at varying levels of abstraction. The uniqueness xWeb is that the model data (web user interface definitions, website data descriptions and constraints) and the web content are captured and represented at the conceptual level using views (one model) and can be deployed (multiple platform specific models) using one or more implementation models.
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Masoud Ramezani Nia and Sajjad Shokouhyar
The success of e-commerce websites depends on their effective communication and influence on their users. At first glance, the users are impressed by the website design and, if…
Abstract
Purpose
The success of e-commerce websites depends on their effective communication and influence on their users. At first glance, the users are impressed by the website design and, if inspired, they would continue their operations on the website. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of visual aesthetic of the Web pages on users’ behavior in online shopping environment. In particular, the paper aims to evaluate the elements of visual aesthetic on the organism variables (i.e. “satisfaction,” “arousal,” “perceived on-line service quality” and “trust”) and measure them on the users’ response (i.e. purchase, comparison and re-visit).
Design/methodology/approach
Using the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework, the authors first assessed direct and indirect effects of visual aesthetics of e-commerce websites on customer responses. Then, the Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory (VisAWI) method was used to examine the effects of four dimensions (i.e. craftsmanship, simplicity, diversity and colorfulness) on users’ perceived website aesthetics. To do so, DigiKala.com, a famous Iranian e-commerce website was selected and the questionnaires were distributed among its users.
Findings
The study results revealed that the website aesthetics in the S-O-R evaluation had the greatest direct impact on “perceived quality of online services,” “trust,” “satisfaction” and “arousal,” respectively. These variables also indirectly affected “shopping,” “revisit” and “comparison to similar products on other websites.” Regarding the evaluations based on the VisAWI, the component “craftsmanship” played the most central role in expressing the website aesthetics, followed by the variables “simplicity,” “diversity” and “colorfulness,” respectively.
Originality/value
Although the considerable effect of Web aesthetics on customers’ purchase behavior has been identified in previous research, it has not been accurately measured. Furthermore, studies on Web aesthetics are mostly limited to information systems’ users and do not concern consumers. Therefore, considering the increasing growth in online shopping and the significance of Web aesthetics to online consumers, investigating how consumers respond to Web aesthetics is of vital importance.
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Aastha Kathuria and Apurva Bakshi
Online impulsive purchasing is growing exponentially, and website-related factors play a substantial role in this phenomenon. This study provides a comprehensive and integrative…
Abstract
Purpose
Online impulsive purchasing is growing exponentially, and website-related factors play a substantial role in this phenomenon. This study provides a comprehensive and integrative framework encompassing a variety of website-related factors influencing impulsive purchase behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a systematic literature review, which includes literature search from two prominent databases. This article consolidates the results of 60 relevant research papers, and thematic analysis is performed on various website-related aspects classified into five research topics.
Findings
The different website qualities have been classified into broad themes and their role in online impulse buying has been explored. The antecedents, moderators, mediators, and outcomes are portrayed in an integrated research framework. Possible research gaps have been identified, and a future research agenda has been proposed, representing potential research areas.
Research limitations/implications
As we have included only studies published in the English language, this review may be limited by language bias. Relevant research published in other languages might have been excluded.
Practical implications
This literature review may provide management insights to marketers and practitioners managing online retail websites. To sustain an online business in the long term, it is critical for online retailers to have a thorough understanding of all conceivable website stimuli and develop them in a way that compels consumers to make impulsive purchases.
Originality/value
This study represents an original contribution to the realm of systematic literature reviews. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first SLR that elaborately delineates the influence of website-related factors on online impulse buying behaviour.
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Mohammad Alomari, Peter Woods and Kuldeep Sandhu
This paper aims to engage with the growing debate on the factors that affect e‐government adoption in the developing country of Jordan. The change from traditional interactions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to engage with the growing debate on the factors that affect e‐government adoption in the developing country of Jordan. The change from traditional interactions between government and citizens in Jordan to interaction via the web needs further exploration in order to understand the factors that might affect e‐government adoption by citizens. This paper therefore aims to report on a study to identify the main factors that influence citizens' intention to adopt e‐government websites in Jordan, using a theoretical framework consisting of diffusion of innovation theory (DOI) and the technology acceptance model (TAM).
Design/methodology/approach
A survey study of 400 Jordanian citizens who were internet users investigated the influence of the aforementioned factors on the adoption and use of e‐government websites. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Contrary to previous research, trust in the internet, relative advantage, compatibility and perceived ease of use were not found to be significant predictors of intention to use e‐government websites. Trust in government, website design, beliefs, complexity and perceived usefulness were significant factors in Jordanian citizens' intention to use e‐government websites.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few to examine what influences adoption and use of e‐government websites by citizens in the Middle East. The study clearly identifies the relationship between the constructs of “beliefs” (religious views) and website design and e‐government adoption, and explores the influence of attitudes towards e‐government adoption in Jordan. Although previous studies show similarities between the constructs related to DOI (relative advantage and complexity) and those related to TAM (perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEoU)), this research shows the importance of including these constructs when considering the topic of e‐government adoption in a Middle Eastern country.
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Lih-Juan ChanLin and Wei-Hsiang Hung
The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the use of a library mobile website at a university library. This paper aims to present the approach adopted to investigate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the use of a library mobile website at a university library. This paper aims to present the approach adopted to investigate users’ reactions to the new mobile platform. A usability test was also conducted to examine its effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
Mobile websites for academic libraries were first reviewed prior to identifying the functions and elements to be included. To assess the intended design purpose, the usability of the design was examined through a comparison of the mobile website and the full PC website used by 50 students to accomplish a set of search tasks. A questionnaire survey was used to assess 336 students’ responses regarding various criteria including learnability, control, presentation and efficiency.
Findings
The usability test that was conducted before the mobile Web was formally released indicated that the students using it finished more search tasks (p < 0.001), and were more efficient in completing search tasks than they were using the PC website (p < 0.001). Data from 336 questionnaire responses also indicated the students’ positive reactions to the developed mobile system in four defined facets (mean >= 4.0).
Research limitations/implications
The difficulty of recruiting volunteers and the small number of subjects who participated was also a major limitation experienced in this study. Replications or use of different measurements might be needed in future research to confirm the result.
Practical implications
In this study, a library mobile website was developed, tested and evaluated by users. Currently, the library mobile website is being implemented in the university. On-going revisions will continue to improve its effectiveness and efficiency for information retrieval.
Social implications
It is expected that through the library mobile services, a ubiquitous learning environment can be provided to students to fulfil their academic and leisure needs.
Originality/value
Summative evaluation of the mobile system revealed the students’ positive reactions to a set of predetermined criteria in various dimensions, including: learnability, control, presentation and efficiency.
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Chun-Der Chen, Edward C.S. Ku and Chien Chi Yeh
Customers who engage in impulsive online shopping make immediate, unplanned and ill-thought-out purchases online. The purpose of this paper is to present a model to illustrate how…
Abstract
Purpose
Customers who engage in impulsive online shopping make immediate, unplanned and ill-thought-out purchases online. The purpose of this paper is to present a model to illustrate how website quality (moderated by hedonic value) influences impulsive shopping behaviors in the context of online tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
The model and hypotheses presented here were tested by structural equation modeling. Empirical data were collected by conducting a questionnaire survey, in total, 3,000 invitation messages were mailed to the members of the two travel communities (1,500 invitation messages for each one), of which, 402 were returned completed (a return rate of 13.4 percent).
Findings
Visually appealing websites are more likely to attract customer attention and illicit pleasurable emotional responses. In addition, effective tourism websites also maintain good service quality and ensure accuracy of information. Finally, good functional benefits can help customers reduce the time and effort spent searching for a specific service and can also serve as a stimulus triggering impulse buying.
Research limitations/implications
This study used a reliable multidimensional measure of factors that influence the relational benefit of initiators and buyers to help elucidate which factors encourage impulsive online shopping. From a theoretical perspective, the authors determined that website quality is positively associated with functional benefits, and thereby influences impulsive shopping behaviors; in addition, the functional benefits conferred by websites have a strong and direct influence on impulsive shopping behavior. However, this effect is moderated by hedonic value.
Practical implications
Online tourism retailers should continually seek to enhance this function because it is the primary motivation behind customer use of online shopping websites. Effective tourism websites also maintain good service quality and ensure accuracy of information. Finally, navigation systems should be designed to meet the needs of new users, for example by offering help pages that address a variety of topics. Therefore, tourism websites should feature an adequate number of images, a colorful design, and well-described services and products.
Originality/value
In recent years, the popularity of online shopping websites has continued to rise. In seeking to elucidate impulsive online shopping behaviors, this study focused on online-to-offline applications, the uses-and-gratifications perspective and service-dominant logic. The authors also discussed the important influence of website quality on impulse buying and how this is moderated by hedonic value. The research model presented in this study provides a reliable instrument to operationalize key constructs in the analysis of impulsive shopping behavior and has important implications for the online tourism industry.
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Samar Rahi, Majeed Mustafa Othman Mansour, Mahmoud Alghizzawi and Feras Mi Alnaser
Technology acceptance, especially internet banking adoption, has become a vital issue in the business world today. The potential of this technology is enormous. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Technology acceptance, especially internet banking adoption, has become a vital issue in the business world today. The potential of this technology is enormous. The purpose of this study is to ascertain determinants of internet banking adoption using unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and electronic service (e-service) quality, which accounts for changes in user’s intention to adopt internet banking.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from customers of commercial banks using structured questionnaires. The data were collected in four weeks in the beginning of September 2017. A two-stage approach of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used for data analysis.
Findings
The results reveal that integrated UTAUT model had significant influence on user intention to adopt internet banking. Findings of the SEM indicated that approximately 80 per cent of the variance in user intention to adopt internet banking was accounted by predictors. The study schematized that assurance is the most influential factor among all other technology and service quality factors. Additionally, performance expectancy and effort expectancy were found to be positive and significant mediator variables among website design, customer service and customer’s intention to adopt internet banking.
Practical implications
It is recommended that both website designers and managers should focus on technology and service quality factors to boost the confidence of internet banking users. Importance performance matrix analysis suggested that managers should provide assurance to internet banking users, so that they could maintain a long-term relationship with internet banking services. The study calls researchers to test the integrated UTAUT model in other electronic commerce (e-commerce) domains such as online booking or online shopping websites.
Originality/value
To the best of author’s knowledge, this study is the first that extend the UTAUT model with four e-service quality dimensions, namely, website design, customer service, assurance and reliability to investigate user’s intention to adopt internet banking in developing country context of Pakistan. More importantly, the mediating role of performance expectancy and effort expectancy is examined first time within integrated UTAUT model. Furthermore, the integration of UTAUT model contributes to the advancement of internet banking acceptance and offers useful insights to researchers and policy-makers on how to enhance internet banking acceptance among customers of commercial banks.
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