Search results

This study explores the importance of application search engine (ASE) technology in the omni-channel strategy. For this purpose, this chapter firstly explains the concepts of the omni-channel and the search engines and the importance of them. Then, omni-channel in the framework of ASEs is discussed. Finally, recommendations for further researches are presented.

The aim of this research is to explore the influence of channel integration quality on consumer perception and response from the individual customer perspective.

This study collected 517 online questionnaires from residents in Taipei (Taiwan) and Shenzhen (China) in 2020 based on quota sampling. The empirical study employed structural equation modeling.

Based on the empirical results, the primary path indicated that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which mainly positively affected customer engagement. The secondary path showed that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which positively affected customer empowerment. Furthermore, experience quality and relationship proneness are mediating variables concerning the impact of channel integration quality on customer responses.

This study had time and budget limitations; thus, 517 questionnaires were collected from Taipei and Shenzhen. If the budget allows, it would be better to collect 1,000 questionnaires in total (500 from Taipei and 500 from Shenzhen).

Retailers should realize the core of omni-channel retailing, which is no longer concentrated on the “quantity” of channels but on consumers. When omni-channel retailers integrate online and offline channels, the retailers should try to understand what consumers want and then provide similar and diverse products and services in different channels so that consumers have more choices.

The novelty of this research is the investigation of the mediation effect of channel integration quality and consumer responses on retailers and consumers, and enriching current research on omni-channel retailing from the bottom-up perspective, as well as a comprehensive study on the two types of channel integration quality and two types of consumer responses.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to help business marketers with a mixed online and traditional retail channel (multi‐channel company) to find the optimal pricing strategy and market structure in order to maximize their profits.

A game theory model is developed to determine the optimal pricing strategy for the multi‐channel company.

It was demonstrated that an optimal pricing strategy exists under different market structures for a multi‐channel company. When a company uses multiple channels to sell its product, the optimal pricing strategy is to use a low‐high pricing strategy if the online marginal cost is equal to or less than the traditional marginal cost, or a high‐low pricing strategy if the online marginal cost is far larger than the traditional marginal cost. Furthermore, in order to maximize its profit, the company using multiple channels should adopt channel integration as the optimal market structure.

The present study assumed that all consumers have perfect information. However, information with the consumers could be incomplete. It is recommended that future research explore the pricing strategy under incomplete information settings.

The paper provides a very useful model framework, pricing strategy, and market structure for business managers who are using or planning to use multiple channels to sell their products.

This paper fills a conceptual and practical gap for a structured analysis of the current state of knowledge about multi‐channel pricing strategies. It provides practical and solid advice and examples demonstrating the application of the different types of pricing strategies for business managers.

Research that has considered the problems faced by internationalising retailers has tended to focus upon such dimensions as non‐conducive environmental conditions and inferior internal capability, rather than the conflicts that may arise from the partnerships that are formed in order to facilitate the internationalisation of retailer operations. This study seeks to re‐dress this research neglect and does so by focusing upon the fashion sector. The aim of this study is to identify the problems that may arise from fashion retailers’ international relationships. The paper reports the findings of an in‐depth study of the relationships of ten international fashion retailers. It is found that these relationships face significant tensions, specifically with respect to strategy non‐compliance, perceptual disagreements, and arguments concerning the demarcation of decision making responsibility. The paper concludes by identifying areas for future research consideration.

This study considers perceived enjoyment and attitude consistency as internal states of consumers in an omni-channel environment. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of perceived enjoyment and attitude consistency to reveal how omni-channel environment factors of interaction fluency, convenience, price advantage and personalization contribute to omni-channel shopping intention.

Consumers who had shopped at Uniqlo's online and offline stores were surveyed through an online questionnaire, and 566 data were collected for analysis through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results find that interaction fluency, price advantage and personalization positively affect perceived enjoyment, interaction fluency and convenience positively affect attitude consistency and perceived enjoyment and attitude consistency in turn facilitate omni-channel shopping intention. The mediating role of perceived enjoyment and attitude consistency was confirmed.

The original finding of this study is that factors such as interaction fluency, convenience, price advantage and personalization in omni-channel retailing require momentary and continuous affective states of consumers to facilitate omni-channel shopping intention, respectively. Therefore, this study considers the necessity of capturing different affective states of consumers in omni-channel shopping.

When a company simultaneously manages several distribution channels, there are important issues regarding the sharing of marketing and logistical resources. This paper aims to discuss the integration of sales staff, communication and logistical operations to improve service delivery to multi-channel consumers.

The paper is based on a literature review regarding multi-channel strategy to build a conceptual framework. This framework is discussed using three illustrations from the French multi-channel distribution field (King Jouet, Fnac and Darty).

The exploratory research underlines the importance of information about how consumers order in different channels. This makes the global management of different channels difficult and threatens marketing and logistical sharing.

The integration process is becoming increasingly important in service recovery. Companies must therefore facilitate total access to logistical information. This requires an organisational interaction between marketing and the supply chain activities.

The paper underlines the importance of the integration process in service recovery management, particularly when a defective product must be replaced and a new product be made available to consumers.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

Distribution has been a major element of retailers′ marketing strategy in recent years as companies strive to control costs but at the same time seek competitive advantage through improving service to stores and gaining greater control of stock in the supply chain. In an interview survey of distribution directors from major multiple groups, all companies were reviewing their distribution strategy and many had made major changes to their distribution system. Centralisation of stock in strategically located RDCs and the use of third party contractors were main features of retail companies′ strategy. Contractors were much more aggressive in marketing their services to retailers than hitherto. This is partly related to the competitive and turbulent nature of the industry. In a survey of marketing directors/managers of distribution companies, it was clear that firms were trying to raise their profile in the market as they “went public” and/or because they were moving into new industry sectors away from their “core” specialist areas.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured literature review using advanced bibliometric tools to understand the existing knowledge base, understand the trends in omni-channel (OC) research and identify emerging research topics.

More than 500 articles selected through a keyword combination search from reputed databases of peer-reviewed academic sources from period 2009–19 are analyzed for the purposes of this study. The study first presents an exploratory analysis to determine influential authors, sources and regions, among other key aspects. Second, several network analyses including co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analyses are conducted to identify themes. These allow identifying research clusters and emerging research topics algorithmically. Both centrality and modularity-based clustering are employed. A content analysis of the most influential groups within OC literature for each cluster is included.

The findings of this paper make unique contributions by using advanced tools from network analysis along with the standard bibliometric analysis tools to explore the current status of OC research, identify existing themes and the guidance for potential areas of future research interest in OC.

This research provides a comprehensive view of the range of topics of importance that have been discussed in the literature of OC management. These research trends can serve as a quick guide to researchers and practitioners to improve decision making and also develop strategies.

The paper employs advanced tools for the first time to review the literature of OC retailing. The sophisticated tools include co-citation and dynamic co-citation network analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of consumers’ omnichannel (OC) adoption intention and explore how consumers’ personality trait affects their OC adoption behavior.

A total of 227 Korean consumers were invited to participate in a survey study, and partial least squares–structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the measurement and structural models.

The results show that three consumer groups by “Need for Cognition (NFC)” show different response to four identified OC attribute/benefits. Finally, the authors hypothesize and find that shed light on the possible ways to differentiate OC marketing for different target consumers and provide implications for practice and further research.

This study provides empirical evidence that OC is an expanded retail format of e-commerce, which is predominantly affected by how information on the cross-channel marketing mix/retail strategies is delivered to consumers. From communication perspective, findings suggest that retail communication strategy need more careful attention in dealing with individual difference of consumers. In addition, the significant role of NFC on consumers’ OC adoption process validates the importance of customization and differentiation in retailers’ message to different consumer groups. In order to do so, comprehensive analysis on consumer database may be necessary to develop personalized OC service. In-depth analysis of consumer profile may enable more specific methods for marketing and managing consumers in the OC context. Although the study provides additional empirical findings for consumers’ perception on selected characteristics of OC (i.e. delivery approach of information and service in OC and institutional mechanism of OC), there may be additional extrinsic motivation factors which affect consumers’ OC adoption behavior. Extrinsic factors such as web design, convenience, assortment, moving saving which trigger positive perception of OC, may be important determinants to consider. Furthermore, situational factor such as social media (Huseyinoglu et al., 2018) and behavioral factors such as platform use habit (Chen, 2018) may also be significant in assessing consumers’ OC adoption behavior. Finally, this study has been conducted on a particular culture setting, and the generalizability of study findings, particularly about the role of NFC may need to be improved by cross-culture evaluation.

NFC-high and medium consumers are likely to use the four OC service options in future, while a larger proportion of the NFC-low consumers shows negative response to the OC service usage. This evidently shows that innovative features of OC service are not homogenously adopted by consumers, and subject to their experience and intrinsic difference, adoption rate was found to vary. This suggests that companies need to pay careful attention in implementing innovative OC service, and may approach communication of information strategically for different consumer groups. For high-NFC consumers with previous BOPIS experience, retailers may effectively engage them by enhancing and expanding the BOPIS service features, yet for low-NFC consumers, raising awareness and initiating interest among unexperienced consumers may be more imminent issue. Indirect communication using peripheral cues may be necessary to draw less motivated consumer group.

The OC retailers may need to set the scope and range of information into in-depth information and simplified/unified information, and address the different type of information to different consumer groups in order to facilitate consumers’ OC adoption. For consumers with medium and high NFC, it may be necessary to provide in-depth, detailed information relevant to product quality and promotional items consistently both in on/offline channels to gain their trust. Consumers with low NFC are found to prefer unified and simplified messages on information for price, delivery, inventory in on/offline channels.

This study addresses the perceived value of unique and fundamental features and specificity of OC service by consumers with different personality trait. The authors develop consumers’ OC adoption model based on the theory of reasoned action, which depicts relationship between four extrinsic motivation factors and consumers’ intention for the OC usage, which is further differentiated by an intrinsic factor. We segment consumers based on individual difference of “NFC” and investigate how different consumer groups value different aspect of the selected OC attributes and benefits. Findings validate the importance of customization and differentiation in retailers’ message to different consumer groups and in facilitating consumers’ OC adoption.