Private label: Turning the retail brand threat into your biggest opportunity

Avatars are now appearing as online assistants on transactional websites, yet their scope is still limited. This paper explores their potential roles in providing assistance, a friendlier interface and purchase recommendations. As avatars are at early stages of implementation, the conceptual framework draws upon human-computer interaction research, plus cognate literature on salesperson roles and the use of synthetic characters in other contexts.

The empirical study involved two longitudinal panels of online buyers and an international, online survey of 2114 internet users. Following split-sample principal components analysis and k-means clustering, four categories of role preference are identified. The results inform decisions on the appropriateness of avatars, their adaptation to customer needs and buying contexts, and their possible roles. Hypothesised relationships with age, gender and online buying experience are tested, suggesting scope for avatar role segmentation. Suggestions are offered for marketers and website designers, considering deploying avatars, and for future research directions.     

Measurement of Service Quality in Internet Banking: The Development of an Instrument

Service quality measurement in Internet banking services is an area of growing interest to researchers and managers. Building on a synthesis of the extant literature on service quality in traditional services and that of Internet delivered services, this study develops a battery of measures that can be used to measure customer service quality in e-banking services. The study shows that service quality in e-banking can be measured using twenty-one parsimonious measures spread across five dimensions, namely, access, Website interface, trust, attention and credibility. The article discusses the importance of these findings for practitioners and for future research on service quality in Internet delivered services.     

Political Parties,the Internet and the 2005 General Election: From Web Presence to E-Campaigning?

This article argues that the use of the Internet by the main British political parties during the 2005 general election campaign needs to be understood in terms of the ongoing transformation of e-campaigning in the UK. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s the main political parties have been quick to try and exploit the new technology to mobilise their supporters and persuade undecided voters. Over the course of three campaigns – 1997, 2001 and 2005 - clear patterns in the use of this technology have emerged. This article looks at how political parties in a competitive electoral marketplace try to adapt new information and communication technologies, such as the Internet, to help ensure they achieve their electoral goals. It argues that the evolution of the use of the Internet needs to be understood in terms of an ongoing series of responses of a vote maximising reflexive organisation, to the emergence of a new technology in a competitive electoral marketplace.     

Shopping Motivation: Investigating the Shopping Process and Outcomes of the Retail Experience at a Craft Fair

The research addresses the question of when people succeed or fail to achieve shopping goals that bring them to a retail outlet, in this case a craft fair, and the consequences of this for customer satisfaction. A quantitative study, carried out with 398 craft fair shoppers, revealed that dimensions of in-store behaviour had various but significant influences on the relationships between prior intentions to pursue certain types of shopping goals and attainment of those goals. Further, the attainment of important shopping goals had a significant effect on consumers' evaluations of the shopping experience and the craft fairs as well as their future behavioural intentions. The main implication of the research is that attempts should be made to facilitate the shopping process and account for consumers with multiple goals.     

基于INTERNET的高校教职工奖酬金申报解决方案

高校教职工的奖酬金在一个单位的费用支出中占有比例越来越高,对教职工奖酬金进行有效管理,在财务活动和薪酬管理中正发挥着越来越重要的作用。奖酬金网上申报系统能为广大教职工提供各类查询服务,并为管理者提供辅助决策并提出解决方案。     

基于INTERNET的LED综合信息发布系统

本文介绍了一种基于INTERNET网络的LED显示信息发布系统,通过利用INTERNET和嵌入式LED控制系统结合,解决了数据传输问题的同时,实现分布式部署的LED显示屏集中控制、动态更新显示文字、图片、视频信息。     

基于INTERNET的高校网上预约报账解决方案

随着高校的发展,报销难问题突出。本文对传统报账模式存在的问题进行分析,提出了基于INTERNET环境的网上预约报销系统的解决方案及实施后取得的成效。     

嵌入式TCP/IP协议在单片机网络系统中的应用

本文介绍了嵌入式TCP/IP协议在单片机网络系统中的数据传输技术.将TCP/IP协议嵌入式单片机中,借助网卡芯片RTL8019AS实现了单片机在局域网内和通过局域网在互联网上的数据传输.用户终端以单片机系统板为媒介,通过网络与远程数据终端实现数据通信.     

网络环境下供应链管理信息系统建构

本文在分析网络环境下供应链管理要求的基础上,进一步深入研究了供应链管理信息系统的架构,从而为INTERNET/INTRANET下供应链整体管理信息系统研究提供了思路。     

Market orientation and internet-related cognitions: inside the minds of small business managers

Although both market orientation and the Internet intersect at important strategy implementation areas, surprisingly, these two domains have not been well integrated. With market orientation's focus on the use of information associated with market stakeholders and the Internet's ability to facilitate communication and relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, it makes conceptual and pragmatic sense to explore these two areas in concert. The present research develops and tests a conceptual model explaining relationships among market orientation and Internet-related perceptions for managers in small to mid-sized firms. An examination of the market orientation-Internet usage relationship contributes to understanding the process of how an important strategic orientation – market orientation – translates into a key organisational capability: Internet usage.