Visual cues during shoppers’ journeys: An exploratory paper

The visual cues shoppers view at the point of purchase during the shopping process is vital to product selection and sales. We aimed to identify the intrinsic and extrinsic visual cues or touchpoints customers use to select a product (live plant) in retail stores. Eye-tracking technology (ETT) has enabled market researchers to conduct cost- and time-efficient studies. Few studies have been conducted in a retail setting to pinpoint how shoppers attend to visual cues in situ. Using ETT gave researchers insight into the cognitive processes leading to purchase. We recruited four retail greenhouses in Michigan to collaborate on the study, and researchers invited customers from the store’s email list to participate. Researchers used eye-tracking glasses to record eye movement during a <12-min shopping trip to purchase a $10 plant. We analyzed 150 useful videos to identify attention to marketing and non-marketing cues at the point of purchase (e.g., reading a sign, product interaction, cell phone use). Time spent in specific store areas (e.g., annuals, perennials, shrubs, etc.) was measured. For 67 shoppers who purchased an annual plant, we analyzed which cues and touchpoints influenced the shopping time spent. Results showed that the most frequently accessed cue/touchpoint was intrinsic: product interaction (looking at or touching a plant). Participants read, on average, 6.7 signs with price and 4.5 signs without price. Conversely, only 34% interacted with employees, and 19.4% used their cell phones. Building on this exploratory study, future research could investigate signage elements attracting attention and motivations for employee interaction and cell phone use.     

Smart technology and service employees’ job crafting: Relationship between STARA awareness,performance pressure,receiving and giving help,and job crafting

Owing to the rapid spread of smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and algorithms (STARA), service jobs are being replaced by these technologies. Despite the potential effect of STARA awareness on employee outcomes, surprisingly few studies have explored its role service employees' work outcomes. Addressing this gap, our research assessed the mediating relationship between STARA awareness, performance pressure, and job crafting, as well as the moderating effects of help-receiving and help-giving on this relationship. We conducted a quantitative study for 301 South Korean service employees using surveys collected at two points in time. The results indicated that service employees' STARA awareness positively affected job crafting through performance pressure. Furthermore, the association between STARA awareness and performance pressure was more prominent for higher levels of help-receiving than for lower levels of help-receiving. Help-receiving further moderated the indirect effect of performance pressure on the STARA awareness and job crafting relationship. While the mitigating effect of help-giving was not supported, we observed a significantly positive association between STARA awareness and performance pressure only when help-receiving was high and help-giving was low. These findings contribute to the literature on technology in the retailing sector by uncovering how STARA awareness affects service employees’ performance pressure and job crafting and the roles played by help-giving and help-receiving in this relationship.     

Personalized managerial response and negative inconsistent review helpfulness: The mediating effect of perceived response helpfulness

Understanding the effect of managerial response on online review management has attracted the attention of scholars in recent years. However, the effect of personalized managerial response on the negative inconsistent review is a lack of evidence. This study investigates how personalized managerial responses influence negative review helpfulness according to the various levels of review inconsistency and the underlying mechanism behind the effect. We adopted a secondary data analysis based on the TripAdvisor dataset and used an online experiment study to investigate the impact mechanism. Findings reveal that the personalized managerial response positively influences review helpfulness, review inconsistency (negative rating with positive textual sentiment) moderates the effect of personalized managerial response on review helpfulness, and perceived response helpfulness mediates the above relationships. More specifically, personalized managerial response to negative inconsistent reviews has a pronounced effect on consumers’ perception of response helpfulness and their evaluation of review helpfulness. This study improves the current understanding of managerial responses, and provides practical guidance for hoteliers, consumers, and travel websites.     

Fashion and the metaverse: Clarifying the domain and establishing a research agenda

In recent years, the metaverse has garnered significant attention as a term referring to a network of 3D virtual worlds that integrate elements of both physical and digital worlds. Fashion brands have begun exploring the metaverse as a new marketing platform, which is expected to bring about substantial changes in the fashion and retail industry. However, a lack of consensus on the nature of the metaverse and its impact on the fashion industry currently exists, and limited academic research is available on the metaverse's influence on fashion brands' marketing strategies and brand experiences. To address this gap, this study employs a thematic analysis approach on trade journals and industry articles that cover fashion brands' metaverse strategies. Through this analysis, the study provides a typology of current marketing strategies of fashion brands in the metaverse. Based on these empirical findings, this research proposes a theoretical framework that explains how different metaverse strategies affect different dimensions of brand equity. Finally, this study offers research directions for fashion brands' metaverse strategies by presenting an integrated framework that synthesizes the key insights from our research findings.     

战略与复杂双重维度下商业生态系统形成机理研究

基于战略和复杂双重维度，剖析阿里巴巴商业生态系统形成逻辑。结果发现：较强的战略控制力有利于强化平台商业模式，催生跨行业多样化平台，继而推进生态内信息化不断深入发展；随后，商业生态系统积蓄丰富的共享数据资源，打开资源交易和创造边界，提升生态主体能力的同时重塑生态系统属性；有着更强复杂应配力的生态主体不断探索商业模式创新，生态内外的创新扩散催化商业生态系统竞争，进一步强化复杂应配力。在核心企业战略控制力和生态主体复杂应配力的双重作用下，商业生态系统呈现前生态状态、生态内卷、生态扩散和生态共生4种不同状态。     

A decision support model for buying battery electric vehicles considering consumer learning and psychological behavior

Developments in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have received more and more attentions in the last decades due to alleviating carbon emissions and energy crisis. Consequently, how to rank alternative BEVs to assist consumers make better purchasing decisions is a worthy research study. However, there are still some defects in the existing studies for ranking of BEVs: 1) the evaluation index system of BEVs is not comprehensive; 2) the determination of criteria weights cannot be well applied to the actual purchase scenarios; and 3) the psychological behavior of consumers is ignored. To address those shortcomings, this paper proposes a decision support model to assist with consumers to buy BEVs. First, a systematic evaluation criteria system of BEVs including quantitative and qualitative indicators from parameter configurations and online reviews is constructed. Then, a weight algorithm considering consumer learning is proposed to determine the criteria weights. Furthermore, a decision support process considering consumers' regret avoidance behavior is proposed. Finally, an actual BEV purchase case is given to illustrate the practicability of the decision support model. This can be seen in case studies the proposed support model can be well applied to consumers with different regret avoidance behaviours.     

FDI与OFDI溢出对高技术产业区域创新的门槛效应研究

选取2003-2016年省域高技术产业面板数据，以R&D人员投入为门槛变量，实证分析FDI与OFDI溢出对高技术产业区域创新的非线性影响。得出以下稳健性结论：FDI和OFDI溢出对高技术产业区域创新具有双门槛效应，FDI溢出呈现先升后降的特征，而OFDI溢出则呈现先降后升特征；R&D人员投入、R&D资本积累、城镇化水平有利于高技术产业区域创新，而金融成熟度未产生明显推动作用；政府支持可能对R&D人力投入较高省份产生抑制作用；2003-2016年跨越R&D人员投入中、高门槛的省份在不断增加。     

物流企业开展TIR运输业务研究

针对TIR运输,通过分析其具有的可简化通关程序、提高运输时效等优势,结合当前我国全面开放跨境道路运输的利好政策,提出了我国物流企业开展TIR运输业务的建议,以推动我国物流企业TIR运输业务的发展。     

Are microfinance institutions resilient to economic slowdown? Evidence from their capital ratio adjustment over the business cycle

Prior studies using pre-crisis data concluded that microfinance institutions are resilient to economic crises. However, some recent studies indicate that the microfinance sector is becoming part of the global financial system and microfinance lending activities are now vulnerable to economic and financial crises. Capital being a key resource to support lending, this paper analyzes the cyclical behaviour of capital ratio using an international sample of microfinance institutions from 2001 to 2014. We uncover a negative relationship between their capital-to-assets ratios and business cycle indicators. This relationship mainly concerns regulated institutions, comprised mostly of profit-oriented MFIs, and is driven by both asset-side and capital level adjustments. We identify the lending channel (loan-to-assets ratio) as the main mechanism to explain these cyclical variations. Our findings are consistent with the “procyclicality” of capital regulation documented extensively in the banking literature. Hence, macro-prudential regulation for MFIs should target regulated and profit-oriented MFIs.     

Does rice farming shape audit quality: Evidence from signing auditors level analysis

This study examines whether signing auditors from rice planting regions affect audit quality. Using a sample of 12,223 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market over the period of 2004–2015, our findings reveal that signing auditors from rice regions are significantly negatively associated with the likelihood of unclean audit opinions, suggesting that signing auditors with rice culture are more likely to succumb to the managers and hamper independence, and thus are more inclined to issue favorable audit opinions, and eventually impair audit quality. Furthermore, audit firm size and industry expertise attenuate the negative relation between signing auditors with rice culture and audit quality. In addition, above findings are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests using different measures of audit quality and signing auditors from rice cultivating areas and our conclusions still stand after using the Heckman two-step approach, placebo test and differences-in-differences method to address the potential endogeneity problem.