Impact of Perceived Security on Trust,Perceived Risk,and Acceptance of Online Banking in Iran

This study examines the relationship between perceived security and acceptance of online banking with the mediating effect of perceived risk and trust in Internet banking in Iranian customers. Researchers used structural equations model (SEM) to examine their hypotheses and conceptual model. Statistical data were gathered via a questionnaire from 395 randomly selected customers of Bank Saderat Iran in Semnan. Cronbach’s alpha and internal compatibility were used to check the reliability of the questionnaire. The justifiability of the research variables was checked and confirmed using the first- and second-order confirmatory factor analysis. According to the SEM results, the variables of perceived security and trust in Internet banking had a significantly positive impact on the acceptance of online banking. Although perceived risk had no significant impact on the acceptance of online banking, the results showed that perceived risk had a significantly negative impact on trust in Internet banking.     

How third‐party certification programs relate to consumer trust in online transactions: An exploratory study

Consumer fears about Internet security and ordering over the Internet can influence online buying behavior, and these fears may be exacerbated by increasing attention to identity theft. A key strategy to increase consumer trust in ordering has been participation in third‐party certification programs. This study presents a model describing the relationship between third‐party identifying logos, trust transfer, and trust buildup and tests the model with data collected by an online survey. The results support hypotheses that perceptions of third‐party logos are related to intensity of seal exposure, importance of trust factors in online shopping, and disposition toward third‐party certification. Also, such perceptions and the current level of consumer trust in general in online shopping are positively related to transfer of trust from certification to online e‐marketers. Prior research found that validating logos does not increase transfer of trust; a post‐hoc analysis revealed that this finding is dependent on type of logo. The findings indicate that Web site certification can reassure potential customers and increase the probability of purchase. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Should new online stores invest in social presence elements? The effect of social presence on initial trust formation

Online shopping has become increasingly popular in business development and the number of new online stores is ever increasing. Many of these online stores, however, fail. Research has indicated that one of the biggest reasons why these online stores fail is because of consumers׳ lack of trust. One solution that has been proposed is for online retailers to increase their level of social presence.This study investigates the impact of social presence, in its extreme form of online chat boxes, on initial trust formation for an online retailer. An experimental design was used and a structural equation model is tested using PLS-SEM (partial least square based structural equation modeling). Social presence was found to not only influence initial trust in the website, but also participants׳ enjoyment and perceived usefulness of the site. Therefore even though managers might think that there is no ROI in their investment in social presence, it still has a notable impact on consumers׳ perception of an online retailer they have not seen or used before. This is especially relevant to new online stores.     

Better or Worse? Effects of online promotion habits on customer value: An empirical study

Online frequent and uninterrupted price discounts easily cause customers to form general tendencies to purchase promotions, or ‘online promotion habits’. Compared with offline promotion shopping, the distinct features of online promotion shopping make customer behaviours highly changeable and leave the effects of online promotion habits on customer value a puzzle. Using a dataset of real transactions from a leading online apparel retailer in China, this study makes continuous observations of customers’ online promotion habits. Drawing on the behavioural learning theory, we empirically investigate the dynamic effects of online promotion habits on customer value. The results reveal that after customers form online promotion habits, their customer value increases significantly. Furthermore, among customers with online promotion habits, online promotion habits exert an inverted U-shaped effect on customer value. Namely, as online promotion habits strengthen, customer value increases accordingly, yet negative outcomes show if online promotion habits exceed a certain level. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings, which will enable researchers and practitioners to measure and dynamically manage customers’ online promotion habits.     

The Moderating Effects of Involvement on the Relationships Between Satisfaction,Trust and Commitment in e-Banking

Most prior research into customer loyalty emphasizes the effects of the dimensions of online satisfaction and trust. However, research into how customer involvement moderates this relationship model – in the online environment – has been less than conclusive. On the basis of a satisfaction–trust–commitment model, and given that involvement is a significant precondition to customer loyalty, this paper explores the interaction effects of customer involvement on the evaluation of e-banking services.Empirical results were collected from an online survey in electronic financial forums, Usenet and mailing lists. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to estimate the parameters of the interaction effects model.The results support most of the hypotheses and, in particular, confirm the moderating role of customer involvement. The influence of online satisfaction on commitment was significantly stronger for highly involved users; conversely, the effect of satisfaction on trust was weaker. However, customer trust had a stronger effect on commitment for customers with high purchase involvement, and a weaker effect for highly ego-involved customers. The interaction role of customer involvement thus offers a more complete view of the satisfaction–trust–commitment model, providing an initial test of the efficacy of using involvement to understand online decisions. Implications for online marketing management and future research in this area are discussed.     

Managing a Global Retail Brand in Different Markets: Meta-Analyses of Customer Responses to Service Encounters

This study investigates how retailers can leverage their brand to shape customers’ satisfaction with service encounters. It develops and tests hypotheses about how brand, store, and consumer factors moderate customer responses to experience clues during retail service encounters. Six meta-regression analyses synthesize and compare results from 842 satisfaction equations describing customers’ encounters with a global retailer operating 400 stores in 32 countries. The results show how customers weigh their perceptions of service encounters differently depending on brand, store, and consumer factors. In markets where customers believe the retailer has high holistic brand quality, they place less weight on experience clues within the store. In markets where customers believe the retailer’s service brand promise, they place more weight on in-store experience clues. In markets where the retailer promises utilitarian value, customers weigh functional experience clues more heavily. In markets with an online purchasing channel, the effect of experience clues common to offline and online store environments is magnified, and unique clues are diminished. In addition, customers heavily weigh experience clues that fit their goals. In general, retail success factors include high brand quality (which makes customers more forgiving), a service brand promise that is mirrored in the store image (which makes customers attend to the experience clues aligned with them), and the careful monitoring and managing of retail touchpoints (to customize experience clues to each market). In this way, retailers can use customer-based strategies to effectively design and manage their global retail brand in different markets.     

Now what? Evaluating the sales effects of introducing an online store

This study creates a framework for evaluating the sales impact of adding an online channel to an existing network of physical stores. Using a unique database consisting of pooled customer data from a Swedish retailer's online and offline stores, it investigates the purchase behavior of customers before and after the introduction of an online channel. The data overcome a crucial obstacle present in previous studies in that they permit matching of individual-level customer data for both online and offline behavior. The results show significant and substantial effects of online channel introduction on customer acquisition as well as on cannibalization of physical stores.     

How managerial responses to online reviews affect customer satisfaction: An empirical study based on additional reviews

This study investigates the internality of managerial responses (MRs) to online reviews on the responded customers' (i.e., customers who have posted an initial review and then being responded by the company through an MR) satisfaction. By utilizing the data of additional reviews (ARs), an innovative social media module for customers to express follow-up opinions that complement their initial reviews, we examine the impact of MR treatment on the customers' AR valence. We leverage the insight that the observability of MR at the time of the responded customer posts an AR is a crucial condition to the impact of the MR, and thus regard the observability of MR as an exogenous treatment for model identification. Fixed effects models with extensive control variables are proposed to estimate the MR treatment effects. The results show that MRs have significant positive impacts on customers' satisfaction in ARs. Further explorations show that the positive impacts are mainly due to the positive effects of MRs on nonpositive initial reviews (MR-Ns), suggesting that MR-Ns are an effective management tool for customer complaints. Moreover, this study identifies MR delay as a boundary condition for the internality of MRs because MR delay negatively moderates the positive impacts of MRs. Therefore, companies should promptly respond to customers' negative opinions in their reviews. This study is among the very first to clearly identify the internality of MRs on the responded customers’ satisfaction. We show that the existing results on the externality of MRs are not directly applicable to the internality of MRs, highlighting the novelty of this study. The obtained new insights provide practical guidelines for companies to adjust their intervention strategies on e-commerce platforms.     

Analyzing user sentiment in social media: Implications for online marketing strategy

This article examines restaurant customers’ online activity following visits to restaurants. Differences in customers’ opinions based on gender and location are discussed. Sentiment analysis was used to analyze customers’ social media behavior in terms of liking, rating, and reviewing restaurants. User‐generated reviews and comments about experiences influence potential customers’ decisions. The results of this study show that gender and location of customers influence restaurant ratings. This article shows that sentiment analysis (using Natural Language Toolkit and TextBlob) can help marketers by providing a useful tool for big data analysis. Sentiment analysis can be used to interpret customer behavior and highlight how presales, sales, and after‐sales strategies can be improved.     

Psychological contract violation and customer intention to reuse online retailers: Exploring mediating and moderating mechanisms

This study examines the impact of psychological contract violation (PCV) on customer intention to reuse online retailer websites via the mediating mechanisms of trust and satisfaction. The moderating role of perceived structural assurance (SA) is also investigated. An empirical study conducted among online shoppers confirms the indirect effects of PCV on customers' intention to reuse via trust and satisfaction. The findings also support the moderating impact of perceived SA in the network of relationships. The study underscores the importance of SA as a trust-building mechanism for mitigating the deleterious effects of PCV among online customers, although the role of SA in preserving satisfaction is found to be limited. The findings suggest that online retailers may benefit by investing in SA and addressing the negative effects of PCV proactively rather than simply relying on post-failure service recovery mechanisms.     

Online customer service and retail type-product congruence

This study investigates how various elements of customer service affect the behavioral intention to shop at the online or the offline store for different product categories. We focus on the perceived value, trust, interface, empathy, and offline presence as the dimensions of the customer service for the retail store (online or offline). Using 317 respondents from the online stores’ users, this study finds that perceived value is the strongest predictor for future intention to shop at online stores, whereas offline presence of an online store did not enhance the future intention to shop at online stores. Other dimensions such as enhanced trust and ease of interface strengthen the intention to purchase at the offline stores. Finally, perceived value and empathy associated with online stores harm the offline stores. In synch with the Theory of Congruence, this study supports the notion that the perceived congruence between product type and retail store type affect their intention to purchase certain product categories at the online stores and to purchase other groups of product categories at offline stores. Further ramifications of these findings are discussed in the paper.     

Dynamics of Complaint Management in the Service Organization

While the consumer affairs and services marketing literatures recognize the importance of input from customers, little is known about how customer feedback systems might operate, particularly in dealing with customer complaints. This paper offers an information processing model of the complaint information flow within the organization and poses hypotheses based on the suggested model. A new field study technique using a type of network analysis is used to empirically test hypotheses and discover barriers and facilitators to the flow of communications. The study provides insight concerning how complaint information flows through the organization after it has been received by a customer contact employee. The results provide support for the thesis that the role of complaint handler and manager in providing the service is at least as important as the role of the customer contact employee.     

Searching offline and buying online – An analysis of showrooming forms and segments

Showrooming is behavior where customers search for information in brick-and-mortar stores and then purchase products online. While the literature conceptualizes showrooming as a one-dimensional variable, we argue that different forms of showrooming exist. We identify four showrooming segments that differ in retailer loyalty, usage of in-store information, devices, place and time of the online purchase. We show further that loyal vs. competitive showroomers differ in psychographic variables, such as price consciousness, desire for social contact and bad conscience during showrooming. The results have important implications for retailers aiming to keep customers in their own channels.     

Differential effects of atmospheric cues on emotions and loyalty intention with respect to age under online/offline environment

Effects of atmospheric cues are usually not compared across offline and online contexts as well as across age groups. This study proposes a model that examines the effect of the atmospheric cues graphics design and information design on positive emotions and loyalty intentions. The model is compared across offline and online stores and regards the consumers' age as moderator. A field study was conducted, which collected data from 363 customers. Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling. Results for the offline context reveal that graphics design foster positive emotions and loyalty. Information design predicts loyalty. Results for the online context reveal that information design is salient over graphics design. Information design fosters positive emotions and loyalty, while graphics design does not. Further, we found that in the offline context positive emotions predict loyalty among younger customers but not among older ones. In the online context the effect of graphics design on loyalty is stronger and, thus, significant for younger customers than compared to older ones.     

Relationship learning from organizational knowledge stores

This study examines the effect of relationship learning between customers and suppliers on relational knowledge stores and the moderating role of dyadic trust. The results reveal that relationship-learning activities between customers and suppliers are positive in managing customers' relational knowledge stores, comprising those of interactive, functional, environmental, and interpersonal knowledge. Trust has no moderating effect on the relationship between relationship learning and environmental knowledge stores; while, in contrast, greater levels of trust will advance relationship learning at an escalating rate and trust accordingly plays a moderating role on the other three knowledge stores. The positive effects of relationship learning on interactive, functional, and interpersonal knowledge stores escalate when the level of trust is medium; the effects decreases under conditions of high or low trust. This study confirms the positive relationship between relationship learning and relational knowledge stores and further reveals the threshold effect of trust.     

The effect of buyer feedback scores on internet auction prices

One of the major roles of Internet intermediaries is to help build trust between buyers and sellers for efficient and safe transactions. The buyer feedback system started in online auctions as one of the trust‐building mechanisms on the Internet. As the buyer feedback system is becoming a standard trust‐building mechanism in other e‐commerce sites as well as in online auction, there is an increasing interest about the impact of the buyer feedback system. On the top of recent studies investigating the effects of buyer feedback scores on auction prices, we provide empirical validations using more sophisticated methods. In this study, we tested the relationship between buyer feedback scores and bidding prices using an empirical data set from a leading consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C) Internet auction site. Data analysis results show a strong empirical validation of previous studies. Negative feedback is a significant price discount factor in the final auction price on the C2C Internet auction market. The results also show that potential buyers are more sensitive to negative feedback when they are considering buying inherently risky products such as used or refurbished products.     

The role of customer online brand experience in customers' intention to forward online company-generated content: The case of the Islamic online banking sector in Palestine

The purpose of this study is twofold: Firstly, to assess the impact of customer online brand experience (COBE) with online banking on customer's intention to forward online company-generated content (CGC). Secondly, to explore the role of online brand community engagement (OBCE) and the perceived trust of brand community page (BCP) as mediating variables between COBE and the intention to forward online CGC. This research conducted an online survey among various Islamic bank customers in Palestine who were members of online brand communities (fan pages) on Facebook. 375 valid responses were collected and results revealed that COBE exerts a dual influence on intention to forward CGC. This study is a pioneering empirical research on the role of OBCE in customers' intention to forward online CGC within the fast-growing Islamic banking industry. This study contributes to fill this research gap by assessing the effect of COBE on OBCE and intention to forward online CGC within the context of the Islamic online banking sector in Palestine. In this sense, this study is a first-of-its-kind research on the role of experience on customer engagement with regard to online brand communities of Islamic banks.     

Factors predicting attitude toward disclosing personal data online

To test a theoretical model, this study explores the effect of anxiety, trust, personality, and perceived benefits on the disclosure of personal information online. An online survey conducted among participants in the United States (n = 248, age range: 20–82 years) examined attitudes toward disclosing personal data online. Specifically, the study researches the impact of anxiety disclosing personal data, trust (both in the Internet and in institutions), the Big Five personality traits, and four sets of perceived shopping benefits (opportunity, bargain, purchase, and expected privacy benefits) in e-commerce disclosure and their role as antecedents for adoption and use of e-commerce. The study aligns with existing trust literature and corroborates other findings on how perceived purchase benefits impact individuals’ attitudes toward disclosing personal data online. The data suggest that both trust in the Internet and trust in institutions positively influence attitude toward disclosing personal data online. Perceived purchase benefits were also significant positive predictors for attitude toward disclosing personal data online. Furthermore, personality dimensions can affect attitude toward disclosing: the more neurotic a person is, the more negative their attitude is about disclosing personal data online. The study underscores that consumers have a responsibility to educate themselves about online disclosure and marketing practices, and about how to protect their online privacy. Most importantly, fostering trust, reducing anxiety, and promoting benefits are essential to the future of e-commerce. Implications for theory, consumers, marketing practice, and public policy are also discussed.     

Unraveling the Personalization Paradox: The Effect of Information Collection and Trust-Building Strategies on Online Advertisement Effectiveness

Retailers gather data about customers’ online behavior to develop personalized service offers. Greater personalization typically increases service relevance and customer adoption, but paradoxically, it also may increase customers’ sense of vulnerability and lower adoption rates. To demonstrate this contradiction, an exploratory field study on Facebook and secondary data about a personalized advertising campaign indicate sharp drops in click-through rates when customers realize their personal information has been collected without their consent. To investigate the personalization paradox, this study uses three experiments that confirm a firm's strategy for collecting information from social media websites is a crucial determinant of how customers react to online personalized advertising. When firms engage in overt information collection, participants exhibit greater click-through intentions in response to more personalized advertisements, in contrast with their reactions when firms collect information covertly. This effect reflects the feelings of vulnerability that consumers experience when firms undertake covert information collection strategies. Trust-building marketing strategies that transfer trust from another website or signal trust with informational cues can offset this negative effect. These studies help unravel the personalization paradox by explicating the role of information collection and its impact on vulnerability and click-through rates.     

Managing customer experiences in online product communities

Many companies have established online product communities or forums as a vehicle to extend product support services to their customers. Customers' interactions in such online forums with peer customers and vendor representatives resolve their product-related queries as well as inform on their product purchase decisions. Despite the significance of such interactions, there has been limited theoretical attention so far on how companies can manage customer experiences in online product communities. Drawing on theories and concepts from diverse areas including computer-mediated communication, consumer psychology, and online communities, this study proposes a four dimensional construct - Online Community Experience (OCE) - to capture customer experiences in such online product communities, and examines its impact on customer attitudes regarding the product, the company, and the quality of service. Data collected from customers in online product forums offered by four companies is used to test the study hypotheses. Implications for research on online consumer behavior and marketing are discussed.