Save or (over-)spend? The impact of hard-discounter shopping on consumers' grocery outlay

An increasing number of consumers have come to patronize a hard discounter (HD) to save on their grocery budget. Given the HDs' rock-bottom prices, a complete switch from the traditional supermarket (TS) to the HD format would, indeed, substantially reduce grocery spending. However, consumers typically visit the HD on top of a TS, leading to a more complex purchase allocation and decision process. In addition to limiting the potential savings to part of the basket, these multiple store shopping patterns may therefore result in depletion of self-control resources and to self-licensing, consumers using realized savings to justify additional indulgent purchases. In this study, we explain and empirically analyze the effect of HD patronage on consumer spending, taking the selected shopping pattern (single versus multiple stores, visited on separate versus combined shopping trips) into account. To this end, we use scanner panel data on households' actual weekly purchase behavior. We also examine household differences in these effects, and relate them to household characteristics.Our results show that shifting the entire basket to the HD entails substantial savings. Yet, for the majority of consumers, adding a HD to the store set does not reduce grocery outlay: visiting the HD and TS on separate shopping trips leads to a “status quo”, and visiting them on combined shopping trips even enhances weekly spending. While consumers pay less per unit bought at the HD, this is (more than) offset by the purchase of larger quantities across a broad range of product categories, and of more expensive items at the TS. Especially older consumers or larger households, and consumers who shop more frequently or are easily enticed by promotions, are bound to overspend.     

How handwriting reduces negative online ratings

This research investigates whether handwriting during the tourism experience reduces subsequent negative and extreme online rating scores. We portray that handwriting, due to a more deeply rooted elaboration of information, activates emotional empathy. Study 1, a field experiment in the hospitality context, suggests that handwriting reduces the extremeness of subsequent online rating scores. Study 2 compares handwritten vs. typed comments and complements the initial findings by clarifying the mediating role of emotional empathy on this relationship. We discuss the boundary conditions for the effect and offer practical implications on how to nudge tourists to reduce negative online rating scores. Hotel operators should use their enhanced emotional bonding with tourists when competing with peer-to-peer operators.     

Elucidating trust-building sources in social shopping: A consumer cognitive and emotional trust perspective

With the popularity and growth of social commerce, scholars and practitioners are particularly interested in how the integration of social media with e-commerce practice may resolve the challenge related to developing consumer-seller trust. Adopting a cognitive-emotional trust perspective, this study investigated the process by which consumers' trust in seller builds in a social commerce setting. Specifically, perceived familiarity, situational normality, cognitive and emotional trust in platform, and social interactivity were proposed as key antecedents of consumers' cognitive and emotional trust in seller. The model was examined with two complementary data sets collected from leading social commerce platforms in China: WeChat Store (N = 430) and Xiaohongshu (N = 397). This work advances the theoretical understanding of consumer's social shopping intention through extending the cognitive-emotional trust perspective and lends insights into the contextualized sources of trust building. In addition, these findings offer practical implications that help practitioners cost-effectively build consumer trust in the social commerce setting.     

Digital buying behavior: The role of regulatory fit and self-construal in online luxury goods purchase intentions

Drawing on regulatory focus theory, this study examines how consumers’ promotion and prevention focus influences luxury purchase intentions in an online domain. The research further investigates the interactive effects of regulatory focus, goal orientation, and self-construal through four studies. Study 1 shows that promotion-focused versus prevention-focused consumers have a greater tendency to purchase luxury goods online and in-store. Contrary to extant research regarding the compatibility between message frame and consumers’ regulatory focus, using varying manipulations, Studies 2 and 3 find the primacy of prevention-framed messages in influencing online luxury purchase intentions for promotion- and prevention-focused consumers. Further, unlike prior studies, Study 4 shows no significant interaction effect between regulatory focus, goal orientation, and self-construal and adds a possible boundary condition by demonstrating how regulatory focus and self-construal effects differ for luxury purchase online. Overall, the studies offer important contributions to theory and practice relating to luxury consumption in cyberspace.     

Interactive music for multisensory e-commerce: The moderating role of online consumer involvement in experiential value,cognitive value,and purchase intention

Background music adds a multisensory element to marketing and e-commerce. Applying interactive sensory-enabling technologies (SETs) to online shopping websites is an area of interest in sensory marketing. This research examines interactive background music in e-commerce and investigates how online consumer involvement moderates the effects of interactive music. Single-factor experiments with three conditions (interactive music, static background music, and control) were conducted to investigate its impact on experiential value, cognitive value, and purchase intention of high- and low-involvement consumers among both students (Study 1, N = 251) and nonstudent samples (Study 2, N = 218). Different music genres were applied to stimuli of the two studies to demonstrate the generalizability of the findings. Results find that interactive music enhances the experiential value of e-commerce for low-involvement consumers. By contrast, high-involvement consumers show greater purchase intention under the interactive music condition due to a heightened level of perceived cognitive value. Involvement is an effective predictor of elaboration and purchase intention under the interactive music condition, but not under the other two conditions. The contribution is twofold: (a) it shows the impact of music as an interactive SET and, (b) demonstrates the moderating role of consumer involvement in the context of multisensory integration in e-commerce. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.     

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.     

人格特征对在线品牌社群信息分享意愿的影响研究——规范激励和结构保障的调节作用

以往关于尽责性和神经质人格特征对人们分享意愿影响的研究并未达成一致的结论。文章通过两个实验探讨尽责性和神经质对在线品牌社群信息分享意愿产生的影响，并且引入两个社群技术因素（规范激励与结构保障），进一步探讨它们对上述影响的调节作用。结果发现尽责性正向影响信息分享意愿，而神经质负向影响信息分享意愿。此外，在线品牌社群提供规范激励时，相较于低尽责性，高尽责性成员的信息分享意愿会显著提高。而在线品牌社群提供结构保障时，相较于低神经质，高神经质成员的信息分享意愿会显著提高。研究结论能够帮助企业管理者更好地了解消费者在线品牌社群信息分享意愿的差异，以便针对性地对社群进行设计，促进社群成员有更多的信息分享行为。     

孔型设计课程网上评教结果与教学质量分析

孔型设计课程2010至2012两个年度网上评教结果的对比分析表明,教师有针对性地增加交流互动和实践环节,突出基本知识和重点、难点,引入科研内容,就能提高教学质量。     

Revisiting Trust toward E-Retailers among Indian Online Consumers

Despite the prospective size of the Indian market, sales on e-commerce channels are low, which could be attributed to the low trust in e-commerce vendors that tends to get influenced by culture and local elements. Therefore, the objective of current research is to unearth the primary drivers of trust between consumers and e-retailers for online transactions in India. We further explore difference in the perception of trust among different groups based on age, gender, or income level. The research framework seeks to examine returning consumers of e-retailers through the lens of Mayer and Davis complemented by institutional and transference process of trust. The data from 762 Indian respondents was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Our results show that trust is a function of ability, benevolence, and perception of the e-retailer, along with online familiarity of the users. The findings also confirm variations across groups in their trust-generating antecedents. Our work contributes to existing theory by verifying an integrative conceptual model of trust in a complex sociocultural setting and brings out several insights for the practitioners.     

The role of respect in the effects of perceived ad interactivity and intrusiveness on brand and site

This paper examines the interrelated effects of respect, ad intrusiveness, and ad interactivity on attitudes toward brands and the publishers that serve online advertisements. Despite widespread use of the term, respect has received almost no attention in the advertising literature. A structural equations model indicates that ad formats that are perceived as respectful to viewers result in more favorable attitudes toward both the brand and publisher site. Ad intrusiveness negatively affects respect, while interactivity has a positive influence. Respect is demonstrated to exhibit a partial mediating role in the effect of these two variables on brand and site. Results also suggest that advertisers should strive for greater interactivity in ads if their objective is branding rather than direct response, as this can minimize the negative influence of intrusiveness. Publishers can also benefit from these kinds of ads.