Role of Shopping Values and Web Atmospherics in E-Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention

Expected to touch US$55 billion in 2016, the e-commerce market in India presents an unprecedented growth opportunity for retailers. Existing studies have identified factors influencing shoppers’ online behaviour pertaining to the developed economies. Hence, it becomes pertinent to validate these antecedents for the economies like India. The article addresses this gap by examining the role of shopping values and web atmospherics, on e-satisfaction of Indian shoppers. Using multiple regression analysis, it also examines the influence of e-satisfaction on repurchase intention. The findings suggest that effectiveness of information content has the most significant impact on e-satisfaction. Web entertainment, utilitarian values and web informativeness are the other influencing factors. Contrary to the earlier studies, this study didn’t find any influence of hedonic shopping values on shoppers’ satisfaction. Also, e-satisfaction was found to have a positive influence on repurchase intention of e-shoppers. The article suggests select strategies that can be adopted by e-retailers.     

E-Shopping Patterns of Chinese and US Millennials

A conceptually based taxonomy of 22 distinct forms of e-shopping vehicles is proposed. A modification of the UTAUT and UTAUT2 models is introduced to explain how vehicles are interrelated in regard to consumer reliance upon them for their e-purchasing. A survey of over 1,000 millennial university students, 697 Chinese and 306 US, revealed strong support in both samples for the hypothesized six dimensional pattern underlying consumer vehicular reliance. Further, differences between Chinese and US samples lay not in the nature of the dimensions, but rather in the strength of reliance upon each dimension. Thus, the study demonstrates the utility of the concept/measure of shopper vehicular reliance, VPR (Vehicle Purchasing Reliance) for both practitioners and scientists. In cross-national comparisons, observed differences between samples in strength of reliance supported four of five hypotheses predicated on previously established national distinctions a) in trust and b) in the cultural value of individualism-collectivism.     

Shopping value,tourist satisfaction and positive word of mouth: the mediating role of souvenir shopping satisfaction

We propose new insights into key satisfaction outcomes for souvenir retailers, such as positive word-of-mouth recommendations, seeking deeper comprehension of overall tourist satisfaction determinants, by analysing the mediating role of tourist souvenir shopping satisfaction. We apply variance-based structural equation modelling by means of partial least squares to a sample of 408 tourists all of whom had purchased souvenirs. The results suggest that tourist shopping satisfaction partially mediates the relation between shopping value and positive word of mouth, while tourist shopping satisfaction completely mediates the relation between shopping value and overall tourist satisfaction. The results and their implications are then discussed to arrive at pertinent conclusions on tourist souvenir shopping satisfaction.     

感知购物环境对旅游者购物行为的影响机制研究——旅游者购物情绪的媒介作用

在相关研究的基础上,本文运用结构方程建模方法建立了感知购物环境对旅游者购物行为的全影响和间接影响模型,通过对两个模型的对比分析,发现了感知购物环境影响旅游者购物行为的路径机制,即感知购物环境对旅游者购物行为的影响是通过改变旅游者的购物情绪而实现的,旅游者购物情绪在环境→情绪→行为这一路径中起到非常重要的媒介作用。最后,本文提出了管理建议。     

Cognitive,affective, conative,and action loyalty: Testing the impact of inertia

Research increasingly emphasizes the significance of customer loyalty to a firm's success. In order to provide a clearer understanding of hotel customers’ loyalty-formation process, this study proposed and tested an extended Oliver's (1997) four-stage loyalty model by employing a multi-dimensional approach for each attitudinal loyalty stage while considering the moderating impact of inertia. The original model was slightly altered to improve its fit and predictive ability. Results from the structural model generally supported proposed paths among the variables in the model (cognitive, affective, and conative loyalty components and action loyalty) and verified the mediating roles of study variables in forming action loyalty. Further, findings from structural group comparisons using invariance tests indicated that the links from satisfaction to commitment and intention and from intention to action loyalty were stronger for the low inertia group, supporting the moderating role of inertia. Implications are discussed, and limitations of this study are briefly outlined.     

创业市场信心与创业行为关系的动态解析——基于GEM与WBD的混合横截面数据的经验证据

本文以行为理论为基础,从动态视角出发,探讨完整经济周期下,创业者创业市场信心与创业行为间关系的变化趋势。同时,分析创业者所处国家的经济发展水平与发展导向及自身社会经济地位在创业市场信心对创业行为正向作用变化趋势中的调节效应。本文根据2006—2015年全球创业观察（GEM）与世界银行数据库（WBD）,构建混合截面数据来探索创业者创业市场信心的反应及其差异。研究发现：(1)在经济衰退期内,创业市场信心对创业行为的正向作用会显著减弱。在随后的经济扩张初期,创业市场信心对创业行为的正向作用会明显增强;(2)处于发展中国家及高经济外向度国家的创业者,创业市场信心对创业行为的正向作用的减弱与增强均会更加剧烈。另外,补充研究发现：(3)仅在经济扩张初期,创业者社会经济地位能积极调节时间对创业市场信心与创业行为间关系的调节效果。本文揭示了创业市场信心与创业行为间关系的变化趋势及该变化产生的边界条件,在一定程度上丰富了创业心理驱动要素对创业行为影响的动态研究,并促进实践界关注经济衰退对创业市场信心冲击而带来的创业活动萎靡的潜在风险。     

Identifying beliefs underlying successors’ intention to take over the farm

The youth out-migration of rural areas, the ageing of farmer population and the lack of a successor within the farm family imply some drawbacks for rural development and for a more sustainable agriculture. This study used the reasoned action approach (RAA) to identify the beliefs underlying Brazilian successors’ intention to take over the farm. The RAA hypothesizes that successors’ intention to take over the farm is determined by three constructs: attitude, perceived norms and perceived behavioral control. These three constructs are derived from behavioral, normative and control beliefs. Results showed that the behavioral beliefs ‘Satisfaction for taking care of family farm assets’ and ‘Ease for managing the farm’ influence successors’ evaluation (attitude) of taking over the farm. The normative beliefs ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ influence successors’ perceptions about the social pressure (perceived norms) to take over the farm. The control beliefs ‘Ease to buy more land’ and ‘Professional recognition’ influence successors’ perceptions about their own capability (perceived behavioral control) to take over the farm. The identification of these beliefs revealed important implications for designing interventions to encourage successors to take over the farm.     

The effect of human image in B2C website design: an eye-tracking study

On B2C shopping websites, effective visual designs can bring about consumers’ positive emotional experience. From this perspective, this article developed a research model to explore the impact of human image as a visual element on consumers’ online shopping emotions and subsequent attitudes towards websites. This study conducted an eye-tracking experiment to collect both eye movement data and questionnaire data to test the research model. Questionnaire data analysis showed that product pictures combined with human image induced positive emotions among participants, thus promoting their attitudes towards online shopping websites. Specifically, product pictures with human image first produced higher levels of image appeal and perceived social presence, thus stimulating higher levels of enjoyment and subsequent positive attitudes towards the websites. Moreover, a moderating effect of product type was demonstrated on the relationship between the presence of human image and the level of image appeal. Specifically, human image significantly increased the level of image appeal when integrated in entertainment product pictures while this relationship was not significant in terms of utilitarian products. Eye-tracking data analysis further supported these results and provided plausible explanations. The presence of human image significantly increased the pupil size of participants regardless of product types. For entertainment products, participants paid more attention to product pictures integrated with human image whereas for utilitarian products more attention was paid to functional information of products than to product pictures no matter whether or not integrated with human image.     

Climate change adaptation: Is there a role for intervention research?

While climate change will expose regions to similar impacts, the extent of those impacts and effective response at the local level will be determined not only by the location's sensitivity and vulnerability but also by local groups and individuals’ capacity, including their institutional links, social networks and motivation to action. In parallel, scientific information and research plays a critical role in informing climate change adaptation by providing both an improved understanding of the actual climate risks and response alternatives.The paper focuses on two local-scale intervention research projects undertaken in urbanised coastal areas in Brazil and in Australia concentrated on improving the dialogue between ‘those who make science’ and ‘those who use science to make decisions’ in order to make climate science more useful, and creating purposeful collective action, respectively. A conceptual model is devised to investigate how intervention research could aid adaptive capacity by generating new knowledge and facilitating change towards climate change adaptation at the local level. Drawing on the findings, a framework is proposed to advance the role of intervention research in policy development for enhancing adaptive capacity.