Measuring the role of factors on website effectiveness using vector autoregressive model

Behavioral actions of online customers play an important role in influencing the website's effectiveness for online retailers and online business entities. The leading web analytics software measures the customers' behavior on a website using many key web metrics. However, the role of key metrics in measuring the dynamics nature of website effectiveness has largely been unexplored, especially for the non-transactional website. The study builds on flow theory to fill this gap. It presents a methodology to predict the website's effectiveness by examining the impact of three metrics (average session duration, repeat visit, and bouncing rate) on consumers' online behavioral outcomes witnessed through goal completion (GC) and goal conversion rate (GCR). Vector autoregressive (VAR) method is adopted to analyze the dynamic relations and effect among the metrics. The study provides an in-depth insight into the time-varying effect of each variable on website performance. The findings reveal that an engaged customer with high ASD (average session duration) or who revisits (RV) the site positively impacts GC and GCR. A negative effect of bouncing rate (BR) was found on goal conversion rate and goal completion. Interestingly, the study found granger causality between GC and GCR & ASD, and RV. Based on the findings, the study provides vital theoretical and managerial implications.     

Craft museum visitors’ interactive experiences,benefits and behavioural intentions: perspectives of Chinese parents

ABSTRACT

Family visitors are important audiences for museums. This paper develops a model that examines the influence of Chinese family visitors’ leisure experiences in museums on their behavioural intentions (BI) with their perceived benefits (mindful benefits and non-mindful benefits, MB and NMB) as the mediating variables. Based on the theoretical framework of an interactive experience model, parents’ experiences in museums were divided into experience of existential authenticity (interaction with the exhibits) (EA) and experience of parents-children interaction (PCI). A total of 375 local family visitors at a cluster of craft museums in Hangzhou, China participated in the survey. The PLS-SEM analysis indicates that both EA and PCI have positive effects on perceived benefits. EA, which emphasises the personal interactions between visitors and exhibited objects as well as their intangible meanings, is found to be more powerful than PCI in shaping visitors’ BI. MB and NMB differ in their influence on visitors’ behaviours. Only MB is linked with visitors’ BI. Further, MB partially mediates the relationship between EA and BI, and fully mediates the relationship between PCI and BI. Implications are offered to enhance family visitors’ experiences through appropriate service management strategies.     

The determinants of Chinese visitors to Australia: A dynamic demand analysis

Although China has progressively become an important inbound tourism market for Australia, its demand elasticities have been little studied to date. This study examines the determinants of Chinese visitors to Australia using a dynamic time-series estimator. Interesting findings include a high income elasticity as a source of the continuous doubledigit growth rates in Chinese arrivals that Australia has experienced over the past two decades, together with relatively high total trip price elasticities for both short run and long run. A trend of Chinese outbound to Australia is also identified. From a policy perspective, the results confirm that keeping a low cost of visiting Australia, both ground and travel costs, is a good strategy to secure greater numbers of Chinese tourists.     

汇率变动对中国旅游出口收入影响的实证分析

中国有着极其丰富的旅游资源,外国游客来华旅游的人数近几年在不断地增长,旅游服务贸易也是今后我国发展的重要项目之一。以1999—2012年间的数据为基础,采用面板数据模型研究汇率对中国旅游出口收入的影响,所取自变量为我国旅游人数较多的6个国家的人均GDP、对应货币对人民币的汇率和该6国首都距离北京的直线距离。建立了两个模型,第一个模型只以汇率为自变量,第二个模型的自变量除了汇率外还增加了上面所提到的另外两个变量,根据两个模型最终结果的对比,人民币的升值会使得外国来华旅游人数的减少,根据结果给出了建议。     

Visitor and non‐visitor images of Central and Eastern Europe: a qualitative analysis

This study examines the image of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as a holiday destination. The countries are linked by having had communist governments and being inaccessible to tourists from outside the communist bloc. Currently, they seek new tourist markets and this study examines the views of a number of UK residents about destination image of CEE. The study examines, through semi‐structured interviews, images held by people who have and who have not visited CEE. The data is analysed qualitatively. Few significant differences were found between views of visitors and non‐visitors; most views were positive and associated favourably with ‘culture’. Negative images were usually associated with the eastern part of the area especially ex‐Yugoslavia. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

First-time versus repeat visitors to a music festival in South Africa

This research segmented visitors to Spring Fiesta, a music festival aimed at the House, Hip Hop and Kwaito music festival market in South Africa, based on the frequency of visits to distinguish between first-time and repeat festival attendees. A research survey was done over four years (2013–2016) and 788 visitor questionnaires were included in the analysis. Independent sample t-tests, two-way frequency tables, and Chi-square tests were used to analyze the data and segment first-time and repeat visitors based on socio-demographics, behavioral characteristics, and overall satisfaction and travel motivations. These differences should be considered when the festival program is designed and marketed.     

Perceptions of the Spa Industry: An Importance Performance Analysis

This article examines factors influencing the behavior of foreign customers who use spa services in Koh Samui, Thailand. Specifically, it considers the relationship between customer expectations and the fulfillment of those expectations within two foreign visitor target groups—holiday-takers and business people—as a way to gauge the performance of spas on Koh Samui. Results support the contention that the spa industry on the island needs to improve in a number of ways and stakeholders tasked with developing the industry are well-advised to consider the expectations of both groups rather than treating the two as homogenous.     

基于亲景度的美国旅华市场拓展研究--以我国六大旅游热点城市为例

本文引入亲景度的概念，利用亲景度指标，以美国游客作为研究对象，根据不同年度美国游客旅华的人数．分析了美国游客对北京、上海、广州、西安、昆明、桂林六大热点城市的亲景度，揭示了美国游客在进行旅游目的地选择方面的偏好程度，提出了深层次开发美国客源市场的对策，从而确定针对美国客源市场的拓展方向。     

Toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services

The marketing discipline’s knowledge about the drivers of service customers’ repeat purchase behavior is highly fragmented. This research attempts to overcome that fragmented state of knowledge by making major advances toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services. Drawing on means–end theory, the authors develop a hierarchical classification scheme that organizes repeat purchase drivers into an integrative and comprehensive framework. They then identify drivers on the basis of 188 face-to-face laddering interviews in two countries (USA and Germany) and assess the drivers’ importance and interrelations through a national probability sample survey of 618 service customers. In addition to presenting an exhaustive and coherent set of hierarchical repeat-purchase drivers, the authors provide theoretical explanations for how and why drivers relate to one another and to repeat purchase behavior. This research also tests the boundary conditions of the proposed framework by accounting for different service types. In addition to its theoretical contribution, the framework provides companies with specific information about how to manage long-term customer relationships successfully.

The impact of website quality on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions: Evidence from Chinese online visitors

With the increasing popularity of online shopping and being the most populated country in the world, China is one of the major online markets now and is likely to become the largest market in the future. In the academic literature, website quality has generally been recognized as a critical step to drive business online. As such, numerous studies have been devoted to website quality and evaluations. Research efforts are, however, in need of understanding the use of websites in regards to online customers’ behavior, especially Chinese customers. This study developed and empirically tested a conceptual model of the impact of website quality on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Results indicated that website quality has a direct and positive impact on customer satisfaction, and that customer satisfaction has a direct and positive impact on purchase intentions. While the influence of website quality on purchase intentions exists, customer satisfaction does significantly mediate this effect. Drawing on the empirical findings, managerial implications and recommendations for future research are offered.