The new wave of AI-powered luxury brands online shopping experience: The role of digital multisensory cues and customers’ engagement

Academic literature retains a dearth of empirical evidence of the cutting-edge aspect of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital assistance and digital multisensory cues, despite the prospect of these factors on real-life customers' luxury brand online shopping experience. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the significant pathway and effects of AI-powered digital assistance toward customers’ luxury brand online shopping experience. Drawing on S–O-R (Stimulus, organism, and response) and TRAM (Technology Readiness and Acceptance Model) paradigm, a multi-method research design was deployed to investigate constructs. Firstly, semi-structured interviews were utilized to explore customers' online behavior under the luxury brands and information technology aspect. Secondly, survey data were collected and analyzed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The PLS-based analysis of quantitative data confirmed the exploratory insights of qualitative findings, establishing the connections of AI-powered digital assistance, customer engagement, and customers' luxury brand online shopping experience. Research findings also suggest that customer engagement plays a mediation role in the relationship between AI-powered digital assistance and customers' luxury brand online shopping experience. Besides, digital multisensory cues moderate the relationship between AI-powered digital assistance and customer engagement. Further, fsQCA complements the findings of PLS-SEM that reveal the significant combination of factors that lead to the perceptions of customers' luxury brand online shopping experience.     

Does justice affect brand advocacy? Online brand advocacy behaviors as a response to hotel customers’ justice perceptions

This study focuses on customers' information-sharing behavior in the context of online brand advocacy behavior regarding hotel brands. We aim to explain hotel customers' online brand advocacy behavior through three-sided justice evaluations (i.e., justice for employees, justice for the self, and global belief in a just world), and their hotel satisfaction. Hypotheses are tested by using survey data acquired from 688 individuals on Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that customers' perceptions of justice for the self positively affect their hotel satisfaction, perceptions of justice for employees and the global belief in a just world positively affect online brand advocacy behavior, and hotel satisfaction also positively affects online brand advocacy behavior. We expand current research efforts on online brand advocacy research and provide theoretical and managerial implications for the development of marketing and management research and practice.     

We Eat First with Our (Digital) Eyes: Enhancing Mental Simulation of Eating Experiences via Visual-Enabling Technologies

This research examines how consumers’ intentions to purchase food change depending on the visualisation mode (3D vs. AR) and product format (served vs. packaged). In three studies, we demonstrate that mental simulation of eating experiences (process and outcome) mediate these effects. Study 1 shows that AR visualisation of a served food improves simulation of the eating process over 3D visualisation, with a positive effect on purchase intention. Study 2 reveals that 3D visualisation improves purchase intention for packaged products (high instrumental properties) over served products (low instrumental properties) while the opposite is true for AR visualisation. In addition, interactivity and immersion mediate the effects of 3D (vs. AR) on mental simulation of the eating process for packaged products. Study 3 extends these results by showing that 3D increases purchase intention by eliciting mental simulation of the eating outcome, when the food is visible due to transparent (vs. opaque) packaging (displaying both sensory and instrumental properties), but that no such differences emerge for AR. This research highlights the importance of using different visualisation modes to promote food depending on the product format. The findings have important implications for both offline and online retailers.     

Nicknames as identity badges: How self-reflective nicknames can facilitate users’ online social interactions

An Internet nickname is essential in facilitating online interpersonal interactions. It is a pivotal element of interaction that provides other users with an initial impression and affects the decisions and behaviors of users during their online interactions. Although the existing literature has found that nicknames are relevant to users’ psychology and behavior, direct research on the motivation for and the effect of choosing a particular Internet nickname has been very limited. Borrowing from relevant theories on avatars, this paper summarizes the motivations behind Internet nickname choices in terms of three aspects: virtual exploration, social navigation and contextual adaptation. Moreover, from the perspective of collective self-esteem (CSE) and group identification, this research explores the influence mechanism between the motivations underlying Internet nickname choices and users’ online social interactions. A total of 394 samples were obtained from online communities in China to test our research model. We found that virtual exploration, social navigation and contextual adaptation are three motivations for creating Internet nicknames, and they have direct effects on the online social interactions of users. CSE has a full mediating effect between virtual exploration and online social interaction and acts as a mediated variable between social navigation and online social interaction. Group identification fully mediates the relationship between social navigation and online social interaction as well as that between contextual adaptation and online social interaction. The conclusion of this paper provides not only a new perspective for the study of Internet nicknames but also a potentially feasible way to stimulate users’ online social interactions.     

Comparing the impacts of Internet technology and national culture on online usage and purchase from a four-country perspective

The Internet has successfully generated an ever-expanding cohort of users for all its major concomitant activities, including information gathering, communications and transactions. So far no attempt has been made to validate whether such a success is so deep as to transcend national cultures. Nor any work has been conducted to compare the internationalisation¹ performances between online usage activities. The current study addresses these two research gaps from the perspective of four countries, i.e. Britain, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. Results show that although the technological forces have been quite successful in internationalising overall online usage activities, they succumb to the cultural forces as far as only the transactions activity, or more colloquially online purchase, is concerned. This indicates the relative difficulty in internationalising online purchase vis-à-vis other online usage activities. Further research on locating a series of step functions or kick-off time points regarding the development of online purchase is suggested.     

网络教育浅谈

本通过对我国教育现状的分析和对网络教育特点的阐析，提出网络教育对现行教育体制的挑战，对我国高等教育由精英教育转向全民教育的深远影响，以及存在的差距和未来发展趋势。     

Sharing my way to success: A case study on developing entrepreneurial ventures using social capital in an OSS community

While Open Source Software (OSS) communities provide opportunities for knowledge creation, we have a limited understanding of how entrepreneurs leverage OSS communities for their entrepreneurial ventures. Using social capital theory in a mixed methods case study, we compare entrepreneur and non-entrepreneur behaviors to investigate how entrepreneurs build social capital within an OSS community. This study shows that entrepreneurs differentiate themselves from non-entrepreneurs by focusing on cognitive and relational capital building activities, which in return makes it possible for them to leverage their social capital to influence and shape the environment in which they are operating. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs strategically select which activities within the community to expend their limited resources on (e.g., developing code over participating in email conversations) and build their social capital more through their actions than through their words (e.g., showing their commitment to the community through code commits, bug fixes, and documentation). Given the liabilities of newness and smallness as well as other challenges faced by entrepreneurs, applying an open innovation strategy in OSS communities could be one approach where entrepreneurs, by developing and freely revealing their intellectual property to the community, share their way to success via OSS-infused entrepreneurial business ventures.     

信息信义义务理论之批判

“信息信义义务”理论已掀起网络平台监管争论的汹涌波涛,该理论经由杰克·巴尔金（Jack Balkin）教授发展,旨在“一碗水端平”一般用户与搜集、分析、出卖个人信息为业的数据公司之间的关系。在处理医患关系、律师与客户、会计师与客户的关系时,法律课以医生、律师和会计师特殊的注意、保密和忠实义务。巴尔金教授主张,与之相类似,在处理脸书（Facebook）、谷歌（Google）和推特（Twitter）等公司与终端用户的关系时,也应课以公司类似的特殊义务。过去数年里,该论断赢得了广泛的支持,鲜有敌手。但信息信义义务理论存在潜在矛盾和模棱两可之处,其是否有能力解决上述问题使人生疑。故此,本文揭示上述理论缺陷,意在瓦解“信息信义义务”新理论共识。尽管我们同意巴尔金教授“占主导地位的网络平台造成损害,由此呼唤法律的介入管制”的论断,但我们质疑信息信义义务这套理论是否能充分、恰当地回应所谓的信息不安全问题,更勿论一些更为根本的问题——建立于监视渗透基础上的优势市场份额以及与商业模式相关的根本问题。我们也呼吁重视信息信义义务这一理论框架的潜在成本——我们担心,该理论框架会对网络平台的结构性权利产生一种盲目的自满,也过早地放弃了对公共监管的更美愿景。     

本地偏好、投资者情绪与股票收益率:来自网络论坛的经验证据

本文以投资者在东方财富网股吧针对创业板上市公司发表的90多万条帖子为研究对象,通过IP地址识别,构建本地关注指标;并利用计算机文本挖掘技术,提取网络发帖所体现的情绪倾向,构建投资者情绪指标。实证结果显示,本地关注对股票收益率的影响取决于投资者情绪,当投资者持积极情绪时,本地关注对股票收益率有显著的正向影响;当投资者持消极情绪时,该影响显著为负。在积极情绪和消极情绪下本地关注对股票交易量都有显著正向影响,但积极情绪下的影响程度比消极情绪下更大。此外,本地关注与投资者情绪的交叉效应在上市公司样本数量较多的北京、广东、江苏、上海、浙江这五个区域都存在,并与整体样本的特征基本一致,但在样本数量较少的其他区域并不完全一致。     

汽车营销的渠道权力结构分析

渠道权力是每一个渠道成员自然而然所拥有的,营销渠道的现状可以说是渠道成员权力运用后的结果。本文从渠道权力及其来源的科学解释入手,针对汽车行业的特点,分析汽车制造商和分销商的三种渠道权力关系,并进一步分析渠道权利的运用方式。