E-Commerce Commons^™

Can Scalability Be A Marketing Liability For Sustainability?, Dennis F. X. Mathaisel, Clare L. Comm

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

A common principle of modern business marketing is that growth is good. It is usually thought that all businesses should market themselves with the goal of increasing their revenues and gaining market share. Scalability is developing products or services that people want and figuring out how to produce and promote many of them for lower costs while selling more of them (Dudnik 2010). It is the purpose of this paper to show that some businesses, especially small ventures with unique value propositions, should not necessarily seek to grow or scale up. There are numerous examples of new ventures failing for …

Taking The Plunge: Online Data Collection Using Mturk, L. Jean Harrison-Walker

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing service created in 2005 by Amazon.com, is gaining in popularity among academics as a source of subjects for survey research. The initial attraction is based on access to a very large pool of participants who can be accessed online producing rapid response at low cost with minimal effort on the part of the researcher. For the uninitiated, however, the task of designing and running a research project on MTurk is rather daunting.

This paper begins with an introduction to MTurk. We review the language of MTurk and explain how a researcher goes about setting up …

Chinese Consumers' Involvement In Wine Consumption And Their Willingness To Visit Wineries In California, Mahmood Hussain, Roblyn Simeon, Lutfus Sayeed

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

This research fills a gap in wine tourism literature, taking into account the effects of consumers’ involvement in the pre-purchase stages on their willingness to visit wineries in California or in a foreign country. The theoretical framework presented in this paper provides support for a strong linkage between product involvement, consumption, and eventual propensity to visit a wine destination. As of this writing this paper constitutes the first of its kind econometric study of these effects.

Fitting Consumer Needs To Perceived Product Value: The Example Of Apple Versus Samsung Products, Yi-Chia Wu, Arturo Vasquez-Parraga

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

This study explores the fitting of consumer needs to product perceived value using the example of two lines of competitive products in the area of communication electronics, Apple products versus Samsung products. Five types of needs regarding digital communication and three types of related product value are evaluated for these two brands in order to know if product value differences have a distinctive effect on consumer needs.

This study focuses on the impact of perceived product values on certain consumer needs. We use Apple products and Samsung products to accomplish this.

Progressive Trust Formation Within The South African Fresh Produce Industry Through The Use Of Self-Service Technologies, Justy Range, Awie C. Leonard Phd

The African Journal of Information Systems

When using self-service solutions to deliver services the challenge is to retain the trust of the end user. This is specifically the case when dealing with end users in the fresh produce market environment. This sector has not seen the adoption of self-service technologies specifically in southern Africa. In this paper we propose a model to enhance our understanding of trust formation using self-service technologies. A qualitative research approach, based on a case study was followed to create the model. This case study offers insight into how the dynamics of the product, supporting services and the technology shapes trust forming …

Factors Influencing Successful Use Of Mobile Technologies To Facilitate E-Commerce In Small Enterprises: The Case Of Kenya, Patrick Kanyi Wamuyu, Manoj Maharaj

The African Journal of Information Systems

This paper interrogates the suitability of Mobile Technologies to facilitate e-commerce in Kenyan Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs). The study proposed a theoretical model and empirically tested it using a sample selected using proportionate stratified sampling within well-defined geographic clusters. The study revealed that, while there is massive use of mobile Internet Services (MIS), there is limited use of Mobile Money Transfer Services (MMTS) for B2B and B2C transactions as opposed to C2C and C2B e-commerce transactions. Results also indicated that utilizing MIS and MMTS, positively and significantly influenced organization’s performance through operational, transactional and interactional benefits. On the research …

Ict Usage In Microfinance Institutions In Uganda, Joseph Kaumba Ssewanyana

The African Journal of Information Systems

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are always often faced with high operating costs to provide financial services to the poor people and Small and Medium Enterprises. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been found to promote the dual objective of microfinance - sustainability and outreach to the poor people. Using a quantitative survey and descriptive research approach, this paper has established the extent to which ICT has been used in the microfinance institutions in Uganda. Despite the barriers, ICT usage in MFIs has been on the rise; and different applications and technologies have been adopted by some MFIs to control costs, create …

The Impact Of Computerisation On Productivity: The Case Of Two State Utility Corporations In Botswana, Ayoku A. Ojedokun, Kgomotso H. Moahi

The African Journal of Information Systems

The study investigated the impact of computer technology on productivity improvement as reflected in the billing process and total quality bills invoiced per month in the Gaborone headquarters of Botswana Power Corporation and Water Utilities Corporation. It examined the input-output relationship with computers as one of the inputs. The other input is labour represented by the Meter Reading Hours and the Supervisory Hours. The study drew on the economic production theory and time series approach to determine the contributions of the inputs to output. The study relied on unpublished information and interviews rather than the use of publicly or commercially …

Why It Managers Don't Go For Cyber-Insurance Products, Tridib Bandyopadhyay, Vijay S. Mookerjee, Ram C. Rao

Faculty Articles

Despite positive expectations, cyber-insurance products have failed to take center stage in the management of IT security risk. Market inexperience, leading to conservatism in pricing cyber-insurance instruments, is often cited as the primary reason for the limited growth of the cyber-insurance market. In contrast, here we provide a demand-side explanation for why cyber-insurance products have not lived up to their initial expectations. We highlight the presence of information asymmetry between customers and providers, showing how it leads to overpricing cyber-insurance contracts and helps explain why cyber insurance might have failed to deliver its promise as a cornerstone of IT security-management …

Analysis Of The Factors That Influence Online Purchasing, Donald Amoroso, D. Scott Hunsinger

Faculty Articles

This paper reviews recent studies related to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in order to derive an extended model that examines online purchasing by consumers. Our model expands the original TAM by including additional constructs including privacy, trust, perceived risk, e-satisfaction, and e-loyalty. We surveyed over 1,850 consumers in the United States and Australia using an instrument that yielded respectable reliability and validity. The findings suggest that our expanded model serves as a very good predictor of consumers' online purchasing behaviors. The linear regression model shows a substantial amount of variance explained for Behavioral Intention (R2 = .637). We also …

Measuring The Acceptance Of Internet Technology By Consumers, Donald L. Amoroso, Scott Hunsinger

Faculty Articles

This research reviews studies using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to create a modified model and instrument to study the acceptance of Internet technology by consumers. We developed a modified TAM for the acceptance of Internet-based technologies by consumers. We retained the original constructs from the TAM and included additional constructs from previous literature including gender, experience, complexity, and voluntariness. We developed a survey instrument using existing scales from prior TAM instruments and modified them where appropriate. The instrument yielded respectable reliability and construct validity. The findings suggest that the modified TAM is a good predictor of consumer behavior in …

Organizational Adoption Of Web-Enabled Services For Information Dissemination, Pamila Dembla, Prashant Palvia, Lloyd Brooks

Faculty Articles

Although communication, collaboration, and transaction processing are some of the important business functions facilitated by the web, timely dissemination of information is critical for ultimate customer satisfaction and potential profitability. The purpose of this study is to determine the affect that contextual factors such as IS maturity, organizational attributes, and environmental characteristics have on perceived usefulness and adoption of web-enabled services for information dissemination in organizations. The key focus of this article is "organizational adoption" as opposed to individual acceptance for which there have been numerous studies. A research model and eight hypotheses were developed based on past literature. Data …

Some Free - Some Fee: The Emerging Business Model For E-Content Web Sites, Meg C. Murray, Ravi Narayanaswamy

Faculty Articles

The rapid emergence of E-commerce with its competitive characteristics has transformed the business landscape. In its short lifespan of little more than a decade, the Internet marketplace has already seen a dramatic cycle of high peaks and low valleys. E-content sites, whose primary product is information, have had the most difficulty sustaining profitability. The central proposition is that a firm’s business model is an important locus of innovation and a crucial source of revenue creation for its stakeholders. Consequently, the question has become how can an Internet business and e-content Web site, in particular, support a sustainable business model. There …

Hospitals And The Web: A Maturing Relationship, Daniel Fell, C. David Shepherd

Faculty Articles

How are hospitals using the Internet in marketing today? Where are health care marketers focusing their online efforts?What returns are marketers seeing from their Internet initiatives and investments? These are some of the questions we have been tracking since 1995 when we conducted the first-ever study to examine the ways that hospital marketers around the country were using the Internet and other emerging technology to promote their organizations. In the most recent survey, we look at what health care marketers are doing online and take the pulse of an industry grappling with rapid change and as yet unproven Internet strategies.

An E-Commerce Systems Integration Framework, Ernest A. Capozzoli, Sheb L. True

Faculty Articles

The success of e-commerce activity is directly affected by system integration efforts associated with traditional back office and web-based systems. The potential benefits of enterprise-wide e-commerce activities to an organization emphasize the need for system integration beyond individual sales transactions. Unfortunately, many organizations are not capitalizing on the synergistic advantages of integrated systems. Despite the apparent lack of integration, some organizations are attempting to coordinate such customer activities. Planning for and integrating e-commerce technologies are essential to an organization's survival.

The Threat Of Long-Arm Jurisdiction To Electronic Commerce, Robert J. Aalberts, Anthony M. Townsend, Michael E. Whitman

Faculty Articles

Unfortunately for those whose businesses rely on the Internet, an increasing amount of legal conflict is also arising in reaction to this new business medium. As attorneys and the courts attempt to sort out the Internet’s legal status quo, both are considering such pressing substantive issues as electronic contracts, privacy, trademark, copyright, defamation, computer crimes, censorship, and taxation. It is imperative that information system professionals become aware of how evolving Internet law will affect the medium they are charged with administrating. An informed IS community is also much more capable of mounting legal and political challenges to law that might …

Hospital Marketing And The Internet: Revisited, C. David Shepherd, Daniel Fell

Faculty Articles

In 1995 a study was conducted to explore the use of the Internet in hospital marketing. Use of the Internet has exploded since that study was published. This manuscript replicates the 1995 study and extends it by investigating several managerial and operational issues concerning the use of the Internet in hospital marketing.