E-Commerce Commons^™

Design, Programming, And User-Experience, Kaila G. Manca

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is a culmination of my individualized major in Human-Computer Interaction. As such, it showcases my knowledge of design, computer engineering, user-experience research, and puts into practice my background in psychology, com- munications, and neuroscience.

I provided full-service design and development for a web application to be used by the Digital Media and Design Department and their students.This process involved several iterations of user-experience research, testing, concepting, branding and strategy, ideation, and design. It lead to two products.

The first product is full-scale development and optimization of the web appli- cation.The web application adheres to best practices. It was …

Effective Networking: A Key Success Factor For Small Business Owners, Glenn Muske, Connie Hancock, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative

Finding answers to your questions often starts with knowing who to call. And knowing who to call is made easier by building and maintaining an effective network.

Glenn Muske, small business specialist for North Dakota State University Extension, outlines effective ways to build your network online and in-person. Check out the Glenn’s small business guide to networking, "Effective Networking: A Key Business Success Factor," and add it to small business game plan for success!

Standing Out From The Competition Through Marketing: A Guide For Small Business Owners, Glenn Muske, Connie Hancock, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative

It can’t be said enough that “build it and they will come” is just a myth. A “one-and-done” effort will not get you what you want, either. Developing a successful business means putting a marketing plan that creates and maintains awareness of your product and/or services.

Learn how to build your marketing plan from Glenn Muske, small business specialist for North Dakota State University Extension with his guide on "Standing Out From the Competition Through Marketing."

Connecting With Others Brings Business Success: Are You Engaged? A Guide To Effective Networking For Small Business Owners., Glenn Muske, Connie Hancock, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative

Finding answers to your questions often starts with knowing who to call. And knowing who to call is made easier by building and maintaining an effective network.

Glenn Muske, small business specialist for North Dakota State University Extension, outlines effective ways to build your network online and in-person. Check out the Glenn’s small business guide to networking, "Effective Networking: A Key Business Success Factor," and add it to small business game plan for success!

Marketing And Your Small Business: A Guide For Small Business Owners, Glenn Muske, Connie Hancock, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative

It can’t be said enough that “build it and they will come” is just a myth. A “one-and-done” effort will not get you what you want, either. Developing a successful business means putting a marketing plan that creates and maintains awareness of your product and/or services.

Learn how to build your marketing plan from Glenn Muske, small business specialist for North Dakota State University Extension with his guide on "Marketing and Your Small Business."

Evaluating E-Relationship Marketing Features On Hotel Mobile Apps, Xiaolin Lu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The advent of technology has changed the course of marketing in both the academic and the business field. Given the increasing number of mobile transactions, hotel companies have launched mobile applications (apps) as an alternative e-relationship marketing (e-RM) channel. This study modified a progressive five-level e-relationship building model. The model was employed to evaluate e-RM features of the top 10 hotel companies’ mobile apps. The results indicated that these hotel companies maintained e-RM feature sophistication at the lower levels (Basic and Reactive), but relatively speaking, they did not utilize e-RM features extensively at the higher levels (Accountable, Proactive and Partnership). …

Safaricom: Innovative Telecom Solutions To Empower Kenyans, Laura Beauchesne, Nick Dorion, Nathaniel Griggs, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Robins Case Network

Safaricom is thriving by selling what many would consider a luxury product in an impoverished country. Africa is a vast market for telecommunications, and Kenya is the third largest mobile market. It is also one of the fastest growing economies in the region. This case contains a fascinating perspective on Kenya, and on the range of services Safaricom provides to its citizens. It also contains excellent detail on Safaricom’s business and philanthropic strategies.

The Use Of Twitter By Luxury And Midscale Hotels, Yolanda M. Tselepidakis

Honors Theses and Capstones

Twitter has demanded a presence in company brands since its start up in 2008, including the hotel industry. As an up and coming marketing tool, the social media website is still new to both hotels and their guests. Observing the different strategies incorporated by luxury and midscale hotels, the paper provides explanations on how these two segments differ in utilizing Twitter. Through direct interviews with US luxury and midscale hotels and analyzing individual Twitter feeds, it was found that luxury hotels and their target market are much more active on Twitter than the midscale hotel segment. Implications suggest that although …

Social Media Helps Small Businesses, Nicholas J. Oxborrow

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Beemer and Shook (2009) explain that developing customers one at a time is the only way. There are no short cuts to this. Traditionally, a small business would develop their relationships by going from door-to-door to raise awareness and grow their brand. How fast they achieved this depended on the budget and time available to their business. Traditionally, large businesses had the power of reaching their markets through huge advertising budget, which small companies could not match.

In today’s business environment, social media has become a new marketing tool that is available to all businesses, that instantly develops relationships with …

Can The Presence Of Online Word Of Mouth Increase Product Sales?, Alanah Mitchell, Deepak Khazanchi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

The power and potential impact of online word of mouth has increased substantially. Consumers have come to accept and rely upon online word of mouth, so it is important to understand how it works and what kind of impact it has on online product sales. This article provides an assessment of this question through an analysis of sales and online word of mouth data from a multi-product e-commerce retail firm.

Privacy Concern And Online Personalization: The Moderating Effects Of Information Control And Compensation, David G. Taylor, Donna F. Davis, Ravi Jillapalli

WCBT Faculty Publications

Firms have at their disposal an increasing amount of personal information about consumers gathered through various means. Studies find that personalizing online interactions improves customer relationships and increases desirable behaviors, such as positive word-of-mouth and increased purchase intent. However, other research suggests that the use of personal information stimulates privacy concern, which has a negative effect on behavior. This study examines potential moderators of the negative effects of privacy concern on behavioral intentions in the context of personalized online interactions. Results show that increasing perceived information control reduces the negative effect of privacy concern on behavioral intentions. In contrast, the …

A Hybrid Firm's Pricing Strategy In Electronic Commerce Under Channel Migration, Robert John Kauffman, Dongwon Lee, Jung Lee, Byungjoon Yoo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Achieving an effective business design across the Internet and the off-line channel is a critical concern for a hybrid firm's choice of pricing strategy. Two pricing models are proposed to examine how consumer channel migration (one-way channel interaction from the traditional sales channel to the Internet) affects pricing strategy. One model has no interaction between the Internet and off-line channels. The other includes the possibility of one-way migration to the Internet channel and incorporates consumers' channel-switching costs and loyalty to the firm. The two models offer interesting results for understanding traditional and Internet-based selling. A high level of channel migration …

Borderless Bits: Electronic Globalization And Its Social Consequences, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

Globalization of services with the aid of electronic technologies - popularly called outsourcing or offshoring - has been accelerating. In this paper, the factors that drive electronic globalization - as distinct from factors that drive the general process of globalization - are discussed briefly. A simple model of a 2-firm USA-India dyad engaged in outsourcing relationships is presented to outline the economic basis for electronic globalization. By introducing wider political and cultural forces, progressively more complex views of the electronic globalization phenomenon are presented. Finally, the interplays of the economic, political, and cultural forces are explored to arrive at a …

The Blinds Shop Company Limited Brand Identity Project, Peter Dee

Other resources

The Blinds Shop offers made to measure window blinds catering to all markets across Ireland. The Blinds Shop required a clean, bold and modern logo using fresh colours and imagery.

Peter Dee - Strategic Design and Marketing Consultant, was responsible for the design and development of the brand identity for the The Blinds Shop Company Limited which was used on business cards, letterhead, promotional information, uniforms, advertising and e-Commerce website.

The Blinds Shop is a retailer of made to measure window blinds catering to both the domestic and commercial market within the Dublin area. Blinds are made to the highest …

The Epistemic Consumption Object And Postsocial Consumption: Expanding Consumer‐Object Theory In Consumer Research, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

We introduce the concept of the epistemic consumption object. Such consumption objects are characterized by two interrelated features. First, epistemic consumption objects reveal themselves progressively through interaction, observation, use, examination, and evaluation. Such layered revelation is accompanied by an increasing rather than a decline of the object’s complexity. Second, such objects demonstrate a propensity to change their “face‐in‐action” vis‐à‐vis consumers through the continuous addition or subtraction of properties. The epistemic consumption object is materially elusive and this lack of ontological stability turns the object into a continuous knowledge project for consumers. Via this ongoing cycle of revelation and discovery, consumers …

Mobility And Markets: Emerging Outlines Of M-Commerce, Ruby Roy Dholakia, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

Mobile commerce—or m-commerce—is characterized by the emerging class of location-based commercial services delivered by a variety of handheld terminals such as mobile phones and palmtop devices. At the Conference on Telecommunications and Information Markets (COTIM)-2001, an international conference held in Karlsruhe, Germany, academic researchers and business practitioners shared their experiences and frameworks about m-commerce. Selected papers based on COTIM-2001 presentations are included in this Special Issue. This paper introduces the preconditions that led to the emergence of m-commerce, the main dimensions of m-commerce that distinguish it from e-commerce, and the key arguments from the contributions on m-commerce in this Special …

Cultural Contradictions Of The Anytime, Anywhere Economy: Reframing Communication Technology, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick

College of Business Faculty Publications

Technology-aided ubiquity and instantaneity have emerged as major goals of most information technology providers and of certain classes of users such as “road warriors”. New mobile technologies promise genie-in-a-bottle type near-magical qualities with anytime, anywhere access to information and services. While the complex science, systems, and economics of such technologies receive considerable attention from industry executives and researchers, the social and cultural aspects of these technologies attract less attention. This paper explores the oft-contradictory promises and pitfalls of anytime, anywhere technologies from a cultural standpoint. It makes suggestions for reinterpreting these technologies for greater human good.

Online Qualitative Research In The Age Of E-Commerce: Data Sources And Approaches, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Dong Zhang

College of Business Faculty Publications

With the boom in E-commerce, practitioners and researchers are increasingly generating marketing and strategic insights by employing the Internet as an effective new tool for conducting well-established forms of qualitative research (TISCHLER 2004). The potential of Internet as a rich data source and an attractive arena for qualitative research in e-commerce settings—in other words cyberspace as a "field," in the ethnographic sense—has not received adequate attention. This paper explores qualitative research prospects in e-commerce arenas.

URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0402299

Business-To-Consumer Electronic Commerce In Japan, Haruyoshi Takaoka

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of the project was to examine the current situation of B2C e-commerce in Japan, consumers' online purchasing behavior, and attributes affecting online purchases. Since many companies are interested in starting or have started B2C e-commerce businesses, this study would aid companies in developing marketing strategies that would grow their businesses and build loyalty among consumers.

Information Systems Service Quality Measurement: The Evolution Of The Servqual Instrument, Dwayne Whitten

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Due to the increasing service component of information technology, service quality measurement has become increasingly important as IS practitioners attempt to increase service quality to customers. The measurement of service quality in IS evolved from the research done in the marketing literature. The SERVQUAL instrument has evolved to become the most commonly used measurement instrument in both IS and marketing. Although commonly used, the SERVQUAL instrument is not without criticism. This paper describes the SERVQUAL instrument, its criticisms and support, and finally the SERVPERF instrument, a variation of the SERVQUAL instrument which is an attempt at improving upon the SERVQUAL …

Customer Relationship Management (Crm): A Comparative Study Between U.S.A. And Spain, Jesus Garcia De Madariaga

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This paper surveys the marketing executives of the top companies in Spain with more than 100 million euros on net sales and reports the status of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions in their companies. The results are compared with the U.S.A. status reported by a previous study developed by InformationWeek Research in 2000 with a sample based on Fortune 500. One hundred and thirty-six companies participated in this study. The data provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the CRM in Spain in comparison with USA. Some viable actions are recommended to improve the usage of CRM and to …

A Conceptual Framework For E-Branding Strategies In The Non-Profit Sector, Horst Treiblmaier, Irene Pollach, Arne Floh

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

E-branding provides non-profit organizations (NPOs) with new opportunities to communicate their missions, which is of paramount importance in a market segment that competes for donations and voluntary labor. Since successful e-branding is determined by both internal and external communication strategies, we developed a framework which explains the interdependency of these two factors in NPOs. Our findings are based on qualitative interview data and a website analysis of eleven Austrian NPOs. The NPOs' internal and external e-communication strategies are categorized into three successive levels each and combined in a two-dimensional grid, which shows how NPOs integrate their communication strategies.

Privacy And Consumer Agency In The Information Age: Between Prying Profilers And Preening Webcams, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick

College of Business Faculty Publications

This article is about the ability of the consumer to control his or her destiny in the new electronic marketspace. Two seemingly opposite phenomena – the need for privacy and the desire for exhibitionism and voyeurism – are vying for attention on the media landscape. We believe the simultaneous occurrence of privacy concerns and ultraexhibitionism is not coincidental. Indeed, exhibitionism and voyeurism seem to offer new tools for consumer resistance against the electronic surveillance systems in networked markets and are inextricably linked to consumers’ desire for control over their intimate personal information.

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.

June 1989, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Health of the Inland Empire Financial Institutions the Inland Empire Business Journal contacted the FDIC to obtain information on Inland Empire banks on the "problem bank list" in the aftermath of the Savings and Loan Crisis.............................1

Gambling Could Raise $500,000 in New Taxes for Cathedral City Mayor George G. Hardie's proposal for a resort hotel and gaming Card Club complex. (includes interview with Mayor Hardie).......................1

Developers Offer Sewer Fund Monies a consortium of eastern Riverside County developers approached the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) with a proposal to pre-pay building permit fees to accelerate sewer plant expansion to support development.......................1 …