39 research outputs found
Adopting mobile internet: a demographic and usage perspective
No full textBased on an online survey of American consumers, the author found that mobile internet adopters tended to be younger, non-Caucasian, lower income, single male with higher career mobility. Surprisingly, contrary to fixed internet adoption, education played no significant role in predicting mobile internet adoption. Heavy mobile phone users were more likely to adopt mobile internet. On the opposite, heavy fixed internet users were less likely to adopt mobile internet. Interestingly, the demographics and usage patterns of consumers who perceived higher importance of having mobile internet capabilities did not match those of who indicated higher likelihood of adopting mobile internet
Country-of-manufacture labeling effect on product quality evaluations: A model incorporating consumers’ attention
No full textPurpose: The marketing literature does not provide a satisfactory explanation for the role of consumer\u27s attention in the process of how Country-of-Manufacture (COM) information influences consumer product evaluations. The research contributes to an improved understanding of this process by integrating the construct of “attention to Country-of-Manufacture” into the model and examining its relationship with the influence of COM.
Design/methodology/approach: Survey data are collected from American consumers aged 18 years and above. To test the research hypotheses, MANOVA and canonical correlation analysis are performed in analyzing the data.
Findings: COM has more influence on the attentive group (consumers consciously paying attention to the COM information on a product label), on their evaluations of abstract product attributes such as durability and reliability than it does on the inattentive group (consumers not paying conscious attention to such information). In contrast, COM\u27s influences on evaluating concrete product attributes such as style, model, availability, and quality are all significantly related to involvement with COM, but not to attention.
Research limitations/implications: The product assessments sought from respondents are generally on “foreign” products. Future research needs to obtain product-specific evaluations within each product category in testing the model and see how the results may differ or not differ across product categories.
Practical implications: Marketers selling products with high performance in abstract attributes such as durability and reliability should increase consumers’ attention to the COM through effective product labeling.
Originality/value: This research identifies and empirically investigates the difference of COM effects on consumers’ product judgment between consumers who are attentive and the ones who are inattentive to COM information
The perceived fairness and efficiency of used car markets
No full textTwo totally different sets of efficiency scores are obtained under two different consumer decision-making processes. It is found that distortions in the used car market are lower than previously thought. Cars with higher prices are perceived efficient when consumers set \u27price range\u27 as the first criterion in their purchase decision process. Lower priced cars are considered efficient if \u27model year\u27 is the first factor entering into purchase decision process. It is also found that the \u27price range\u27 decision-makers perceive a much more efficient used car market than \u27model year\u27 decision-makers. If a decision has to be made among car models within a certain price range, European and Korean car models are better choices compared to US ones. However, when making choices among cars of the same model year, US car models are better choices than European and Japanese car models. The segment of the secondary market with the older version car models tends to have a higher average efficiency, compared to the segments with newer versions. Furthermore, the high-efficiency car models are not getting the high overall ratings from customers. However, car models that are better rated by consumers are indeed charged with a higher price
Consumer Adoption of Mobile Internet Services: An Exploratory Study
No full textThis study provides a framework that captures the antecedents of mobile internet adoption and the willingness to pay for such service. The theory of reasoned action and components of a theory of innovation adoption were integrated into a research model of consumer adoption of the mobile internet. The hypothesized model included service quality perceptions (fixed internet and mobile technology service), beliefs about mobile internet, and individual difference variables to explain intention to adopt mobile internet. An online questionnaire was used to gather data. The results showed that beliefs and quality perceptions play a significant role in influencing intentions to adopt mobile internet. In particular, beliefs about mobile internet are positively related to the adoption; quality perceptions of fixed internet are found significant to negatively influence adoption intentions, but positively relate to willingness to pay for using mobile internet. Mobile service usage, and peer influence are found non-significant to influence adoption intentions. Fixed internet usage was found negatively affect adoption intentions. Computer skills, knowledge of mobile internet and career mobility are all found positively related to the adoption. In addition, innovation driven consumers are more likely to adopt mobile internet, and intention to adopt plays an important role in shaping actual mobile internet use. Implications of results and directions for future research are examined
Asking a doctor versus referring to the Internet: A comparison study on consumers’ reactions to DTC (direct-to-consumer) prescription drug advertising
No full textThis study examines how consumers who responded to direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising by either talking with their doctors or seeking the Internet differ from those who did not respond to DTC advertising in a number of meaningful ways. This exploratory study provides an initial look at factors that are influential in discriminating information responders from nonresponders to DTC Rx ads. Consumers more attentive to and having more positive attitudes towards Rx ads and consumers having lower trust in their doctors and perceiving higher empowerment by Rx ads are more likely to respond for additional information after seeing Rx ads
Understanding Customers\u27 Intention to Seek for a Better Deal in Electronic Marketplace: The Role of Tolerance for Sacrifice Gap
No full textOnline consumers make frequent use of the Internet to search for product and price information. In this study, an online model is proposed and empirically tested in investigating the role of tolerance for sacrifice gap in understanding customers\u27 intention to seek for a better deal. Data was collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses. The results show that tolerance for sacrifice gap was not only a strong predictor of intention for continuing search but also itself being related to consumer product knowledge, perceived control, and consumer product involvement. Direct relationship between another construct “perceived reduction in sacrifice gap” and “intention to seek for a better deal” was also found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed
Managing Customer Price Perceptions
No full textE-tailing services excellence has become a powerful source of competitive differentiation within diverse marketing offerings of e-tailers. Although researchers have suggested that e-tailing service competencies complement marketing efforts, empirical evidence is lacking on what service quality means to customers and whether it has impact on marketing outcome variables as consumer price perceptions and customer share. This paper conducts empirical analyses for related e-tailing service quality constructs, and demonstrates their effects on consumer price perceptions. It is also found that the time of establishing an online presence plays a role in affecting customers\u27 perception of price, which suggests that customers generally have favorable price perceptions at early entrants. The number of customers who bought a product and evaluated the e-tailer\u27s site (used as a proxy of customer share) is the major differentiating variable of e-tailers; however, no significant difference in e-tailing service excellence as expected has been found between the e-tailer clusters with large customer share and those with small customer share. This finding indicates that excellence on service is not necessarily an advantage that allows e-tailers to command large customer share, as suggested by Smith et al. (2000). In fact, these e-tailers might charge higher prices through providing good performance in service because of customers having favorable price perceptions. And these e-tailers may maintain the good image by continuously charging high prices
A model of price search behavior in electronic marketplace
No full textAn increasing interest in consumer behavior online is the investigation of their price search activities. Most empirical evidence from Internet shopping literature suggests through reducing search cost, that the Internet will increase consumer price search and intensify price competition. This paper develops a conceptual model and a set of propositions to explain the main factors influencing online price search. Specifically, this model integrates the psychological search literature under the context of online environment by incorporating ability and cost to search for information into “perceived search efficiency”, and the factors that center on the perceived benefits and motivation of price search are investigated as well.</jats:p
Determinants Of Participants’ Responses to Marketing Communications on Social Networking Sites
No full textTo date, evidence regarding the effectiveness of marketing communications on social networking sites (SNS) has been primarily anecdotal. This research fills an identified gap in the literature by examining participants’ general perceptions of or beliefs in marketing communications on SNS and exploring the link between such beliefs and participants’ reactions to marketing communications in the form of behavioral intentions. Findings indicate that consumers’ attention to SNS ads is positively related to their beliefs in locating product information from SNS and the legitimacy of marketers using SNS as a platform to deliver product information. Consumers’ likelihood to use information generated by different sources on social networking sites differs among the participants categorized into search, experience, credence segments. Consumers who are in search segments are likely to use information generated by other members, marketers, and third party neutral sources, and consumers in experience segments are prone to using information from marketers and third parties. However, consumers in credence segments seem to confine themselves more to seeking information from third parties. Managerial implications from these findings are discussed
Discovering Efficient Keywords – An Exploratory Study on Comparing the Use of ChatGPT and Other Third-party Tools
No full textChatGPT has become a popular keyword discovery tool since it was introduced to the market in late 2022. This study is to compare the effectiveness of this new keyword discovery tool and Spyfu, a widely used third-party tool. The comparison aims to examine which tool is more effective in discovering efficient keywords. The keyword efficiency scores are defined and calculated by using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on historical data from a specific period of time. Both ChatGPT and a third-party tool (Spyfu) provide two lists of top keywords with Broad Match and Modified Broad Match. It is found that about forty percent of Spyfu recommended keywords turn out to be efficient, while less than twenty percent of the keywords generated by ChatGPT are efficient. The results of the study indicate that ChatGPT is not as effective in discovering efficient keywords compared to Spyfu. However, ChatGPT is found to be highly effective in predicting search trends and identifying long-tail keywords and query questions that are specific and targeted to the users' needs. A combination of both tools may provide the best results for keyword discovery and strategy fine-tuning
