Alicia Izquierdo-Yusta

The impact of market orientation dimensions on client cooperation in the development of new service innovations

Purpose – Culture makes firms unique and, depending on the implemented pattern of social and managerial culture, technology, and innovation, it can have an important influence on the personality and behaviour of the firm. Although a cultural model of market orientation encourages product innovation and fosters cooperative relationships with clients, few studies analyse this important relationship from a service perspective. This research seeks to investigate the relevance of market orientation for the firms client cooperation relationships in developing radical innovations in the service sector.Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive investigation uses 433 Spanish service firms that introduced radical innovations in their product fields in the past two years. The paper conducted four discriminant analyses: one for the total sample of firms and three for the sub‐samples defined by the extent to which firms use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their activities.Findings – The four mo...

Attitudes toward mobile advertising among users versus non-users of the mobile Internet

The development of mobile devices offers alternatives for interacting with consumers.This study analyzes the antecedents and consequences towards mobile advertisings.Attitudes exert positive influences on intentions to receive advertising.Perceived added value and subjective norms exert a positive influence on attitudes. Marketing communication strategy via mobile phone constitutes a promising approach to companies because it enables to reach appropriate audiences at the right time and place. The main aim of this research is to determine key factors that create new opportunities for commercial communications by considering consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising. The proposed causal model of attitudes and intentions toward mobile advertising highlights potential differences between users of smartphones with Internet capabilities and non-users. The theoretical model integrates the influences of control, reference groups, perceived added value, and ease of use on attitudes toward mobile advertising, as well as the relationship of these effects with intentions toward advertising, mediated by mobile Internet usage. The sample is 612 respondents who receive advertising by their mobile phones. Our results reveal, similar to other research, that attitudes exert positive influences on intentions to receive advertising, especially among those who already have access to the Internet on their mobile phones. However, regarding these variables, the experience does not contribute to positive attitudes.

Internet as a Distribution Channel: Empirical Evidence from the Service Sector and Managerial Opportunities

This study seeks to explain the intentions to use the Internet to make a hotel reservation by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The model is extended with other variables, such as subjective norms, Web site trust, perceived risk, and quality signals. The results obtained using a sample of 795 Internet users demonstrate the influence on purchasing intention of perceived utility, subjective norms, Web site trust, and signalling mechanisms to diminish risk. Firms using e-commerce should consequently design their Web sites with market orientation in mind in order to obtain a competitive advantage that will enhance profit, brand image, and reputation.

Assessing the consumer's choice of purchase channel in the tourism sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the most important economic factors that determine choice of distribution channel when booking a tourism service. The theoretical framework applied to meet this objective is agency theory, as it provides insight into the effects arising from problems such as information asymmetries and opportunism.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis of a sample composed of 805 tourists who made their reservation through either the internet or traditional channels has provided interesting conclusions, allowing different hypotheses to be contrasted using a structural equation analysis.Findings – This study has shown how the main source of uncertainty in the stages leading up to the choice of purchase channel is due to a lack of trust towards the internet. In this regard, the signals emitted by firms in order to mitigate information asymmetries contribute to generating trust towards the selected firm; however, they neither reduce the risk differential existing between ...

Assessing the influence of social media on tourists’ motivations and image formation of a destination

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyse how tourists form the cognitive, affective and unique images of a tourism destination, taking into account that: travellers use user-generated content (UGC) as one of the more important sources of information about the destination, sources of information influence on travellers’ motivation to visit some destination and motivations influence on the dimensions of the destination image. Design/methodology/approach – Taking into account the works of Beerli and Martin (2004), Seabra et al. (2007) and Qu et al. (2011), this paper proposes an integrative model that shows how different types of information sources influence on individuals’ motivations, as well as the different dimensions of the image of the tourist destination are influenced by tourists’ motivations. Moreover, the design and validation of new scales of measures, adapted to the new tourist profile 2.0, is proposed. The model is empirical tested by analysis of 541 national and international tourists...

Consumer beliefs and motivations that influence repeat online purchases

Over the last decade, the internet has become an important and growing alternative shopping resource for consumers to purchase a variety of goods and services. In this study, over 500 internet users in Spain were surveyed in order to investigate the underlying beliefs and motivations driving repeat purchase intentions towards online shopping. The results indicate that a number of variables including perceptions of self efficacy, subjective norm, convenience and usefulness play an important role in driving repeat internet purchase intentions.

New service innovation success

The effects of ICT use and cooperative learning on new products developed.Study of 287 Spanish SME of the entrepreneurs perception.Co-learning as a source of innovation. The objected of this paper is twofold: on the one side to analyze the role of cooperative learning and information and communication technologies (ICT) use as drivers of new service innovation success. On the other, identify if the nature of the performance indicator used influences on the high and significance of the dependence relationships. For that we analyze a sample of 287 Spanish SME, which in the last two years have developed new service. Also, it is consider that the new service innovation results can be measured in objective terms - abiding by financial measurements - as well as on the basis of the entrepreneurs perception.The results evidence the direct influence of co-learning, as well as the direct, moderating role of the ICT use in obtaining the maximum level of objective and perceived results. Relevant differences can be observed, depending not only the performance indicator used (objective versus subjective) but also on the contribution of each of the variables to obtaining the maximum result and, therefore, their success. The study provides evidence that enable us to offer certain strategic recommendations of interest for the management of small and medium sized companies (SME). This research provides evidence for the necessity of considering explicit measures of results based on subjective indicators such as the entrepreneurs perception.

Consumer Expectations of Online Services in the Insurance Industry: An Exploratory Study of Drivers and Outcomes

Today, the customer-brand relationship is fundamental to a company’s bottom line, especially in the service sector and with services offered via online channels. In order to maximize its effects, organizations need (1) to know which factors influence the formation of an individual’s service expectations in an online environment; and (2) to establish the influence of these expectations on customers’ likelihood of recommending a service before they have even used it. In accordance with the TAM model (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1992), the TRA model (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), the extended UTAUT model (Venkatesh et al., 2012), and the approach described by Alloza (2011), this work proposes a theoretical model of the antecedents and consequences of consumer expectations of online services. In order to validate the proposed theoretical model, a sample of individual insurance company customers was analyzed. The results showed, first, the importance of customers’ expectations with regard to the intention to recommend the “private area” of the company’s website to other customers prior to using it themselves. They also revealed the importance to expectations of the antecedents perceived usefulness, ease of use, frequency of use, reputation, and subjective norm.

Exploring the adjustment of international university students in relation to dietary practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influences of different variables on the dietary adjustment process of international university students. More specifically, the authors investigate how ethnocentrism, perceived risk, and external influences affect their adjustment processes by considering three different temporal stages and exploring adjustment in relation to dietary practices. Design/methodology/approach – After performing an in-depth review of the relevant literature, a structural equation analysis is conducted. This analysis relies on data from a sample of 139 international students enrolled in a Spanish university. Findings – The results reveal that ethnocentrism is significant only in the second stage of the adjustment process. The level of perceived risk decreases during the adjustment process but also depends on the features international students have in common with the host culture; in contrast, external influences are important in all stages. Research limitations/implication...

Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude Toward Mobile Advertising: The Spanish Case Study

The aim of this paper is to study in depth the antecedents and consequences of attitude toward mobile advertising. With this aim, a causal model for measuring attitudes and intentions toward mobile advertising will be tested. For this purpose, the theoretical model proposed considers the influence of Control, Reference groups, the perception of Added-value and the perception of Ease of use over the Attitudes toward mobile advertising, and the relationship of these Attitudes with the Emotions/Experiences and Intentions generated from it. The research has been conducted over a sample of 612 subjects that receive advertising on their mobile phone and are representative of the Spanish market. The results highlight that attitude exercises a positive influence on the intention of receiving mobile advertising.