Daniel L. Sherrell

Consumer acceptance of virtual stores: a theoretical model and critical success factors for virtual stores

Virtual stores provide great efficiency in the retail value chain, and their existence has tremendously paved the way for the diffusion of electronic commerce. Understanding the determinants of consumer acceptance of virtual stores will provide important theoretical contributions to the area of business-to-consumer (B-to-C) electronic commerce and lead to the development of more effective and meaningful strategies for virtual stores. By expanding the Technology Acceptance Model and the Innovation Diffusion Theory, this study aims to provide an integral theoretical paradigm that can successfully support a wide array of technical, business, and consumer issues involved in online retailing. The results from a Web-based survey of 253 online consumers indicate that the proposed theoretical model is able to explain and predict consumer acceptance of virtual stores substantially well. The resulting theoretical model explains a large portion of the factors that lead to a users behavioral intention to use and actual use of a virtual store. In addition to providing new theoretical grounds for studying the virtual store phenomenon, this article also supplies virtual stores with a number of operative critical success factors to remain competitive in the volatile electronic marketplace.

The role of affect in consumer satisfaction judgments of credence-based services

Abstract In the search for satisfaction, researchers have developed the disconfirmation model to represent the process used to arrive at such a judgment. This model has evolved through the use of product-based research. The applicability of such a model to the services setting has not been explored. At question is the applicability of the components of the disconfirmation model and the relationships among these components. The current research attempts to assess the applicability of the disconfirmation model, along with the affective extension suggested by Oliver (1993), to the services setting. Affect is posited to have a direct positive effect on performance evaluations, satisfaction with the service encounter, and repeat patronage intentions. Disconfirmation is hypothesized to have a direct positive effect on satisfaction with the service encounter. A videotaped service encounter was shown to 163 southeastern university students. The structural model tested has an acceptable fit to the data (χ23df = 3.81, p ≥ .05). An alternative structural model without the affect constructs was assessed to test the influence of affect. The alternative model provided an unacceptable fit to the data (χ210df = 137.36, p ≤ .05). The chi-square difference test of the two nested models revealed that the model containing affect is a significant improvement over the model without affect (χ27df = 133.55, p ≤ .05). The influence of disconfirmation, which is prevalent in product-based applications of the model, was not significant in the current service setting. Affect has a significant influence on performance evaluations only. The significant influence of affect in the model may be due to the nature of services (e.g., experience and credence qualities).

Consumer satisfaction with health-care services: The influence of involvement

The impact of involvement and ambiguity on satisfaction judgments for high-credence property services such as health care has not been studied. This study examines the level and process effects of involvement on satisfaction with two dimensions of a health-care service. We found that higher levels of customer involvement were associated with greater expectations and performance ratings for the ambiguous dimension of the service (physicians). Customer involvement had no influence on ratings for the nonambiguous aspects of the service (access mechanisms). Perceived performance was found to be the most influential predictor of satisfaction for low-involvement subjects. High-involvement subjects used disconfirmation and performance to evaluate physicians and only disconfirmation in forming satisfaction judgments for access mechanisms.

Examining the Relationship Marketing, Marketing Productivity Paradigm

Abstract The authors examine the relationship marketing research literature and identify three schools of thought regarding relationship marketing. The Inter-organizational, customer relationship, and customer valuation research perspectives are described and representative studies are discussed. The predominant conceptual approaches to marketing productivity in the research literature are identified and described. The shareholder value model of Srivastava, Shervani, and Fahey (1998) is selected as the most useful conceptual framework linking relationship marketing and marketing productivity. The linking constructs of customer equity and brand equity are identified as the critical conceptual connections between relationship marketing and marketing productivity. A research agenda is suggested, covering both conceptual and operational issues for further development of both relationship marketing and marketing productivity.

Retail store layout characteristics as a mechanism for enhancing customer relationships in a retail website environment

As retailers move into the realm of designing website environments, three critical elements of commerce, content and community must be addressed in order to build and facilitate customer relationships. Yet, as often happens with the internet, the enthusiasm generated by future technology overshadows reality. Many retailers have not yet achieved the basics of customer retention, loyalty, and intimacy in the online world as they have in the brick and mortar setting. In this paper, the authors explore the use of established and successful store layout and design characteristics as applied to a retailers website environment. The utilisation of these characteristics in terms of building stronger customer relationships through the elements of commerce, content, and community in a web page environment is addressed.

DO INVESTORS PREFER NEW OR EXISTING SPONSORSHIP RELATIONSHIPS: EVIDENCE FROM SPONSORSHIP INTERORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIP FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE ON FIRM STOCK RETURNS

The purpose of this study is to examine investor reaction to the formation of new and the maintenance of existing Interorganizational Relationships (IORs) through the context of official sports sponsorship relationships. Based on a study where the announcements of new and the maintenance of existing sponsorship IORs are disaggregated, it was found that investors reward the formation of new official sponsorship IORs with significant positive abnormal returns to stock price, while returns for the announcement of the maintenance of existing official sponsorship IORs are nonsignificant. Findings suggest investors place a higher premium on the formation of new IORs compared to the maintenance of existing IORs. Implications for the management of IORs are discussed.

Examining the Dimensions of Convenience in Self-Service

As the number of self-service technology (SST) applications increase along with the diffusion of this technology into differing services, more attention is placed on understanding not only what influences consumers to try but also to adopt this new method of delivering a service experience. Managers of a service organization are now looking to optimize one of its hidden assets in service provision, the customer. Recruiting customers as partial employees in the service experience is theoretically a win-win situation for both the customer and the provider. The customer gets more flexibility and control in the service experience, while the provider reduces labor costs. In application, customers have been slow to adopt self-service technology. Many of the reasons for this slow adoption are that managers of self-service applications do not fully understand what consumers’ value in a self-service experience. The technology is often implemented before management knows how, when, and where the consumer would be willing to use the technology compared to a full service method.