Des Laffey

Is Twitter for the Birds? Using Twitter to Enhance Student Learning in a Marketing Course.

Recent years have seen unprecedented possibilities for the use of different technologies to enhance learning in marketing courses. Given the rapid and widespread diffusion of these technologies, particularly within the demographic of the student population, it is pertinent to explore and examine how such technologies can benefit student learning. This article discusses and empirically evaluates students’ experiences of using Twitter as a tool to facilitate learning in marketing courses. Although Twitter’s unique characteristics were used to enhance and facilitate the learning of marketing concepts, the use of Twitter also helped illustrate marketers’ use of innovative technologies and, therefore, added valuable contemporary curriculum content. Using in-depth interviews, and a questionnaire to evaluate learning outcomes, this research concludes that students’ perceptions of using Twitter were largely positive, though some anticipated and unanticipated barriers emerged to incorporating Twitter into marketing courses. Recommendations for adopting Twitter into the marketing curriculum are made, and future areas for research are identified.

Applying Stabell and Fjeldstad's value configurations to E-commerce: A cross-case analysis of UK comparison websites

This paper analyses the comparison website sector in the UK using what Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) term the three generic value configurations: the value chain, the value shop and value network. Drawing on secondary material and case studies from the United Kingdom, the key finding is that these frameworks all offer partial explanations of value creation in comparison websites. An amended version of the value chain termed the click chain, outlined by Laffey (2009), is most effective in explaining the source of online traffic for comparison websites and in explaining their costs and revenues. This is an important finding as the literature has identified the value chain as being of limited relevance outside of the manufacturing sector. In addition the value shop offers insights into how the sector deals with more complex products such as mortgages and life insurance, whilst the value network helps to explain the growth of comparison websites. The paper also suggests how this framework can be used for e-commerce markets in general before it concludes.

Click trading: A case study of Moneynet

Moneynet, launched in 1997, was the United Kingdoms first comparison website in financial services. It enables its users to specify their needs and then select from suitable product providers, who in turn benefit from potential customers with refined needs. This article makes both a theoretical and applied contribution to the Information Systems literature. It develops an amended version of the Porter value chain, which it terms the click chain, as a theoretical framework which is then used to analyse Moneynet. This framework analyses how Moneynet creates value and in doing so identifies key implications for comparison websites and product providers.

Comparison websites: evidence from the service sector

Comparison websites, also known as aggregators, have become a prominent aspect of e-business. They enable users to specify their requirements and then select from a range of sellers usually ranked according to price. Comparison websites also appeal to sellers as they refine users who are then more likely to buy. This paper analyses comparison websites using Amit and Zotts value creation in e-business model, with a specific focus on the service sector, drawing on secondary material and case studies from the UK. The paper also outlines the limitations of the value creation model, implications for practitioners and outlines areas for future research.

Estimating advertisers' values for paid search clickthroughs

Paid search is an important form of online advertisement. Clickthroughs from slots are bid for by advertisers. The process of formulating bids is a complex one involving bidders in competing against other advertisers in multiple auctions. It would be helpful in managing the bidding process if it were possible to determine the values placed on a clickthrough by different advertisers. The theory of two models for estimating advertiser values and associated parameters is presented. The models are applied to a set of data for searches on the term Personal Loans. The results of the model that fits the data better are evaluated. The utility of the model to practitioners is discussed. Some issues raised by the results about the role of bidding agents and the discriminatory power of Customer Relationship Management systems are considered. Ways to develop the preferred model are outlined. It is suggested that the model has implications for evaluating forecasting methods for use in paid search auctions.

Patriot games: the regulation of online gambling in the European Union

ABSTRACT The recent economic crisis has brought into focus how even open and highly interdependent economies in the European Union try to govern their economies according to territorially defined interests. The aim of this article is to examine an area, online gambling, with the technological and legal conditions that challenge approaches that favour economic patriotism. The article compares two cases, the United Kingdom and Italy, that represent two different models of economic governance to argue that they are similar in which interests they seek to protect and at which level.

Online retail financial services in a changing world

After the hype of the dot-com boom and the lessons which were learnt, financial services have seen the emergence of many successful innovations. Falling search costs through comparison websites, search engines and review websites have lowered information asymmetries enabling consumers to compare prices and products. The online environment has also changed dramatically with the emergence of social media, and in recent years mobile, and the challenges this poses for organisations. This special issue is thus topical and makes a contribution both to researchers who focus on online services, and particularly financial services, and to managers looking for guidance.

Marketing Golden Bytes: A Revised Online Value Creation Model

The following article revisits Amit and Zott’s (2001) online value creation model where four factors: efficiency, lock-in, novelty, and complementarities are the principle sources of business value on the Internet. From a two-year case analysis of the Internet Poker Industry, the authors report evidence that suggests that one more value creation source exists: visibility. Visibility extends the model to consider the additional value that marketing tools provide in a crowded online marketplace. Through this updated framework, both managers and entrepreneurs can better understand their online market and plan for the future.

The ultimate bluff: a case study of partygaming.com

June 2005 was to bring online gambling out of the shadows and into the spotlight. PartyGaming, a start-up formed in 1997, launched a flotation (Initial Public Offering) on the London Stock Exchange that valued the firm at £4.64 billion giving it a larger market capitalisation than British Airways. PartyGaming had become the dominant player in the booming online poker market with its PartyPoker brand having over 50% market share. However, this float – as with Internet gambling in general – was not without controversy. While PartyGaming had an online gambling license from the tax haven of Gibraltar, nearly 90% of its revenue came from the United States, where the authorities viewed Internet gambling as illegal and threatened legal action. The complex operations of this truly global firm with bases in London, India, Gibraltar and Canada, the background of its founder Ruth Parasol in Internet pornography and the handling of its flotation also raised concerns from an ethical perspective, with some commentators questioning whether the float should have been allowed at all. These concerns were then confirmed as US legislation to curb online gambling was passed in September 2006, leading to PartyGamings exit from the US market and an immediate fall of 58% in the share price. This case study analyses the entrepreneurs behind PartyGaming, its growth, the challenges it has faced, the ethical issues it poses and its future prospects. The case draws on theory from e-commerce, strategy and ethics.