Edward Shih-Tse Wang

Why do customers utilize the internet as a retailing platform?: A view from consumer perceived value

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the impact of perceived value on customer intention to use the internet as a retailing platform and, more specifically, the impact that perceived value (comprising functional, social, emotional and epistemic values) has on Taiwanese customer intention to conduct the two distribution channel functions, i.e. information collection and order placement, through the internet.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 295 usable survey responses were collected in the main commuter district of Taipei, Taiwan.Findings – The findings indicate that both functional and epistemic values have a significant impact on information collection and order placement. Nevertheless, social value has an impact only on information collection, whereas emotional value has a significant impact only on order placement.Originality/value – The aforementioned issue has rarely been researched but is essential to the development of a channel of distribution theory and is of immediate relevance to mar...

Forming relationship commitments to online communities: The role of social motivations

Although administrators of online communities (OCs) may focus on improving their OCs through upgrading technology and enhancing the usability of their OCs to attract additional users, the level of OC participation may be associated with social motives. The purpose of this study is to understand how social motivations (that is, network externalities and social norms) affect members committed to OCs. This study tests the hypotheses on data collected from 396 undergraduate students. Data analyses show that network externalities and social norms directly influence social interaction ties, which subsequently results in commitment toward a community. Social norms also directly influence relationship commitments to a community. The results provide insights into how social motivations lead to commitment to an OC, reminding OC administrators to encourage member commitment to the OC from the perspective of social motivations.

Do consumers perceive differences among national brands, international private labels and local private labels? The case of Taiwan

Purpose – This research attempts to investigate the differences of consumer perceptions on product quality, price, brand leadership and brand personality among national brands, international private labels and local private labels. It aims to use product categories as the moderator of the preceding perceptions.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected outside the entrances of the main rail station of Taipei, Taiwan. A systematic sampling was adopted and 254 questionnaires were eventually collected.Findings – The findings revealed that on the whole national brands were perceived as significantly superior to international private labels, while international private labels were perceived as being superior to local private labels in terms of all perceptions except price perception. The findings also revealed that product categories moderated price and brand personality perceptions across the three brand types, while product categories failed to moderate the effect of the three brands types on quality ...

Personality Traits and Life Satisfaction among Online Game Players

The DFC Intelligence predicts worldwide online game revenues will reach

Investigating member commitment to virtual communities using an integrated perspective

9.8 billion by 2009, making online gaming a mainstream recreational activity. Understanding online game player personality traits is therefore important. This study researches the relationship between personality traits and life satisfaction in online game players. Taipei, Taiwan, is the study location, with questionnaire surveys conducted in cyber cafe shops. Multiple regression analysis studies the causal relationship between personality traits and life satisfaction in online game players. The result shows that neuroticism has significant negative influence on life satisfaction. Both openness and conscientiousness have significant positive influence on life satisfaction. Finally, implications for leisure practice and further research are discussed.

The Effects of Browsing Frequency and Gender on the Relationship Between Perceived Control and Patronage Intentions in E-tail

Purpose – Although the number of virtual communities has increased dramatically over the past few years, attracting and maintaining members remains the biggest challenge to establishing virtual social networks. This study seeks to integrate the roles of individual factors (issue involvement), social factors (social interaction), and system factors (system interactivity), and to explore how these factors contribute to member commitment in virtual communities.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 402 undergraduate students, who are all current members of virtual communities, participated in this study. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).Findings – The findings reveal that member commitment to communities was influenced more by their issue involvement compared to their perceived social interaction or perceived system interactivity.Originality/value – This research contributes to online community literature by integrating critical antecedent factors in the field of community commit...

Social Support and Social Interaction Ties on Internet Addiction: Integrating Online and Offline Contexts

On-line consumer retention is vital to e-tail success. This study examines how consumer browsing frequency and gender affect perceived control and customer patronage intentions in the e-tail context. Statistical results show that browsing frequency has a positive direct effect on perceived control and patronage intentions of female consumers but does not have a significant impact on male perceived control and intentions. These findings provide theoretical insights into how consumer characteristics affect on-line decision-making and have implications for managing on-line consumers based on consumer characteristics.

Internet Usage Purposes and Gender Differences in the Effects of Perceived Utilitarian and Hedonic Value

This study explores the relationship between social support and social interaction ties on Internet addiction by integrating both online and offline social encounters. A total of 1,642 members of online social communities participated in this research, for which structural equation modeling was used for analysis. The findings show that social support is positively associated with social interaction ties in both online and offline contexts. In addition, online social support and online social interaction ties are positively associated with Internet addiction, whereas offline social support and social interaction ties on Internet addiction are negatively associated. This finding has important implications not only for understanding the cause of Internet addiction but also for understanding the diminishing Internet addiction due to social support and social interaction ties.

Examining social influence factors affecting consumer continuous usage intention for mobile social networking applications

Previous research on both hedonic and utilitarian value has focused considerable effort on outcomes. Few studies compare the impact of Internet usage purposes and gender differences on perceived value effect. The current study explores whether differences in the relative influence of hedonic and utilitarian value affect consumer information search and shopping intentions on the Internet. This study also compares perceived value impact on behavioral intention among respondents in regard to gender. This research uses structural equation modeling of survey data (N = 341). Results show that perceived hedonic and utilitarian value have significantly different effect on information search and shopping intention through the Internet. Hedonic values have positively higher association with customer intention to buy than with intent to search information. Findings also show that hedonic values influence male user intentions to search information but do not influence females. This work presents a theoretical discussion and implications based on the results for the benefit of online practitioners.

Moderators of the relationship between social bonding and organizational commitment

Due to the rapid increase in the use of mobile devices, mobile social-networking applications MSNAs have proliferated during recent years. MSNAs can provide social groups with a means to communicate among group members. Although studies have shown that social influence is relevant to individual and group collective behaviour, few studies have investigated the predictive relationships between multiple integrated social influence factors and the behavioural intention for the use of MSNAs. Therefore, we examined the effects of social influence factors injunctive norms, descriptive norms, social identity, and group norms on the continued intentions to use MSNAs. Data collected though the website of an online survey company yielded 830 usable questionnaires. We used structural equation modelling SEM to test the hypothesised relationships. The results indicate that injunctive norms, descriptive norms, and social identity were positively related to continued usage intention, whereas group norms were unrelated to continued usage intention. Understanding consumer decisions regarding the repeated use of an MSNA is necessary for mobile application M-app developers to design programs that ensure user retention.