Fue Zeng

Social Factors in User Perceptions and Responses to Advertising in Online Social Networking Communities

ABSTRACT With the advent of popular Web destinations such as MySpace and Facebook, online social networking communities now occupy the center stage of e-commerce. Yet these online social networking communities must balance the trade-off between advertising revenue and user experience. Drawing on the sociology and advertising literature, this study investigates the impacts of social identity and group norms on community users’ group intentions to accept advertising in online social networking communities. By outlining how this type of group intention could influence community members’ perceptions and value judgments of such advertising, this study delineates possible mechanisms by which community members may respond positively to community advertising. The authors test the proposed theoretical framework on a sample of 327 popular online community users in China and obtain general support. Implications for the prospect of advertising in online social networking communities are discussed.

Determinants of online service satisfaction and their impacts on behavioural intentions

The paper aims to identify the key antecedents of overall online service satisfaction and reveals their pattern of impact on behavioural consequences. Five determinants of e-service satisfaction were first developed by an exploratory study among online banking users. Data collected through a web-based survey of 235 online service users suggest that each antecedent of e-service satisfaction influences the four behavioural intentions either directly or indirectly through the mediation of overall satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are examined and discussed in depth.

The exploitation of an international firm''s relational capabilities: an empirical study

The study focuses on an international firms relational capabilities that mediate to effectively facilitate organizational collaborations. We assess how the influence that arises from an international firms cooperative strategies including market futures, trust and business network may affect the exploitation of the firms relational capabilities and its impact on performance, using survey data from 320 firms. This study empirically tests how the effects of an international firms market futures, trust and business network influence the exploitation of the firms relational capabilities. Results of structural equation modeling do indicate that trust and business network influence the exploitation of a firms relational capabilities. This study confirms that the leveraging of an international firms relational capability within its focal trust and business networking does achieve superior performance.

The Use of Accommodation in Buyer–Seller Relationships: Encouraging or Controlling Opportunism in Business Markets Middle-grounds

ABSTRACT Purpose: In the past decades, marketing researchers have explored different strategies to control opportunism in buyer–seller relationships. Accommodation, the cooperative response to partners’ exploitive behavior in exchange relationships, has received increasing attention from research on interfirm relationships. However, less is known about whether accommodation is an effective response strategy for controlling opportunism. Drawing on the self-enforcing agreement literature, this article focuses on exploring (1) what drives a firm’s accommodation response to its partner’s exploitive behavior, (2) how a firm’s accommodation helps govern its exchange partner’s opportunistic behavior, and (3) whether monitoring magnifies or buffers the effect of accommodation on the exchange partners’ opportunism. Methodology: The survey data were collected from 173 seller-firms in Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou, representing the south, east, north, and middle regions of China. The initial questionnaires were distributed mainly by mail. By assessing the nonresponse bias and the potential bias of early and late responses, we detected no significant differences, implying that the aforementioned biases are not a concern. Because PLS can readily model both formative and reflective constructs, and accommodation is a formative construct, we deployed the SmartPLS software program to test our model. Findings: This article enables a deeper understanding of accommodation as a response strategy in buyer–seller relationships. The data analysis offers supportive evidence that a firm’s level of accommodation is positively related to two exchange attributes: joint-specific investments and observability of the exchanges. Accommodation, as a cooperative response strategy, curtails opportunism in buyer–seller relationships, and such a curtailing role is magnified when accompanied with monitoring. Originality/value/contribution: The authors develop a framework to examine previously untested relationships, which suggest accommodation is a cooperative response strategy to mitigate opportunism. We also contribute by exploring the antecedents of accommodation from the tangible transaction attributes perspective. Specifically, two exchange attributes, joint-specific investments and observability, can explain the emergence of accommodation. In addition, we examine the combined effect of competitive response strategies and cooperative response strategies on controlling partner opportunism. That is, competitive response strategies (i.e., monitoring) strengthen the governing effect of cooperative response strategies (i.e., accommodation).

The Newsvendor Problem with Different Delivery Time, Resalable Returns, and an Additional Order

In a B2C scenario, the retailer is confronted with two kinds of demand. One requires an immediate delivery after placing an order, while the other prefers a delayed shipment due to some personal reasons. Considering demands for different delivery time, we explore a newsvendor model with resalable returns and an additional order to optimize the procurement decision under a stochastic demand distribution. The impact of the proportion of the instant delivery needs and the return rate on the order quantity and the expected profit is illustrated through numerical tests. It is shown that the expected profit decreases as the ratios of immediate delivery needs and returned products increase. Besides, if the sum of the percentage of the instant delivery needs and the return rate is less than 1, the expected profit is always greater than the result if the sum of them is equal to or greater than 1. Management implications are also discussed.

How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities

This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users’ perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users’ behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users’ group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it’s an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users’ group intentions to increase users’ advertising acceptance and response.

Deviant ratings and the effectiveness of performance appraisal

In order to maximize performance appraisal effectiveness, extant literatures explore methods to reduce rater errors, improve rating accuracy and qualitative aspects. Even if these methods can substantially improve performance appraisal effectiveness, it is still unable to completely eliminate the existing of deviant ratings because the raters are subjective factors for the evaluation. This study introduces a statistical method that can effectively identify and eliminate deviant ratings, thus greatly improving the effectiveness of performance appraisal. Limitations of the method and future research directions are also discussed.