J.C. de Ruyter

What drives consumers to shop online? A literature review

While a large number of consumers in the US and Europe frequently shop on the Internet, research on what drives consumers to shop online has typically been fragmented. This paper therefore proposes a framework to increase researchers’ understanding of consumers’ attitudes toward online shopping and their intention to shop on the Internet. The framework uses the constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a basis, extended by exogenous factors and applies it to the online shopping context. The review shows that attitudes toward online shopping and intention to shop online are not only affected by ease of use, usefulness, and enjoyment, but also by exogenous factors like consumer traits, situational factors, product characteristics, previous online shopping experiences, and trust in online shopping.

Customer-Sales Employee Encounters: A Dyadic Perspective

Although researchers have suggested that the performance of the salesperson during sales encounters is critical, many of the underlying mechanisms that govern the interaction between salespersons and customers are still unclear. In this research, we investigate sales encounters from a new approach based on the field of research of interpersonal perception. Results demonstrate that drivers of customer satisfaction may also be satisfying for the contact employee. Additionally, we find that customer satisfaction is not only determined by the customer’s own perceptions, but also by the perceptions of the employee. Similarly, employee satisfaction is driven by the customer’s perceptions. Finally, our study identifies that perceptions of employee performance and satisfaction do not only reflect the unique interaction between the customer and the employee, but also relatively stable characteristics of the employee.

Moderated Group Chat: An Empirical Assessment of a New E-Service Encounter

In this paper, the focus is on a new type of electronic service encounter called Moderated Group Chat (MGC). MGC is defined as on‐line, real‐time interactions between groups of customers with an active coordinating role for a company representative and a commercial objective. Based on the technology acceptance model, we develop a conceptual framework and examine empirically which factors drive customer satisfaction with MGC sessions. Particularly, we look at the impact of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment on customer satisfaction. As MGC involves multiple participants and interactions take place within an electronic group environment, predictor‐criterion relationships may vary between individual‐ and group‐level or shared perceptions. Therefore, the relationships between aforementioned determinants and chat session satisfaction are tested using a multi‐level model. In addition, group size was included as a control variable. Finally, since chat is an innovative service delivery channel, we also took a number of customer characteristics (i.e. innovativeness, experience with investing and experience with chat) into account. Whereas we find support for a positive impact of the majority of predictor variables on chat session satisfaction, the precise nature of the relationship varies across levels. Moreover, while group size is positively related to satisfaction, experience with investing exhibits a weakly negative relationship.

Understanding willingness to pay for social network sites

The authors investigate how perceived customer value can be translated into economic returns for online social network sites (SNS). The (joint) impact of two value propositions, social capital and entitativity, is assessed. Perceived economic and social customer value are investigated as outcomes of these propositions. Two studies reveal that entitativity and social capital impact members’ willingness to pay (WtP) membership fees, either directly or indirectly. Moreover, the predictive ability of perceived economic and social customer value regarding WtP depends on the type of membership and the type of social network. SNS providers are advised to emphasize the benefits their users actually take advantage of. While for professional SNS, it seems advisable to stress both social and economic value, particularly for premium members, in socially oriented SNS premium members seem to be driven more by social value. Other theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Perceived uncertainty in self‐managed service teams: an empirical assessment

This empirical study examines the impact of context‐team factors and team‐employee factors on perceived uncertainty in self‐managed service teams. The results of our study show that context‐team factors rather than team‐employee factors are critical to the extent of uncertainty employees perceive when providing customer service. Furthermore, perceived uncertainty has negative impact on self‐managed team outcomes in terms of job satisfaction and intention to leave the team. Besides this, our findings indicate that team commitment to customer service quality can serve as an effective tool to handle the negative consequences of perceived uncertainty in self‐managed service teams. Finally, in addition to the cross‐sectional analysis, a longitudinal exploration has been carried out, the outcomes of which suggest that the structural relationships are changing over time, underlining the need to take dynamic considerations into account in analyzing the effectiveness of self‐managed work teams.

Communication channel consideration for in-home services: The moderating role of customer participation

Purpose – This paper aims to examine communication channels for in‐home service provision. In particular, it aims to focus on the joint effect of two converging trends: the increase of in‐home services involving high degrees of customer participation;and the extension of the number of channels that service firms use to communicate with customers. It seeks to assess which benefits customers desire of communication channels across in‐home service production formats and how these benefit desires determine their communication channel consideration for in‐home services.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a literature review a conceptual framework was constructed. Using the association pattern technique (APT), a survey of 383 customers of a Dutch energy company was carried out. The APT enabled the authors to quantify the relationship between participative in‐home service provision situations, desired communication channel benefits, and communication channel consideration.Findings – Results show that customer...

The Impact of Electronic Commerce as a Mode of Product Purchase on Consumer Retail Shopping Alternatives

The growth of Internet technology and electronic commerce has not been matched by theoretically-guided social science research. Clear and well designed consumer research is needed to describe, explain, and predict what will happen to this changing landscape. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the structure for consumer preferences to make product purchases through three available retail formats - store, catalog, and the Internet. Conjoint analysis was used to assess the structure of the decision and the importance of the attributes in the decision-making process. The results from this study noticeably show that the structure of the consumer decision-making process was found to be primarily one of choosing the retail format (store, catalog, or Internet) and price of product (set at low, medium or high) desired. The strength of the retail store format suggests that fears that the Internet will take over the retail arena seem, at least at this point in time, overblown and exaggerated. However, there seems to be an identifiable segment of customers that has a preference for the Internet as a retail shopping alternative.The growth of internet technology and electronic commerce has not been matched by theoretically guided social science research. Clear and well-designed consumer research is needed to describe, explain, and predict what will happen to this changing landscape. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the structure for consumer preferences to make product purchases through three available retail formats—store, catalog, and the internet. Conjoint analysis was used to assess the structure of the decision and the importance of the attributes in the decision-making process. The results from this study noticeably show that the structure of the consumer decision-making process was found to be primarily one of choosing the retail format (store, catalog, or internet) and price of product (set at low, medium, or high) desired. The strength of the retail store format suggests that fears that the internet will take over the retail arena seem, at least at this point in time, overblown and exaggerated. However, there seems to be an identifiable segment of customers that has a preference for the internet as a retail shopping alternative.