Mark Vandenbosch

Research Report: Richness Versus Parsimony in Modeling Technology Adoption Decisions--Understanding Merchant Adoption of a Smart Card-Based Payment System

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has received considerable research attention in the IS field over the past decade, placing an emphasis on the roles played by perceived ease-of-use and perceived usefulness in influencing technology adoption decisions. Meanwhile, alternative sets of antecedents to adoption have received less attention. In this paper, sets of antecedent constructs drawn from both TAM and the Perceived Characteristics of Innovating (PCI) inventory are tested and subsequently compared with one another. The comparison is done in the context of a large-scale market trial of a smart card-based electronic payment system being evaluated by a group of retailers and merchants. The PCI set of antecedents explains substantially more variance than does TAM, while also providing managers with more detailed information regarding the antecedents driving technology innovation adoption.

Intermediating technologies and multi‐group adoption: A comparison of consumer and merchant adoption intentions toward a new electronic payment system

Abstract Traditional technology adoption research has assumed a single adopting group. However, there are many settings in which multiple groups must jointly adopt an innovation in order for it to succeed. This is particularly true for new information technology innovations that mediate the relationship between two groups. For example, online exchanges (e.g., Freemarkets, GoFish) must attract both suppliers and buyers in order to be successful. The same is true for providers of hardware/software solutions for electronic data interchange and supply chain management. This article describes the phenomenon of multigroup adoption with a particular focus on applications within the financial services and retailing industries. Empirically, the article reports findings from a study that illustrates the importance of evaluating and managing multigroup technology adoption in the specific context of an in-market trial of a new smart card-based electronic payment system. Two distinct groups critical to the smart card’s success are studied: consumers (who must decide to use the new card) and retailers (who must agree to adopt and use new technology needed to process smart card transactions). The study identifies which characteristics of the smart card innovation are most closely linked to intention to adopt for each group, and examines how these key characteristics differ by group. Perceptual data were collected via a mail survey from consumers and merchants living in the city where a one-year market trial of the new card was taking place. Four separate sampling frames were established for both consumers and merchants who were participating in the trial as well as both consumers and merchants who were not participating in the trial. Random samples were then drawn from these frames. More than 350 consumers and over 250 merchants completed and returned the survey. Responses were analyzed separately for each of the four groups sampled. The most important characteristic leading to adoption identified by all four groups was relative advantage—the smart card had to demonstrate a clear competitive advantage over what they currently used. Compatibility (i.e., the degree to which the smart card fit with their current preferences) was also noted as important to all but the nonparticipating merchant group. Beyond this, the key drivers of adoption differed considerably by group. Participating consumers and participating merchants appeared to possess different perspectives when assessing their decision to adopt the smart card technology. Consumers seemed to value the notion that the adoption decision is under their control, whereas merchants seemed to place more value on the antecedents that had the potential to add to their bottom line. This suggests that it is necessary to institute different marketing tactics to attract the early adopting groups. In addition, significant differences in the importance of antecedents between participating and nonparticipating consumers and participating and nonparticipating merchants suggest that, over time, it may also be necessary to develop and use different marketing tactics for later adopters.

An Empathy-Helping Perspective on Consumers' Responses to Fund-Raising Appeals

The research examines viewers’ actual responses to four televised fund‐raising drives by a public television station over a 2‐year period. The 584 pledge breaks we studied contain 4,868 individual appeals that were decomposed into two underlying dimensions based on the empathy‐helping hypothesis: the appeal beneficiary (self versus other) and emotional valence (positive versus negative). We find that the most effective fund‐raising appeals communicate the benefits to others rather than to the self and evoke negative rather than positive emotions. Appeals that emphasize benefits to the self significantly reduce the number of calls to the station, particularly when they have a positive emotional valence.

Retail sales force scheduling based on store traffic forecasting

Abstract Although retailers acknowledge the impact of sales force scheduling decisions on store profits and customer service, current scheduling methods may fail to capture the sales potential of customers who enter their premises. These methods do not recognize the effect that the sales staff availability has upon the customer purchasing, thus leaving significant opportunity for additional sales volume unrealized. To resolve this problem, we propose a model which sets store sales potential as a function of store traffic volume, customer type, and customer response to sale force availability. We test our model for a profit maximizing sales force schedule with data providing hourly data of store sales, store traffic and staff head count. The solution for this optimal schedule indicates that the store may be seriously understaffed and that expanding the number of salespersons would both generate higher profits and provide customers with better service. Our scheduling method also provides a tool for identifying the time periods when service is most heavily demanded by customers.

Why smart cards have failed: looking to consumer and merchant reactions to a new payment technology

For more than a decade, bankers and others outside the financial services community such as hardware manufacturers have sought to solidify the place of smart card technology as a viable retail point‐of‐sale alternative and, more boldly, as an outright replacement for cash in everyday consumption situations around the globe. Despite strong development efforts and numerous fact‐finding market trials, many banks have found smart card technology to be a losing proposition. This article presents a detailed case study of both consumer and merchant adoption of one smart card‐based retail point‐of‐sale system. The system, called “Exact”, was test marketed for a full year in the Canadian market. Various perceptual and demographic data from consumers as well as firm‐level data from retailers are both presented and assessed. The ensuing discussion offers pragmatic suggestions for those in the financial services community as to how the apparent difficulties and shortcomings of smart card technology may be overcome.

Evidence that user-generated content that produces engagement increases purchase behaviours

ABSTRACT The use of social media environments that enable consumers to engage with a brand publicly is of increasing interest to marketers. In particular, contests in which consumers create user-generated content (UGC) offer the potential of actively engaging consumers with a brand and thereby directly affecting consumer purchases. This research demonstrates that prompting consumers to create UGC that engages consumers in actively thinking about or elaborating on a personal goal that is relevant to a brand does affect actual buying decisions. It shows that the impact of this engagement via content elaboration is not accounted for by mere participation in the social media activity or rewards offered to participants. The research adds to the growing literature on the importance of consumer engagement and validates the link between engagement and actual purchase behaviours.

Dramatically reducing cycle times through flash development

The reduction of cycle time has emerged as a fundamental element of new product development strategy. Many companies look solely at speed enhancement and increase the human, capital and technical resources allocated to development projects. However, additional resources do not guarantee significant reductions in cycle time. As well as speed enhancement activities, there exist two other sets of activities that are key to shortening the development cycle: those that act to prevent delays (friction) in the development process and those that define the scope of the final outcome (direction). This paper describes flash development as an alternative approach to reducing product development cycle times. Flash development works by creating a process that focuses on speed, friction and direction. The process is illustrated through an analysis of the Galileo Project at Nortel Networks.

Perceived variance and preference for sequences of outcomes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a new explanation for the well‐documented preference among individuals for sequences of increasing utility. It is put forward here that while there may be a preference for ascending‐utility sequences, this relationship is mediated by perceptions of variance. Specifically, there is reason to believe that sequences of ascending utility (e.g. receipt of payments) are perceived to be less variable than sequences of descending utility (e.g. prices).Design/methodology/approach – Past and present price research supports the idea that perceived variance plays a key role in preference, which fits with established theory. This theory is examined and applied to a hypothetical scenario involving sequences of uncertain outcomes. The predicted effect is tested in two experimental studies.Findings – The two studies lend support to the proposed explanation of sequence preference. Study one demonstrates that the effect of sequence direction on preference is mediated by per...

Social Media Engagement that Drives Purchase Behavior

The Internet and social media are enabling many new forms of advertising. The first decade or so of Internet advertising—largely consisting of display banner ads and email blasts—followed the approach of traditional print, broadcast, sale promotion and direct advertising, where the advertiser exposes passive eyeballs to some message, perhaps with a call to action inviting a click.

Estimating choice models in data-sparse environments: Taking advantage of perceived similarity

Research suggests that choice models conditioned on correctly identified consideration sets outperform choice models conditioned on the awareness set (Hauser, 1978; Roberts and Lattin, 1991). However, in data-sparse environments, where purchase history information is not available or not relevant, choice models conditioned on the consideration set often yield nonunique or nonsignificant solutions. In these environments, we propose the use of similarity information to improve the performance of choice models. Support for this position is found in an empirical application involving automobiles.