Mary Wolfinbarger

eTailQ: dimensionalizing, measuring and predicting etail quality

Abstract Quality is related to customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty in both product and services settings. Thus, quality is expected to be a determinant of online retailer success as well. Based on online and offline focus groups, a sorting task, and an online survey of a customer panel, the authors establish the dimensions of the etail experience, and develop a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of etail quality. The analysis suggests that four factors—website design, fulfillment/reliability, privacy/security and customer service—are strongly predictive of customer judgments of quality and satisfaction, customer loyalty and attitudes toward the website.

Shopping Online for Freedom, Control, and Fun

Consumers shop online for both goal-oriented and experiential reasons. However, goal-oriented motives are more common among online shoppers than are experiential motives. This article identifies and discusses attributes that facilitate goal-oriented online shopping, including accessibility/convenience, selection, information availability, and lack of unwanted sociality from retail sales help or shopping partners such as spouses. Importantly, consumers report that shopping online results in a substantially increased sense of freedom and control as compared to offline shopping. While consumers are more likely to describe offline rather than online shopping in experiential terms, evidence of experiential motivations for online shopping is emerging. Also, while closing transactions at web sites is one important e-commerce goal, companies should not lose site of the continuing importance and power of their web site as an information and communications vehicle.

A Dyadic Study of Interpersonal Information Search

Although interpersonal word-of-mouth communication, by definition, takes place between two people, rarely has the phenomenon of word of mouth been studied using both members of the dyad. Building on the literature, this article offers a model of active interpersonal information search that is tested by using a method in which information seeker and source perceptions were obtained. Source characteristics were important determinants of interpersonal influence, but seeker characteristics also played an important role. Interestingly, it proved useful to distinguish between demographic and attitudinal homophily of seeker and source as the former was inversely and the latter directly related to interpersonal influence.

Consumer Identity Renaissance: The Resurgence of Identity-Inspired Consumption in Retirement

Using multimethod data, we investigate retirement as a life stage centered on consumption, where cultural scripts are particularly contested and in flux and where we witness an increase in breadth and depth of identity-related consumption, which we term consumer identity renaissance. While prior research on older consumers focuses on corporeal and cognitive decline and its impact on individual decision-making situations, our attention is drawn to the competency and growth potential of those who have exited their formal productive stage and privilege consumption as a means to create and enact identity. Contrary to the received view of older consumers simply reviewing and integrating their already developed identities, we find retirement can be a time of extensive identity work with multiple revived and emergent inspirations weaving across all time orientations (past, present, and future) and involving intricate consumption enactments.

Discontinuous Classroom Innovation: Waves of Change for Marketing Education

The authors suggest that faculty adoption patterns move through three identifiable stages. In wave 1, technology serves a support function that improves efficiency but does not significantly affect teaching. During wave 2, teaching technology enables faculty to efficiently “mirror” classroom activities using new technologies. Not until wave 3, however, does discontinuous innovation occur. Wave 3 is characterized by unique applications that result in extending the classroom in ways that result in a more current, active, and interactive learning environment. The authors’ conceptualization helps faculty and administrators better understand how they are currently using technology, identify barriers to wave 3 adoption behavior, and develop goals and create applications that will push faculty beyond using new technologies merely to support or mirror previous functions.

A comparison of consumer experiences with online and offline shopping

The number of consumers buying online, as well as the dollar amount being spent by online buyers has been on the rise in recent years. In 1999, e-tailing sales in North America were estimated at

The effects of earthquake measurement concepts and magnitude anchoring on individuals' perceptions of earthquake risk

20 billion; for the first five months of 2000, sales are already

Creating Renaissance Employees in an Era of Convergence between Information Technology and Business Strategy: A Proposal for Business Schools.

14.9 billion (www.forrester.com). Nevertheless, e-commerce sales currently account for around 1% of retail sales, and experts and scholars have argued over the possible upper limit to online consumer spending. Ultimately, the degree to which online and offline shopping fulfill various consumer needs will impact the amount of shopping dollars that consumers will choose to spend in each environment.

Advertising's Internal Audience

The purpose of this research is to explore earthquake risk perceptions in California. Specifically, we examine the risk beliefs, feelings, and experiences of lay, professional, and expert individuals to explore how risk is perceived and how risk perceptions are formed relative to earthquakes. Our results indicate that individuals tend to perceptually underestimate the degree that earthquake (EQ) events may affect them. This occurs in large part because individuals’ personal felt experience of EQ events are generally overestimated relative to experienced magnitudes. An important finding is that individuals engage in a process of “cognitive anchoring” of their felt EQ experience towards the reported earthquake magnitude size. The anchoring effect is moderated by the degree that individuals comprehend EQ magnitude measurement and EQ attenuation. Overall, the results of this research provide us with a deeper understanding of EQ risk perceptions, especially as they relate to individuals’ understanding of EQ measurement and attenuation concepts.

.comQ: Dimensionalizing, Measuring, and Predicting Quality of the E-tail Experience

Abstract As e-commerce increasingly predominates business transactions, Internet-based technologies are becoming pervasive and increasingly customer facing. As a result, integration between IT and business-strategic functions is increasing. This new cross-functional economy requires Renaissance managers and employees who understand this convergence. In this article, the authors examine barriers that business schools must overcome to produce the needed cross-pollinated employees. Suggestions for business schools attempting to create timely and cross-functional business programs are also provided. Business schools should focus on knowledge development and cross-functional integration and largely cede skill-based training to alternative or ancillary venues. As well, they should integrate e-commerce and technology issues throughout the curriculum.