Nadia Jiménez

Online buying perceptions in Spain: can gender make a difference?

Internet has led to radical changes in commercial relations and especially in consumer buying habits. Considering the peculiar characteristics of Internet shopping, it is difficult to engender consumer online trust and consumer face an adverse selection problem when having to choose the best web site to buy from. This problem may be mitigated by signaling the high-quality and good behavior of the e-vendor or by consumer satisfactory experiences. As gender can make differences in the decision-making processes of individuals, the purpose of this study is to find out if there are gender differences regarding the effect of three specific signals of quality—service quality, warranty, and security and privacy policies– on e-satisfaction and e-trust, and on the relation between satisfaction and trust. The research questions were tested using information gathered from Spanish online buyers and using structural equation modeling. Results suggest that suitable gender-based signaling strategies could conceivably be prepared in accordance with the target population, which holds interesting implications for both the academic and the professional world.

The central role of the reputation of country-of-origin firms in developing markets

Purpose This study aims to test the central role of the perceived reputation of country-of-origin (COO) firms between cultural and socio-psychological variables and management and economic variables that help to explain the multi-faceted phenomenon of COO on a developing market. It also tests the moderator role of ethnocentrism, which is the objective of recommending different segment marketing strategies for international firms. Design/methodology/approach The study opted for the structure equation modelling methodology to analyze data collected from 274 Mexican car owners who evaluate Korean automobiles. Findings The results show that the COO reputation of firms from a developing market has a mediating role on the relationship between cultural openness and animosity and trust, risk and purchase intention, but the consequents of the perceived reputation of COO vary depending on the level of consumers’ ethnocentrism. Research limitations/implications Firms seeking to internationalize need to find out how to overcome the hurdle of target market animosity, to increase the cultural openness and to promote trust and purchases in international markets; at the same time, they reduce the perception of risk. In this sense, it might help to increase the perceived reputation of COO firms and to use different marketing strategies according to the target market. Originality/value This study analyzes reputation of firms associated to a COO as a signal that can help to solve purchase decisions in the relationship between consumers and firms from developing markets and also corroborates its role as a mediator factor. In addition, this study empirically tests how animosity and cultural openness influence perceived reputation of COO firms, relationships that has scarcely been studied in literature. This study has also found that less and more ethnocentric consumers have differences in how the COO cues influence on their evaluations and behaviour. Finally, as insufficient consumer research has been conducted into emerging and developing markets, this study focuses on consumers from a developing country and regards automobiles from an emerging country.

Trust and satisfaction: the keys to client loyalty in mobile commerce

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of four important variables in the development of customer loyalty in mobile commerce. These variables are personal (propensity to use information and communication technologies (ICTs)), transactional (opportunism), and relational (trust and satisfaction). Design/methodology/approach A broad sample of 1,053 mobile customers in Mexico was studied using the structural equation analysis methodology. Findings The results offer evidence on how trust and satisfaction can increase loyalty and motivate purchases via mobile devices. In addition, the results show evidence of the indirect effect (mediated through trust) of opportunism, and propensity to use ICTs on loyalty. Practical implications Achieving customer satisfaction is revealed as the main strategy enterprises should seek in order to encourage repetitive purchases via mobile devices and customer loyalty. At the same time, companies should consider that the customers most likely to use ICTs, and those who perceive less opportunism can also be very loyal as a result of a higher level of trust when making purchases using mobile devices. Originality/value The contributions of this paper are: (1) to analyze the generation of loyalty in mobile commerce using a conceptual model that includes variables of different theoretical perspectives and nature, both positive and negative. (2) To provide empirical evidence from a sample of mobile users who have already bought goods via mobile phone, contributing to prior literature that has focused on analyzing the behavior of mobile phone users who do not make purchases via mobile phones. (3) To study mobile commerce in an emerging market with notable potential for growth (Mexico), which has not been studied at length in previous literature.

Curbing electronic shopper perceived opportunism and encouraging trust

Purpose Consumers can face a situation of information asymmetry in electronic shopping (ES). The purpose of this paper to examine the relationships between: relational variables such as satisfaction, trust and perceived opportunism; and website cues (cognitive signals such as security and personalization, and experiential signals, such as design and entertainment). Design/methodology/approach The paper opted for the structural equation methodology to analyze data collected from 447 Spanish e-shoppers. Findings Results show different factors that relate to satisfaction, trust and perceived opportunism in ES. Satisfactory experience with ES and entertainment emerge as the most relevant factors to achieve trust and prevent perceived opportunism in e-commerce. Originality/value The five contributions of this study are: the introduction of variables from several theoretical approaches to the study of an agency problem in e-commerce; the study of different ways to gain buyer trust and reduce perceived opportunism in an electronic shopper-vendor relationship; the application of signaling theory as part of the process of helping the principal (e-shopper) to solve their shopping problem in a context of information asymmetry; the analysis of the impact of external cues from e-vendor/site, which allows for a comparison between internal experiences and external quality signals; and the study of entertainment as an important hedonic variable in order to have satisfied and confident e-shoppers.

El éxito del Comercio Móvil B2C: factores de adopción y propuestas de valor de las empresas

The literature has extensively analysed the factors affecting the adoption of this shopping channel by consumers. However, literature has not deepened in the same way on the value propositions that the firm can incorporate into its offerings including mobile pone characteristics as a channel. In order to contribute to marketing literature, we have developed a comprehensive view that addresses the B2C relationship in mobile commerce. In this line, the aim of this study is to determine the value propositions based on mobile technology including the factors involved in the success of mobile commerce from the consumer ‘s point of view. To achieve this purpose, we used secondary information and did an extensive review of the literature to classify different proposition of value in the mobile commerce literature. As a result, this study includes several factors that favour the adoption of mobile commerce from the point of view of consumers and put a special emphasis on the offering of six types of value propositions on which companies interested in mobile selling can articulate their business to make consumers adopt this type of purchase finally.

A Typology of Firms Regarding M-Commerce Adoption

Nowadays firms are actively considering the mobile phone as a means of marketing and should also analyze its potential as a means of selling. In this study, the authors present the survey results from a sample of 125 firms, in Spain. They outline four types of firms innovators, followers, laggards and traditionalists on the basis of factors that drive or inhibit this type of selling and the main variables from TOE technological, organizational and environmental framework. The authors also characterize those four types of firms according to their size, sector, experience and use of ICT marketing strategies. To the best of their knowledge, scarce studies have analyzed mobile selling in Spain and proposed an exhaustive characterization of mobile vendor firms and strategies. Both academic and managerial implications of interest are derived from this study.