Neil Hair

Online Customer Experience: A Review of the Business-to-Consumer Online Purchase Context

Customer interactions with an organizations website create opportunities for positive experiences that can lead to long-term relationship building. The range of potential interactions is now quite diverse, including product information search, purchase transaction and/or service delivery. The domain of customer experience (CE) is well developed in the face-to-face context, but little attention has been paid to exploring the concept in the online context. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the online consumer literature in order to inform understanding of the antecedents and consequences of online customer experience (OCE) in the purchase context. The paper offers four important contributions for both academics and practitioners. First, it adds to understanding of OCE in the purchase context and, second, specifically recognizes and discusses the antecedents of OCE by drawing on existing literature relating to online consumer purchase. Third, it proposes the potential consequences of OCE and provides a framework for future testing. Finally, the paper addresses a problem of relevance to both academics and practitioners, and proposes future research and managerial implications.

Taking advantage of digital opportunities: a typology of digital entrepreneurship

As more companies start doing digital business, the question of how starting a digital venture differs from starting a traditional venture grows more important. We present a framework of digital entrepreneurship that includes a typology of new digital ventures – mild, moderate, and extreme – the characteristics of each type of new digital venture and a discussion of how those characteristics shape the success factors of each type of venture. Specific issues addressed include digital or virtual products and services, digital or virtual workplaces, and the effects of relying on Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC).

The ethical dilemmas and challenges of ethnographic research in electronic communities

Research into the phenomenon of electronic communities is a rapidly emerging field. Coupled with the ferocity of viral marketing and the substantial take-up of social networking sites online, newly found electronic communities of consumers are in abundance (Hagel & Armstrong 1997; Anderson 1999; Kozinets 1999, 2002; Wachter et al. 2000; Johnson 2001; Siu 2002). Marketers are quickly realising the importance of these communities by studying consumer interactions with one another as a means of: understanding consumer behaviour (Bagozzi & Dholakia 2002; Boyd 2002; Maclaren & Catterall 2002; Powers 2003; Szmigin & Repell 2004); exploring emerging market opportunities (Kardaras et al. 2003) and in fostering the development of committed relationships and increasing brand awareness, among others (Kozinets 2002). One approach aimed at a detailed, interpretive understanding of consumer activity is ethnography. Virtual ethnography – also called technography, netnography or ethnography on the internet – is quickly establishing itself as a rich alternative to more common methods of inquiry, such as survey research, aimed at understanding in depth the cultural implications of the internet.

From banners to YouTube: using the rearview mirror to look at the future of internet advertising

In 14 short years, internet advertising has evolved from banners to experiential promotions. In the beginning, advertisers viewed the internet in the same way they considered traditional media (television, newspapers, magazines). The idea of using a new medium like an older one was described by McLuhans concept of the rearview mirror. This article describes the history of internet advertising from 1994 to 2007 by looking back to understand its future direction.

Toward a classification system of relational activity in consumer electronic communities: the moderators' tale

Increasingly, consumers are turning toward electronic community as a form of expression, giving marketers the opportunity to understand and communicate with consumers in specialist fields. Vast differences exist in the nature and performance of electronic communities, making selecting a community difficult. This article proposes a classification system based on in-depth personal construct interviews with experts from a leading European moderating organization. It reports on the empirical results of 10 differentiating features of relational activity across communities: content of discussions, diversity, frequency, quality of interaction, levels of commitment, interpersonal perceptions, reciprocity and complementarity, power and conflict, self-disclosure, and levels of satisfaction reported in community relationships.

Service Dominant Logic – An Example of Competitive Advantage

Value and the concept of value co-creation in marketing networks are growing in importance in providing competitive advantage in increasingly saturated markets. Service-Dominant logic (S-D logic) revolves around the concept that value is always co-created by customers and organizations together (Gronroos, 2006; Vargo and Lusch, 2004; 2008). This study provides a conceptual framework around the topic of co-creation, and identifies customer value creating processes, supplier value creating processes and encounter processes within a single case study of a pharmaceutical organization (called PharmCo for this study). This organization has successfully created its own competitive space, achieving 34% market growth, year-on-year, over a seven-year period. The paper summarizes some of the key conditions of service dominant logic (Ballantyne & Varey, 2007), including value in use, stakeholder interaction, co-creation and the role of integrated networks, the role of the marketer as managing communication, interaction and relationships, between networks of co-operators.