Panos E. Kourouthanassis

Developing consumer-friendly pervasive retail systems

Few researchers have explored consumer reactions to pervasive retail systems. The prototype implementation and study results discussed here have important implications for system developments.

A roadmap for research in mobile business

Mobile business research has arguably grown to become one of the most topical and complex eBusiness research areas in recent years. As a result, researchers face a plethora of interdisciplinary research challenges. Understanding the range of these challenges and confronting them requires coordinated research efforts, backed up by a holistic guiding approach. This paper aims at contributing to the future of mobile business research by proposing a roadmap to systematise and guide future research efforts, providing a methodical outlook to open research issues across all dimensions defining mobile business and prioritises future research in each dimension in the form of short-, medium-, and long-term research challenges.

Tourists responses to mobile augmented reality travel guides

This research presents a mobile augmented reality (MAR) travel guide, named CorfuAR, which supports personalized recommendations. We report the development process and devise a theoretical model that explores the adoption of MAR applications through their emotional impact. A field study on Corfu visitors ( n = 105 ) shows that the functional properties of CorfuAR evoke feelings of pleasure and arousal, which, in turn, influence the behavioral intention of using it. This is the first study that empirically validates the relation between functional system properties, user emotions, and adoption behavior. The paper discusses also the theoretical and managerial implications of our study.

Demystifying the design of mobile augmented reality applications

This research proposes a set of interaction design principles for the development of mobile augmented reality (MAR) applications. The design recommendations adopt a user-centered perspective and, thus, they focus on the necessary actions to ensure high-quality MAR user experiences. To formulate our propositions we relied on theoretical grounding and an evaluation of eight MAR applications that provide published records of their design properties. The design principles have then been applied to guide the development of a MAR travel application. We performed a field study with 33 tourists in order to elicit whether our design choices effectively lead to enhanced satisfaction and overall user experience. Results suggest that the proposed principles contribute to ensuring high usability and performance of the MAR application as well as evoking positive feelings during user and system interactions. Our prescriptions may be employed either as a guide during the initial stages of the design process (ex-ante usage) or as a benchmark to assess the performance (ex-post usage) of MAR applications.

Shiny happy people buying: the role of emotions on personalized e-shopping

Personalized services are diffusing rapidly in online shopping communities. However, the current understanding of the influence of personalization is limited. This study extends personalization literature into the area of emotions related to intention to purchase and into the context of online shopping. Responses from 182 online shoppers were used to examine the impact of personalization on customer emotions and intention to purchase. The results show that there is a direct positive association between personalization and purchase intentions. In addition, provision of personalization features in e-shops may evoke positive emotions to online shoppers but does not evoke nor mitigate negative ones. Finally, our study reports that emotions influence online shopping behavior either positively, through the formulation of positive emotions, or negatively, through negative emotions. These findings indicate that positive emotions mediate the relationship between personalization and purchase intentions. Our study concludes with a critical appraisal of our findings and a discussion of prospective theoretical and managerial implications for e-shop practitioners.

Deploying RFID-Enabled Services in the Retail Supply Chain: Lessons Learned toward the Internet of Things

Through this research the authors communicate the lessons learned during the deployment of two RFID retail applications—namely dynamic pricing of fresh products and management of promotions in the supermarket floor—in two real-life pilot sites in Greece and Ireland. The lessons are presented in three inter-related perspectives; engineering challenges and associated solutions, individual adoption factors, and organizational success indicators. The authors argue that these findings might inform the design community to develop better RFID instantiations.

Delineating ‘pervasiveness’ in pervasive information systems: a taxonomical framework and design implications

Pervasive Information Systems (IS) exemplify a paradigm where Information Technology is embedded in the physical environment, capable of accommodating user needs and wants when desired. Pervasive IS differ from IS that are based on the desktop paradigm in that they encompass a complex, dynamic environment composed of multiple artifacts, capable of perceiving contextual information and supporting user mobility. Building on the novel properties of pervasive IS, we propose a taxonomical framework assessing the level of ‘pervasiveness’ in a given information system. The framework consists of three interweaving dimensions, namely ubiquity (encompassing mobility and heterogeneity), diffusion (encompassing invisibility and interactivity) and contextual awareness. The framework may be employed either to prospectively inform the design of pervasive IS (by pointing towards pertinent design considerations) or to retrospectively assess the pervasiveness of a system and identify improvement opportunities. We demonstrate both uses, firstly by discussing design priorities for ex ante IS evaluation and secondly by showcasing ex post assessments of a domestic and a corporate pervasive IS.

The interplay of online shopping motivations and experiential factors on personalized e-commerce

This study uses complexity theory and configurational analysis to explain online shopping behavior.Online shopping experience and online shopping motivations combine to predict high purchase intention.Price sensitivity and promotion sensitivity are the most important motivations.Personalized e-shopping may be successful even when quality of personalization is low. The present study aims to examine purchase behavior in personalized online shopping by employing complexity theory, based on customers online shopping experience and online shopping motivations. To address its objectives, a conceptual model is proposed along with research propositions. The research propositions are validated through a survey on 401 customers experience with online shopping, by using the data analysis tool fsQCA (fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis). The results, indicate nine configurations of online shopping experience and online shopping motivations that lead to high purchase intentions. This study takes a step further the literature of online shopping and the theoretical ground of how customers online shopping experience combines with their online shopping motivations in order to predict and explain increased intention to purchase. The findings offer implications for both researchers and online retailers, regarding the development of new theories in personalized e-commerce and the provision of personalized services.

Assessing Emotions Related to Privacy and Trust in Personalized Services

This study explores the dynamics of personalized services in online shopping, with regard to emotions, privacy and trust. The basic emotions of happiness and anxiety were chosen. A sample of 182 online shoppers was used to assess the effect of privacy and trust on their emotions through personalized services, and how these emotions ultimately affect their purchase intentions. The findings indicate that privacy affects anxiety while trust affects happiness, while both emotions have significant influence on customers’ intention to buy through personalized services. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research directions.

Analysing m-commerce research: technology, applications and research themes

Mobile and wireless communication technologies have enabled the provision of innovative services for individuals, organisations and society, while at the same time they have spawned a plethora of research opportunities. This special issue encapsulates four of the best papers that were presented during the 9th International Conference on Mobile Business/9th Global Mobility Roundtable. The papers discuss four seminal m-commerce topics. In our course to introduce the special issue, we perform a short outline of the trajectory of m-commerce research under three perspectives: technology, applications and core research themes.