Sebastian Molinillo

Organizational adoption of digital information and technology: a theoretical review

Purpose This paper aims to review previous studies on how organizations, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), adopt digital information and technology, especially on the drivers and the outcomes of the adoption itself. Design/methodology/approach The present study follows a literature review design. Previous studies that examine SMEs’ digital information and technology adoption are taken into account in building the conclusion. Findings The review reveals that digital information and technology that is used for marketing-related position allows SMEs to be more competitive. In general, there are three main theories that have been used to understand the adoption process (i.e. diffusion of innovation theory, technology-organization-environment framework and institutional theory). These theories should be used in conjunction with each other to better explain the adoption process. Additionally, there are three characteristics (i.e. innovation, firm and environmental) that are related to the risks and barriers of the adoption process. Originality/value This theoretical review is among the few that put forward the findings reported in research articles on the digital information and technology adoption process within SMEs. Moreover, this paper summarizes the issues (i.e. drivers, outcomes, risks and barriers) related to the adoption process.

Responsible brands vs active brands? An examination of brand personality on brand awareness, brand trust, and brand loyalty

Purpose There is a rise in interest on the topic of consumer-brand relationships (CBRs) among practitioners and academics. Consumers are said to build relationships with brands that have a personality congruent with their own. The purpose of this paper is to investigate two types of brand personality traits, namely, responsible brands and active brands to predict prominent CBR constructs, including brand awareness, brand trust, and brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach This study was based on an electronic survey of 339 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings The results show that brand personality positively affects the three CBR constructs. Specifically, the focus is shifted to the two major personality dimensions, responsible and active, respectively. The results indicate that an active brand is a stronger predictor of brand awareness compared to a responsible brand. However, a responsible brand is a stronger predictor of brand trust as well as brand loyalty compared to an active brand. Surprisingly, the results display that active brands lower brand trust and brand loyalty. Practical implications This finding informs brand managers that projecting active brand personality leads to higher awareness. However, projecting more responsible brand leads to greater trust and loyalty. The study highlights that having one personality may not be sufficient to develop an enduring CBR, but a brand personality must “evolve” and progress as the relationship develops over time. Such dynamic brand personality may provide a more long-lasting brand strategy and a greater source of competitive advantage. Originality/value The present study contributes to the marketing literature in three different ways. First, this study adds to the body of knowledge on the relationship between brand personality and CBR constructs using the new measure of BPS. Second, this study assesses the individual level of the new BPS, particularly responsibility and activity, on the three CBR constructs, and in doing so, the study responds to previous studies’ calls to assess the individual capacity of the brand personality dimensions to get consumer preference or loyalty. Third, the study displays which ones of the two dimensions in the new BPS (i.e. responsible and active) may be better predictors to the three CBR constructs.

Consumer engagement in an online brand community

Abstract This research aims to explain members’ online brand community (OBC) engagement and participation based on their relationships with other members and with the community sponsor. It proposes a conceptual model integrating variables that have been studied in previous research on brand trust, OBC identification, and satisfaction, and others that have received little or no research attention, including the OBC sponsor’s opportunism, sponsor’s control, and OBC experience, with OBC engagement playing a key role. The conceptual model has been tested by applying structural equation modelling to a database of 628 consumers belonging to over 260 different online brand communities OBC from diverse economic sectors: for example, brands involving sports (Adidas and Nike), fashion (Mango, Stradivarius and Zara) and technology (Apple, Samsung and Sony). In general, the authors conclude the importance of engagement in explaining a member’s involvement in a community, and the important role played by antecedents such as online brand community experience and trust, not only directly but also indirectly via identification with the community. The results confirm the influence of engagement upon a member’s participation in a community. Our study supports this direction of the relationship over the reverse – participation engagement – as suggested by other previous works. With regard to the antecedents of trust in the online brand community, it has been concluded that using the community for mainly commercial purposes has a negative effect.

A cross validation of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) with private labels in Spain

In recent years a number of Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) models and measurement scales have been introduced in the branding literature. However, examinations of brand equity in Private Labels (PL) are rather limited. This study aims to compare the validity of the two prominent CBBE models those introduced by Yoo and Donthu (2001) and Nam, Ekinci, and Whyatt (2011). In order to test the models and make this comparison, the study collected data from 236 respondents who rated private labels in Spain. A list of 30 different fashion and sportswear PL was introduced to respondents. These brands do not make any reference to the retail store in which they are sold. Research findings suggest that the extended CBBE model introduced by Nam et al. (2011) and Ciftci, Ekinci, and Whyatt (2014) is more reliable and valid than Yoo and Donthu’s model for assessing PL. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

A Trend Analysis of Private Label Research Between 2000 and 2012

The aim of this study is to review the state of empirical and theoretical research about Private Label (PL) and to identify gaps and future research avenues. This paper uses a bibliometric approach of recent advances in the research of PL; it focuses on the period of greatest scientific output (2000–2012) and includes all international publications on PL in marketing journals ranked by the Academic Journal Quality Guide. The analysis systematically considers main authors and universities, countries, topics of investigation and methodologies used. The result reveals that research on the topic has been strongly influenced by a small group of authors and that most studies come from United States, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Australia and Germany. The paper discusses key emerging topics on PL such as consumer perceptions and behaviour, price, channel relationships and quality. Most of the articles have been focused on grocery products using a quantitative approach. Directions for future research are suggested.

A Social Commerce Intention Model for Traditional E-Commerce Sites

The existing literature mainly analyses user intention to practice social commerce on social networking sites, but few studies have focused on traditional e-commerce sites with their own integrated social tools (e.g. forums, reviews). This research aims to identify the antecedents to social commerce intention for traditional e-commerce sites where social tools are integrated. Data were obtained from a survey of 201 consumers and were analysed using Partial Least Squares. The results indicate that web quality, flow and emotional social support have a positive and direct influence on social commerce intention, while social presence and informational social support are not significant. This study contributes to consumer behaviour theory by applying predictors of intention to social commerce for traditional e-commerce sites. The results also help e-commerce practitioners to improve their use of social tools. For instance, to increase the use of social commerce, web quality must be improved to promote dissemination and consultation of the information generated by users in an easy, quick and friendly way. Social commerce intention will also increase if the company designs efficient interactive processes which the user enjoys effortlessly, so that the website creates a flow experience.

Segmentation and explanation of smartphone use for travel planning based on socio-demographic and behavioral variables

Purpose Due to the advances in smartphones, many companies in the tourism industry have launched mobile applications intended to reach their target audience. Design of these smartphone strategies requires identification of the profiles of individuals that use tourism services. The purpose of this paper is to explore the predictors of smartphone use for travel planning. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this goal, the authors carried out a hierarchical segmentation analysis selecting a group of different socio-demographic (gender, age, education level, marital status, occupation, and income) and behavioral (length of smartphone use and number of yearly leisure trips) variables to explain the use of these devices to search and book tourism products. The study is based on an online survey of 618 Spanish travelers. Findings Smartphone use for tourism can be primarily explained according to the users’ degree of daily experience of mobile phone internet use. That is, a spillover effect can be identified from the context of everyday mobile phone use to travel planning. Age, gender and the number of yearly vacations can also be distinguished, to a certain degree, through the use of smartphones. Specifically, there is an inverted U-shape quadratic relationship between the variable of age and the behavior of a potential tourist. Originality/value The authors conducted a segmentation study selecting a series of different socio-demographic and behavioral variables with the greatest discriminant power to explain the use of these mobile devices for travel planning. The paper concludes with compelling implications for management.

Building Customer Loyalty: The Effect of Experiential State, the Value of Shopping, and Trust and Perceived Value of Service on Online Clothes Shopping

Based on consumer behavior theories, the aim of this study is to provide a model supported by empirical evidence in order to improve knowledge of the antecedents of loyalty to online clothing retailers. The model has been verified through partial least squares analysis of the data obtained from a survey of a sample of 412 online clothing shoppers. The results show that, firstly, the affective and cognitive experiences have a positive effect on the degree of satisfaction, and the affective experiences also have a positive impact on trust. Secondly, it has been demonstrated that consumer satisfaction with online clothing retailers can be increased by both the hedonic and utilitarian values of shopping. Thirdly, an indirect relationship has been established between satisfaction and loyalty through trust and perceived value of service. These findings can improve our understanding of the determinants of online consumer loyalty. Discussion and implications are provided.

Value Creation in Virtual Brand Communities

The evolution of the Social Web has opened up a world of opportunities for brands as well as for the consumers themselves. Virtual brand communities, which are increasingly used as tools for value creation by users and organizations alike, are a perfect example of this type of opportunity.

EL FUTURO DE LA INTERMEDIACIÓN EN EL SECTOR TURÍSTICO

En Espana el sector turistico ha desempenado un rol importante, desde la crisis financiera e inmobiliaria de 2008 es uno de los sectores que ha mostrado mejor comportamiento, es por ello que se ha de incidir en mejorar la competitividad turistica de las provincias espanolas y aprovechar asi la contribucion del turismo. Hemos seleccionado para este analisis las provincias del Mediterraneo por ser las que mayor cuota turistica acumulan respecto al conjunto nacional, y por sus caracteristicas comunes en el ambito turistico. La manera de analizar y posteriormente sugerir propuestas para mejorar la competitividad de los destinos turisticos del Mediterraneo, analizar a continuacion las valores de los indicadores que representan la competitividad de los destinos, para luego valorar mediante un panel de expertos la importancia de los factores en cada destino, y finalmente, sugerir actuaciones para aumentar la competitividad. ABSTRACT In Spain tourism sector has had a relevant role since financial and real state crisis in 2008, tourism is one of the few sectors that has helped to economic recovery and it is improving it performance year a year, so tourism competitiveness in the Spanish provinces must be enhanced taking advantage of the tourism good behavior. We have selected the Mediterranean area provinces because of their mayor acummulated tourism share above national, and because of their similar characteristics. The way of improving competitiveness, then to analyze the provinces which have worst performance on the indicators that form the factors, next to asses the factor importance through and expert panel, and finally to recommend actions for improving competitivenessNumerosos estudios han demostrado que las redes sociales influyen en las intenciones de los viajeros de visitar un destino. Sin embargo, la literatura ha prestado poca atencion a la relacion entre el comportamiento de busqueda de informacion y el desarrollo de la fidelidad a los destinos. En este sentido, este estudio analiza este fenomeno, considerando como los turistas no solo comparten su tiempo entre varias fuentes de informacion, sino que estas estan tambien influyendo en el tiempo que los turistas estan compartiendo entre varios destinos, no solo repitiendo la visita a un unico destino, sino tambien haciendose mas fieles a multiples destinos al mismo tiempo (fidelidad horizontal). Sin embargo, este tema no se ha destacado adecuadamente en el contexto turistico. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este estudio es doble: 1) comprender mejor el comportamiento del turista con respecto al uso de las redes sociales, considerando las diferencias por nacionalidades, genero y edad; y 2) explorar la relacion entre el uso de las diferentes fuentes de informacion de los turistas (tradicionales y digitales) y su influencia en la posterior fidelidad (tanto a un solo destino como en la fidelidad horizontal), y considerando tanto la fidelidad conductual como la actitudinal. Estos resultados son utiles para tomar decisiones sobre estrategias de comunicacion digital y la gestion de los programas de fidelizacion por parte de los destinos turisticos. Palabras clave : Fidelidad Horizontal, Marketing Relacional, Fuentes de Informacion, Redes Sociales, Imagen ABSTRACT The visit to a tourist destination is influenced by the tourists use of social media. However, the literature has not focused its efforts on trying to understand the relationship between the use of social media and destinations loyalty. This study analyzes this phenomenon, considering how tourists not only share their time between several sources of information, but these are also influencing the time that the tourists are sharing between several destinations, not only repeating the visit to a single destination, but also becoming more loyal to multiple destinations at the same time (horizontal loyalty). However, this topic has not been adequately highlighted in the tourism context. This study tries to analyze the differences in the use of social media by nationalities, gender, age and income; and to shed light on their relationship with loyalty. These results are useful for making decisions about digital communication strategies and the management of loyalty programs by tourist destinations. Keywords : Horizontal Loyalty, Relationship Marketing, Information Sources, Social Media, ImageActualmente, los destinos de sol y playa afrontan la necesidad de renovacion y, en el Partido de Necochea, Argentina, se elaboro el Plan Estrategico de Turismo Sustentable de Necochea para responder a esta necesidad. La implementacion requiere analizar y evaluar de modo pragmatico y programatico las intervenciones territoriales para alcanzar las estrategias definidas de reposicionamiento. El articulo propone identificar las unidades de gestion del espacio, los modelos de intervencion para un escenario estrategico que contribuya a la gestion sustentable y reorientacion turistica y proporcionar bases para la reestructuracion territorial como eje transversal de politica publica ambiental y turistica. Para ello, respecto de la unidades se delimita el espacio turistico en funcion de las particularidades fisico-espaciales, los recursos turisticos y oportunidades recreativas y las disfuncionalidades o problematicas detectadas. Luego, se definen los contenidos concretos de los tipos de intervencion propuestos que reorienten la renovacion. Y por ultimo, se enuncian las bases para las actuaciones de reestructuracion territorial en funcion de un escenario estrategico. La renovacion ambiental de Necochea debe basarse en estrategias conducentes a la cualificacion del espacio turistico, la diferenciacion basada en la naturaleza, la potenciacion del entorno urbano y la inclusion de lo ambiental en la gestion turistica.