Sylvain Sénécal

Measuring Perceived Website Usability

ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to develop a short, reliable, and valid perceived website usability measurement scale. A sample of 350 participants was used to collect the necessary data. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to purify the proposed scale. Analysis indicated that the proposed multi-dimensional usability scale is reliable and shows evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academic and managerial implications were discussed.

Using Recommendation Agents to Cope with Information Overload

Integrating the traditional and structural approaches to information load measurement, this research investigates the impact of information overload on decision strategy. Decision strategy refers to whether a consumer uses a recommendation agent and the consumers reactance behavior to the agent advice (whether the chosen product was the same or different from the recommended product). The research further shows the effects of information overload and decision strategy on choice quality, choice confidence, and e-store interactivity. The experiment, which involved 466 consumers, had three levels for the number of alternatives (6, 18, and 30), three levels for the number of attributes (15, 25, and 35), and two different attribute distributions across alternatives (proportional vs. disproportional). The results contribute to the literature of information overload and decision support systems by underscoring that (1) the relationship between information load and perceived overload is curvilinear, (2) information overload augments recommendation agent use and conformance to the recommendation, (3) the positive impact of using a recommendation agent on choice quality increases with information overload, and (4) consumers become more confident in their choices and perceive higher e-store interactivity when they conform to product recommendations. As such, the results help to explain some conflicting findings in the information overload literature and contribute to practice by highlighting the importance of decision aid tools in information-intensive environments.

Can the Media Richness of a Privacy Disclosure Enhance Outcome? A Multifaceted View of Trust in Rich Media Environments

Trust in rich media environments is conceptualized as comprising both trust in the retailer and trust in the others represented virtually during on-line interaction. More specifically, the authors posit that media richness (manipulated by the modality of the privacy disclosure) affects the e-store social presence that drives retailer trust and behavioral intentions, and that in rich media environments, agent trust (trustworthiness of the virtually represented agent communicating the disclosure) (1) mediates the relation between social presence and retailer trust, and (2) shapes consumer judgments of retailer trustworthiness and purchase intentions. These hypotheses are supported by the results of an experiment with 423 consumers, which show that there is a hierarchical order for social influence in rich media environments that entices retailers to manage not only the media richness of their B2C messages but also the social actors communicating these messages at their e-stores.

Segmenting the online consumer market

Purpose – The internet has become mainstream in everyday communications and transactions. This research aims to provide a segmentation analysis for the online market based on the various uses of the internet.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the online consumer segmentation literature is first conducted. Survey method and cluster analysis techniques are used in the empirical study. A sample of 407 participants that belonged to a large consumer panel adequately responded to an online survey and provided their pattern of internet use, internet experience, and psychological characteristics.Findings – The analysis shows that the online consumers form three global segments: the basic communicators (consumers that use the internet mainly to communicate via e‐mail), the lurking shoppers (consumers that employ the internet to navigate and to heavily shop), and the social thrivers (consumers that exploit more the internet interactive features to socially interact by means of chatting, blogging, video strea...

Is more always better? Investigating the task-technology fit theory in an online user context

Abstract We used Task-Technology Fit (TTF) theory to examine the drivers and consequences of successful task completion by a user in an online context. The theory suggests that the fit between characteristics of the task and those of the website predicts user performance and behavioral intentions. Our hypotheses were tested using the input of two large scale studies performed in twelve industries and involving 13,135 participants. Results, which were replicated in a proximate culture, lend support to the predictions of Task-Technology Fit theory. The site information quality and ease of use were the only technology factors that significantly drove the users to a successful completion of their information tasks, rather than the sites graphical attractiveness, interactivity, security and privacy factors. The findings further suggested that focusing on the enhancement of site characteristics that have low fit with the task is not effective as it resulted in slowing the successful completion of the online task.

Predicting On-Line Task Completion with Clickstream Complexity Measures: A Graph-Based Approach

A model that uses navigational complexity to classify on-line shopping sessions and information-search tasks as successful or unsuccessful is described. A graph-based approach to representing clickstream is employed to capture the complexity. A total of 485 individual goal-oriented shopping sessions on five different Web sites were analyzed. Ten complexity metrics were studied in order to select the ones that can predict the outcome (i.e., success or failure) of a goal-oriented navigational session. The practical applications to e-business, including the implementation of the proposed model, are discussed.

The Influence of Tourism Innovativeness on Online Consumer Behavior

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of tourism-specific consumer innovativeness (i.e., domain-specific innovativeness) on their information search, purchasing, and communication behaviors on tourism websites. The methodology employed is based on a combination of data from website log files and questionnaires (n = 207). The results show that tourism innovativeness is positively related to the frequency and density of site visits, downloading of information brochures, use of the online purchasing mode, and the volume of online purchases. Tourism innovativeness is also positively associated with consumer chatting and e-mailing. The study reveals that consumers high on tourism innovativeness maintain active and cooperative communications with the firm. In summary, the behaviors of innovative consumers that have been documented in traditional offline settings are also exhibited in the online environment. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

The extent of technology usage and salespeople: an exploratory investigation

Purpose – Increasingly, salespeople adopt, or are being asked to adopt, and use a variety of technologies to increase their selling productivity and efficiency. Given this trend, many researchers have begun to explore the question of sales force adoption of technology. However, little work has been done to consider what happens once this technology is adopted. The purpose of this paper is to report two studies that investigated if and why salespeople had different technology usage and if the extent of usage had an impact on their performance.Design/methodology/approach – First, a qualitative study was performed to gain insights about extent of technology usage and the reasons that may explain differences. In order to test some of the research propositions that emerged from the qualitative study, an empirical study was conducted with 130 salespeople.Findings – Innovativeness was found to be helpful in distinguishing between different technology usage levels across various technologies (internet, e‐mail, in...

Conventional Channels of Distribution and Electronic Intermediaries

Abstract The paper analyses electronic channel members using functional analysis and examines how such cybermediaries differ in the way they carry out the marketing functions or flows relative to conventional channel participants. Some electronic intermediaries are examined. Micro and macro issues dealing with the economics and politics of channels are also presented. Finally, a plea is made to know more about the business costs of transacting on the Internet. Such cost analyses will help determine the extent to which cybermediaries will supplant or complement traditional channels.

Consumers’ Cognitive Lock-in on Websites: Evidence from a Neurophysiological Study

The objective of this research was to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the development of cognitive lock-in. Cognitive lock-in describes a situation in which a consumer has learned how to use a website, based on repeated interactions with it, with the consequence that more experience reduces the probability to switch to a competitors website. A major reason for the reduced switching probability is that interaction with an unfamiliar website typically implies high levels of cognitive load. Researchers conducted an experiment measuring cognitive load while consumers performed online purchasing tasks. Results show that participants visiting the same website multiple times have different cognitive load patterns than participants visiting different websites. The former group rapidly moved from controlled processing to automatic processing, which is metabolically less costly, leading to cognitive lock-in. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.