Xiaojing Sheng

Consumer participation in online product recommendation services: augmenting the technology acceptance model

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the complex role of consumer participation by empirically testing a theoretical model within the online context of consumer using product recommendation agents (RAs) that integrates consumer participation into the technology acceptance model (TAM). Recent research starts questioning whether consumer participation is a double-edged sword, although its positive effects have been widely documented in the services marketing literature. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 243 respondents comprising both genders with varied age groups, education levels, household income and ethnicities. Participants interacted with an existing RA, searching product information for a simulated purchase involving either high or low financial risk. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Structural equations modeling (SEM) were used for assessing construct validity and testing hypotheses, respectively. Findings – Consumer participation was found to positively affect enjoyment ...

Tourists’ Life Satisfaction at Home and Away: A Tale of Two Cities

This study examined satisfaction with life in the context of seasonal migrants who routinely live at a destination for an extended period of time each year. Findings from 1,257 seasonal migrants in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas indicate that in general the migrants are more active and more satisfied with life at the destination than at their hometowns and that specifically female migrants are more satisfied with life at the destination than male migrants. Importantly, the study also found that the migrants’ satisfaction with culture, health and safety, and financial life domains; their activities both at the destination and in comparison to their activities at home; and their satisfaction with life at home contribute to greater satisfaction with life at the destination. Finally, satisfaction with life at the destination significantly affects the likelihood that the seasonal migrants will return and recommend the destination to others.

The CCP Scale: Measuring Customer Co-Production of Services

This research is the first study that explores the dimensionality of co-production using rich, text data and then corroborates the observations using established quantitative approaches. It develops a reliable and valid measurement scale for customer co-production (CCP) of services. Contextualized in three service settings (i.e., self-checkout, toy assembly, and meal assembly), a set of qualitative investigations helped arrive at a five-dimension 19-item scale, which was subjected to reliability, validity, and factor analyses in both exploratory and confirmatory fashions. The reliability and validity of the five CCP dimensions were corroborated using two further studies, one exploratory and the other confirmatory. Service managers can adapt the CCP scale to their specific operating context to obtain crucial readings of customer co-production.

Health care information seeking and seniors: determinants of Internet use.

While seniors are the most likely population segment to have chronic diseases, they are the least likely to seek information about health and diseases on the Internet. An understanding of factors that impact seniors’ usage of the Internet for health care information may provide them with tools needed to improve health. This research examined some of these factors as identified in the comprehensive model of information seeking to find that demographics, trust in health information websites, perceived usefulness of the Internet, and internal locus of control each significantly impact seniors’ use of the Internet to seek health information.

Servicescape attributes and consumer well-being

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically demonstrate an effective method for assessing how servicescape attributes shape consumer well-being and to highlight the value of importance-performance analysis (IPA) within a services context. Design/methodology/approach This study surveyed frequent visitors to a travel destination to determine their perceived importance of and satisfaction with servicescape attributes. The responses were analyzed using a series of importance-performance analyses to determine the impact of each servicescape attribute on consumer well-being. Findings Key servicescape attributes contributing to the well-being of frequent visitors to a destination were identified. For example, weather; friendly residents; restaurants; and interaction with locals were identified as attributes with a “high impact” on well-being, although weather and friendly residents were satisfiers and restaurants and interaction with locals were identified as dissatisfiers. In total, 23 servicescape attributes were plotted on a matrix depicting each attribute’s range and type of impact. Practical Implications This study provides practitioners with an idea of which servicescape attributes are important in improving well-being and illustrates how IPA may be used to identify attributes of any transformative service. Additionally, the analysis helps managers prioritize servicescape attributes for a more ideal allocation of scarce resources. These findings should be applicable to various contexts. Originality/value This paper is the only known study to examine effects of servicescape attributes on consumer well-being and one of few to use the modified IPA in a services context.

Communities as Nested Servicescapes

Using a long-duration service experience, this study proposed and tested a servicescape transference effects phenomenon of two nested multidimensional servicescape satisfaction constructs—labeled perceived nestscape and surroundscape satisfaction—on one another and on loyalty intentions. Both perceived servicescape satisfaction constructs positively affected loyalty intentions. The direction of effects between the two satisfaction constructs was found to emanate from satisfaction with the larger surroundscape to satisfaction with the smaller nestscape rather than the opposite direction. All dimensions of the servicescapes were significant, but the design dimension contributed the most to perceived nestscape satisfaction, while the social dimension had the greatest influence on surroundscape satisfaction. These findings suggest that managers of servicescapes should proactively respond to all dimensions of both the larger and the smaller contiguous servicescapes to heighten customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, servicescape engagement positively affected perceived surroundscape satisfaction, but not perceived nestscape satisfaction. Servicescape engagement moderated the nestscape and surroundscape effects by weakening the impacts of both constructs on loyalty intentions. Consequently, managers should provide superior levels of engagement activities for seasonal migrants less concerned with the servicescape and enhance perceived servicescape satisfaction for less engaged consumers to induce loyalty.

Biopsychosocial and Retirement Factors Influencing Satisfaction With Life: New Perspectives:

Founded on expectation confirmation theory and a resource perspective, this research examines the impact of retiree resources, retirement planning, conditions of work exit, and confirmation of retirement expectations on satisfaction with life in retirement. The study of 543 retirees found significant effects of retiree resources (i.e., self-efficacy, health, and income), confirmation of retirement expectations, ageism, retirement planning, and conditions of exit on retirees’ satisfaction with life. The study also showed that self-efficacy, activity participation, health, income, ageism, and retirement planning significantly impacted confirmation of retirement expectations, although conditions of exit did not significantly affect confirmation of retirement expectations.

Effects of perceived privacy protection: does reading privacy notices matter?

Many consumers do not read privacy notices despite the fact that websites post privacy notices to address consumers’ long-standing concerns about privacy protection on the internet. To understand why consumers do not read privacy notices and the impact of reading (or not reading) privacy notices on the found effect of privacy notices, data were collected from 137 readers of privacy notices and 97 non-readers of privacy notices. This research’s test of the moderating effects of reading (or not reading) privacy notices found that perceived privacy protection positively affected trust and negatively affected perceived information risk and that the negative effect of perceived privacy protection on perceived information risk became stronger for privacy notice readers. This research also developed a typology of reasons why consumers read and do not read privacy notices.

Consumer initial acceptance and continued use of recommendation agents: literature review and proposed conceptual framework

Recommendation agents (RAs) are increasingly available to consumers as a value-added self-service technology. Research suggests a variety of benefits that consumers can gain from using RAs. Nevertheless, no matter how useful they are, a critical issue is whether consumers accept and adopt the RA technology. Further, do consumers continue to use RAs after the initial acceptance and adoption? This is an important yet neglected issue in existing RA research. To fill this void in the literature, the current research develops a conceptual framework comprising a base model of RA initial acceptance and adoption and the RA use continuance model. Whereas the base model summarised significant predictors of RA initial acceptance and adoption, the RA use continuance model mapped out different processes by which prior use of an RA could influence continued use of the RA in the future. Implications for practitioners, limitations, and future research are discussed as well.