The role of website quality and social capital in building buyers’ loyalty

Navigating Purchase Intentions: The Influence of Reviewers' Comments Moderated by Risk and Trust

Despite previous research on the impact of social media reviews on purchase intention, it is still unclear how individual reviewers' comments impact purchase intentions. To fill in the gap, this study examines the impact of product-related comments on purchase intentions. In terms of contributions, this study evaluates people's dependence on social media for product information and purchase intention while considering risk and trust as moderating factors. The data were collected quantitatively using surveys. The sample consisted of 384 academically advanced adults with high social media engagement. The study hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro after exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analysis were conducted. Among those surveyed, it was confirmed that most people sought product-related comments on social media when seeking information about a product they might be interested in purchasing. It was also observed that the risk factor reduced the impact of other variables in the model presented in this study. In conclusion, this investigation is more reliable, and its outcomes benefit scholars, supervisors, merchants, and webmasters, for instance, in establishing a study for future research efforts and providing practical guidance that could boost promotional efforts and marketing activities, especially in this era of artificial intelligence.

Factors Affecting Users' Continuous Usage in Online Health Communities: An Integrated Framework of SCT and TPB

BACKGROUND

Online health communities (OHCs) provide a new channel for users to obtain more health-related information and support, playing an important role in alleviating hospital congestion and uneven medical resource distribution, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. An in-depth study of users' continuous usage is of great value for the long-term development of OHCs.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence users' continuous usage in online health communities based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and social cognitive theory (SCT).

METHODS

Data from 480 users with experience in online health communities were collected through a questionnaire survey, and structural equations were applied to verify the model hypotheses empirically.

RESULTS

Self-efficacy and controllability have significant effects on users' continuous intention; attitude has a significant relationship with continuous intention; social norms have a positive effect on continuous intention. Moreover, the relationship between continuous intention and behavior is positive. Self-efficacy and outcome expectations have significant positive associations with continuous usage. Finally, system quality, information quality, and social interaction ties have significant and positive relationships to continuous usage.

CONCLUSION

To improve the level of user's continuous usage, online health service providers can improve the quality of the community by organizing the website's page layout, navigation menus, and site elements to ensure users quickly search and find what they want meanwhile try to change people's cognition gradually, in addition, decision and policymakers should provide more favorable policies to stimulate and help provider in building and managing strategic plans for sustaining a thriving online community. A supportive climate in society through public service advertisements and others for the sake of OHCs is necessary.

LIMITATIONS

(1) This study collected data through a cross-sectional survey. Thus, it lacked the process of capturing the changes in participants' attitudes toward all variables. (2) The environmental factors in SCT theory need to be more comprehensive, containing online factors without offline factors. (3) The dates were obtained from China, which neglects the different cultural content.

Integrating online and offline channels for online customer loyalty: the moderating role of retailer credibility

Purpose

Understanding customer behavior from the perspective of channel integration has become a major stream of research in multi-channel retailing literature. Yet, despite recent advancements in scholarship, how retailers can most effectively sustain customers in online retailing remains unclear. Scholars have suggested online–offline channel integration (OOCI) as an effective multi-channel approach for increasing online loyalty; yet, few studies have explored OOCI's influencing mechanism. This study addresses that gap by investigating how OOCI helps achieve customer loyalty online and further examines the moderating role of retailer credibility in the influencing mechanism of OOCI.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model driving this study draws upon the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and cue consistency theory. The authors collected a sample of 259 customers in China with experience making multi-channel purchases from retailers that have implemented OOCI in online retailing. Structural equation modeling and response surface analyses were employed to conduct data analysis.

Findings

The results revealed that the relationship between OOCI and customers' online channel loyalty was mediated by customers' perceptions of the usefulness and risks of online channel usage. The results also found that congruence and incongruence between informational OOCI (IOOCI) and fulfillment OOCI (FOOCI) had different curvilinear associations with perceived online channel usefulness and perceived online channel risk. In addition, retailer credibility weakened the effects of IOOCI on perceived online channel usefulness and FOOCI on perceived online channel risk but strengthened the effect of IOOCI on perceived online channel risk and had no impact on the effect of FOOCI on perceived online channel risk.

Originality/value

Theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.

Does e-shopping service quality enhance customers’ e-shopping adoption? An extended perspective of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

This research advances the knowledge in customer behavior literature by adding new exogenous and moderating variables to the UTAUT framework. It explores the relationships among e-shopping service quality (an exogenous variable), e-shopping drivers (performance expectancy, effort expectation, social influence, and facilitating conditions), e-shopping intention, and e-shopping adoption with the moderating role of offline brand trust in an e-shopping context. Structure equation modeling was performed to confirm the distinctiveness of variables and path analysis based on a sample size of 356 e-shoppers in Pakistan. The outcomes demonstrate that e-shopping drivers are influenced by e-shopping service quality. Moreover, e-shopping intention and e-shopping adoption are led by e-shopping drivers. Furthermore, the relationship between e-shopping drivers and e-shopping intention is moderated by offline brand trust. The discussion of theoretical and practical implications and study limitations are also presented.

A Hashtag Is Worth a Thousand Words: An Empirical Investigation of Social Media Strategies in Trademarking Hashtags

Firms of all sizes are “joining the conversation” on social media platforms and increasingly trademarking hashtags related to their products and brands. This added effort to protect intellectual property and its impact on social media engagement have not been investigated in the literature. In this study, we find that trademarking hashtags plays a pivotal role in increasing social media audience engagement and information dissemination. More importantly, this positive effect is stronger for firms with fewer Twitter followers. Digging deeper into the underlying mechanisms, we find that trademarking hashtags makes composing tweets with certain linguistic styles more critical: It can amplify the positive effects of trademarking hashtags on social media audience engagement. Our findings highlight important managerial implications of trademarking hashtags. First of all, we examine whether trademarking a hashtag helps or hurts a firm in terms of its social media audience engagement. Further, we show, to maximize the effectiveness of trademarking hashtags, how firms should develop the right social media engagement strategies by taking specific communication and linguistic styles into account. Our results provide useful insights to firms in understanding the key benefits of signaling through trademarking hashtags on social media engagement.

Relational capital, service quality and organizational performance in the Egyptian telecommunication sector

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the mediating effect of service quality (SQ) in the relationship between relational capital (RC) and organizational performance (OP) within the Egyptian mobile telecommunication setting.

Design/methodology/approach

A valid research instrument was utilized to conduct a survey of 384 top- middle- and supervisory- level managers from three Egyptian mobile telecommunications companies. The hypothesized direct relationships were tested through multiple linear regression, and the mediating effect was tested using a structural equation modeling technique.

Findings

The results revealed that the firm's “customer and supplier relations” and “marketing capability” positively affect both OP and SQ, “customer knowledge” positively affects SQ only, while “strategic alliances, licensing and agreements” do not have an association with SQ or OP. Moreover, SQ was found fully mediating the effect of RC on OP.

Research limitations/implications

This is an empirical research applied in the Egyptian telecommunication setting. Its results need further investigation in other settings and countries. Also, traditional limitations of a cross-sectional study apply with respect to the attribution of causality and the time lag effects.

Practical implications

The optimal procedure for the Egyptian telecommunications companies is to focus their efforts on leveraging all four components of RC in order to improve SQ and consequently enhance their OP. The telecommunications companies must do all they can to connect the unconnected. As the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis has shown, connectivity is a public good.

Originality/value

This is the first research that merges the concepts of RC, SQ and OP in an integrated model, and tests this model empirically in the Egyptian mobile telecommunications setting.

Openness to Innovation as a Driver of Knowledge Integration in High-Tech SMEs

This paper studies an original analytical framework to address the implementation dynamics of open innovation practices by discussing their impacts on SMEs' social capital and knowledge integration. A total of 358 High-Tech SMEs in the Democratic Republic of Congo participated in the survey. The collected data were statistically analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in Smart PLS to verify the postulated hypothesis. The results reveal that open innovation practices promote knowledge integration, and social capital partially mediates open innovation and knowledge integration capability. The results further indicate that network competence moderates the practice of open innovation and social capital interactions with external knowledge sources. The theoretical implications of this study contribute to advance the discussion on the antecedent of social capital and knowledge integration in SMEs in developing countries and propose network competence as a moderator. The study also highlights the social capital nature of open innovation and reinforces the knowledge of scholars.

Social capital in agribusiness: an exploratory investigation from a supply chain perspective during the COVID-19 crisis

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected the global economy. The use of social capital as a resource to diversify agribusiness to get more customers and improve the agricultural supply chain is a considerable issue to explore. This study aims to develop a comprehensive measurement of social capital and examine its effect on the intention to diversify agribusiness. From a supply chain perspective, it uses theory of planned behavior (TPB) and resource-based view (RBV).

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a mixed-methods approach. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions and surveys are used. Structural equation modeling on a sample of 465 respondents in Vietnam was employed to examine the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

An integrative measurement scale of social capital from an agricultural supply chain perspective is suggested. The study also shows significant causal relationships amongst social capital, motives, TPB's determinants and the intention to diversify agribusinesses in light of supply chain perspectives.

Originality/value

The study offers a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge in the literature on social capital, motives, TPB, RBV and supply chain perspectives. The study was executed in Vietnam, where most farmers are smallholders, family business owners or micro-scale entrepreneurs in agriculture.

eWOM in C2C Platforms: Combining IAM and Customer Satisfaction to Examine the Impact on Purchase Intention

This study is focused on communications that come from consumer-to-consumer (C2C) ecommerce relationships. This topic is directly associated with the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) phenomenon. eWOM is related to the set of positive or negative opinions made by potential, actual, or former customers about a seller. The present study proposes a structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) research model to analyze consumers’ opinions impact on attitude toward purchasing. This model is based on the Information Adoption Model (IAM) in combination with an ecommerce satisfaction perspective, comprising five constructs: (1) service quality, (2) ecommerce satisfaction, (3) argument quality, (4) source credibility and (5) purchase intention. The model was tested by applying the Smart Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS) software for which 116 effective data from customers of the Taobao C2C platform were used. The findings reveal that all of the defined relationships were supported, confirming the positive impact of all the proposed constructs on the purchase intention. In this respect, the findings suggest that C2C platforms should strengthen the analyzed connections to grow the business and to promote transactions. Finally, implications and limitations related to the explanatory capacity and the sample are identified.

Understanding Consumers’ Purchase Intentions in Social Commerce through Social Capital: Evidence from SEM and fsQCA

Social commerce has become a fiercely competitive environment. Understanding consumers’ purchase intentions can help social commerce platforms retain and attract more consumers. Social capital is one of the primary resources that plays a critical role in facilitating consumers’ purchase intentions in social commerce. Here, complex relationships between different dimensions of social capital are further clarified and its impact on consumers’ purchase intentions are discussed. Based on a survey of 302 social commerce users, this study utilizes an SEM and fsQCA approach to validate the effect of social capital on consumers’ purchase intentions. The SEM results reveal that the effect of structural social capital on consumers’ purchase intentions is fully mediated by relational and cognitive social capital. The fsQCA results confirm the significance of consumers’ social capital as determinants and provide the configurations that can lead to high purchase intentions. Though previous studies have discussed the factors influencing consumers’ purchase intentions, this study takes the first step toward enhancing the understanding of the configurations that link dimensions of social capital to consumers’ purchase intentions in s-commerce using fsQCA approach.

The Effects of Customer Learning and Shopping Value on Intention Purchase and Reuse in a Digital Market: The Institutional Trust–Commitment Perspective

The successes of the digital market depend on customers’ intentions to purchase and reuse products or services. Previous studies have extensively discussed customer shopping value and customer learning, but most studies have analyzed the influencing factor as a single entity and seldom investigated the combination of two factors based on the institutional trust–commitment mechanism. We based this study on the e-commerce institutional trust–commitment mechanism (customers’ trust and commitment calculation) to investigate the influence of customer learning (product and website knowledge) and customer shopping value (monetary value, product evaluation cost, and customer reputation) on customers’ intentions to purchase and reuse products. The data sample included 279 respondents with experience of electronic shopping in Taiwan. The results show that customer learning and customer shopping value positively and significantly influence customers’ trust and customers’ calculation commitment and indirectly influence customers’ intention to purchase and reuse. However, dimensions of customer learning, such as website knowledge, do not affect customers’ trust and commitment but have a partially an indirect relationship with customers’ trust via the influence of product knowledge. In addition, product knowledge has a partially indirect effect on customers’ intention to reuse products or services through the influence of product knowledge and customers’ trust in online vendors in the digital market environment. The findings presented here have important theoretical and practical implications for scholars and digital market providers.

Examining the antecedents and consequences of mobile travel app engagement

How and why customers engage with mobile travel apps is vital to mobile marketing of travel-related companies. This paper discusses the antecedents and consequences of mobile travel app engagement. Specifically, this study aims to understand how travel app attributes stimulate mobile travel app engagement and lead to purchase intention. A research model is established based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model and the model is tested by Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM). The results show that ease of use, compatibility, and UI attractiveness positively influence mobile travel app engagement, and in turn, affect purchase intention. Furthermore, a multi-group analysis shows that the attributes affecting mobile travel app engagement differ across different customer groups. This paper discusses some theoretical and practical implications.

Enhancing service delivery in humanitarian relief chains: the role of relational capital

Purpose

The study examined the influence of relational capital on inter-cluster coordination and service delivery of humanitarian organisations; the mediating and moderating role of inter-cluster coordination on the relationship between relational capital and service delivery.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected from 60 humanitarian organisations. Potential respondents were five officers from each humanitarian organisation involved in delivering humanitarian assistance. Respondents from the different organisations were selected using purposive sampling. The SPSS software, SMART PLS and CB-SEM software were used to obtain results on the influence of relational capital on inter-cluster coordination and service delivery in humanitarian organisations; and the mediating and moderating role of inter-cluster coordination on the relationship between relational capital and service delivery.

Findings

Findings indicated that relational capital influences inter-cluster coordination and service delivery in humanitarian relief chains; inter-cluster coordination partially mediates the relationship between relational capital and service delivery in humanitarian relief chains; and no interactive effect was found when the moderation effect of inter-cluster coordination on the relationship between relational capital and service delivery in humanitarian organisations was examined.

Research limitations/implications

The study was mainly focused on humanitarian organisations excluding beneficiaries and the logistics suppliers. The research has implications to decision-makers in government and humanitarian organisations concerned with providing relief aid to beneficiaries.

Originality/value

The influence of relational capital on inter-cluster coordination and service delivery in humanitarian relief chains; the mediating role and moderating role of inter-cluster coordination on the relationship between relational capital and service in humanitarian relief chains are aspects that have not been given significant attention empirically.

Understanding “window” shopping and browsing experience on social shopping website

Purpose

Social shopping website (SSW) introduce the social side into the shopping process, thus making “window” shopping or browsing more interesting for customers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate customer online browsing experience and its antecedents (i.e. information quality and social interaction) and consequences (i.e. urge to buy impulsively and continuous browsing intention) in the context of SSW.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey questionnaire was distributed to visitors of online SSW to collect data, and partial least squares technology was used to test the research model.

Findings

The results of this study reveal that three types of web browsing, namely, utilitarian browsing, hedonic browsing and social browsing, take place in a SSW. The unique factors of SSW, namely, the quality of user generated contents and social interaction are critical for facilitating customers’ browsing experiences. Furthermore, the findings reveal that hedonic browsing experience is found to be the most salient factor influencing customers’ urge to buy impulsively and continuance intention.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that practitioners, such as designers and managers of SSW should give special attention to the benefits of browsing activity to convert web browsers into impulse purchasers and increase customers’ loyalty. Moreover, they should focus on improving the quality of user generated content and pay more attention to support and encourage social interaction to enhance browsing experiences on a SSW.

Originality/value

Existing studies about browsing behavior mostly focus on traditional online e-commerce website. This study represents the first step toward understanding browsing activity on SSW. Moreover, prior studies mainly focused on utilitarian and hedonic browsing experience; however, there is a lack of research on social browsing experience. The current study attempts to fill this research gap.

Examining users’ knowledge sharing behaviour in online health communities

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework to examine users’ knowledge sharing in online health communities (OHC).

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the 326 valid responses collected from a survey, structural equation modelling was employed to examine the research model.

Findings

The results indicated that both information quality and service quality affect trust in community, whereas both informational support and emotional support affect trust in other members. Both types of trust and privacy risk determine users’ sharing intention, which in turn affects sharing behaviour.

Research limitations/implications

The results imply that service providers need to improve their community platforms and create a supportive climate in order to facilitate users’ trust and their knowledge sharing behaviour.

Originality/value

Previous studies have examined a few determinants of OHC user behaviour such as privacy concern, trust and motivations. However, they have seldom disclosed the internal decision process underlying users’ knowledge sharing. This research tries to fill the gap.

Understanding online knowledge community user continuance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the social cognitive theory to identify the determinants of online knowledge community user continuance, which reflects a user’s continued use.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the 271 valid responses collected from a survey, structural equation modelling was employed to examine the research model.

Findings

The results indicated that the cognitive factors of outcome expectation and the environmental factors of system quality and knowledge quality significantly affect a user’s continuance intention, which, in turn, affects continuance usage.

Research limitations/implications

The results imply that service providers need to enhance community platforms and improve knowledge quality in order to retain users and facilitate their continuance.

Originality/value

Although previous research has examined online knowledge community user behaviour from multiple perspectives such as the social exchange theory and the motivational theory, it has seldom explored the relative effects of personal cognitions and environmental factors on user behaviour. This research fills the gap.

The effects of online trust-building mechanisms on trust and repurchase intentions

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the current literature on trust-building mechanisms in e-commerce and provide a comprehensive view of how the perceived usefulness of three types of online trust-building mechanisms affects trust in the e-seller and trust in the e-marketplace, which, in turn, shape the customer repurchase intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data were collected from 193 eBay customers to test the proposed research model.

Findings

The study found that the perceived usefulness of seller-based mechanism affects both trust in the e-marketplace and trust in the e-seller. Meanwhile, the perceived usefulness of experience-based mechanism only influences trust in the e-seller and the perceived usefulness of institution-based mechanism (IBM) only affects trust in the e-marketplace. Furthermore, this study found that trust in the e-marketplace can substitute for the effect of trust in the e-seller on customer repurchase intentions.

Practical implications

In an e-marketplace like eBay that does not involve much in the transaction process, e-sellers should invest more resources in building attractive and informative websites about their products and organizations. Moreover, e-marketplace owners should provide guidelines and enforce policies to improve the perceived usefulness of an IBM to increase an e-marketplace’s credibility. While such e-marketplace credibility does not affect customer repurchase intentions directly, it reduces customer concerns about individual e-sellers, which makes it easier for e-sellers to retain customers.

Originality/value

This study delineates how the perceived usefulness of three types of online trust-building mechanisms imposes different effects on trust in the e-marketplace and trust in the e-seller. Moreover, this study reveals the intertwined relationship between trust in the e-marketplace and trust in the e-seller that is different from extant studies conducted in marketplaces like Amazon.

Examining Mobile SNS Continuance from a Dual Perspective of Social Capital and Privacy Concern

This article contends that due to the intense competition, it is crucial for mobile social networking services (SNS) providers to retain users and facilitate their continuance. Integrating both perspectives of social capital and privacy concern, this research examined mobile SNS continuance. Social capital includes three dimensions: structural capital, relational capital and cognitive capital. The results indicated that both social capital and privacy concerns have significant effects on continuing usage. The results imply that service providers need to develop social capital and curb privacy concerns in order to facilitate users' continuance usage of mobile SNS.