• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.89-110
• /
• 2013

Affiliate marketing is classified as a type of online advertising, where merchants share a percentage of sales revenue generated by each customer, who visited the company's website via a content provider. Content provider, referred to as an affiliate, usually places an online advertisement at its website. For the past few years, there have been a lot of companies or individuals who participate in affiliate marketing. Generally speaking, most of them have websites and post the merchant's ads on their own websites. However, building and maintaining websites have some technology requirements. The widespread use of Social Network Service (SNS), especially microblog-based SNS such as Twitter and Sina Weibo, provides opportunities for individuals who want to be content providers of affiliate marketing. Since information spreads quickly on microblog-based SNS and the easy in targeting customers, it is both an effective and an efficient tool to do affiliate marketing. The relationship between a content provider and the potential customer, which is referred as "tie strength", is quite an important issue in such situation. This paper proved that service characteristics of the microblog-based SNS (security, community drivenness and navigability) and content quality all had positive influence on click-through intention, while tie strength played a moderating role. For the group with strong tie, tie strength is crucial in influencing click-through intention. While for the weak tie group, content quality was very important. Finally, we proposed some implications for both academics and practitioners.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.43-61
• /
• 2016

Customer reviews help potential customers make purchasing decisions. However, the prevalence of reviews on websites push the customer to sift through them and change the focus from a mere search to identifying which of the available reviews are valuable and useful for the purchasing decision at hand. To identify useful reviews, websites have developed different mechanisms to give customers options when evaluating existing reviews. Websites allow users to rate the usefulness of a customer review as helpful or not. Amazon.com uses a ratio-type helpfulness, while Yelp.com uses a count-type usefulness index. This usefulness index provides helpful reviews to future potential purchasers. This study investigated the effects of sentiment and readability on useful votes for customer reviews. Similar studies on the relationship between sentiment and readability have focused on the ratio-type usefulness index utilized by websites such as Amazon.com. In this study, Yelp.com's count-type usefulness index for restaurant reviews was used to investigate the relationship between sentiment/readability and usefulness votes. Yelp.com's online customer reviews for stores in the beverage and food categories were used for the analysis. In total, 170,294 reviews containing information on a store's reputation and popularity were used. The control variables were the review length, store reputation, and popularity; the independent variables were the sentiment and readability, while the dependent variable was the number of helpful votes. The review rating is the moderating variable for the review sentiment and readability. The length is the number of characters in a review. The popularity is the number of reviews for a store, and the reputation is the general average rating of all reviews for a store. The readability of a review was calculated with the Coleman-Liau index. The sentiment is a positivity score for the review as calculated by SentiWordNet. The review rating is a preference score selected from 1 to 5 (stars) by the review author. The dependent variable (i.e., usefulness votes) used in this study is a count variable. Therefore, the Poisson regression model, which is commonly used to account for the discrete and nonnegative nature of count data, was applied in the analyses. The increase in helpful votes was assumed to follow a Poisson distribution. Because the Poisson model assumes an equal mean and variance and the data were over-dispersed, a negative binomial distribution model that allows for over-dispersion of the count variable was used for the estimation. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression was used to model count variables with excessive zeros and over-dispersed count outcome variables. With this model, the excess zeros were assumed to be generated through a separate process from the count values and therefore should be modeled as independently as possible. The results showed that positive sentiment had a negative effect on gaining useful votes for positive reviews but no significant effect on negative reviews. Poor readability had a negative effect on gaining useful votes and was not moderated by the review star ratings. These findings yield considerable managerial implications. The results are helpful for online websites when analyzing their review guidelines and identifying useful reviews for their business. Based on this study, positive reviews are not necessarily helpful; therefore, restaurants should consider which type of positive review is helpful for their business. Second, this study is beneficial for businesses and website designers in creating review mechanisms to know which type of reviews to highlight on their websites and which type of reviews can be beneficial to the business. Moreover, this study highlights the review systems employed by websites to allow their customers to post rating reviews.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.16 no.11
• /
• pp.7494-7500
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the customer's attitudes and behavioral responses, depending on the persuasion tactics of salespeople in customer service and meeting point. The tactics of persuasion of customer acceptance and purchase depending on the type of salesperson with proven effectiveness of even comes out to investigate what results according to the purchase form and the customer that the customer consumes gender. Results First, the tactics of persuasion tactics of coercive tactics to mention the loss of a salesman showed that increasing the degree of acceptance than non-coercive tactics to help consumers buy the information provided above. Second, coercive tactics to adjust the effect with respect to the degree of acceptance of the purchase of helping consumers to purchase in the online form has been proven to be more effective than non-coercive tactics case. Third, adjusted for gender effects were proven to help women with respect to the degree of acceptance of a consumer purchases more effective than men. That is, in consumer contacts, the persuasion tactics of salespeople depending on the customer's acceptance and purchasing intention showed that coercive tactics has the more positive impact on online forms and women.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.117-148
• /
• 2005

As this study aimed to examine which influence the nonverbal communication of service provider has upon service performance in terms of service industry, the specific objectives are as follows. First, it tried to examine into the relationship between the nonverbal communication in the service provider, and the emotional attachment. Nonverbal communication is divided into 4 kinds such as physical language, proxemics, paralanguage, and physical appearance. Second, it aimed to examine the relationship between the customer's attachment to the service provider, and the social competence and trust in the service provider. Third, it tried to examine into the relationship of service provider's social competence and trust with the customer satisfaction and with the switching costs. Additionally, it examined the moderating effect in the service type and the service usage period in terms of the model that was presented in this study. Given examining the verified results in these research hypotheses, those are as follows. First, given seeing the relationship between the nonverbal communication and the emotional attachment, it was represented that the physical language, proxemics, and physical appearance, except paralanguage, have significantly positive(+) influence upon emotional attachment. Second, it was indicated that emotional attachment has significantly positive(+) influence upon the social competence and trust in the service provider. Third, the social competence in the service provider had no positive effect(+) on customer satisfaction, and was having significantly positive(+) influence upon the customer's perceived switching barrier. Fourth, it was represented that the customer satisfaction toward the service provider have significantly positive(+) influence upon the switching barrier. Finally, as a result of having verified whether or not the moderating effect in the service type and the service usage period, it was indicated to be produced the difference depending on the service type in the relationships between the physical language and the emotional attachment, between the paralanguage and the emotional attachment, between the emotional attachment and the trust, and between the trust and the switching barrier. Depending on the service usage period, the difference was represented, respectively, in the relationships between the physical language and the emotional attachment and between the physical appearance and the emotional attachment.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.1133-1149
• /
• 2011

The major aim of this study was to find out that the relation between consumers value and experience quality toward purchase intention in addition to the influence of the consumers value and experience quality on the effects of scarcity message types collaboration using limited edition in global SPA brand. As a result of an empirical analysis, it shows that consumers value and experience quality are co-related to the intention of purchase, especially, brand familiarity and reputation influenced scarcity valuation in the affirmative and both emotional value and epistemic value influenced the intention of purchase under scarcity message. The moderating effect of consumers value and experience quality however, turns out to be not significant although its effect is directionally supported that is purchase intention was high when scarcity message is shown. Moreover, emotional epistemic group was influenced by scarcity message so we found that consumers value is changed to emotional with subjective. This result indicates that we need the scarcity message type reflecting the characteristics of consumers value and experience quality to increase customer's purchase intention.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.49-95
• /
• 2007

The "cause-related marketing (CRM)," generally defined as a mutually beneficial relationship between a company and a non-profit relationship or a social cause, which is perhaps the most progressive outgrowth of marketing trend. This paper contributes to, and looks at the practical issues of CRM and its effect on the brand attitude of the customer. To do so, following three broad research questions have been addressed. Which cause-related orientation is effective on customer's attitude of the brand? Which type of cause-related message provides crucial impact on customer's attitude of the brand? How product category acts upon and brings about different consequences on CRM? To address these questions, a causal model has been developed incorporating message type, product relevance, social significance, and brand attitude. The study model was tested with survey data collected from 400 career professionals and students in Seoul and statistically processed the 176 valid ones. The results of the study considerably supported the conceptual model. The analysis also revealed that the study population was not able to detect the differences in CRM strategies but tend to conceptualize them as a whole.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2022

Purpose: The purpose is to verify the impact of the store environment on interpersonal service quality (ISQ), shopping value and patronage intention, as well as the moderating role of the store format: supermarkets vs hypermarkets. This is significant as previous studies on retailing neglected the effect of interpersonal service quality on the experiential shopping value. The comparison of the model between two retailing formats (hypermarkets and supermarkets) provides a significant contribution and responds to a need to provide insights regarding the moderation of the store types on the contribution of interpersonal service quality and experiential value to customer's retention. Research design, data, and methodology: The hypotheses have been tested after analyzing the data of a survey among 405 consumers exiting stores representing various retailing stores in Tunisia. A Structural model have been finally verified by a path analysis after applying a confirmatory factorial analysis. Multigroup analyses on AMOS allowed to verify the moderation of store types. Results: Results mainly show that patronage intention is affected by the experiential perceived value dimensions. The latter is a direct consequence of ISQ and an indirect outcome of perceived shopping environment. The impact of value, environment and ISQ is moderated by the store type.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.31-44
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the effect of work-family conflict on organizational effectiveness, focusing on the moderating effect of organizational support among married working women of health services organizations. Data were collected from 149 married working women of health services organizations located in Busan Metropolitan areas by structured self-administered questionnaire. Main results of this study is as the following: First, based on the type of work-household conflicts, namely time-based conflict(2.82 points), strain-based conflict(2.81 points) and behavior-based conflict(2.69 points), working women mainly experienced time and strain-based conflicts. The level of work-household conflicts was significantly higher among younger groups, highly educated, nurses, and regular workers. Second, the perceived organizational effectiveness found to be an above-average. Especially scores were high in the subcategories of customer orientation(3.84), followed by organizational commitment (3.42) and job satisfaction(3.19). The level of organizational effectiveness was significantly higher among older groups, medical technician and administrative job holders, day-time workers, and higher income groups. Third, the results of the regression analysis on the effects of work-household conflicts on organizational effectiveness showed that strain-based conflicts have a significant negative effect on organizational effectiveness such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Fourth, organizational support found to have a strong controlling effect for strain-based conflicts on organizational effectiveness. Above results imply that practical family-supportive policies for lessening the work-household conflicts is crucial for enhancing organizational effectiveness in health services organization.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.137-164
• /
• 2011

In the past, retailers secured customer loyalty by offering convenient locations, unique assortments of goods, better services than competitors, and good credit policy. All this has changed. Goods assortments among stores have become more alike as national-brand manufacturers place their goods in more and more retail stores. Service differentiation also has eroded. Many department stores have trimmed services, and many discount stores have increased theirs. Customers have become smarter shoppers. They don't pay more for identical brands, especially when service differences have diminished. In the face of increased competition from discount storess and specialty stores, department stores are waging a comeback war. Growth of intertype competition, competition between store-based and non-store-based retailing and growing investment in technology are changing the way consumers shop and retailers sell. Different types of stores-discount stores, catalog showrooms, department stores-all compete for the same consumers by carrying the same type of merchandise. The biggest winners are retailers that have helped shoppers to be economically cautious, simplified their increasingly busy and complicated lives, and provided an emotional connection. The growth of e-retailers has forced traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to respond. Basically brick-and-mortar retailers utilize their natural advantages, such as products that shoppers can actually see, touch, and test, real-life customer service, and no delivery lag time for small-sized purchases. They also provide a shopping experience as a strong differentiator. They are adopting practices as calling each shopper a "guest". The store atmosphere should match the basic motivations of the shopper. If target consumers are more likely to be in a task-oriented and functional mindset, then a simpler, more restrained in-store environment may be better. Consistent with this reasoning, some retailers of experiential products are creating in-store entertainment to attract customers who want fun and excitement. The retail experience must deliver value to turn a one-time visitor into a loyal customer. Retailers need a tool that measures the full range of components that define experience-based value. This study uses an experiential value scale(EVS) developed by Mathwick, Malhotra and Rigdon(2001) which reflects the benefits derived from perceptions of playfulness, aesthetics, customer "return on investment" and service excellence. EVS is useful to predict differences in shopping preferences and patronage behavior of customers. EVS consists of items measuring efficiency, economic value, visual appeal, entertainment value, service excellence, escapism, and intrinsic enjoyment, which are subscales of experiencial value. Efficiency, economic value, service excellence are linked to the utilitarian shopping value. And visual appeal, entertainment value, escapism and intrinsic enjoyment are linked to hedonic shopping value. It has been found that consumers value hedonic experiences activated from escapism and attractiveness of shopping environment as much as the product quality, price, and the convenient location. As a result, many department stores, discount stores, and other retailers are introducing differential marketing strategy based on emotional/hedonic values. Many researches suggest that consumers go shopping not only for buying products but also for various shopping experiences. In other words, they seek the practical, rational value as well as social, recreational values in the shopping process(Babin et al, 1994; Bloch et al, 1994). Retailers may enhance buyer's loyalty to store by providing excellent emotional/hedonic value such as the excitement from shopping, not just the practical value of buying good products efficiently. We investigate the effect of perceived shopping values on the emotional experience and store loyalty based on the EVS(Experiential Value Scales) developed by Holbrook(1994), Mathwick, Malhotra and Rigdon(2001). This study assumes that the relative effect of shopping value dimensions on the responses of shoppers will differ according to types of stores and analyzes the moderating effect of store type(department store VS. discount store) on the causal relationship between shopping value dimensions and store loyalty. Emprical results show that utilitarian values of shopping experience and hedonic value of shipping experience give the positive effect on the emotional response of consumers and store loyalty. We also found the moderating effect of store types. The effect of utilitarian shopping values on the attitude toward discount store is higher than the effect of utilitarian shopping values on the attitude toword department store. And the effect of hedonic shopping value on the emotional response to discount store is higher than on the emotional response to department store. The empirical results reflect on the recent trend that discount stores try to fulfill the hedonic needs of consumers as well as utilitarian needs(i.e, low price) that discount stores traditionally have focused on

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.98-109
• /
• 2010

Research on the construction, measurement, and management of brand equity has been extensive since David A. Aaker(1991) and Kevin Lane Keller(1993) first advanced the concept. Recently, much attention has been devoted to the components of brand equity: brand awareness, perceived quality, brand image, and brand loyalty. This study explores the relationships among these components, focusing particularly on the moderating role of product type (utilitarian vs. hedonic) in their causal relationships. A model to study the relationship among components of brand equity, particularly the moderating role of product type, is featured in Figure 1. The hypotheses of the study are proposed as follows: that consumers' brand awareness has a positive influence on brand loyalty and brand image; that consumers' perceived quality has a positive influence on brand loyalty and brand image; that consumers' brand image influences brand loyalty positively; and that relationships among components of brand equity will be moderated by product type. That is, in the case of utilitarian products, the impact of perceived quality on brand loyalty will be relatively stronger, whereas with hedonic products the impact of brand image on brand loyalty will be relatively stronger. To determine the products for the study, a pre-test of 58 college students in the Seoul metropolitan area was conducted based on the product type scale. As a result, computers were selected as the utilitarian product and blue jeans became the hedonic product. For each product type, two brands were selected: Samsung and HP for computers, and Levis and Nix for blue jeans. In the main study, 237 college students in the metropolitan area were surveyed to measure their brand awareness, perceived quality, brand image, and brand loyalty toward the selected two brands of each product type. The subjects were divided into two groups: one group (121 subjects) for computers, the other (116 subjects) for blue jeans. The survey questionnaires for the study included four parts: five questions on brand awareness and four questions each on perceived quality, brand image, and brand loyalty. All questions were to be answered using 7-point Likert scales. The data collected by the survey were processed to assess reliability and validity, and the causal relationships were analyzed to verify the hypotheses using the AMOS 7 program, a tool for analyzing structural equation modeling. A confirmatory factor analysis assessed the appropriateness of the measurement model, and the fit indices denoted that the model was satisfactory. The relationships among the components of brand equity were also analyzed using AMOS 7. The fit indices of the structural model denoted that it was also satisfactory. The paths in the structural model as will be seen in Figure 2 show that perceived quality affects brand image positively, but that brand awareness does not affect brand image. Moreover, it shows that brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand image are positively related with brand loyalty, and that this relationship is moderated by product type. In the case of utilitarian products, perceived quality has relatively more influence on brand loyalty. Conversely, in the case of hedonic products, brand image has relatively more influence on brand loyalty. The results of this empirical study contribute toward the advancement of our understanding of the relationships among the components of brand equity and expand the theoretical underpinnings for brand equity measurement. It also helps further our understanding of the effect of product type on customer-based brand equity. In a marketing management practice perspective, these results may provide managerial implications for building and maintaining brand equity effectively.