• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.166-178
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• 2010

The purposes of this study were to investigate the impacts of interactivity, site stickiness, and switching barrier on intention to use. For this purpose, the study tested covariance structural model which set relationships among independent variable(interactivity), meditated variables(site stickiness and switching barrier), and dependent variable(intention to use). The data were collected from a sample of 239 internet shopper of college female students. The covariance structural model and research hypothesis analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 and AMOS 5.0 program. The results are as follows: First, the structural model is accepted significantly. Second, interactivity had a positive influence on site stickiness, switching barrier, and intention to use. And it was found to have a indirect effect on intention to use through site stickiness and switching barrier. Third, site stickiness had a positive influence on switching barrier. Forth, site stickiness and switching barrier had a positive impact on intention to use.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.23-37
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• 2013

Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce that involves using social media, and user contributions to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. Given the rapid growth of social commerce sites such as Groupon, Ticketmonster, and Coupang, it has become critical to understand customer purchasing decision-making processes in the social commerce environment. This study developed a theoretical model to examine the role of social commerce site's stickiness in customers' repurchasing decision processes. This study identifies price attribute, variety of selection, shopping enjoyment, and anger as the key factors of social commerce site's stickiness. Data collected from 164 users who had more purchasing experiences with social commerce for more than 7 months were empirically tested against the research model. The analysis results indicate that social commerce site's stickiness plays an important role in enhancing customer's purchasing behavior. Moreover, price attribute and shopping enjoyment significantly influence social commerce site's stickiness, whereas anger does not significantly affect consumer purchasing decision-making processes. However, contrary to our expectation, variety of selection negatively influences social commerce site's stickiness. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are described.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.169-194
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• 2008

Recently, the concept of web site stickiness receives attention as a measure of strategy to influence user's visit and behavior on web sites. Web site stickiness means site visit frequency and stay duration. This study investigates the moderating effect of espoused national cultural values on Internet community stickiness with the assumption that dimensional values of national culture can be internalized as individual’s espoused values. Espoused values (i.e., espoused national cultural values) are defined as the degree to which an individual embraces the values of his or her national culture. Our findings can be summarized as follows. First, femininity and power distance moderate the influence of user participation on Internet community stickiness. Second, uncertainty avoidance and power distance moderates the effect of social influence on Internet community stickiness. However, femininity and collectivism do not moderate the effect of social influence on Internet community stickiness. Third, uncertainty avoidance, femininity, and collectivism moderate the influence of network effect on Internet community stickiness. Fourth, masculinity does not moderate the influence of usefulness on Internet community stickiness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.1472-1482
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• 2009

This study identifies how website attributes impact consumer loyalty to websites. For this purpose, the study tested covariance of a structural model which set relationships among independent variables (trust and site stickiness), meditated variables (relationship commitment), and dependent variables (website loyalty). The data were collected from a sample of 239 female college internet student shoppers. The covariance structural model and research hypothesis are analyzed using SPSS 16.0 and AMOS 5.0 program. The results are as follows: First, the structural model is significantly accepted. Second, trust and stickiness have a positive influence on the relationship commitment. Third, trust, stickiness, and relationship commitment have a positive impact on website loyalty. Forth, even if stickiness has no positive influence on website loyalty, it has a significant effect on website loyalty through the relationship commitment.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.41-72
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is the investigation of the effects of user participation, network effect, social influence, and usefulness on stickiness and continued use on Internet communities. In this research, stickiness refers to repeat visit and visit duration to an Internet community. Continued use means the willingness to continue to use an Internet community in the future. Internet community-based companies can earn money through selling the digital contents such as game, music, and avatar, advertizing on internet site, or offering an affiliate marketing. For such money making, stickiness and continued use of Internet users is much more important than the number of Internet users. We tried to answer following three questions. Fist, what is the effects of user participation on stickiness and continued use on Internet communities? Second, by what is user participation formed? Third, are network effect, social influence, and usefulness that was significant at prior research about technology acceptance model(TAM) still significant on internet communities? In this study, user participation, network effect, social influence, and usefulness are independent variables, stickiness is mediating variable, and continued use is dependent variable. Among independent variables, we are focused on user participation. User participation means that Internet user participates in the development of Internet community site (called mini-hompy or blog in Korea). User participation was studied from 1970 to 1997 at the research area of information system. But since 1997 when Internet started to spread to the public, user participation has hardly been studied. Given the importance of user participation at the success of Internet-based companies, it is very meaningful to study the research topic of user participation. To test the proposed model, we used a data set generated from the survey. The survey instrument was designed on the basis of a comprehensive literature review and interviews of experts, and was refined through several rounds of pretests, revisions, and pilot tests. The respondents of survey were the undergraduates and the graduate students who mainly used Internet communities. Data analysis was conducted using 217 respondents(response rate, 97.7 percent). We used structural equation modeling(SEM) implemented in partial least square(PLS). We chose PLS for two reason. First, our model has formative constructs. PLS uses components-based algorithm and can estimated formative constructs. Second, PLS is more appropriate when the research model is in an early stage of development. A review of the literature suggests that empirical tests of user participation is still sparse. The test of model was executed in the order of three research questions. First user participation had the direct effects on stickiness(${\beta}$=0.150, p<0.01) and continued use (${\beta}$=0.119, p<0.05). And user participation, as a partial mediation model, had a indirect effect on continued use mediated through stickiness (${\beta}$=0.007, p<0.05). Second, optional participation and prosuming participation significantly formed user participation. Optional participation, with a path magnitude as high as 0.986 (p<0.001), is a key determinant for the strength of user participation. Third, Network effect (${\beta}$=0.236, p<0.001). social influence (${\beta}$=0.135, p<0.05), and usefulness (${\beta}$=0.343, p<0.001) had directly significant impacts on stickiness. But network effect and social influence, as a full mediation model, had both indirectly significant impacts on continued use mediated through stickiness (${\beta}$=0.11, p<0.001, and ${\beta}$=0.063, p<0.05, respectively). Compared with this result, usefulness, as a partial mediation model, had a direct impact on continued use and a indirect impact on continued use mediated through stickiness. This study has three contributions. First this is the first empirical study showing that user participation is the significant driver of continued use. The researchers of information system have hardly studies user participation since late 1990s. And the researchers of marketing have studied a few lately. Second, this study enhanced the understanding of user participation. Up to recently, user participation has been studied from the bipolar viewpoint of participation v.s non-participation. Also, even the study on participation has been studied from the point of limited optional participation. But, this study proved the existence of prosuming participation to design and produce products or services, besides optional participation. And this study empirically proved that optional participation and prosuming participation were the key determinant for user participation. Third, our study compliments traditional studies of TAM. According prior literature about of TAM, the constructs of network effect, social influence, and usefulness had effects on the technology adoption. This study proved that these constructs still are significant on Internet communities.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.262-268
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• 2010

Virtual communities (VCs) have developed rapidly, with more and more people participating in them to exchange information and opinions. A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. A business-to-consumer virtual community (B2CVC) is a commercial group that creates a trustworthy environment intended to motivate consumers to be more willing to buy from an online store. B2CVCs create a social atmosphere through information contribution such as recommendations, reviews, and ratings of buyers and sellers. Although the importance of B2CVCs has been recognized, few studies have been conducted to examine members' word-of-mouth behavior within these communities. This study proposes a model of involvement, statistics, trust, "stickiness," and word-of-mouth in a B2CVC and explores the relationships among these elements based on empirical data. The objectives are threefold: (i) to empirically test a B2CVC model that integrates measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; (ii) to better understand the nature of these relationships, specifically through word-of-mouth as a measure of revenue generation; and (iii) to better understand the role of stickiness of B2CVC in CRM marketing. The model incorporates three key elements concerning community members: (i) their beliefs, measured in terms of their involvement assessment; (ii) their attitudes, measured in terms of their satisfaction and trust; and, (iii) their behavior, measured in terms of site stickiness and their word-of-mouth. Involvement is considered the motivation for consumers to participate in a virtual community. For B2CVC members, information searching and posting have been proposed as the main purpose for their involvement. Satisfaction has been reviewed as an important indicator of a member's overall community evaluation, and conceptualized by different levels of member interactions with their VC. The formation and expansion of a VC depends on the willingness of members to share information and services. Researchers have found that trust is a core component facilitating the anonymous interaction in VCs and e-commerce, and therefore trust-building in VCs has been a common research topic. It is clear that the success of a B2CVC depends on the stickiness of its members to enhance purchasing potential. Opinions communicated and information exchanged between members may represent a type of written word-of-mouth. Therefore, word-of-mouth is one of the primary factors driving the diffusion of B2CVCs across the Internet. Figure 1 presents the research model and hypotheses. The model was tested through the implementation of an online survey of CTrip Travel VC members. A total of 243 collected questionnaires was reduced to 204 usable questionnaires through an empirical process of data cleaning. The study's hypotheses examined the extent to which involvement, satisfaction, and trust influence B2CVC stickiness and members' word-of-mouth. Structural Equation Modeling tested the hypotheses in the analysis, and the structural model fit indices were within accepted thresholds: ${\chi}^2^$/df was 2.76, NFI was .904, IFI was .931, CFI was .930, and RMSEA was .017. Results indicated that involvement has a significant influence on satisfaction (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.809). The proportion of variance in satisfaction explained by members' involvement was over half (adjusted $R^2$=0.654), reflecting a strong association. The effect of involvement on trust was also statistically significant (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.751), with 57 percent of the variance in trust explained by involvement (adjusted $R^2$=0.563). When the construct "stickiness" was treated as a dependent variable, the proportion of variance explained by the variables of trust and satisfaction was relatively low (adjusted $R^2$=0.331). Satisfaction did have a significant influence on stickiness, with ${\beta}$=0.514. However, unexpectedly, the influence of trust was not even significant (p=0.231, t=1.197), rejecting that proposed hypothesis. The importance of stickiness in the model was more significant because of its effect on e-WOM with ${\beta}$=0.920 (p<0.001). Here, the measures of Stickiness explain over eighty of the variance in e-WOM (Adjusted $R^2$=0.846). Overall, the results of the study supported the hypothesized relationships between members' involvement in a B2CVC and their satisfaction with and trust of it. However, trust, as a traditional measure in behavioral models, has no significant influence on stickiness in the B2CVC environment. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on B2CVCs, specifically addressing gaps in the academic research by integrating measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in one model. The results provide additional insights to behavioral factors in a B2CVC environment, helping to sort out relationships between traditional measures and relatively new measures. For practitioners, the identification of factors, such as member involvement, that strongly influence B2CVC member satisfaction can help focus technological resources in key areas. Global e-marketers can develop marketing strategies directly targeting B2CVC members. In the global tourism business, they can target Chinese members of a B2CVC by providing special discounts for active community members or developing early adopter programs to encourage stickiness in the community. Future studies are called for, and more sophisticated modeling, to expand the measurement of B2CVC member behavior and to conduct experiments across industries, communities, and cultures.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.13
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• pp.135-158
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• 2004

On-line consumers have some visit behavior characteristics when they visit internet-shopping mall between visit-stage and purchase-stage. Therefore, information of on-line consumers have influenced on internet-shopping mall's profitabilities at site manager's perspectives. For examples, Are any on-line consumers continuous visiting under any situations? Or are any on-line consumers purchased on any specific internet-shopping mall? Expecially in this paper, researcher tried to understand visit behavioral characteristics of on-line consumers using two-stage mixture regression analysis. Throughout this process, it could be proposed method, which could be reinforced competitiveness of internet-shopping mall by segmental decision-making method. Additionally, it is expected that visit behavioral characteristics' information could be supplied strategic implications between visit-stage and purchase-stage Throughout empirical test it could be proved two-stage decision-making process, which decision-making process of on-line consumers would be processed visit-stage and purchase-stage. In this study, researcher proposed suitable response strategy after understanding visiting behavioral characteristics of on-line consumers. This paper has some academical contributions, which visit behavioral characteristics of on-line consumers could be grasped the meaning by site stickiness and navigation pattern.