As with all forms of advertising, exposure is a necessary prerequisite for Internet banner ad effectiveness. However, exposure does not guarantee a user's attention, an issue especially relevant to the Internet, where ad avoidance occurs most frequently. And if an ad is noticed, the message may or may not remain in the consumer's memory after cognitive processing. However, even if the advertising message is not consciously remembered, the exposure can be unconsciously processed and subsequently change the user's affective state. To investigate how attention levels influence users, this study uses eye tracking to measure the level of attention that results from an advertisement exposure and explores how different levels of attention influence users in conscious and unconscious ways. Also, we examine the effect of animation—one of the most popular attention-grabbing tools—on attention and how it moderates cognitive processing.

By measuring and analyzing users' actual eye-movement data, we found that animation in banner ads not only attracts less attention than static ads but also reduces the positive effect of attention on memory. In addition, although more than half of the participants could not recognize the advertised brand, the animated banner ad was unconsciously processed and did influence attitudes toward the brand. The results suggest that animation in banner ads does not necessarily increase user attention, but that even if a user does not consciously notice a banner ad, the user's attitude toward the brand is influenced.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 119-137
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170105
• Authors
  • JooWon Lee, SK Marketing & Company
  • Jae-Hyeon Ahn, KAIST Business School, Seoul, Korea

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 1 / Fall 2012

Editor's Introduction

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 5-6
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170200
• Authors
  • Vladimir Zwass, Editor-in-Chief

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 2 / Winter 2012-13

Recently, Internet auction sites have begun to compete in emotions by advertising the fun and excitement that bidders may experience during auction participation. The implicit conjecture inherent in these advertisements is that consumers derive a hedonic value from auction participation that makes exciting auctions more attractive and possibly induces bidders to stay active longer in the auction. We test this conjecture in a controlled economic laboratory experiment in which we also measure bidders' physiological arousal in terms of heart rate and skin conductivity as proxies for their excitement during auction participation. In particular, we conduct a series of descending price (Dutch) auctions with different clock speeds and find that in fast Dutch auctions bidders (1) are more excited and (2) stay longer in the bidding process. Moreover, the unpleasant event of losing a Dutch auction is experienced more strongly than the rewarding event of winning. Our results show that bidders' excitement is directly reflected in final prices, indicating that Internet auction site sponsors should carefully consider how the emotions elicited on their platforms affect bidding behavior.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 7-40
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170201
• Authors
  • Marc T. P. Adam, Institute for Information Systems and Marketing, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
  • Jan Krämer, Institute of Information Systems and Marketing, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  • Christof Weinhardt, University of Karlsruhe, Subsequently

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 2 / Winter 2012-13

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 consumer's 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.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 41-70
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170202
• Authors
  • Muhammad Aljukhadar, RBC Financial Group Chair of Electronic Commerce
  • Sylvain Senecal, RBC Financial Group Chair of Electronic Commerce at HEC Montreal
  • Charles-Etienne Daoust, Deloitte Consulting

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 2 / Winter 2012-13

We investigate the impact of balance (the ratio of positive to negative reviews) and sequence (the order in which reviews are presented) of online review sets on consumers' recall of and impression about the reviews. Results show that, in a positive or negative balance, consumers rely on the majority's opinion in shaping recall and impression. In a neutral balance, where no dominant opinion is available, sequence effects influence recall and impression. The results provide evidence of a wrap effect: starting and concluding (wrapping) a set with positive (negative) reviews biases recall and impression toward the positive (negative) direction. In addition, wrapping is capable of generating an equally positive (negative) impression as positively (negatively) balanced sets. Review recall affects the attitude and intention toward the product indirectly through its effect on the reader's impression of the reviews.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 71-98
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170203
• Authors
  • Nathalia Purnawirawan, Faculty of Applied Economics, Marketing Department, University of Antwerp
  • Nathalie Dens, Faculty of Applied Economics, Marketing Department, University of Antwerp
  • Patrick De Pelsmacker, Faculty of Applied Economics, Marketing Department, University of Antwerp

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 2 / Winter 2012-13

With the growth of e-commerce, online consumer reviews have increasingly become important sources of information that help consumers in their purchase decisions. However, the influx of online consumer reviews has caused information overload, making it difficult for consumers to choose reliable reviews. For an online retail market to succeed, it is important to lead product reviewers to write more helpful reviews, and for consumers to get helpful reviews more easily by figuring out the factors determining the helpfulness of online reviews. For this research, 75,226 online consumer reviews were collected from Amazon.com using a Web data crawler. Additional information on review content was also gathered by carrying out a sentiment analysis for mining review text. Our results show that both peripheral cues, including review rating and reviewer's credibility, and central cues, such as the content of reviews, influence the helpfulness of reviews. Based on dual process theories, we find that consumers focus on different information sources of reviews, depending on their purposes for reading reviews: online reviews can be used for information search or for evaluating alternatives. Our findings provide new perspectives to online market owners on how to manage online reviews on their Web sites.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 99-126
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170204
• Authors
  • Hyunmi Baek, College of Business Administration, Seoul National University of the Republic of Korea
  • JoongHo Ahn, Graduate School of Business, Seoul National University of the Republic of Korea
  • Youngseok Choi, College of Business Administration, Seoul National University of the Republic of Korea

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 2 / Winter 2012-13

We consider a market in which dual-channel retailers sell competitive products to consumers. Each retailer has its own information about the market demand (i.e., asymmetric information). In this setting, we present a game-theoretic model to investigate the value of incentive-compatible information sharing. Our results show that information sharing is not always beneficial for each retailer all the time; both the online and the traditional retailer can be better off under certain conditions; and the value of information sharing for each retailer increases as products are more compatible with online marketing. Furthermore, we also analyze the incentives for information distortion in information sharing. We find that both the online and the traditional retailer have an incentive to overstate their forecasts while sharing information. The information distortion may make the shared information useless or even stop the retailers from participating in information sharing. We thus propose an effective mechanism to eliminate information distortion, so that both the online and the traditional retailer can share their forecast information truthfully.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 127-157
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170205
• Authors
  • Ruiliang Yan
  • Zhi Pei

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 2 / Winter 2012-13

Editor's Introduction

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 5-6
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170300
• Authors
  • Vladimir Zwass

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 3 / Spring 2013

Given the rise of the Internet, consumers increasingly engage in co-creating products and services. Whereas most co-creation research deals with various aspects of generating user-generated content, this study addresses designing ratings scales for evaluating such content. In detail, we analyze functional and perceptional aspects of two frequently used rating scales in online innovation communities. Using a multimethod approach, our experiments show that a multicriteria scale leads to higher decision quality of users than a single-criterion scale, that idea elaboration (i.e., idea length) negatively moderates this effect such that the single-criterion rating scale outperforms the multicriteria scale for long ideas, and finally that the multicriteria scale leads to more favorable user attitudes toward the Web site. To ensure robustness of our results, we applied a bootstrap-based Monte Carlo simulation based on our experimental data. We found that around 20 user ratings per idea are sufficient for creating stable idea rankings and that a combination of both rating scales leads to a 63 percent performance improvement over the single-criterion rating scale and 16 percent over the multicriteria rating scale. Our work contributes to co-creation research by offering insights as to how the interaction of the technology being used (i.e., rating scale) and the attributes of the rating object affects two central outcome measures: the effectiveness of the rating in terms of decision quality of its users and the perception of the scale by its users as a predictor of future use.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 7-36
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170301
• Authors
  • Christoph Riedl, Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS), Harvard Business School
  • Ivo Blohm, Institute of Information Management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
  • Jan Marco Leimeister, Information Systems, Kassel University
  • Helmut Krcmar, Department of Informatics, Technische Universität München, Germany

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 3 / Spring 2013

An online brand community is a powerful arena for marketers to cultivate customer relationships. The level of participation is a clear indicator when distinguishing the levels of strength and types of involvement in a brand community. However, research explaining the personality traits and motivations of online brand community members, as relevant to their participative behaviors, is lacking. By adopting the 3M model as a theoretical foundation, this study examines personality traits as the antecedents of the participative behavior of online brand community members; that is, the disposition to receive information and to send market information to others when using the online platform. Based on the results of an online survey, this paper illustrates a hierarchical structure of traits interplaying at various levels to provide a nomological net for predicting behavioral intention. The results indicate that identification with a brand community and value consciousness are key predictors that encourage participation in receiving and sending information. This study provides a more comprehensive and theoretically based perspective that emphasizes sound strategic options to influence brand community participation.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 37-62
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170302
• Authors
  • Aihwa Chang, Department of Business Administration, National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Sara H. Hsieh, Department of Business Administration, National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Frances Lin, Department of Business Administration, National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 3 / Spring 2013

This research adopts a brand relationship perspective to investigate how users of a social network site (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) perceive the quality of their relationship with those sites and their intention to continue to use them, as well as the intention to continue using the hosted brands that they "follow" through the social network site. In addition, the role of matching a user's personality to the perceived personality of the social network site is explored as an antecedent to perceived relationship quality with the social network site. Survey responses from 284 Twitter and Facebook users were collected, and Smart PLS path modeling was used to test our hypotheses. Findings confirm that individuals join and form stronger ties with social networks that convey similar personality characteristics to themselves. Study findings also reveal that perceived strength of relationship quality with an online network brand not only facilitates future intentions to continue using this network and recommend it to others but also strengthens preferences for other brands utilizing this network for marketing purposes. A key implication of our findings is that social network sites and "followed" businesses may benefit from designing and implementing relationship-building-focused processes to strengthen participation in the social network site to increase user engagement with brands hosted on the social network site.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 63-86
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170303
• Authors
  • Iryna Pentina, University of Toledo
  • Bashar S. Gammoh, University of Toledo
  • Lixuan Zhang, Augusta State University
  • Michael Mallin, University of Toledo

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 3 / Spring 2013

Compared with traditional offline markets, online auctions constrain all sellers to compete within a similar environment in terms of interface, functionality, and market rules. One means for sellers to differentiate themselves is through a set of listing options. One such characteristic that has received little research interest, despite its economic importance, is location options. This paper describes the findings of a field experiment that investigates whether and to what extent locations have impacts on market outcomes. We auctioned 120 products in matched pairs at a public auction site, both as featured (i.e., items listed in the first page of search results) and as default (i.e., items listed after featured) listings using both low-priced and higher-priced products. Consistent with the effort minimization approach to decision making and the primacy effect, the products sold under featured listings received more visits, more bids, and sold for higher prices than the products sold under default listings. There was no evidence of the impact of a "product price level-location" interaction for the final price: buyers of both low-priced and higher-priced products were equally affected by featured listings. Our follow-up survey suggests that buyers did not have the ability to perform an exhaustive search to find the lowest price. The results imply that sellers can enjoy price premiums through featured listings and that development of better shopbots by third-party vendors is greatly needed for buyers.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 87-108
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170304
• Authors
  • Kil-Soo Suh, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
  • Izak Benbasat, CANADA Research Chair in Information Technology Management at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
  • Eung-Kyo Suh, School of Business, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 3 / Spring 2013

E-commerce has grown tremendously over the past decade in most business sectors, including the franchising sector. This paper applies the resource-based view to examine e-commerce strategy in franchise networks and to identify the potential determinants of the presence of transactional capabilities on franchisors' Web sites. Our empirical study is based on 486 U.S. franchise networks in the retail and service sectors. When data were collected in 2009, only 20 percent of the sampled franchisors had adopted an e-commerce strategy. Our main findings show that the percentage of company-owned stores and network size have a positive impact on the implementation of e-commerce strategy, whereas network age has a negative effect. Moreover, a franchisor is more likely to launch a transactional Web site in the retail sector and the hotel and restaurant sector. This paper highlights the relevance of using the resource-based view to investigate e-commerce strategy and provides guidance to franchisors on how to implement a transactional Web site.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 109-130
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170305
• Authors
  • Rozenn Perrigot, Marketing and Retailing Department at the Graduate School of Management (IGR-IAE), University of Rennes 1
  • Thierry Pénard, Center in Economics and Management, University of Delaware

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 3 / Spring 2013

Editor's Introduction

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 5-6
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170400
• Authors
  • Vladimir Zwass

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 4 / Summer 2013

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) phenomenon has generated significant interest on the part of consumers and software publishers. Despite considerable efforts to improve the technological quality (e.g., graphics, networking) of the games, little effort has been directed toward understanding the motivation that leads to successful and continued use of MMORPGs. The primary goal of this study is to identify the factors that influence player commitment to MMORPGs. We hypothesize that the key to obtaining loyalty is to motivate players to embrace ownership of the game by enhancing their ability to control their game character and to develop an online social identity. To achieve loyalty, two different strategies were proposed: (1) an ownership-enhancing strategy based on psychological ownership theory and (2) a socialization-enhancing strategy based on social identity theory. This study empirically examines the effectiveness of these two strategies in producing loyalty in MMORPG players. A structural equation model, developed to test the viability of the proposed strategies, found that both strategies contribute to establishing players' e-loyalty to the MMORPGs, and this finding has business implications for software developers and publishers.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 7-38
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170401
• Authors
  • Junghoon Moon, Program in Regional Information, Seoul National University in Korea
  • Md. Dulal Hossain, Institute of Computer Science, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission
  • G. Lawrence Sanders, Department of Management Science and Systems, University of Buffalo
  • Edward J. Garrity, Richard J. Wehle School of Business, Canisius College in Buffalo, New York
  • Sooran Jo, Business Data Mining Team, Daum Communications, Korea

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 4 / Summer 2013

Despite the proliferation of mobile personalization worldwide, the research to date is not definitive regarding the effectiveness of personalization on influencing individuals' intentions to use mobile services. The current research examines how an important feature of mobile services—location personalization—affects individuals' intentions to use these services. Specifically, the current research considers two features of location personalization, namely location accuracy and location precision, and examines how individuals' perceptions of these features affect their integrity trust and integrity distrust in the merchant who provides these services, which in turn affect their intentions to use the services. We developed eight hypotheses. To test them, we conducted a field study with a self-developed mobile system that provided personalized lunch venue recommendations. We recruited 236 participants to take part in the field study. After two weeks, they completed a questionnaire to report their perceptions and intentions to use the service. Our results show that the participants' perceptions of location accuracy and location precision positively affected both integrity trust and integrity distrust (either directly or through moderation by privacy concerns). Integrity trust increases one's intentions to use personalized mobile services, whereas integrity distrust decreases it. This research provides empirical evidence to illustrate the coexistence of integrity trust and integrity distrust—on the one hand, an individual trusts the integrity of a service provider because the service provider is likely to continue keeping its promise of providing genuine personalized mobile services after making a substantial investment in location detection technologies; on the other hand, the individual distrusts the integrity of a service provider because subsequent to this investment, the service provider has a strong incentive to cheat in order to justify the investment.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 39-72
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170402
• Authors
  • Shuk Ying Ho, Australian National University
  • Patrick Y. K. Chau, University of Hong Kong

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 4 / Summer 2013

Social media is changing the balance of power as well as the dynamics of communication between manufacturers and retailers, their brands, and consumers. In this research we examine the effects of companies' responses to consumer criticism in social media. Our findings indicate that a vulnerable response leads to more positive behavioral consequences without damaging product quality perceptions than a defensive response, and this effect is mediated by perceived appropriateness of the response. Applying the expectation-disconfirmation framework, we further identify brand personality and existing relationship strength as the moderators of consumer responses. Responding to criticism with a sense of vulnerability leads to higher perceived sincerity for more sophisticated brands than for less sophisticated brands, and responding to criticism defensively leads to higher perceived appropriateness for more perfect brands than for less perfect brands. Consumers with a stronger existing relationship with a brand perceive defensive reactions as less inappropriate than those with a weaker existing relationship. The results provide guidance to brands on how to interact with their customers, especially when a crisis occurs.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 73-100
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170403
• Authors
  • Lan Xia, Department of Marketing, Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 4 / Summer 2013

Online product reviews are important determinants of consumers' purchase decision. Although prior research has articulated various benefits of online product reviews, there are few investigations into whether or not they are perceived as helpful by consumers. Product review helpfulness is conceptualized as a second-order formative construct, which is manifested by perceived source credibility, perceived content diagnosticity, and perceived vicarious expression of the product review. In this study, we conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate product review helpfulness as well as its corresponding antecedents from the product review feature perspective (i.e., source- and content-based review features). Findings from the study are threefold. First, the results of the data analysis support the theoretical conceptualization of product review helpfulness as a formative construct. Second, the results support the notion that the source- and content-based review features have direct impact on product review helpfulness. Consumers perceive customer-written product reviews as more helpful than those written by experts; they also perceive a concrete review as more helpful than an abstract review. Third, we find an interaction effect of the source- and content-based features of product reviews on review helpfulness. A customer-written product review with a low level of content abstractness yields the highest perceived review helpfulness.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 101-136
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170404
• Authors
  • Mengxiang Li, City University of Hong Kong
  • Liqiang Huang, City University of Hong Kong Joint Advanced Research Center, University of Science and Technology of China
  • Chuan-Hoo Tan, City University of Hong Kong
  • Kwok-Kee Wei, College of Business, City University of Hong Kong

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 4 / Summer 2013

In the face of market competition and growing digitization in commerce, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication has become increasingly important in shaping consumer attitudes and behaviors. We consider eWOM communication not only as an information exchange but also as a social exchange via online consumer discussion forums. Thus, we take a dual view of online communication, considering both its informational and relational influences, to predict eWOM behaviors. We propose a theoretical model, grounded in the elaboration likelihood model, the motivation-opportunity-ability framework, and constraint-based and dedication-based relationships, to predict eWOM intention. We test this model by surveying users of an online discussion forum. Our empirical results indicate that dedication-based relational influence is more significant than informational influence in driving online referral behaviors. A dedication-based relationship has a stronger effect on eWOM intention than does a constraint-based relationship. Moreover, affective attitudes rather than cognitive attitudes significantly determine eWOM intention.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 137-166
• DOI 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170405
• Authors
  • Hung-pin Shih, Department of Information Management, Hsuan Chuang University, Taiwan
  • Kee-hung Lai, Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • T. C. E. Cheng, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 4 / Summer 2013

Index to Volume 17

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 167-169

• Journal International Journal of Electronic Commerce
• Print ISSN 1086-4415
• Journal Volume Volume 17
• Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 4 / Summer 2013