Minjian Liu , Shaofu Du , Tengfei Nie , Yangguang Zhu , Qi Dong
{"title":"Insurance policy and pricing decisions in online food delivery market with consumer ratings","authors":"Minjian Liu , Shaofu Du , Tengfei Nie , Yangguang Zhu , Qi Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101474","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101474","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent advances in mobile technology and the rise of aggregator apps have led many consumers to purchase products through online food delivery platforms, and the effects of COVID-19 have accelerated the trend. Consumers often observe other consumers’ ratings before purchasing to reduce the product’s taste and the delivery service uncertainties. However, the information accuracy of the ratings can be affected by the seller’s marketing strategies, such as the pricing and delivery insurance policy. Considering consumers’ ratings, firstly, we develop two-period models to examine how consumer uncertainty and different delivery insurance policies impact the seller and consumers. We then determine the seller’s optimal insurance policy and pricing decision. We find that the probability of delayed delivery has a nonmonotonic effect on the product’s optimal price. Counterintuitively, our analysis shows that a Free Insurance (FI) policy allows the seller to benefit from a greater delayed delivery probability by influencing consumer ratings. We show that FI is not always beneficial for the seller and consumers; it may reduce the seller’s profit and the total consumer surplus simultaneously. Surprisingly, the seller can always charge a lower price yet earn more profit by adopting a Paid Insurance (PI) policy. Furthermore, when the seller strategically chooses its price and insurance policy (e.g., No Insurance, FI, or PI), it can achieve a win-win situation; and the seller should always support insurance, i.e., adopt FI or offer PI, even though neither FI nor PI dominates under all conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"70 ","pages":"Article 101474"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Collaboration or Encroachment? The Content Provider’s Strategic Content Provision Strategy","authors":"Siyu Du, Xu Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101470","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101470","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid growth of the streaming industry, an increasing number of Super Content Providers (SCPs), such as Disney, Warner Bros., and NBC Universal, have launched their own streaming platforms, entering the downstream streaming market. However, some content providers, like Sony, still collaborate with Netflix. Therefore, this paper employs game theory to investigate the optimal content provision strategy for SCPs: collaboration or encroachment. We derive some interesting findings. First, contrary to intuition, we find that whether under the collaboration or encroachment strategy, improving the quality of a player’s own film library (the SCP or the incumbent platform) does not always result in higher profit for that player (first hurts then benefits the player). Second, for both the platform and the SCP, an increase in the scale of their film libraries does not automatically lead to higher profits. Third, when the revenue share is positively correlated with the scale of the film library, a small-scale library strengthens the motivation to encroach; conversely, when the library scale does not influence the revenue share, a large-scale library increases the motivation to encroach. Lastly, while the encroachment strategy can be a win–win situation for the incumbent platform and the SCP, it hurts consumer surplus. In contrast, the collaboration strategy can achieve a win–win–win situation under some conditions. Our study helps to explain the market practices and provides valuable guidelines for SCPs’ content provision strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"69 ","pages":"Article 101470"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143133273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"E-servicescape and customer equity based customer loyalty model for digital services","authors":"Feyza Nur Ozkan, Ahmet Sekerkaya","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101475","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101475","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Customer loyalty is a significant metric due to its positive effects on market share and business performance. Understanding the antecedents of customer loyalty is vital for companies to gain and maintain competitive advantage. However, the models developed to explain customer loyalty in offline services are not directly applicable to digital services due to differences in their nature. Hence, this study aimed to provide an e-servicescape and customer equity-based customer loyalty model for digital services and test this model in different digital service contexts. The research scope includes online video streaming, online banking, online marketplace, and online grocery services. Four separate questionnaire forms were created depending on the types of digital services and applied to the people representing sample characteristics. A total of 600 valid data were obtained through face-to-face interviews. A structural equation modeling approach was employed to test the model, and the multi-group analyses were performed to evaluate the differences in effects for different digital services contexts. We found that e-servicescape and customer equity are significant determinants of customer loyalty in digital services. The effects of e-servicescape on customer equity drivers and customer equity drivers’ effects on customer loyalty differ according to digital service type.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"69 ","pages":"Article 101475"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143133191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From efficiency to equity: A multi-user paradigm in mobile route optimization","authors":"Pengzhan Guo , Keli Xiao","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101459","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101459","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study addresses the challenge of optimizing vehicle mobility in urban environments, which is significant for the advancement of smart city initiatives and spatial data analysis. We introduce a novel mobile recommendation system designed for multi-user scenarios, aiming to achieve a balance between effectiveness and fairness. The system prioritizes maximizing the profitability of vehicle service providers while ensuring an equitable distribution of recommended routes among users. Our approach features a redefined objective function that integrates a fairness criterion alongside path quality optimization. We further propose PSA-DLMA (Parallel Simulated Annealing with Deep Learning-Guided Move Adaptation), a stochastic path search method that leverages deep learning to guide move and strategy selection, alongside a dynamic termination mechanism and a parallel processing strategy. We validate our methodology using recent yellow taxi data from New York City and its surroundings, conducting comprehensive experiments to assess the performance of the system. The results demonstrate the superiority of PSA-DLMA over existing state-of-the-art solutions, offering significant contributions to improving urban vehicle mobility within the smart city framework.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 101459"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142656587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Subjective variability of the “just-right feeling”: Effectiveness of social media advertising design","authors":"Ya Wang , Shuilong Wu , Jiajun Zhao , Yongna Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101466","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101466","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid advancement of AI and algorithmic technologies, social media platforms have gained the ability to identify consumer personality traits. However, developing compelling advertising strategies for individuals with different self-construals remains challenging. Based on construal level theory, this research investigates the interactions between shot scale, advertising appeals, and self-construal on social media. The results of the four empirical studies indicated that independent individuals prefer advertisements with long-shot images and desirability appeals. In contrast, interdependent individuals favor advertisements with close-up images and feasibility appeals. Furthermore, the findings reveal that long-shot images match with desirability appeals or close-up images paired with feasibility appeals significantly increase the click-through rate and foster more positive advertising attitudes. The above findings are central to the feeling right during information processing, which plays a crucial role in advertising acceptance. Therefore, this research constructs a new framework for personalized advertisement design in social media and offers a practical guide for businesses seeking to optimize their advertising strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 101466"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142656641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Antecedents of users’ switching intention to Central Bank Digital Currency: A push-pull-mooring model perspective","authors":"Chen Sha , Tong Che , Tingjie Xu , Zi Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101467","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101467","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since 2020, the People’s Bank of China has promoted the pilot work on e-CNY payment, but it has not been widely used and popularized. The public still prefers third-party payment as the main payment method. In the incumbent literature, most studies on e-CNY payment focus on the macro perspective and less on users. Based on grounded theory and the push–pull-mooring framework, we investigate users’ intention to switch from third-party payment to e-CNY payment, and identify fee cost, system function overload, convenience, trust, inertia, and external influence as core factors. The theoretical model and research hypotheses are validated using structural equation modeling approach. Results show that system function overload, convenience, trust, and external influence significantly facilitate switching intention, whereas inertia negatively impedes switching intention. The findings of this study enrich the literature on e-CNY and serve as a reference for the promotion of central bank digital currencies around the world.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 101467"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142656588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unveiling the forces driving expert activity: The impact of information environment and peer behavior on expert reviewer engagement behavior","authors":"Zhaoyang Yu , Zili Zhang , Yunzhijun Yu , Ziqiong Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101463","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101463","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Online platform engagement with customers, especially those with high expertise, is crucial for companies. As these expert customer reviews directly impact a company’s brand image and sales volume, an understanding of expert reviewer engagement behavior (EREB) is critical for companies’ marketplace success. This study explores the factors that influence EREB from two key situational cues: those from the company’s information environment and from peer expert behavior. Data from 144,634 Yelp reviewers and 5,080 restaurants were analyzed. The results reveal that companies with higher aggregate ratings are more likely to encourage EREB. The impact of overall and peer expert rating inconsistency on EREB varies: Overall rating inconsistency has a positive effect, while inconsistency among expert peers has a negative effect. Additionally, EREB exhibits herding and differentiation patterns in response to changes in peer expert engagement density. This results in a U-shaped relationship between EREB and peer expert engagement density, moderated by aggregate rating, overall rating inconsistency, and peer expert rating inconsistency. This study provides practical insights for marketers looking to engage expert customers and expands on the literature on expert customer engagement behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 101463"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142656591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gamification on digital platform: A meta-analysis of affordance on behavior from value perspective","authors":"Furong Jia , Xueqi Bao , Jie Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101465","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101465","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gamification has become a widely applied technique in the digital platform sector. Despite prior research exploring gamification in various contexts from different angles, an integrated empirical study has yet to draw cohesive conclusions from these findings. This study, utilizing data from 34 papers (N = 35,856), has developed a <em>meta</em>-analytic framework comprised of 17 paths. Through this framework, we have identified immersion, achievement, and social as core gamification affordance constructs, as well as functional value, emotional value, and social value as perceived value constructs, and we have also designated user behavior as the outcome, utilizing the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework. The research results indicate that emotional value has a profound effect on behavior, with context, platform, and country moderating to the gamification mechanism. This study has significant implications for the further advancement of gamification in the digital platform.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 101465"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142656590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wenchao Du , Xitong Guo , Tianshi Wu , Wu Liu , Doug Vogel
{"title":"The impact of online medical team participation on physicians’ individual online service","authors":"Wenchao Du , Xitong Guo , Tianshi Wu , Wu Liu , Doug Vogel","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101468","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101468","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As an emerging service mode in online health communities (OHCs), services provided by a team of medical professionals can provide more effective consultation services than individual professionals working in isolation, thus better meeting patients’ needs. However, little is known about the impact of team services on individual services in the OHC context. Based on signaling theory and the trust model, this study examines the effects of online medical team participation on physicians’ individual online service performance. We analyze a panel dataset from 4,509 physicians in 2,663 medical teams on a leading physician-driven OHC in China. The results indicate (1) the positive effect of physicians’ integrity and outstanding ability within the team, (2) the curvilinear effect of physicians’ benevolence during team service consultations, and (3) the moderating role of physicians’ background similarity and team size. Our results contribute to the literature on signaling theory and offer insights for practitioners and academicians.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 101468"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142723176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhaojun Yang , Yinmeng Li , Jun Sun , Xu Hu , Yali Zhang
{"title":"Consumer private data collection strategies for AI-enabled products","authors":"Zhaojun Yang , Yinmeng Li , Jun Sun , Xu Hu , Yali Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101460","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101460","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance products and services has enabled personalized offerings and smarter functionalities through the analysis of consumer data. However, privacy concerns present significant challenges to the effective utilization and commercialization of AI-enabled products. To address these concerns, firms must carefully navigate consumer data privacy and develop appropriate data collection strategies to support future product intelligence, particularly with AI technologies like ChatGPT. This study examines two primary data collection approaches: the uniform policy strategy and the option menu strategy. A mathematical model is constructed to assess these strategies, considering factors such as information externalities and heterogeneous consumer privacy concerns. By comparing firm profits, consumer surplus, and social welfare under both strategies, the study finds that the option menu strategy becomes optimal when there are considerable differences in privacy concerns across consumer groups or when even smaller differences exist, but consumers place a high value on personalized services. These insights offer guidance to firms and policymakers in formulating appropriate data collection strategies for AI-enabled products.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 101460"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142656589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}