Electronic Commerce Research and Applications最新文献

{"title":"Understanding the impact of sustainability-oriented recommender systems on consumers’ choices","authors":"Chloe Satinet,&nbsp;Caroline Ducarroz,&nbsp;François Fouss","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101540","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101540","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recommender systems have long been employed by e-commerce platforms to boost revenue by tailoring product suggestions to consumer preferences. Recommender systems aimed at advancing broader societal goals, such as encouraging consumers to choose more sustainable products, by prioritising them in the recommendations, are beginning to emerge. While extant research has covered the effects of traditional recommender systems on consumer behaviour, research on the effectiveness and mechanisms of sustainability-oriented systems remains limited. Building upon recommender system and nudging theory, we analyse in this paper how sustainability-oriented recommender systems impact consumer choices compared to traditional recommender systems or the absence of recommendations. Through a lab-controlled experiment featuring three conditions (traditional, sustainability-oriented, and no recommendations) in a simulated online store created by the authors for the experiment, we examine both behavioural outcomes and underlying mechanisms. Our findings reveal that sustainability-oriented recommender systems significantly increase the purchase of sustainable products by enhancing interest in and desire for these items and reducing the effort required to find them. Importantly, these systems do not affect the overall quantity of products purchased. However, we also found that these systems amplify the perception of being overwhelmed by sustainability messaging. This research shows practitioners the potential of sustainability-oriented recommender systems to encourage sustainable consumption while maintaining business objectives, offering a pathway to align sustainability with profitability goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101540"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144933779","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":"The online retail channel structure with bidirectional free-riding effect","authors":"Jing Liu ,&nbsp;Anqi Li ,&nbsp;Pengwen Hou ,&nbsp;Shuhua Chang","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101561","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101561","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An increasing number of merchants sell products through dual channels on a platform, whose services (such as marketing, operations, warehousing, and payment) significantly enhance market demand. Sellers (merchants and platforms) can ride the service efforts of another channel for free, which is unexplained by existing theories. This paper develops a game to study the online channel structure on retail price and service effort. We systematically identify four strategic scenarios: single channel (resale and agency), independent dual channels, dual channels with unidirectional free-riding, and dual channels with bidirectional free-riding. Opening dual channels from a single channel can offer valuable flexibility to startups and merchants, but it can also intensify competition between channels. We emphasize the flexibility of dual channels, as a low commission allows companies to transfer sales between channels, alleviating the inefficiency of double marginalization and increasing the motivation for the platform to strive to provide diversified services. Conversely, under a high commission rate, it is not feasible to open up dual channels, whether to prevent wholesale price hikes or to suffer from the failure of service effort incentives, especially when the platform engages in free-riding. The free-riding of online dual channels has dual characteristics in terms of direction and effect. When the merchant free-rides, the level of service effort and sales improve, but the service decentralization effect is disrupted by the strategic increase in wholesale prices as the free-riding intensifies. We confirm that the direction and strength of free-riding behavior should be maintained in a non-linear relationship, benefiting both parties conditionally. Intuitively speaking, one who takes the initiative to free-ride is always better off with the service effort from another channel. The result is not so, as the loss of increased competition caused by merchants through the agency channel is much higher than the increased profits of encroaching on dual channels. The study provides insights for the platform and merchants to guide the services and pricing under the complex free-riding, further adjust channel structure for encroachment and competition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101561"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684639","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":"Macroeconomic influences on cross-border e-commerce: a comparative market and product-level analysis of the Republic of Korea’s imports from the U.S. and China","authors":"Jae Ik Ahn,&nbsp;Gyoo Gun Lim","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101544","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101544","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid expansion of cross-border e-commerce (CBEC), understanding macroeconomic influences on international trade has become increasingly important. This study analyzes the impact of macroeconomic variables and consumer sentiment on the Republic of Korea’s CBEC imports from the U.S. and China, employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to capture both short- and long-term dynamics. The analysis includes total imports and four key product categories (leather goods, cosmetics, electronics, and apparel) allowing for a market-level and product-level comparison. Empirical findings reveal that U.S. imports increase when the U.S. dollar depreciates and inflation declines, reflecting classical demand responses to price changes. In contrast, Chinese imports remain stable or even increase despite the appreciation of the Chinese yuan, due to structurally lower product prices. Consumer sentiment also plays distinct roles: decreasing sentiment in Republic of Korea increases U.S. imports, reflecting cost-conscious purchasing, whereas increasing sentiment drives Chinese imports higher, indicating broader expansion of consumption. Electronics imports show market-specific dynamics, whereas cosmetics respond similarly across both markets, highlighting product-specific sensitivity to price and brand rather than market origin. This study offers a novel contribution by integrating macroeconomic and psychological variables within a unified time-series framework, revealing asymmetries in CBEC behavior across countries and product types. The findings provide theoretical insights into global e-commerce behavior and offer practical implications for firms and policymakers developing tailored CBEC strategies in diverse economic environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101544"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145325266","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":"Brand spillover and information disclosure in the presence of a co-opetitive supplier","authors":"Sheng Jin ,&nbsp;Tieshan Li ,&nbsp;Hui Yang ,&nbsp;Liyuan Sun ,&nbsp;Yuhan Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101545","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101545","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When a retailer outsources its private brand to a national brand firm, the retailer can leverage this relationship to promote its private brand product, which is referred to as brand spillover. Additionally, the retailer can provide detailed private brand information to alleviate consumers’ uncertainty about their preference for the product. We build a game-theoretic model to examine the information disclosure and brand spillover strategies in the context where an e-commerce platform sells products of two brands: its private brand (weak-brand) and a national brand (strong-brand) supplied by a co-opetitive supplier. The e-commerce platform outsources its private brand’s (weak-brand) manufacturing to the supplier. The equilibrium analysis shows that the platform’s choice of optimal strategy profile depends on two effects: the Consumer-heterogenization effect and the Brand-homogenization effect. Information disclosure can trigger the Consumer-heterogenization effect mitigating the intensity of price competition between the supplier and the platform, while brand spillover can cause the Brand-homogenization effect, enabling the platform’s private brand product to be more attractive. Both substitution and complementary relations are found between information disclosure and brand spillover depending on the cost efficiency. There exists a win–win outcome that both the platform and supplier can be better off from information disclosure and brand spillover, therefore, these strategies can serve as effective tools for supply chain coordination.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101545"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220680","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":"Payment innovation diffusion among merchants: An integrated view using a tri-level hybrid method","authors":"Xin Liu ,&nbsp;Xiaoyan Zhu ,&nbsp;Jiaqi Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101558","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101558","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the past decade, a plethora of academic research has investigated the diffusion of retail central bank digital currency (RCBDC). However, many of these studies have concentrated on RCBDC diffusion among consumers, leaving a significant gap in understanding RCBDC diffusion from the merchant perspective. This oversight highlights the necessity to explore the determinants of merchants’ RCBDC adoption intentions. Taking the E-CNY (Electronic Chinese Yuan) as an illustration, this study attempts to construct a holistic model that incorporates the innovation diffusion theory (IDT), two-sided market theory (TMT), and institutional theory (IIT) to fathom the determinants of merchants’ RCBDC adoption intentions. Survey data on 474 merchants from China were analyzed using a tri-level method integrating the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), artificial neural networks (ANN) and necessary condition analysis (NCA) techniques. The results demonstrate that critical mass, perceived complementarity, normative pressures, mimetic pressures, relative advantage, and compatibility are determinants regarding merchants’ E-CNY adoption intentions. Of these determinants, their relative importance toward merchants’ E-CNY adoption intentions follows a decreasing order with the determinant presented before, and with the first four being the necessary conditions for merchants’ E-CNY adoption intentions. This study advances the burgeoning knowledge on RCBDC adoption and deliberates insightful references for policymakers to foster RCBDC implementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101558"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145519762","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":"Virtual Idols’ influence on Consumer’s brand attitude and purchase intention: A perspective of para-social interaction","authors":"Yunzhu Yu ,&nbsp;Achaya Bannasilp ,&nbsp;Simon C.M. Kwong","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101546","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101546","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Generation Z is becoming a dominant force in the consumer market, prompting numerous brands to turn to virtual idols as brand endorsers to connect with this new generation. This has led to the emergence of virtual idol marketing. To understand the influence of these virtual digital celebrities on consumers, this study first identifies the key definitional elements of virtual idols. It then seeks to explain how virtual idols impact consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions through the lens of <em>para</em>-social interaction. This study uses PLS-SEM analysis (N = 418) and finds that virtual idols’ characteristics (i.e., physical attractiveness, social attractiveness, activity, homophily in attitude and morality dimensions) are antecedents of audiences’ <em>para</em>-social interaction toward virtual idols. This <em>para</em>-social interaction, in turn, can positively impact target audiences’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Brand attitude is suggested to be the primary marketing goal rather than purchase intention in virtual idol endorsement. This study contributes to the research on the emerging field of virtual idol marketing and offers practical implications for marketing practitioners in the digital era.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101546"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145119285","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":"Turning laughs into buys: The influence of meme marketing on consumer purchase intentions in e-commerce using media richness theory","authors":"Pei-Hsuan Tsai ,&nbsp;Wei-Hung Hsiao","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101547","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101547","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Meme marketing has emerged as a cost-effective and high-impact strategy for brand promotion, requiring minimal resources while engaging audiences through creative content. This study applies multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) and structural equation modelling (SEM) within the media richness theory (MRT) framework to examine how meme marketing influences consumer purchasing decisions on e-commerce platforms. Study 1, based on 356 valid responses, employs DEMATEL (decision making trial and evaluation laboratory) and DANP (DEMATEL-based on analytic network process) to map relationships among key factors. Findings indicate that language variety (LV) requires the most adjustment, followed by personal focus (PF), multiple cues (MC), and immediate feedback (IF). DANP results highlight IF as the most critical factor in driving purchase intention, with MC and PF also exerting significant influence. Study 2, based on 516 responses, confirms these relationships through SEM analysis, demonstrating that IF, MC, and PF positively influence purchase intention, while LV has a negative effect. These findings provide empirical evidence on the role of meme marketing in consumer decision-making, guiding e-commerce platforms in refining content strategies to enhance engagement and optimise consumer interaction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101547"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220681","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":"Trade-in pricing game between manufacturer, selling platform, and recycling platform","authors":"Xiaoqing Zhang ,&nbsp;Yongbo Xiao ,&nbsp;Xigang Yuan ,&nbsp;Jiajia Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101549","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101549","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As observed in practice, selling platforms such as <span><span>JD.com</span><svg><path></path></svg></span> and <span><span>Suning.com</span><svg><path></path></svg></span> provide new products for sale, while recycling platforms like Aihuishou and Huishoubao specialize in selling used products. Manufacturers including notable brands like Huawei and Apple, often provide trade-in for new (TFN) service or trade-in for refurbishment (TFR) service to customers. This study aims to identify the optimal trade-in provider in a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) consisting of a manufacturer, a selling platform and a recycling platform. The results show that: First, manufacturers can effectively enhance their offering by implementing TFN service for new products or TFR service for refurbished goods. Second, besides offering their own trade-in service, manufacturers may delegate the TFN service to selling platforms and the TFR service to recycling platforms under specific condition. The selling platform can opt to manage TFN service delegation, and recycling platform can similarly choose to handle TFR service delegation, given certain circumstance. Finally, both the TFN and the TFR services consistently increase customer surplus (CS) and environment benefit (EB).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101549"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145324599","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":"Digital nudging in e-commerce: empowering behavioral science with data science","authors":"Philipp Brüggemann,&nbsp;Luis F. Martinez,&nbsp;Francisco J. Martínez-López","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101553","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101553","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101553"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145361663","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":"Enhancing sustainable consumer behaviour through Nudging: Insights from a field experiment on adoption of electronic receipts","authors":"Andris Saulītis ,&nbsp;Vineta Silkāne ,&nbsp;Anna Karolīna Ozola","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101548","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2025.101548","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the effectiveness of nudging interventions in promoting sustainable consumer behaviour by encouraging the adoption of digital receipts over paper ones. Conducted in a digital environment, the field experiment targeted loyal customers of a Latvian retail chain with email-based nudges. The interventions tested digital nudging (modifying choice architecture) and nudging in digital settings (behavioural prompts via email) to assess their impact on reducing paper waste. The results underscore the challenge of driving behavioural change in routine transactions, as the overall treatment effect of our interventions did not exceed 0.5% points. Digital nudges requiring explicit decision-making were slightly more effective, particularly in leveraging second email reminders, which captured late responders. A key challenge was engagement: only 8.6% of recipients opened the emails, highlighting the need for strategies to overcome initial attention barriers. The results demonstrate that nudging through digital channels alone is insufficient to drive large-scale adoption of digital receipts. However, they also point to the importance of combining digital nudging with value-added digital services that address both cognitive and structural barriers in digital environments. An approach that links behavioural interventions with enhanced customer value is essential for advancing sustainable consumption practices in retail.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101548"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145266321","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}