Chloe Satinet , François Fouss , Marco Saerens , Pierre Leleux
{"title":"In-processing and post-processing strategies for balancing accuracy and sustainability in product recommendations","authors":"Chloe Satinet , François Fouss , Marco Saerens , Pierre Leleux","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101433","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101433","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Many e-commerce websites use product recommendation systems. With the growing awareness of the environmental impact of our consumption, these recommender systems, well-known for encouraging purchases and consumption, are being challenged. In recent literature, it has been suggested that recommender systems should balance the exploitation of existing preferences with the exploration of sustainable items, i.e., to make sustainable alternatives more accessible to consumers and promote sustainable consumption habits. In this paper, we therefore analyse how to increase the presence of sustainable products in recommendation lists, without overly decreasing their accuracy. More precisely, we test three in-processing and four post-processing strategies using an offline experimental design. The post-processing strategies 1 (relevance scores’ adjustment) and 3.1. (incremental list formation with calibration) manage to offer interesting accuracy-sustainability trade-offs on our datasets. For instance, by applying post-processing strategy 3.1 to a content-based recommendation algorithm, a gain of up to 20% can be achieved for the sustainability metric without any loss of accuracy. Greater sustainability improvements can be achieved if a loss of accuracy is tolerated. For practitioners, i.e., e-commerce platforms, this means that they could continue to offer relevant recommendations while promoting a more sustainable consumption.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101433"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141710532","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":"Selling mode choice with logistics service: Reselling or online marketplace?","authors":"Jia Qian , Jiannan Shen , Xiaofeng Shao","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101434","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101434","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Reselling or online marketplace are the two common selling modes for e-tailers in online retailing, and in each selling mode, logistics service is an important strategy that is provided by e-tailers, manufacturers, or third-party logistics (abbreviated as 3PL) companies. We formulate a multi-stage game to sequentially investigate the optimal selling mode and the equilibrium of service format selection and find that under the identical logistics service costs for all service providers, the e-tailer is willing to choose reselling when the fraction of the manufacturer’s revenue sharing as a commission rate is low or choose online marketplace when the fraction is medium–low. When the fraction is medium to high, the selling mode choice is influenced by the fraction and the logistics service’s cost sensitivity to demand, and interestingly the e-tailer does not always choose online marketplace with a high fraction of revenue sharing. Further, we find the logistics service undertaken by the e-tailer is the equilibrium when the e-tailer chooses reselling, or online marketplace with a medium to high fraction, while the manufacturer is the equilibrium when the e-tailer chooses online marketplace with a medium–low fraction. Moreover, we identify the “win–win” conditions by examining the consistency in choosing the selling mode between the e-tailer and the manufacturer. Finally, the e-tailer and manufacturer would outsource the logistics service to a 3PL company with a lower service cost regardless of the selling mode. Last, the optimal selling mode and the consistency are robust under each extended discussion.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101434"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141623254","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}
Siyuan Zhu , Shaofu Du , Tengfei Nie , Yangguang Zhu
{"title":"Pricing strategy for co-created products in platform-based consumer innovation","authors":"Siyuan Zhu , Shaofu Du , Tengfei Nie , Yangguang Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101431","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Consumer innovation, which is the participation of consumers (or users) in product research and development, has become increasingly popular in recent years. Simultaneously, large technological advances on the internet have provided a convenient channel for consumers to contribute creative ideas in co-creation activity, providing an opportunity to rebuild our business ecosystem. We focus on how the platform impacts the process of consumer innovation. In this paper, we consider a setting in which a platform enterprise, a producer, and a group of consumers jointly design and produce a co-created product. In the co-creation process, the platform collects consumers’ ideas, sets three different innovation standards (i.e., practicality-oriented innovation, novelty-oriented innovation, and mixed innovation), and then sells the integrated idea to the producer. We demonstrate that each of the three innovation standards has its own scope of application, and no one standard is strictly dominant. Furthermore, a consumer is more willing to purchase the product with the increase in the effort exerted by himself when participating in a co-creation activity. Finally, we find that government subsidies for the platform enterprise are not always high-efficient in terms of increasing social welfare.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101431"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141583073","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":"A metric and indicator performance measurement system for e-commerce organizations: A consensus analysis of their usefulness","authors":"Kwee Keong Choong , Liz Bacon","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101420","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101420","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Electronic commerce (EC) is becoming a popular platform for online retail shopping and online payment, and it has become a new phenomenon of business transactions and innovation. In view of EC importance in global business transactions, surprisingly, there is no proper and appropriate system of performance measurement. Even if an EC firm were to measure performance, typically, the focus is on financial results using the traditional accounting system (AS) of measurement. The aim of this paper is to identify the metrics and indicators needed for EC performance measurement as the AS is inappropriate for many of the EC activities such as traffic flow, reliability of security of online payments, use of social-media data, etc. We first use a systematic analysis of selected articles to help us identify, understand and select metrics and indicators that are applicable for EC performance measurement. The <em>Delphi method</em> is then undertaken to conduct a questionnaire survey to gauge consensus of experts’ opinions with respect to (wrt) the use of those metrics and indicators selected. We found the respondents largely agreed that the metrics and indicators proposed by us are necessary or very necessary for use in EC performance measurement, although the experts consider three of the metrics proposed − traffic sources, emails subscribers and customer lifetime value be replaced with three accounting indicators (net income, return on investment and break-even points). The data is robust as it is verified by statistical tests. This study has both academic and practical implications; for the former, the metrics and indicators proposed meet the theoretical mathematical measurement system, and for the latter, the metrics and indicators proposed allows operation and strategic managers to design and develop an organization’s PMS.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101420"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141623253","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":"Super app on demand: Exploring the impact of service synergy on willingness to use a new service","authors":"Yu-Hui Fang , Chien-Hsiang Liao , Chia-Ying Li","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101430","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>People prefer managing diverse activities within a “Super App,” driving the need for additional services to monopolize users’ time continually. In advancing this emerging theme, we present a model integrating synergy and brand extension theories to deepen the understanding, from the user’s perspective, of how an established super app (LINE) influences the launch of a new service (LINE Shopping). Focusing on their unique synergy, a phenomenon absent in single-purpose apps, we introduce the novel concept of expected service synergy. We establish five enabler-synergy linkages and one synergy-use linkage, empirically supporting all the hypotheses with survey data from 814 LINE users. Finally, enablers associated with LINE (perceived external prestige and brand competence), LINE Shopping (complementarity and compatibility), and their relationship (perceived fit) significantly contribute to expected service synergy. This synergy is crucial in motivating users’ willingness to utilize LINE Shopping. Our findings offer actionable guidelines for super app practitioners and researchers.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101430"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567422324000759/pdfft?md5=111b0ebe39053bc16c9d5a63db401d68&pid=1-s2.0-S1567422324000759-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141486090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Predicting and interpreting digital platform survival: An interpretable machine learning approach","authors":"Xinyu Zhu , Qiang Zhang , Baojun Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101423","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Despite the substantial economic impact of digital platforms, research on platform risk evaluation has been sparse. In this study, we investigate whether online content can serve as leading indicators of digital platform survival. We employ machine learning techniques to extract features from three types of online content, that is, user generated content, platform generated content, and third party generated content and examine their utilities in predicting platform survival. Using a predictive XGBoost algorithm and data crawled from a leading web portals of digital platforms for online lending in China, we find online content are strong predictors of platform survival. Furthermore, we use casual forest models to reveal the differences among the three type of online content in terms of predictive utility. Interestingly, we find the presence of third-party generated content indicates lower probability of platform survival while the platform with more user generated content has higher chance to survive. The relationship between platform generated contents and platform failure is not significant. Based on the results, we provide practical implications for market managers and platform owners.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101423"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141486176","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":"Research on value creation path of logistics platform under the background of digital ecosystem: Based on SEM and fsQCA methods","authors":"Zongyuan Liu , Qiaohong Pan","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101424","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Digitalization and platform ecosystem have subverted the value creation mode between traditional logistics actors and brought new value additions. Few studies have been done to investigate the influencing factors prompting such value creation of digital platform ecological cooperation in the Chinese logistics industry. The study bridges the gap by using structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis methods to investigate data from 347 Chinese logistics firms cooperating under the logistics platform. Findings:(1) identification of customer value proposition, complementary cooperation, and multi-party interaction had an indirect influence on logistics service value realization. While transaction cost reduction and digital innovation had a direct influence. (2) Digital capabilities have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between transaction cost reduction and value realization. (3) Comparing the configurations of value realization and ~value realization, it is found that enterprises cannot create value if they only save costs without operation, and should improve digital capabilities to reduce transaction costs. At the same time, the identification of customer value proposition is the source of value creation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101424"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141486088","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}
Miller-Janny Ariza-Garzón , Javier Arroyo , María-Jesús Segovia-Vargas , Antonio Caparrini
{"title":"Profit-sensitive machine learning classification with explanations in credit risk: The case of small businesses in peer-to-peer lending","authors":"Miller-Janny Ariza-Garzón , Javier Arroyo , María-Jesús Segovia-Vargas , Antonio Caparrini","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101428","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We propose a comprehensive profit-sensitive approach for credit risk modeling in P2P lending for small businesses, one of the most financially complex segments. We go beyond traditional and cost-sensitive approaches by including the financial costs and incomes through profits and introducing the profit information at three points of the modeling process: the estimation of the learning function of the classification algorithm (XGBoost in our case), the hyperparameter optimization, and the decision function. The profit-sensitive approaches achieve a higher level of profitability than the profit-insensitive approach in the small business case analyzed by granting mostly lower-risk, lower-amount loans. Explainability tools help us to discover the key features of such loans. Our proposal can be extended to other loan markets or other classification problems as long as the cells of the misclassification matrix have an economic value.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101428"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567422324000735/pdfft?md5=2483f7172b4368f1a27294cec1a02f2d&pid=1-s2.0-S1567422324000735-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141486109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Online promotion cooling? The influence mechanism of consumer loyalty in classic large-scale online social promotions","authors":"Min Zhang , Sihong Li","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101429","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Consumer loyalty plays a significant role in the sustainable marketing of classic large-scale online social promotions (CLOSPs). However, existing research mainly focuses on the single consumption behavior of consumers, overlooking the exploration of consumer CLOSPs loyalty from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives. This study aims to bridge this gap in the literature by exploring the impact mechanism of environmental factors on consumer loyalty in CLOSPs based on signaling theory and social cognitive theory. We apply a mixed-methods design containing both qualitative and quantitative stages. The research results show that perceived promotional incentives are influenced by three types of environmental signals: social-, product-, and platform-related signals. Subjective norms, relationship benefits, product involvement, and path dependence form consumer loyalty by influencing consumer cognition (including flow experience and satisfaction). Subjective norms and relationship benefits correspond to the passive and active dimensions of social-related signals, respectively. Further, three configurations can lead to high levels of consumer loyalty to CLOSPs. Our findings propose that e-commerce practitioners should leverage environmental signals to stimulate perceived promotional incentives and foster high loyalty to CLOSPs.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101429"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141486089","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}
Jinao Zhang, Xinyuan Lu, Wenqing Zheng, Xuelin Wang
{"title":"It’s better than nothing: The influence of service failures on user reusage intention in AI chatbot","authors":"Jinao Zhang, Xinyuan Lu, Wenqing Zheng, Xuelin Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101421","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot have become increasingly popular as a tool for improving employee productivity over the last few years. In the early stages of AI chatbot development, exploring the impact of AI chatbot service failures on user reusage intention is useful for coordinating human–computer interaction and optimizing AI chatbot service mechanisms. The extant literature on AI service failures focuses on service recovery and anthropomorphism. There is less literature comparing different types of service failures and their effects. The article includes three studies. First, a randomized group experiment was conducted with 120 respondents. The results showed significant differences in the impact of different AI chatbot service failures on user reusage intentions. Second, an online questionnaire was completed by 386 respondents, the results found specific impact mechanisms of service failures on user reusage intentions. Third, an interview survey was conducted with 15 customers using AI chatbots to verify the findings of Study 1 and Study 2. Furthermore determine the boundary conditions for the unsupported hypotheses through <em>meta</em>-inference. The research enriches the literature on relationship marketing and expands the attribution theory of service failures. In addition, which provides theoretical basis and practical support for companies to reduce adverse effects of service failures.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50541,"journal":{"name":"Electronic Commerce Research and Applications","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 101421"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141423485","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}