J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res., Volume 10, Issue 1 (January 2015) – 7 articles

The paper examines the effect of E-Supply Chain Management Systems in the North American electronics manufacturing services industry. A causal and descriptive research study was conducted based on a survey applied to thirty six individuals in electronic manufacturing services firms in order to determine the impact of e-supply chain management on their key supply chain operations. Results of the research revealed that e-supply chain management had a positive effect in the electronic manufacturing services industry as these showed that the profits of the firm increased and internal communications were improved due to the implementation of e-supply chain management. The research also showed that e-supply chain management systems have many technical issues such as problems with process automation and transmission of supply chain data, e-procurement effectiveness, integration with existing systems and the monitoring of inventory systems and purchasing process. Several recommendations are made to overcome these challenges including employee training and re-engineering of business processes for better system integration. Full article

In modern organizations, knowledge is the fundamental basis of competition. In the new context, two major factors determine the future survival or success of organizations: electronic commerce and the knowledge from customers. Thus, the goals of the research were figured out, and investigating the relationship and application of customer’s knowledge management in gaining competitive advantages of organizations in E-commerce and also the 8 followings factors were investigated: knowledge from customers, knowledge for the customers, knowledge about customers, recording and spreading customers’ knowledge, quality of the products and services, pace of providing the products and services, reasonable prices and satisfaction as the output and result of using customers’ knowledge management on organizations competitive advantage variable in E-commerce. For the statistic society, people who were all experts and elites of Mellat Bank market development organization were chosen, and 210 experts who are working in Iranian insurance companies. The statistic tests used were: Kolmogorov-Smirnov, simple linear and multiple regression the results extracted from the above tests stated the linear relationship and correlation between independent and dependent variables. The results of this study had shown the application of the customers’ knowledge management would lead into gaining competitive advantage for the organizations in E-commerce. Full article

The purpose of this research is to examine the variables that influence buying behavior for a sample of social network sites users who are offline buyers of hospitality services. Subsequently, we do the same of social network sites users who are online buyers in the same sector. Finally, we compare both types of clients and discuss their different purchasing behavior. Logistic regression is used to model the dichotomous outcome variables. The dependent variable was to buy or not to buy a tourist service and the independent variables were: the social network sites use, social identity, altruism, telepresence, and Word-of-Mouth. The data set was collected in Chile and Spain from a sample of on-line questionnaires. The main result of this study is the clear difference in consumer behavior between people who buy online tourist services and those who buy these services in travel agents or other traditional channels. The main contribution of this paper deals with the influence of social network sites on offline and online shopping in the hospitality sector. Full article

Extant literature in decision theory suggests that online auction buyers depend on signals for mitigating uncertainty that influence bidder behavior at multiple points. However, the depth and breadth of the use of signals has only been partially explored. Using data from 242 online auction users, we show that eight emergent factors influence decisions of auction selection and initial bid in different ways. We further find that two ethical perspectives impact the evaluation of seller uncertainty in unique ways, although neither perspective predominates within our sample. These results enable sellers and online auction marketplaces to better design and implement auction systems that provide signals that buyers most desire. Full article

This study extends the understanding of signaling in online shopping environments by evaluating the effect of positive and negative signals on perceptions of online buyers. Drawing from signaling theory, this study proposes and empirically tests a model for conceptualizing the influence of website signals on perceived deceptiveness and purchase intentions. The results support the assertions of the model and indicate that the online buyers’ perceptions of website deceptiveness and purchase intentions are mainly influenced by website content, website amateurism and website physical presence, whereas human presence is not significant. Full article

Crowdsourcing as a model for distributed problem solving has been rapidly gaining in popularity. In investigating what drives the solvers to participate in crowdsourcing, the extant research has one-dimensionally only viewed the origins of motivation. While these studies have revealed that crowdsourcing systems’ use is driven by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, they fall short of explaining how these motivations change over time from initial to continued use. To address this research gap, our study highlights the dynamic nature of human motivation and shows that by including the aims of motivation in the analysis, we can better capture the dynamic nature of motivation across time. With a case study of a photography crowdsourcing platform, we illustrate how the solvers’ motivations change from the initial use to sustained participation. While initial use seems to be inspired by selfish motivations, continued use requires both selfish and social motivations to be satisfied. This study contributes to theory by extending our understanding of the motivational factors driving the use of crowdsourcing systems by looking into both the origins and the aims of motivation together with the temporal dimension. It also contributes to practice by providing suggestions in terms of communication strategies for crowdsourcing organizers. Full article