Research on Influencing Factors of Service Interactive Experience of Digital Gas Station—The Case from China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you very much for the opportunity to review this manuscript: " Research on Influencing Factors of Service Interactive Experience of Digital Gas Station - The Case from China" which sets out to examine the factors influencing digital service interactive experience at gas stations. The topic covered in the paper is potentially interesting and presents novelties for both academia and industry, especially for service stations in China. The paper is adequately organised, with an appropriate theoretical framework that supports the research question and hypotheses. The methodology adopted despite being only qualitative, semi-structured interviews, uses grounded theoretical research methods to code qualitative data, demonstrating that it was developed in a thorough and rigorous manner, allowing to ensure the reliability of the results and extract answer to the problematic under study.

The analysis of results is interesting and suitable, however it is suggested that it be included a more comprehensive discussion between the results obtained and the results of other investigations, making the counterpoint with new findings or showing the consolidation of previous findings that this study corroborates. The conclusions are presented clearly and precisely, demonstrating the theoretical and practical implications that the study contributes as well as its main limitations, also highlighting future lines of research.

Thus, this study presents a theme with interest and relevance for the academy, for the industry and for the progress of e-commerce, the authors should be congratulated for their work and for the relevance of the investigated theme, considering that the work in the introduction by mistake starts with the template text that should be removed. Additionally, the bibliographical references should be revised according to the MDPI standard, since several appear incomplete. In summary it is considered that the paper presents an innovative and current theme, with important results for the academy and the industry, more specifically for the digital service in service stations, so after the inclusion of these small suggestions it will be in conditions to be accepted for publication.

Author Response

尊敬的审稿人，

感谢您的有见地和有益的评论。请参阅下文以了解我们的详细回复，这些回复以绿色突出显示。

 Ç omment  1： 《数字加油站服务互动体验影响因素研究——来自中国的案例》旨在考察影响加油站数字服务互动体验的因素。论文中涉及的主题可能很有趣，并且为学术界和工业界，尤其是对中国的加油站提出了新颖性。这篇论文组织得很好，有一个适当的理论框架来支持研究问题和假设。所采用的方法虽然只是定性的、半结构化的访谈，但采用扎根的理论研究方法对定性数据进行编码，证明它是以彻底和严谨的方式开发的，可以确保结果的可靠性，并提取出问题的答案。学习。”

[R esponse 1：我们感谢评审对我们最初提交的有利分析和强调我们研究的重要意义，以及研究方法和论文结构肯定。

Ç omment 2 ：“结果的分析是有趣的，合适的，但是，建议将其列入所取得的成果等进行调查的结果之间的比较全面的讨论，使新发现的对位或显示先前盘整本研究证实的结果。结论清晰准确，展示了该研究的理论和实践意义及其主要局限性，也突出了未来的研究方向。”  

回复2 ：感谢审稿人对稿件内容的认可。多维度的、深入的、反思性的讨论确实是非常必要的，修改稿中增加了更全面的讨论。

L 4 77 -483：“这个结果表明信息的可见性会影响服务的感知。与 Nielsen 的可用性原则[45] “系统状态的可见性”形成对比。为优化服务体系产生良好的启示。不同的是，信息从二维界面转化为三维服务空间。服务任务的触发、过程和反馈都可以产生新的服务触点和交互。这将是服务设计的好机会。”

L 495-499：“这个结果是反射性的。AI服务和人工服务，哪个感知效率更高？热血服务和冷血服务，哪个更受年轻一代的欢迎？使用机械臂和人工智能服务的经验需要进一步研究。”

L 56 7 -570：“这部分研究数据强烈支持TAM模型[27] ；用户的行为状态可以作为影响接受态度的前因变量。在加油站，消费者的车内状态处理多项任务，完成任务的动作范围，以及多项任务的同步，都可以作为影响感知易用性的前因变量。“

Ç omment 3 ：“  因此，本研究提出了一个对学术界、行业和电子商务的进步感兴趣和相关的主题，作者应该祝贺他们的工作和调查主题的相关性，考虑到错误的介绍以应删除的模板文本开头。此外，参考书目应根据 MDPI 标准进行修订，因为其中一些似乎不完整。综上所述，认为该论文提出了一个创新的当前主题，对学术界和行业，尤其​​是在加油站的数字化服务方面具有重要的成果，因此在纳入这些小建议后，将有条件被接受发表。”

回应3 ：感谢审稿人对我们研究主题的成果和意义的表扬和鼓励。☺错误开头的模板文本已被删除。☺我们对参考书目进行了人工修改。详情请参阅手稿。

感谢您的持续关注。我们非常感谢您提出的宝贵建议。如果您有任何疑问或需要更多信息，请随时与我们联系。

真诚的，

方丽

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

1. Rewrite “introduction”. with subheadings that explain the “Back ground introduction of your study”, “aim of your study”, “a brief statement of method”, that elaborate the beneficial goal of your study. Everything that is important in the manuscript must be reflected in the “introduction”.
2. L264-272, The narrative in this paragraph is inappropriate. It is recommended to display the information of the interviewee by “age”.
3. L125-127, The manuscript mentioned TPB and TAM mode, why not use this mode to verify influencing factors. Please provide and explanation.
4. Questionnaire design is the important of quantitative research. Sampling methodology and techniques adopted are not clear. In consumer research, sampling details are crucial. The representativeness of the questionnaire has influence on the research results. There are only 24 interview samples. According to questionnaire design or sampling theory, the number of samples is too small to be representative.

Author Response

Dear reviewer，

Thank you for your insightful and helpful reviews. Please see below for our detailed responses, which are highlighted in green.

Comment 1: Rewrite “introduction”. with subheadings that explain the “Back ground introduction of your study”, “aim of your study”, “a brief statement of method”, that elaborate the beneficial goal of your study. Everything that is important in the manuscript must be reflected in the “introduction”.

Response 1: We thank the reviewer for this comment. Suggestions help make the "introduction" clearer. Therefore, the manuscript was changed, "introduction" the first paragraph outlines the research background and importance, and the second paragraph clarifies the research motivation and research necessity. The third paragraph summarizes the purpose, methods, and main conclusions of this research.

L50-60: “This article explores the influencing factors of user experience at gas stations from the perspective of digital service interaction scenarios. This article uses field surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect data. Grounded theory is used for coding and analysis. The influencing factors are summarized into four dimensions: scenario flow, information flow, task flow, and emotion flow. The SITE matrix model proposed in this research can be seen from visible/invisible, service provider/receiver, two-way comparisons to understand the supply and demand relationship of the service experience more comprehensively. It is expected to provide a theoretical reference and practical guidance for gas station managers, designers and operators, so as to take effective measures to improve user experience and optimize digital services in offline gas station operations.”

Comment 2: L264-272, The narrative in this paragraph is inappropriate. It is recommended to display the information of the interviewee by “age”.

Response 2: We have now modified “Age" in 2 places:

The first place is “3.3. Recruitment and Participants”: L299-301:  “The age distribution in the sample is 21–30 years old (25%), 31–40 years old (33.3%), 41–50 years old (29.2%) and 51–60 years old (12.5%), demonstrating that middle-aged and young people are main sample source. ”

The second place in Table 5 “Age Range” L422-423. Please refer to the manuscript for the details.

Comment 3: L125-127, The manuscript mentioned TPB and TAM mode, why not use this mode to verify influencing factors. Please provide and explanation. L125-127，

Response 3: We thank the reviewer for this insightful comment. We made two changes.

First , we have added a citation in the “2. literature review ”section to explain why we do not use the existing model.

L166-168: “...We believe that it is necessary to do exploratory and qualitative research... If the research is for exploratory purposes, then methods based on a priori and previous hypotheses are considered inapplicable.[35]”

Second, in the "3.2. Grounded Theory and Research Process”, We added three reasons for using the grounded method, explaining why we use grounded theory to do exploratory qualitative research, and why we do not choose a particular model for confirmatory research.

L228-249:   “The main reasons why this paper adopts the grounded theory research methods are as follows: First, this research is based upon a specific research situation, and grounded theory is a method of constructing a theory from the bottom up38. Grounded theory is a qualitative research method. The collection and analysis of its data are carried out simultaneously and continuously compared. The main advantage of grounded theory is that it can not be interfered with by pre-determined theoretical models, allowing the final theoretical results to "naturally emerge" in the process of research[39]. Second, some of the antecedent variables and structural models involved in this article are not yet clear known a priori. Therefore, hypothesis testing cannot be used directly. Gas stations have special service procedures and scenarios, and we cannot put forward research hypotheses, variables, and models before the investigation. Although we have done a lot studied of comparative research in the preliminary theoretical research. literature review, However, it is still not possible to choose a certain theoretical model for confirmatory research. Therefore, this research adopts the exploratory research technique based on grounded theory. Third, the demographic attributes of gas station consumers are quite different. We can't all predict the true thoughts and potential needs of consumers. Hence the the use of grounded theory to reveal consumer preferences and needs is required. The textual information collected through interviews is rich, informative and in-depth. Research methods based on grounded theory can discover hidden deep-seated factors and connections through the surface phenomena of things. Therefore, based on the above reasons, this paper chooses grounded theoretical research methods.”

Comment 4:  Questionnaire design is the important of quantitative research. Sampling methodology and techniques adopted are not clear. In consumer research, sampling details are crucial. The representativeness of the questionnaire has influence on the research results. There are only 24 interview samples. According to questionnaire design or sampling theory, the number of samples is too small to be representative. 

Response 4: In the sampling method, we did not describe clearly. Based on your comments, we have added a description of the sampling method, and modified the narrative logic of the sampling process.

“The sampling method in this paper is purposive sampling. Respondents are selected according to the degree of fit with the research focus. [40] This sampling method enable grounded theory researchers to to find available people who have experienced the process or phenomenon to be studied. [41] The empirical survey first starts with purposive sampling, and selects the interviewees according to the degree of fit with the research focus. [40] First locate gas stations with digital operations...After determining the gas station, we recruited interview hosts ... three groups of investigators randomly selected interviewees at the gas station...The number of interview samples is determined in accordance with the principle of theoretical saturation, and the analysis process starts with collecting a small amount of data under the initial target sample.[40] ”

Moreover, we agree that "quantitative research and questionnaires require a sufficient number of samples" Our further research will do quantitative research based on questionnaires to verify the theoretical model proposed in this research. We explained in the last paragraph of the paper. L712-713:“Future research could expand the sample size ...use large-scale questionnaire surveys to test the exact relationship between the variable categories in the model.”

Since this research is qualitative research based on grounded theory, according to the research method of grounded theory, the sample size is determined by the theoretical saturation." According to your comment, we have emphasized and explained in two parts, 

The first modification is “3.2 Research Process” L250-257:“The research process is shown in figure 1. Following the grounded theory research process, ...If it is found that there are no new important concepts that can affect the core category, it can be considered that the theoretical model has reached saturation. If not, continue sampling to supplement information until the theoretical saturation is reached.”

The second modification is “3.3. Recruitment and Participants” L296-298: We add a quotation “The number of interview samples is determined in accordance with the principle of theoretical saturation, and the analysis process starts with collecting a small amount of data under the initial target sample.[40] ”

Overall Rating English language and style are fine/minor spell check required

Response: We invited a professional proofreader, who is a native English speaker with experience in writing academic papers. Then we went through line by line to correct grammar, spelling, and readability without losing context or technical accuracy. We worked together and corrected hundreds of errors. The changing contents are basically articles, singular, plural, and passive grammatical errors. See the manuscript for details.

Thank you for your continued consideration. we are very grateful for the valuable suggestions. If you have any questions or require additional information, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Fang LI

Author Response File: Author Response.docx