Recommender systems effect on the evolution of users’ choices distribution

Recommender systems’ (RSs) research has mostly focused on algorithms aimed at improving platform owners’ revenues and user’s satisfaction. However, RSs have additional effects, which are related to their impact on users’ choices. In order to avoid an undesired system behaviour and anticipate the effects of an RS, the literature suggests employing simulations.In this article we present a novel, well grounded and flexible simulation framework. We adopt a stochastic user’s choice model and simulate users’ repeated choices for items in the presence of alternative RSs. Properties of the simulated choices, such as their diversity and their quality, are analysed. We state four research questions, also motivated by identified research gaps, which are addressed by conducting an experimental study where three different data sets and five alternative RSs are used. We identify some important effects of RSs. We find that non-personalised RSs result in choices for items that have a larger predicted rating compared to personalised RSs. Moreover, when a user’s awareness set, which is the set containing the items that she can choose from, increases, then choices are more diverse, but the average quality (rating) of the choices decreases. Additionally, in order to achieve a higher choice diversity, increasing the awareness of the users is shown to be a more effective remedy than increasing the number of recommendations offered to the users.     

The effects of individualism–collectivism cultural orientation on eWOM information

Drawing upon elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and espoused culture, this study predicts that eWOM reader's individualism–collectivism orientation (ICO) moderates eWOM antecedent factors’ effects on the perception of information credibility. 274 data were collected from two leading electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) forums in China, the results confirm our prediction: eWOM reader's ICO positively moderates information sidedness’ effect on the perception of information credibility, it also negatively moderates the relationships between information consistency/information rating and information credibility. These findings validate the necessity and importance to consider readers’ espoused cultural differences in eWOM context.     

The influence of financial features and country characteristics on B2B ICOs’ website traffic

Technology, blockchain, and initial coin offerings (ICOs) have changed the established ways of financing companies and doing business. The changes that affect organizational communications, specifically marketing communications, remain unclear, especially in the context of business-to-business (B2B) organizations. The current trend is for B2B companies to view social media as an optimal way to enhance lasting and valuable relationships with other companies. There is little research on social media marketing strategies by B2B organizations. To fill this gap, this study uses a sample of 57 B2B ICOs completed by December 2019 and qualitative comparative analysis to examine how the combined effect of four conditions related to B2B ICOs (percentage of tokens distributed, amount of funding raised, minimum investment required, and ICO price) and two conditions related to the promoter’s country (institutional efficiency and tax haven status) lead to a low Alexa Rank. While the percentage of tokens distributed and the amount of funds raised play a key role in achieving a low Alexa Rank, the minimum investment required seems to play a secondary role. Moreover, the importance of the characteristics of the B2B ICO promoter’s country depends on both the presence and the value of the conditions related to financial characteristics.     

The influence of information depth and information breadth on brokers’ idea newness in online maker communities

Social networks provide individuals with diverse or redundant information depending on the network structure. Both types of information offer advantages for generating new ideas. At the same time, network structure and network content are independent. As a result, two individuals with the same network position can access diverse or redundant content from their social peers. In this study, we investigate the function of social networks in innovative endeavors given individuals’ different kinds of information accessing behavior. In accordance with previous research, we argue that individuals with a broker status access more diverse information through non-redundant network structures and develop, on average, more novel ideas. We further propose that redundancy in content complements brokers’ structural non-redundancy by providing familiar knowledge elements and therefore interpretability, while non-redundancy in both content and structure leads to information overload. Thus, we hypothesize that brokers accessing more information depth, and independently, less information breadth generate newer ideas. To test our hypotheses, we collected data from a popular online maker community containing 18,146 ideas, 19,919 profiles, and 52,663 comments. We used topic modeling (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) to extract hidden knowledge elements and social network analysis to identify brokers. In line with our hypotheses, we find that information depth (breadth) strengthens (weakens) a favorable broker position. These findings have implications for the literature on idea generation in social networks and household sector innovation.     

The impact of consumers’ perceptions regarding the ethics of online retailers and promotional strategy on their repurchase intention

Cause-related marketing (CRM) has become increasingly popular and widely adopted by large companies. However, not much attention has been paid to the effect of CRM on small or unknown online retailers. As ethical concerns about the Internet continue to rise, consumers' perceptions regarding the ethics of online retailers (CPEOR) become important when making a purchase decision. This research uses the self-signaling theory to examine how online retailers’ information management and promotional strategy (CRM vs. Price Discount) may emit signals and impact on the consumers’ repurchase intention. It was assumed that a high CPEOR would work better with a CRM-based strategy, which is fundamentally aligning in ethics. However, the experimental results surprisingly revealed that when CPEOR was high, the consumers’ repurchase intention increased in the case of a Price Discount-based promotion when compared to a CRM-based promotion; the effect was the opposite when consumers’ CPEOR was low. ANCOVA was used to analyze the data while setting certain variables as covariates. This research is a meaningful contribution to the literature and serves as an important reference for e-commerce practitioners to understand how they can wisely manage the information on the online storefront to signal their consumers and create an incremental value for the business.     

Customers’ acceptance of artificially intelligent service robots: The influence of trust and culture

This study addresses two critical research gaps in human-robot interaction (HRI): the limited systematic research on the role of trust in customers’ acceptance of artificially intelligent (AI) robots; and the lack of understanding of robot acceptance under different cultural backgrounds. Drawing on the AIDUA framework, this study examines the impacts of trust and moderating effects of both national (the U.S. and China) and individual culture on customers’ intentions to use AI robots in hospitality services by developing a theoretical model. The model is tested on data collected using online data collection platforms from 491 U.S. and 495 Chinese respondents. PLS-SEM and the bootstrapping method were used to test the hypothesized relationships and analyze the moderating effects of culture, respectively. The findings suggest that trust in interaction with AI robots is a significant higher-order construct that influences the intention of use. Furthermore, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and power distance have been found to exhibit significant moderation effects. The results of this study extend the theoretical frameworks in HRI and provide detailed guidance to promote AI robot applications across different cultures.     

The influence of strategic management knowledge characteristics on the performance of MNCs＇ Chinese subsidiaries

目前跨国公司的战略管理知识转移研究仍处于被忽视的状态,主要原因在于战略管理知识的概念界定不清,以及实际研究中操作难度高。本文以跨国公司在华子公司为研究对象,对战略管理知识的概念进行了重新界定,提出知识质量这一新概念,并构建了战略管理知识的隐性和专有性特征对在华子公司战略目标实现的作用机制。对132家在华子公司进行实证研究,并结合中国独特的市场环境进行理论探讨与解释,研究结果表明：战略管理知识特征对在华子公司战略目标实现的直接影响由于知识质量与吸收能力中介作用的存在而减弱,在统计上不显著;隐性和专有性都对知识质量有显著正向影响,然而只有专有性对吸收能力存在显著正向影响。     

The impact of outsourcing strategies on companies’ intellectual capital

The aim of the paper is to analyse the effect of outsourcing on the intellectual capital of firms in the current turbulent environment. In particular, the paper will analyse the difference between cost-driven and strategic-driven outsourcing and their impact on human and organisational/relational capital. In addition, the paper will stress the differences in outsourcing of manufacturing and service firms. We propose an approach of literature review in order to develop a model of outsourcing for enhanced intellectual capital utilisation and competitiveness. This methodology puts in evidence that there are very few studies/analysis that stress the link between strategic outsourcing and its potential to increase in particular relational capital due to cooperation of two or more firms. The outcomes of the application will result in a theoretical model that can assist researchers, managers and consultants to better understand the link between outsourcing and intellectual capital and competitive advantage.     

The impact of knowledge transfer on MNC subsidiary performance: does cultural distance matter?

Knowledge Management Research & Practice - Despite research on how multinational corporations (MNCs) manage knowledge transfer across national borders, little is known about the implications of...     

How does openness influence the impact of a scholar’s research? An analysis of business scholars’ citations over their careers

How do the effects of cognitive openness and structural openness on the research impact of business scholars vary over their careers? By analysing a longitudinal sample of 35,296 scholars who published in business and management journals, we show that the cognitive openness and the structural openness of business scholars have non-linear relationships with their research impact. In particular, we found that, whereas moderate levels of cognitive openness and structural openness are desirable for increasing young scholars’ citations, a high level of cognitive openness and a low level of structural openness contribute to senior scholars’ citations. This study contributes to our understanding of different search behaviour across business scholars’ career paths and its implications for scholars’ research impact.     

Assessing the effects of consumers’ product evaluations and trust on repurchase intention in e-commerce environments

This study enhances the existing literature on online trust by integrating the consumers’ product evaluations model and technology adoption model in e-commerce environments. In this study, we investigate how perceived value influences the perceptions of online trust among online buyers and their willingness to repurchase from the same website. This study proposes a research model that compares the relative importance of perceived value and online trust to perceived usefulness in influencing consumers’ repurchase intention. The proposed model is tested using data collected from online consumers of e-commerce. The findings show that although trust and e-commerce adoption components are critical in influencing repurchase intention, product evaluation factors are also important in determining repurchase intention. Perceived quality is influenced by the perceptions of competitive price and website reputation, which in turn influences perceived value; and perceived value, website reputation, and perceived risk influence online trust, which in turn influence repurchase intention. The findings also indicate that the effect of perceived usefulness on repurchase intention is not significant whereas perceived value and online trust are the major determinants of repurchase intention. Major theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.     

The impact of imitation on Chinese social commerce buyers’ purchase behavior: The moderating role of uncertainty

The purpose of this study is to explore how buyers’ imitation of others’ online behavior is positively associated with purchase behavior. In addition, we consider the moderating role that product uncertainty, seller uncertainty and product fit uncertainty play in the relationship between imitation and purchase behavior. Users in China who have purchase experience on Xiaohongshu were chosen to test the hypotheses. Finally, longitudinal data from 282 respondents was collected. The findings show that imitation has a positive impact on purchase intention. Purchase intention positively affects actual purchase behavior. Product uncertainty and product fit uncertainty positively moderate the relationship between imitation and purchase intention. But seller uncertainty doesn’t moderate the relationship between imitation and purchase intention. Both theoretical and practical contributions are also considered.     

A commentary on ‘The economic implications of alternative publishing models’

Jay Stone is a final year Ph.D. student based at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London. She is attempting to identify novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of vascular proliferation in retinal disease. She believes that to be effective in the laboratory, scientists need to communicate their work to all audiences. She currently writes articles for the British Society of Cell Biology and BioNews.     

THE OTHERS: The role of individual personality,cultural acculturation,and perceived value on towards firm’s social media and acculturation orientation

This paper systematically examines (i) how individual personality can influence on cultural acculturation which can impact on the higher level of perceived value in LGBTs, and (ii) how the higher level of perceived value towards social media can result in being more satisfied, (iii) consequently having a better working life at workplace and performance proficiency. The generated framework was validated through a survey from multinational corporations in multi-industries such as higher education (with more than two campuses around the world), global fashion, global retailing, tourism, hospitality, food, and electronics and information technology. Key results, implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.     

Social robots as cultural objects: The sixth dimension of dynamicity?

We investigate youths' conceptualization of social robots. Informed by Schudson's theory of the potency of the cultural object, we conducted two studies. The first study centered on essays on social robots written by bachelor's and master's students. The second study centered on prototypes of social robots built by small groups comprised of same students. The essays and prototypes were content analyzed. The results confirm that social robots embody all five dimensions that characterize cultural objects. However, to fully understand this peculiar cultural object, another dimension needs to be introduced: dynamicity.     

Evolution of an academic career: DML’s influence

When I first met Don, I was already an established research fellow in regional economics. Don’s subsequent influence directly helped me follow my dreams, passions and interests. Thus, my academic career grew, developed and transformed from regional economics, to information economics, and eventually to evolutionary economics. This reflection traces that evolving process, illustrating Don’s influence throughout.