Understanding and predicting cross-cultural food preferences with online recipe images

Predicting food preferences is challenging due to the numerous factors that can influence individual taste. Cultural influences are one such factor that can significantly impact food preferences. Irrespective of culture, however, food visual aesthetics drive food choice. With this in mind, we study 15,000 images of food from prominent recipe portals in China, the US and Germany with the aim of identifying common visual trends related to food choice. We report that distinguishing between appreciated and less appreciated recipes based on visual features through multiple machine learning experiments is possible, with a maximum accuracy of 67%. The classifiers trained on one culture, when applied to other cultures, reveal that appreciated recipes from US and German portals share visual similarities, while the visual aspects making recipes attractive for Chinese users differ. Complementing our machine learning experiments, we conducted a user study with 450 participants from the three cultures. Participants are asked to rank recipes based on their appeal and provide justification through answering 19 questions. The results reveal significant predictors of preference, including perceived appearance and taste across all countries, and negative perception of perceived healthiness for US and German participants. Analysis of 77 consistently labelled appealing/non-appealing images reveal significant variations in low-level visual features such as colourfulness, sharpness, and contrast. These findings suggest that these low-level visual features may play a critical role in determining whether an image is perceived as appealing or not across different cultures. Our results offer promising insights into the development of cross-culture food recommender systems. By demonstrating common ground across food cultures, we believe that these systems can provide personalised meal suggestions that reflect user’s preferences while incorporating ideals such as healthfulness and sustainability.     

Investigating the lack of diversity in user behavior: The case of musical content on online platforms

Whether to deal with issues related to information ranking (e.g. search engines) or content recommendation (on social networks, for instance), algorithms are at the core of processes that select which information is made visible. Such algorithmic choices have a strong impact on users’ activity de facto, and therefore on their access to information. This raises the question of how to measure the quality of the choices algorithms make and their impact on users. As a first step in that direction, this paper presents a framework with which to analyze the diversity of information accessed by users in the context of musical content.The approach adopted centers on the representation of user activity through a tripartite graph that maps users to products and products to categories. In turn, conducting random walks in this structure makes it possible to analyze how categories catch users’ attention and how this attention is distributed. Building upon this distribution, we propose a new index referred to as the (calibrated) herfindahl diversity, which is aimed at quantifying the extent to which this distribution is diverse and representative of existing categories.To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to connect the output of random walks on graphs with diversity indexes. We demonstrate the benefit of such an approach by applying our index to two datasets that record user activity on online platforms involving musical content. The results are threefold. First, we show that our index can discriminate between different user behaviors. Second, we shed some light on a saturation phenomenon in the diversity of users’ attention. Finally, we show that the lack of diversity observed in the datasets derives from exogenous factors related to the heterogeneous popularity of music styles, as opposed to internal factors such as recurrent user behaviors.     

Examining online consumers’ behavior: A service-oriented view

Retailers’ websites are an important interface between retailers and their customers. The various features and elements that retailers include on their websites play a critical role in attracting customers and ensuring their satisfaction with the online shopping process. By conducting a three-phased study, we identify how the elements of a website shape customers’ salient beliefs. These salient beliefs, in turn, determine the level of customers’ satisfaction with the website. This study provides both theoretical insights into the beliefs of online shoppers and practical insights for retail website operators. Specifically, we argue that when retail websites are constructed to include several specific elements that appeal to the key salient beliefs of information quality, service quality, and system quality, retailers will increase customers’ satisfaction with the online shopping process.     

团购的网络经济学特征及企业竞争策略研究

作为一种创新的电子商务模式,网络团购依靠其特殊的运行方式和盈利模式风靡全球,近两年在国内得到了迅速发展,前景十分广阔.相比传统产业,网络团购有着独特的经济特征和企业行为,然而相关的研究却非常缺乏.本文从网络经济学的角度深入探讨网络团购的网络外部性、市场结构和运行规律等特征,提出了差异化、锁定和构建进入壁垒等企业策略,以期为网络团购这个新兴行业的健康发展以及相关企业参与竞争提供一个新的研究思路.     

The mediating role of consumer trust in an online merchant in predicting purchase intention

It is widely known in related literature that trust in a merchant reduces the perceived risk of an online transaction. However, there are theoretical reasons to postulate that the perceived risk acts as a barrier to consumer trust. Furthermore, existing studies suggest that trust is an important predictor of purchase intention. Thus, this research aims at investigating the mediating role of consumer trust in an online merchant in the relationships between components of perceived risk and purchase intention: (1) examining the total effect without mediation, and (2) examining the mediation effect. When we probed the total effect, the findings revealed that performance, psychological, financial, and online payment risks have a significant negative influence on purchase intention. On the other hand, an examination of the mediation effect indicated that trust in an online merchant completely mediates the effect of performance risk, but partially mediates that of the psychological risk. Given the mixture of unmediated as well as mediated effect of perceived risks on purchase intention, the paper concludes that efforts, made by online merchants, to lessen certain types of risk will first improve consumer trust, and then ultimately, increase consumer's intention to buy online.     

网络隐私关注与行为意向影响因素的概念模型

随着电子商务的发展和网络交易的普及,消费者网络隐私成为了电子商务发展的核心和关键问题。提出了一个网络隐私关注与行为意向影响因素的概念模型,包括文化因素、制度因素、个人因素和风险因素,并针对中国特有的文化和制度情境,对网络隐私关注和行为意向的关键影响因素进行了分析。     

Intelligent decision-making of online shopping behavior based on internet of things

The development of big data and Internet of things (IoT) have brought big changes to e-commerce. Different kinds of information sources have improved the consumers’ online shopping performance and make it possible to realize the business intelligence. Grip force and eye-tracking sensors are applied to consumers' online reviews search behavior by relating them to the research approaches in IoT. To begin with, public cognition of human contact degrees of recycled water reuses with grip force test was measured. According to the human contact degrees, 9 recycled water reuses presented by the experiment are classified into 4 categories. Based on the conclusion drawn from grip force test, purified recycled water and fresh vegetable irrigated with recycled water are regarded as the drinking for high-level human contact degree and the irrigation of food crops for low-level human contact degree respectively. Several pictures are designed for eye-tracking test by simulating an on-line shopping web page on Taobao (the most popular online shopping platform in China). By comparing the fixation time participants spent on the areas of interest (AOIs), we justify that consumers' online reviews search behavior is substantially affected by human contact degrees of recycled products. It was found that consumers rely on safety perception reviews when buying high contact goods.     

The efficiency of mobile media richness across different stages of online consumer behavior

The popularity of mobile devices has ushered in the prosperity of mobile commerce, yet research on mobile advertising and mobile marketing remains scant. Marketing ads possessing higher media richness generally have a positive effect on consumer decision-making, because rich media conveys more information, but mobile ads with richer media imply higher costs for both the marketer and the audience. The limitations of mobile devices have further highlighted the difficulty of mobile advertising and the issue of advertising costs. Selecting which media to deliver the appropriate information is the latest research trend, but few studies have applied the media richness theory to explain mobile ads’ effect on consumer behavior. This research thus explores the impact of media richness on consumer behavior at different AISAS (attention, interest, search, action, and share) stages, adopting experimental research, convenient sampling, and online questionnaire to collect data. From a total of 424 valid questionnaires, we find that media richness has a greater influence on the three early stages of AIS while having a lower impact on the later stages of AS. This research thus suggests that firms employing mobile ads should choose high richness media for those potential customers who are at the early stage of consumer behavior (AIS). For those who at the later stage (AS), it is good enough for marketers to utilize medium richness mobile ads. Following this suggestion, marketers can place mobile ads more precisely, thus improving the likelihood of a reduction in advertising costs for both the marketer and audience. As mobile ads with high media richness are more effective for high perceived risk products, firms need to use high richness media when they are promoting high perceived risk products even when potential consumers are at the later stage of AS. This research contributes to marketers dedicated to using a mobile advertisement strategy and helps refine both online consumer behavior and the media richness theory when including the context of mobile commerce.     

旅游城市餐饮消费者食物浪费行为研究

随着旅游消费的快速发展,旅游成为驱动城市餐饮食物消费的重要动力,然而旅游城市食物浪费问题日益突出,成为制约中国食物可持续消费和粮食安全的重要问题。为探究旅游城市餐饮消费者的食物浪费行为,本文构建了消费者在外就餐食物消费与浪费模型,利用北京、上海、成都和拉萨4个旅游城市159家餐饮企业2293份消费者餐桌食物浪费现场调研一手数据,实证分析了旅游城市消费者食物浪费行为特征,尤其是旅游者和非旅游者的食物浪费行为及差异。研究结果表明：总体上餐饮消费者每餐人均浪费量为79.52g。从消费者类型分析,旅游者人均每餐食物浪费量（96.54g）高于非旅游者人均每餐食物浪费量（73.79g）;从就餐原因看,当就餐原因为朋友聚餐时相比其余就餐原因容易造成更高的食物浪费量;消费者的个人特征是影响其食物浪费行为的重要因素,其中受教育水平和年龄结构对食物浪费行为的影响呈“倒U型”特征,即随着教育水平和年龄的增加,消费者人均每餐食物浪费量呈现先增长后下降的趋势。另外,收入越高的消费者越容易产生食物浪费行为,不同消费时间、不同就餐频率群体的食物浪费同样呈现出显著差异。减少餐饮食物浪费,倡导低碳、绿色和可持续消费模式需要政府、餐饮企业、消费者等各利益相关方的共同参与和行动。     

Exploring antecedents and consequence of online group-buying intention: An extended perspective on theory of planned behavior

With the development of electronic commerce, many dotcom firms are selling products to consumers across different countries and regions. The managers of online group-buying firms seek to increase customer purchasing intentions in the face of competition. Online group-buying refers to a certain number of consumers who join together as a group via Internet, for the purpose of buying a certain product with a discount. This study explores antecedents of intention to participate in online group-buying and the relationship between intention and behavior. The research model is basaed on planned behavior theory, electronic word-of-mouth, network embeddedness, and website quality attitude. An online survey is administered to 373 registered members of the ihergo website. Data is analyzed using the partial least squares method, and analytical results demonstrate that for potential consumers, experiential electronic word-of-mouth, relational embeddedness of the initiator, and service quality attitude influence intention to engage in online group-buying; for current consumers, intention to attend online group-buying is determined by the structural and relational embeddedness of the initiator, system quality attitude positively affects intention, and intention positively affects online group-buying behavior. This study proposes a new classification of electronic word-of-mouth and applies the perspective of network embeddedness to explore antecedents of intention in online group-buying, broadening the applicability of electronic word-of-mouth and embeddedness theory. Finally, this study presents practical suggestions for managers of online group-buying firms in improving marketing efficiency.     

基于公众可获得信息的团购网信用特性研究

2010年初兴起中国的网络团购,经过短短的一年半疯狂扩张便急剧衰落,最主要原因是业内的信用乱象。网络团购信用失范的普遍性和严重性不仅损害了消费者的权益,打击了他们对网络团购的信心,而且最终制约了网络团购业自身的发展--2010年8月起大批团购网站相继倒闭。很明显,信用重建是中国网络团购业未来发展的战略需要,也是当前求生的必然选择。但是,网络环境下电子商务信用管理研究才刚刚起步,而其所依赖的网络信用理论的研究则基本空白。基此,本文以传统信用理论为指导,基于公众可获得信息开展团购网信用行为的基本特性研究,以期为网络团购及其他电子商务信用管理创新提供理论基础。     

Predicting online grocery buying intention: a comparison of the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior

This paper tests the ability of two consumer theories—the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior—in predicting consumer online grocery buying intention. In addition, a comparison of the two theories is conducted. Data were collected from two web-based surveys of Danish (n=1222) and Swedish (n=1038) consumers using self-administered questionnaires. These results suggest that the theory of planned behavior (with the inclusion of a path from subjective norm to attitude) provides the best fit to the data and explains the highest proportion of variation in online grocery buying intention.     

Competing roles of intention and habit in predicting behavior: A comprehensive literature review,synthesis, and longitudinal field study

Achieving the promised benefits of a new technology is closely tied to its sustained use. The dominant approach has been to predict use based on behavioral intention. Central to this approach is the assumption that use comes from conscious decision making, resulting from “thinking”, “reflecting”, and “cognition”. However, related work has shown that, over time and with increasing experience, use becomes habitual (routine, automatic) and when this happens, it is not subject to conscious decision making. This paper extends the technology adoption and use literature by testing the relative effects of intention and habit as determinants of use. We conducted a longitudinal field study over the period of one year, with 4 points of measurement in 7 organizations among 1235 users, to examine the effects of intention and habit from the formative stage of experience with a new technology through to an established, stable stage. The results provided strong support for habit as a predictor of use, especially over time, as use became well-rehearsed, and habit was a stronger determinant of use than intention was. In fact, habit dominates intention as a predictor of use, as experience increases. We discuss key implications for research and practice.     

Reflective judgment and enlarged thinking online

This paper deals with forms of communication aiming at a better informed public or publics. The main idea is that democratic societies are dependent on toleration of a plurality of publics, and simultaneously there is a need for communication between the different publics. The ethos underlying this assumption is that democracy requires a transcendence of subjective conditions in order for the public(s) to gain legitimacy and recognition of opinions. Validity of opinions presupposes a public aspect that is available through communication. More specifically, the validity in question is obtained through its claim on universality – i.e. the transcendence of purely private subjective conditions. This kind of validity is found in reflective judgment or enlarged thinking, as displayed in Kant’s third critique. In the last part of the paper it is discussed how new information technologies and the internet may contribute positively to facilitate modes of communication that are associated with the particularity at work in reflective thinking. Storytelling technologies and virtual realities are of particular interest in envisaging how this might work.     

On the motivating impact of price and online recommendations at the point of online purchase

Do online recommendations have the same motivating impact as price at the point of online purchase? The results (n = 268) of an conjoint study show that: (1) when the price is low or high relatively to market price, it has the strongest impact (positive and negative) on the likelihood of an online purchase of an mp3 player, (2) when the price is average to market price, online recommendation and price are equal in their impact at the point of online purchase, and, (3) the relative impact from price increases when online shopping frequencies increases. The implications these results give are that online retailers should be aware that online recommendations are not as influential as a good offer when consumers purchase electronics online. However, other customer recommendations have a stronger impact on novice online shoppers than towards those consumers that shop more frequently online.     

Investigating and counteracting popularity bias in group recommendations

Popularity bias is an undesirable phenomenon associated with recommendation algorithms where popular items tend to be suggested over long-tail ones, even if the latter would be of reasonable interest for individuals. Such intrinsic tendencies of the recommenders may lead to producing ranked lists, in which items are not equally covered along the popularity tail. Although some recent studies aim to detect such biases of traditional algorithms and treat their effects on recommendations, the concept of popularity bias remains elusive for group recommender systems. Therefore, in this study, we focus on investigating popularity bias from the view of group recommender systems, which aggregate individual preferences to achieve recommendations for groups of users. We analyze various state-of-the-art aggregation techniques utilized in group recommender systems regarding their bias towards popular items. To counteract possible popularity issues in group recommendations, we adapt a traditional re-ranking approach that weighs items inversely proportional to their popularity within a group. Also, we propose a novel popularity bias mitigation procedure that re-ranks items by incorporating their popularity level and estimated group ratings in two distinct strategies. The first one aims to penalize popular items during the aggregation process highly and avoids bias better, while the second one puts more emphasis on group ratings than popularity and achieves a more balanced performance regarding conflicting goals of mitigating bias and boosting accuracy. Experiments performed on four real-world benchmark datasets demonstrate that both strategies are more efficient than the adapted approach, and empowering aggregation techniques with one of these strategies significantly decreases their bias towards popular items while maintaining reasonable ranking accuracy.     

农村财务管理模式探讨及创新

村级财务管理一直是广大农民以及社会各界关注的焦点,构建社会主义新农村以及加强农村经济发展对村级财务管理提出了新要求。采用规范研究方法对现有的农村财务管理模式进行简单介绍,针对其中存在的问题提出了完善当前财务管理模式的几种途径:利用代理记账公司进行记账,运用财务审计方式加强审计监督,同时建立完善的内部控制体系,使农村财务向市场方向发展。     

Trends and patterns among online software pirates

Computer crime on the Internet poses asignificant threat to the well-being ofbusinesses and individuals, and none are immunefrom the repercussions that can result. Onetype of this unethical and unlawful activity isonline software piracy. In this work, thesignificance of piracy as a topic for academicinquiry is first presented, followed by asummary of the conflicting stances on thisissue. Then, a review of scholarly literaturepreviously conducted in this area is given toprovide a backdrop for the current research. Univariate and bivariate findings from aquantitative study of students are used todemonstrate the incidence, scope, andassociated correlates of Internet piracy in auniversity setting. Technological and ethicalpolicy solutions that an institution mightimplement are suggested and discussed inconclusion.     

食品安全突发事件网络舆情演变的模仿传染行为研究

网络已经成为人们日常生活中必不可少的发布和获取信息的渠道,越来越多的消费者依靠网络获取突发事件的相关信息,因此,网络舆情在推动突发事件发展的过程中越来越重要。本文基于传染病模型理论,构建了食品安全事件网络舆情传播演变中的模仿传染模型,研究网民在食品安全事件网络舆情传播中的模仿传染机理和行为,并以双汇"瘦肉精"事件为例,对模型进行仿真以验证模型的正确性,以期为食品安全事件利益相关者正确应对网络舆情演变过程中网民的传染行为提供决策参考。