Search Results (157)

Heightened interest in providing transparency and security within business systems and processes has triggered a multitude of studies on the adoption of emergent technologies. Blockchain technology (BCT) has emerged to address issues of transparency, efficiency, and security in manufacturing, supply chain, enterprise, and e-commerce systems. Given the enormous success of BCT in financial applications, there is keenness to explore other application areas. This research explores the integration of BCT in enterprise systems to enhance the engineering change management (ECM) process. Employing the technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess adoption intentions from the perspective of users, two concepts were examined: perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU). A quantitative survey method collected and analysed the perception data. The findings revealed a positive perception of both usefulness and ease of use from the users in adopting a blockchain-enabled enterprise platform to support the ECM process. More detailed findings uncovered the workflow management function as an area that may require further technical exploration. These findings provide valuable insights on the benefits of blockchain in optimizing business processes and contribute to the growing literature about perceptions of integrating BCT in enterprise platforms. Full article

As an important tool for brand promotion and marketing, the status of virtual streamers is gradually improving, especially in the Chinese market with a huge Internet user base. Virtual streamer anthropomorphism has gradually become an important research content in the field of consumer behavior. However, the specific mechanism by which the multidimensional anthropomorphic characteristics of virtual streamers affect consumer trust and purchase intention requires further investigation. Therefore, based on the avatar theory, this research explores how the anthropomorphic characteristics of virtual streamers affect consumer purchase intention through cognitive trust. The analysis was performed using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 24.0, establishing a structural equation model. Through the analysis of questionnaire data from 503 Chinese consumers, it was found that behavioral anthropomorphism, cognitive anthropomorphism, and emotional anthropomorphism all exert a notable influence on cognitive trust. Appearance anthropomorphism and emotional anthropomorphism directly affect purchase intention, and cognitive trust has a significant impact on purchase intention. Moreover, cognitive trust fully mediates the effects of behavioral anthropomorphism and cognitive anthropomorphism on purchase intention and partially mediates the effects of emotional anthropomorphism on purchase intention. This study enriches the application of avatar theory in virtual streamers in live e-commerce and provides theoretical backing for virtual streamer development and enterprise marketing strategies. It also offers practical insights to help brands optimize virtual streamers and improve consumer participation and purchase conversion rates. Full article

Consumer experiences with cultural fashion for special events often involve heightened expectations, with satisfied customers typically demonstrating increased brand engagement and loyalty. Traditional cultural attire, such as the Chinese Qipao, is widely recognized as quintessential for expressing cultural identity and fashion sensibility, particularly for weddings and other significant life events. Understanding these consumer experiences is crucial for cultural fashion brands seeking to expand their customer base by strategically enhancing consumer satisfaction through providing innovative features. This study, which examines customer experiences with hybrid customized high-end Qipaos for weddings using the integrated customer value framework, seeks to identify value dimensions that lead to satisfied customers. LDA and thematic analyses reveal three predominant themes. Specifically, the theme of “style”, reflecting esthetic values, emerged as the most influential factor and drives customer satisfaction, favorable word of mouth, and referrals. The theme of “fit”, representing performance values, was identified as a basic product feature and functions as a dissatisfier that customers take for granted when customizing high-end traditional cultural attire. This study used a dictionary-based analysis to examine consumers’ price, service, and traditional element preferences. This study proposes a five-dimensional value framework for assessing the high-end expressive fashion customization processes and experiences from a customer value perspective. The findings theoretically expand consumer value theory within customized consumption and offer practical recommendations for e-commerce brands and customization enterprises, aiming to enhance customer satisfaction. Full article

For enterprises, exploring the influence mechanism of consumer satisfaction evaluation behavior (CSEB) holds significant research value for the advancement and further development of social e-commerce platforms. The existing literature primarily focuses on quantitative methods in investigating the influence mechanism of CSEB within social e-commerce platforms. This study endeavors to expand the theoretical boundaries of CSEB through qualitative research. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining primary data collected through in-depth interviews with 32 participants and secondary data gathered from 1000 users via web crawlers. Utilizing grounded theory as an analytical framework, the study meticulously summarizes, concludes, and refines the influencing factors of CSEB. Based on these findings, a robust CSEB model is constructed to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. The study reveals that in the decision-making process of consumer evaluation, behavior is primarily driven by evaluation motivations. These motivations are intricately intertwined with product perception, social influence, and perceived behavior control. The interplay among these factors significantly shapes the manner in which consumers engage in satisfaction evaluation on social e-commerce platforms. This study complements existing quantitative research by providing nuanced insights into the complex interplay of factors, which drive consumer evaluation behavior. Furthermore, the study proposes actionable countermeasures and suggestions for businesses and platform managers to effectively promote and enhance consumer satisfaction evaluation activities, thereby contributing to the sustained growth and development of social e-commerce platforms. Full article

This paper presents a comparative bibliometric analysis of digital transformation in small and medium enterprises, focusing on before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the Scopus database, the study analyzes 1566 articles published between 2001 and 2024, focusing on pre-COVID (2001–2018) and post-COVID (2019–2024). Bibliometric tools, including VOSviewer and Biblioshiny, were employed to conduct performance analysis, scientific mapping, and co-occurrence analyses of keywords and co-authorship. The results demonstrate a substantial increase in research output post-COVID, particularly in areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and e-commerce. These technologies have become vital for the survival and competitiveness of SMEs in the post-pandemic world. However, the study also highlights significant challenges, including limited financial resources and a lack of skilled personnel, which have hindered SMEs’ ability to implement digital transformation fully. Government intervention, through financial assistance and strategic support, is identified as crucial in enabling SMEs to overcome these obstacles and successfully navigate the digital era. This analysis contributes to the growing body of literature on SMEs’ digitalization, offering key insights for policymakers, researchers, and businesses aiming to adapt to the evolving digital landscape in a post-pandemic economy. Full article

Although digital hoarding behavior does not directly affect physical space, with the popularization of cloud storage services, its impact on energy consumption has become increasingly significant, posing a challenge to environmental sustainability. This study focuses on the factors influencing consumer digital hoarding behavior on e-commerce platforms, aiming to provide management decision-making references for e-commerce enterprises to deal with consumer digital hoarding phenomena and improve transaction effectiveness. Based on the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) Theory and through the Adversarial Interpretive Structure Modeling Method (AISM), this study systematically identifies and analyzes the influencing factors. The findings reveal that emotional attachment, burnout, and fear of missing out are the main motivational factors directly affecting consumer digital hoarding behavior, with strong interconnections between these factors. Perceived usefulness and platform interaction design are significant opportunity factors, indirectly affecting digital hoarding behavior by improving user experience and satisfaction. E-commerce platform convenience, anticipated ownership, perceived economic value, emotional regulation ability, auxiliary shopping decision-making, perceived behavioral control, and information organization ability are the foundational and intermediate factors. The research results emphasize the importance of understanding consumer digital hoarding behavior in the context of sustainable development. This is not only conducive to optimizing the shopping cart function and data management strategy of e-commerce platforms and improving transaction conversion rates but also provides a reference for policymakers to formulate data management and privacy protection policies. Full article

A growing number of enterprises are using virtual influencers on livestreaming e-commerce platforms to extend the duration for which live streamers stay online. This article uses the uncanny valley phenomenon to investigate the effects of the level of anthropomorphization of images of virtual influencers on the purchase intention of consumers. We divided the images of virtual influencers into three categories according to their level of anthropomorphization: cartoon images (low), medium-realistic images (medium), and hyper-realistic images (high). We identified a U-shaped relationship between the level of anthropomorphization of images of virtual influencers and consumers’ purchase intention. Virtual influencers represented by cartoon images and hyper-realistic images enhanced the purchase intentions of consumers, while streamers with medium-realistic images reduced them. Algorithmic aversion was found to play a mediating role in this relation. In addition, self-efficacy had an inhibitory effect on the inverted U-shaped relationship between the anthropomorphism of the image of the virtual influencer and algorithmic aversion. When the virtual influencer had a medium-realistic image, consumers exhibited the strongest algorithmic aversion, the lowest purchase intention, and the most significant inhibition in self-efficacy. This work provides guidance for designing images of virtual influencers for marketing-related activities on livestreaming e-commerce platforms. Full article

Industrial product e-commerce refers to the specific application of the e-commerce concept in industrial product transactions. It enables industrial enterprises to conduct transactions via Internet platforms and reduce circulation and operating costs. Industrial literature, such as policies, reports, and standards related to industrial product e-commerce, contains much crucial information. Through a systematical analysis of this information, we can explore and comprehend the development characteristics and trends of industrial product e-commerce. To this end, 18 policy documents, 10 industrial reports, and five standards are analyzed by employing text-mining methods. Firstly, natural language processing (NLP) technology is utilized to pre-process the text data related to industrial product commerce. Then, word frequency statistics and TF-IDF keyword extraction are performed, and the word frequency statistics are visually represented. Subsequently, the feature set is obtained by combining these processes with the manual screening method. The original text corpus is used as the training set by employing the skip-gram model in Word2Vec, and the feature words are transformed into word vectors in the multi-dimensional space. The K-means algorithm is used to cluster the feature words into groups. The latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) method is then utilized to further group and discover the features. The text-mining results provide evidence for the development characteristics and trends of industrial product e-commerce in China. Full article

The paper aims to analyze the consumer joint choice behavior on fresh food purchase channels and terminal delivery services during major public health events, with the purpose of revealing the underlying influencing factors and behavioral characteristics. First, based on random utility maximization theory, the cross-nested logit model is formulated, which takes into account the influence of socioeconomic attribute factors, service attribute factors, risk perception attribute factors and trust perception attribute factors. Second, a questionnaire survey is conducted, and the obtained data are used to estimate the model parameters and perform an elasticity analysis of the utility variables. The parameter estimation results demonstrate that in the context of major public health events, consumers consider adjusting their attitudes toward e-commerce platforms first when the utility variables are altered, and fresh food purchase channels are easily replaced for consumers who choose unmanned equipment home delivery. The elasticity analysis results suggest that consumers are more willing to buy fresh food through community group-buying channels, are more sensitive to the convenience of the purchase process and are less concerned with delivery time. Although person-to-person contact increases the risk of infection, consumers still prefer attended terminal delivery services. Furthermore, consumers least agree with the effectiveness of body temperature detection methods in public places but feel that an effective way to increase consumer trust in enterprises is to strengthen personnel protection measures. Full article

Online retail of agricultural products is an emerging form of online shopping that has enormous value for researching sustainable agricultural product logistics and the sustainability of e-commerce. By reviewing these practices in China, this paper summarizes three models of online retail of agricultural products: community group buying, prepositioned warehousing, and a mixed model in which the former two are carried out simultaneously. This paper considers the uncertainty of demand and applies the newsboy model to obtain the expected profit function of the three models. The paper proves that the objective functions of the optimization models are all convex functions of the supply capacity. The optimal supply strategy and the expression for each business model are then derived. Next, the intervals for enterprises to choose the profit-optimal business model are given and visually demonstrated through graphs. These findings lead to managerial insights: in economically underdeveloped regions, it is appropriate for enterprises to conduct community group buying businesses; in economically developed regions, it is appropriate for enterprises to conduct prepositioned warehouse businesses; and in regions with average economic development, it is appropriate for enterprises to conduct both businesses. Finally, this paper verifies the optimal supply strategy for the online retail model for agricultural products through numerical experiments and sensitivity analyses for different cost parameters. Full article

Customers in resource-poor communities still grapple with many information and communication technology (ICT) failures as they strive to access goods and services in small and medium enterprises near them. From a customer perspective, these challenges often lead to stress-related issues such as frustrations and anxiety, which can even result in transaction abandonment. Extended ICT failures result in SMEs failing to achieve sustainable e-commerce. This study delves into the impact of ICT initiatives by SMEs in stress-inducing environments on customers’ quality of life. The study further examines whether customer stress and happiness play a role in this association. Quantitative data were acquired using the mall intercept method, while the developed hypotheses were examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) in SMART-PLS 4. The results shed light on how customers navigate daily ICT-related failures experienced by SMEs operating in poor resource communities as they strive for happiness and stress-free lives, ultimately leading to an improved quality of life. The study recommends that the government, through its agencies, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies and the Department of Science and Technology, among others, not only create an environment supporting SME ICT initiatives but also find strategies for sustaining SME ICT adoption for improved human well-being and socio-economic development within resource-constrained communities. Full article

The China Railway Express (CRExpress) is a vital international transportation infrastructure for the advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative and the expansion of international commerce, providing a significant opportunity for Chinese companies to undergo a sustainable transformation. We use a multi-period differences-in-differences model to investigate the relationship and mechanism between the opening of the CRExpress and green innovation of enterprises, based on the panel data of Chinese A-shared listed companies from 2007 to 2020. The results show that the opening of the CRExpress can significantly increase the logarithmic number of green patent applications by at least 5% in enterprises with a spoke radius of 250–450 km, and it also has a significant positive effect on different types of green patents to varying degrees. By examining the sub-items of ESG ratings, the opening of the CRExpress can promote the green innovation of enterprises through the improvement of E-score. Additionally, three pivotal mechanism pathways have been identified: the promotion of regional economic development, the alleviation of corporate financing constraints, and the reduction of corporate logistics expenses. Furthermore, we find that the effect of the CRExpress turns out larger on the green innovation of enterprises in the Secondary Industry and the Tertiary Industry, manufacturing industry, state-owned enterprises, and firms located in the eastern and central regions. Based on the empirical study, we provide policy implications for deepening the correlation between the CRExpress and green innovation. Full article

The rise of rural e-commerce, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has driven agricultural development, resulting in a dual-channel model that combines offline supermarket docking with online e-commerce direct sales. Furthermore, given the perishable nature of most agricultural products, consumers exhibit a preference for high-quality logistics services. This paper analyses the dynamics of the agricultural supply chain, beginning with the “leading enterprises + farmers” production mode, and establishes two optimal decision-making models for online and offline dual-channel agricultural supply chains, incorporating logistics service levels. The first model considers centralised decision-making, where leading agricultural producers and community superstores make decisions simultaneously, aiming to maximise the overall profit of the supply chain. The second model addresses decentralised decision-making in which the producer, as the dominant player in a Stackelberg game, anticipates the reactions of retailers and sets the wholesale price, online sales price, and online logistics service level accordingly. Retailers, as followers, then determine the offline sales price and offline logistics service level based on the producer’s decisions. Finally, we conduct a sensitivity analysis of the proposed models. Our findings reveal that as consumer focus on logistics service levels increases, the overall profit of the supply chain improves, and as the unit logistics cost corresponding to the level of logistics service increases, the marginal benefits of decreasing profit brought about by the increase in unit logistics cost also decrease. Full article

With the profound integration of digital technology and traditional agriculture, the whole industry chain of rural e-commerce, as an advanced system, is reshaping the production, sales, and management models of agriculture and is emerging as a new catalyst for the advancement of digital agriculture through significant innovation. This paper focuses on the digital empowerment attributes and strategic attributes of the whole industrial chain of rural e-commerce, and evolutionary game models under market mechanisms and regulations are constructed. It examines the influence of various elements, such as the digital technology empowerment coefficient, on collaborative innovation within the whole industry chain of rural e-commerce. Using case simulations, this paper discusses the role of government regulation and intervention when market mechanisms are inadequate. The study reveals that factors such as the digital technology empowerment coefficient, technology absorptive capacity, and the amount of technology and information stored in collaborative innovation positively influence the whole industry chain. Potential risk losses and free-rider gains have negative effects on the evolution of the system toward collaborative innovation. When market mechanisms are inadequate, a combination of operational cost subsidies and incentive measures can yield more effective policy synergy, with the incentive impact of cost subsidies being particularly notable. The strategic application of enterprise-liquidated damage and government penalties will aid in regulating and directing corporate behavior. The findings of this research not only offer a new microlevel explanation for understanding the decision-making mechanism behind collaborative innovation in the whole industrial chain of rural e-commerce but also serve as a reference for government policy formulation to ensure the stability of the whole rural e-commerce industry chain. Full article

E-commerce has become uniquely relevant to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as an essential catalyst for their growth and sustainability. SMEs see e-commerce portals as a strategic way to engage in digital business activities without having to implement costly proprietary e-commerce solutions. In addition, partnering with these portals frees them from complex tasks such as positioning, portal maintenance, and adapting the portal to new technologies and trends. This multifaceted advantage positions e-commerce portals as invaluable partners, streamlining operations and allowing SMEs to focus more on their core business competencies. However, e-commerce portals or e-marketplaces are not without their challenges. Today, they face increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact and to empower local commercial businesses, as well as local businesses in the entertainment and culture industry. To address these challenges, there is a pressing need to propose new types of e-marketplaces that support the concept of the 15-minute city and in which virtual and augmented reality play a key role. These marketplaces would not only boost environmental sustainability but also strengthen the connection between local businesses and the community, creating a stronger and more collaborative network that benefits both businesses and consumers. Full article