JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1971-1989: Examining Consumers’ Perceptions of and Attitudes toward Digital Fashion in General and Purchase Intention of Luxury Brands’ Digital Fashion Specifically

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040099

Authors: Yanbo Zhang Chuanlan Liu Yanru Lyu

Digital fashion may instill transformative power into the fashion industry as it can simultaneously deliver fashionability and sustainability. Renowned for their innovativeness and creativity, luxury brands embrace digital fashion and achieve market success, indicating the future of digital fashion. This research aims to empirically investigate consumers’ general perceptions and evaluations of digital fashion and to specifically examine consumers’ purchase intention of luxury brands’ digital fashion. A total of 214 responses were collected from a U.S.-based research company’s consumer panel. Data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that the general attitude toward digital fashion is influenced by four factors: the two specific attitudes toward outfitting avatars and dressing real people’s on-screen bodies in virtual spaces, the perceived social value of digital fashion, and consumer environmental involvement. Furthermore, the general attitude and perceived social value of digital fashion directly affect the purchase intention. This study attempts to extend established theories into the emerging digital fashion context and provides insights and suggestions for digital fashion marketers, particularly for luxury fashion brands.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1955-1970: Global Market Perceptions of Cryptocurrency and the Use of Cryptocurrency by Consumers: A Pilot Study

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040098

Authors: Murugappan Murugappan Rashmi Nair Saravanan Krishnan

Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, have garnered global attention in recent years as digital alternatives to traditional fiat currencies. This paper explores the complex landscape of cryptocurrency adoption, consumer behavior, and perceptions. Beginning with the origin of cryptocurrencies and the dominance of Bitcoin with its USD 1.23 trillion market capitalization, the paper highlights popular online platforms facilitating Bitcoin trading. It also examines the varying legal statuses and regulations across different countries, with a notable divide between Eastern and Western nations, attributed to factors like wealth, risk tolerance, and government restrictions. The role of blockchain technology as the foundation of cryptocurrencies is explained, emphasizing its role in ensuring secure and transparent transactions. The paper delves into the processes involved in handling cryptocurrencies, including the blockchain, exchanges, wallets, and mining. Consumer behavior and the factors influencing cryptocurrency usage are analyzed, with a focus on speculation, algorithm trust, spending power, and demographics. Survey findings and case studies from diverse geographical areas reveal patterns of adoption and local consumer perceptions. The paper concludes by discussing the cryptocurrency market’s inherent volatility and sensitivity to regulatory changes, as well as the different types of cryptocurrencies and online exchanges shaping this evolving financial landscape. Overall, it offers insights into the complex dynamics surrounding cryptocurrency adoption and its potential impact on global finance.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1926-1954: Evolutionary Game Analysis of the Impact of Big Data Credit Technology on the Credit Rationing of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs)

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040097

Authors: Yuhuan Jin Sheng Zhang Xiaokang Lei

Credit rationing hindered the development of MSEs. Big data credit technology creates a great opportunity to address this issue. Then, how does big data credit technology affect and to what extent can it alleviate the credit rationing of MSEs? Based on the bounded rationality economic man hypothesis, the evolutionary game model of banks and MSEs under the traditional mode and big data credit technology are constructed, respectively, in this paper, and the evolutionary trajectory of bank-enterprise credit strategies under the two modes are comparatively analyzed. The results show that it is hard to alleviate the credit rationing of MSEs under the traditional mode. However, under big data credit technology, when the overall credit level of MSEs is high, the credit rationing of MSEs will be effectively alleviated. When the overall credit level of MSEs is too low, it is difficult to determine whether big data credit technology can alleviate the credit rationing of MSEs. In order to verify the feasibility of big data credit technology in alleviating the credit rationing of MSEs, a simulation experiment is conducted to compare the differences in the credit rationing of MSEs with different credit levels under the two credit modes. We found that the credit rationing of MSEs is always lower under big data credit technology than under the traditional mode. Therefore, big data credit technology can effectively alleviate the credit rationing of MSEs under any circumstances. The research provides theoretical support for banks to apply big data credit technology to achieve a win-win situation for both parties.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1901-1925: User-Informed Adaptation in IoT Home Healthcare: Grounding Development in Empirical Evidence

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040096

Authors: Hannah Fehringer Christian Stary

IoT (Internet of Things)-enabled products are increasingly used by consumers and continuously propagate in daily life. Billions of networked objects not only increase the complexity of development but also raise user interaction and adaptation to individual needs. The more non-expert users are involved in decision making, interaction, and adaptation processes, the more user-centric IoT design is crucial, particularly when the number of elderly users is steadily increasing. In this paper, we study the capabilities of adopting IoT products through user-informed adaptation in a major IoT application domain, home healthcare. We review evidence from established practice in the field on how users can be supported when aiming to adapt medical IoT (M-IoT) home applications to their needs. We examine the empirically grounded use of IoT sensors and actuators, as well as the adaptation process users adopt when using an IoT application in a personalized environment. Our analysis (technological evidence) reveals various IoT devices that have already been applied in M-IoT adaptation settings to effectively support users. Our analysis reveals that only few empirically sound findings exist on how users actually perceive interactive adaptation features and redesign M-IoT applications. Based on the analysis of these empirically grounded findings, we suggest the development of a domain-specific user-centric adaptation feature. Specifically, we exemplify a tangible adaptation device for user-informed M-IoT application in home healthcare. It has been developed prototypically and tested in an environment for personalized home healthcare.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1861-1877: Effects of Portion Number and Marital Status on Decision-Making Dependence When Using Food Delivery Applications

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040094

Authors: Minjung Roh Kiwan Park

Delivery applications represent more than just substitutes for phone calls when ordering food. Unlike phone calls, delivery applications not only facilitate orders and payments, but also assist users in narrowing down the multiple options to a final choice. This research focused on the extent to which users rely on delivery applications to make food-ordering decisions and examined how two factors—portion number and marital status—affect this dependence. The empirical results supported our prediction that (i) single-portion users depend more heavily on delivery applications than multiple-portion users, as the latter have no meal companions to consult; and (ii) unmarried (vs. married) users exhibited an even greater dependence on delivery applications in a single-portion-meal context, due to a weaker sense of responsibility for and agency over meal preparation. These findings illustrate how delivery applications can contribute to the expansion of delivery service markets by influencing food-ordering decision-making behavior.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1878-1900: Can Online Consumer Reviews Identify Key Evidence Regarding Common Consumer Choices for High-Tech Pet Products?

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040095

Authors: Huyen Ngoc Nguyen Donghee Yoo

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) significantly influence consumer purchase decisions for new products. Therefore, today’s companies actively seek practical approaches for analyzing these OCRs. This study proposes a comprehensive method for OCR analysis using topic modeling and association rule analysis to overcome the current limitations in topic interpretation and topic overlap in text mining. Meanwhile, to examine the development of the high-tech industry and customer interest in the pet care field, this study synthesizes and analyzes reviews from consumers who are using healthcare products in the pet industry. To this end, we first collected 20,820 customer reviews from Amazon.com (accessed on 2 August 2023) for high-tech pet products and categorized them into three distinct product categories. Topic modeling was then conducted on each category, revealing five key topics per category. Subsequently, association rules analysis was performed on the customer reviews associated with the most representative topic. As a result, we were able to demonstrate that ‘satisfaction’ emerged as the most crucial topic across all three categories of high-tech pet products. Satisfaction is a topic expressing consumers’ attitudes after experiencing the product, and they used words to describe their feelings in the product reviews. A diverse range of associated terms was also identified that represented the essence of each product’s corresponding representative explanations. By leveraging these approaches, we are confident that pet product companies and market players will gain valuable insights into consumer preferences and behavior.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1838-1860: Consumer Acceptance of Fintech App Payment Services: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040093

Authors: Rotana S. Alkadi Salma S. Abed

This research has undertaken a systematic literature review (SLR) of articles focusing on the acceptance of fintech payment services by identifying 84 peer-reviewed articles published in international scientific journals from 2015 to April 2023. This paper uses the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol to gather relevant articles and the theory, context, constructs, and methodology (TCCM) framework to analyse them. The conducted SLR has several findings. First, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is the main theory used to examine consumers’ acceptance of fintech payment services. Second, studies in this area have been conducted in 24 countries, with a focus on Indonesia, Malaysia, and China. The study themes identified include fintech payment apps, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), mobile payment, fintech services, e-wallet, and Islamic Fintech. Third, the perceived usefulness, trust, perceived ease of use, and attitude are the four main constructs found to have a significant association with behavioural intention. Finally, most studies (64) rely on quantitative methods, particularly questionnaires. Based on the findings, this study identifies research gaps and provides a future research agenda. The review also has practical implications for policymakers and corporations in developing strategies and policies promoting the acceptance of fintech payment services. Limitations include B2C focus, exclusion of B2B behavior, lack of targeting specific user demographics, and reliance on secondary data. These present opportunities for further research.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1799-1819: The Meal Delivery Routing Problem in E-commerce Platforms under the Shared Logistics Mode

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040091

Authors: Hualing Bi Xiaoxue Zhu Fuqiang Lu Min Huang

The meal delivery routing problem faced by the e-commerce platform is challenging. In order to reduce the logistics cost and meet the needs of customers, a multi-objective meal delivery routing problem is studied under the shared logistics services mode (SLSM). In the meal delivery problem, the third-party logistics providers need to arrange vehicles in the multi-depot to pick up meals from multiple food providers and deliver them to customers, so as to realize the sharing of logistics services between food providers and compare them with the traditional logistics service mode (TLSM). While realizing sharing, it is also necessary to meet customer time requirements as much as possible. In this case, a multi-objective mathematical model to minimize customer dissatisfaction and delivery cost is established, and the linear weighting method is employed to transform the model. An improved Ant Lion Optimizer (IALO) is proposed to solve the problem, and compared with other algorithms. The experiments verified the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and show that SLSM can save logistics costs and meet customer needs more than TLSM, and provide certain reference opinions for the e-commerce platform.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1820-1837: Exploring Factors Affecting Mobile Government Services Adoption in the Egyptian Context

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040092

Authors: Sherif Elbatanouny Georgios Dafoulas Noha Saleeb

This research intends to identify factors in the adoption of mobile government services, recognizing the main mobile government acceptance factors through different models, namely, the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the technology acceptance model (TAM), the technology readiness index (TRI), and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Reviewing prior studies on factors that influence mobile government acceptance in Egypt and addressing local challenges help in the development of effective strategies for successful implementation, considering opportunities and challenges in value-added services (VAS). Therefore, the main objectives of this paper are as follows: we critically review prior studies to identify the main mobile government acceptance factors, explore the identified dimensions of mobile government acceptance, and recognize further insights into the challenges that exist in the Egyptian context. Data are gathered through interviews with technology experts and customers with technological experience in Egypt. The findings of the study show that the factors affecting mobile government adoption in the Egyptian context are identified as follows: facilitating conditions, opportunities and challenges, technology and information systems, perceived usefulness, challenges like a lack of trust, cost, privacy, age, and several other obstacles. This research assists scholars and practitioners with insights into how to create and promote an application that is deemed attractive for the adoption of m-government services.

JTAER, Vol. 18, Pages 1797-1798: Evolution of the Online Grocery-Shopping Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empiric Study from Portugal. Comment on Gomes, S.; Lopes, J.M. Evolution of the Online Grocery Shopping Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Empiric Study from Portugal. J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res. 2022, 17, 909–923

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research doi: 10.3390/jtaer18040090

Authors: Leo Van Hove

This comment points out that Lopes and Gomes, in their study on Portugal, erroneously conclude from their results that “being female negatively influences the online grocery shopping experience during the COVID-19 pandemic”. In fact, gender is insignificant.