The COVID-19 pandemic (that started in early 2020) is causing several disruptions in the short- and mid-term, to which businesses have to adapt. Some retailers have reacted to the emergency ...immediately, displaying a plethora of different intervention types. The authors aim to synthesize the challenges that retailers are facing during the COVID-19 emergency. We do this from the perspective of both consumers and managers, with the goal of providing guidelines on and examples of how retailers can handle this unprecedented situation.
This research draws upon the increasing usage of AI in service. It aims at understanding the extent to which AI systems have multiple intelligence types like humans and if these types arouse ...different emotions in consumers. To this end, the research uses a two-study approach: Study 1 builds and evaluates a scale for measuring different AI intelligence types. Study 2 evaluates consumers’ emotional responses to the different AI intelligences. The findings provide a measurement scale for evaluating different types of artificial intelligence against human ones, thus showing that artificial intelligences are configurable, describable, and measurable (Study 1), and influence positive and negative consumers’ emotions (Study 2). The findings also demonstrate that consumers display different emotions, in terms of happiness, excitement, enthusiasm, pride, inspiration, sadness, fear, anger, shame, and anxiety, and also emotional attachment, satisfaction, and usage intention when interacting with the different types of AI intelligences. Our scale builds upon human intelligence against AI intelligence characteristics while providing a guidance for future development of AI-based systems more similar to human intelligences.
Graphical Abstract
The book includes new theory, original empirical evidence, and applied case studies synthesizing advances in innovation and technology for the retail sector. Chapters identify the challenges ...retailers face in response to new practices, suggesting how the sector can respond to technological developments, ethical considerations and privacy issues.
The rapid diffusion of more channels for shopping posits new challenges for retailers, who need to compete in a complex environment for avoiding the problem of consumer cross-channel free riding. To ...discourage this behaviour, we propose a new environment where one retailer simultaneously handles more channels. The emerging integrated environment would engage more consumers if compared to the single handled channel, which in turn would avoid switching behaviours towards competitors' channels. Our empirical research, based on the stimulus–organism–response paradigm, involves a sample of 237 consumers who were asked to explore the new retail settings simulated in a university lab. The results lead us to suggest the effective combination of multiple channels managed by one retailer as the new challenge for scholars and practitioners. We note that our participants showed positive emotional reactions towards the environment, which lead them to choose this environment for purchases.
•The aim of this paper is develop a multichannel retail emerging from the integration of different channels provided within the same physical store and handled by one retailer.•We examine the extent to which consumers are willing to purchase in this new retail environment.•Our results demonstrate to what extent the integration of multiple channels within a single point of sale handled by one retailer is feasible and successful.•Findings reveal the extent to which the store quality perception is composed of both human- and technology-based services.•Results suggest the successful combination of multiple channels by one retailer as a new challenge for scholars and practitioners.
The emerging retail culture is characterized by the extensive use of mobile technologies, high connectivity, ubiquitous computing and contactless technologies, which enable consumers to experience ...shopping differently. In fact, innovative mobile technologies provide new tools (apps) which are able to separate the moment of purchase from the moment of effective consumption, by allowing consumers to make purchases by mobile phone and collect them at home or at a store (a pick-up boutique or collection point), in addition to the traditional in-store service (purchase in the store and collect/consume in the store). The aim of this paper is to understand the extent to which mobile technologies have an impact on consumer behaviour, with emphasis on the drivers motivating consumers to adopt the consumer experience of mobile shopping. To achieve this goal we used a qualitative approach involving 29 consumers in the Italian market, where mobile shopping is still at an early stage. The findings shed a light on the extent to which consumers are moving from e-channels to mobile channels and take into account the effect of these technological innovations in retail settings from a cognitive standpoint, where studies are limited. The implications for researchers and practitioners are then discussed, with emphasis on retailers need to develop new mobile service competences, and integrate and synthetize physical retail settings with mobile opportunities and functionalities.
•We investigate the impact of mobile technologies on consumer dynamics.•We explore the motivation for consumers to change their consumption experience.•Consumers are willing to change their established buying behaviour.•Consumers are willing to move towards mobile shopping.•The effect of technological innovations in retailing from a cognitive standpoint was explored.
The aim of this paper is to understand consumers’ perception of luxury hotel brands. To this end, the research evaluates consumers’ “big” visual data on TripAdvisor through a machine learning ...approach. Results shed light on the significant part of non-textual elements of the hotel experience such as pictures, which cannot be explored through traditional methods as content analysis. In particular, the analysis of 7,395 consumers’ pictures leads to the identification of the attributes that had the higher impact on their experience. These attributes emerged as specific features of interior elements of the hotels (rooms and restaurant).
Finally, the study shows how big data analytics and machine learning algorithms can (i) help monitoring social media and understand consumers perception of luxury hotels through the new analysis of visual data, and (ii) turn into better brand management strategies for luxury hotel managers.
The aim of this paper is to understand the extent to which a store building can function as a tourism attraction, using a large luxury department store as case research. The study draws upon the idea ...that people complete a hermeneutic circle to create an extraordinary tourism experience to share with others. The data gathering is based on the collection of pictures posted online on Flickr and analysed using a machine learning approach. A sample of 1,557 pictures related to a specific area in London (UK) were collected and analysed by means of a cluster analysis in order to determine which objects are most photographed. Findings reveal that the store building of a luxury department store is the central object in the majority of pictures within a 1km radius of the store main entrance, which demonstrates the role of store building attractiveness in tourism experience. The theoretical contribution is that this is the first paper adding the exterior of the building as attribute of the department store, and demonstrating the role of department stores in place attractiveness.
•A store building can function as a tourism attraction.•The research is based on the collection of pictures posted online and on a machine learning approach.•The store building of luxury department stores is the central object in the majority of the pictures.•The exterior of the building is an attribute of the department store.•Department stores play a role in place attractiveness.
In early 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the term “infodemic” to describe the velocity at which data can be exchanged among people, in a free virtual space where firms have ...limited control over the information diffusion. In particular, the diffusion of information on social media has analogies with the transmission (contagion) of social phenomena and infectious diseases. The aim of this research is to model the viral effects of a luxury marketing campaign when adopting negative stereotypes to increase the market share in a growing market. The campaign generated 506,127 likes of celebrity endorsers/influencers and 17,984 comments spread worldwide in a relatively short period, producing a “burst”. Findings revealed the unexpected social burst occurred with negative consumers’ evaluation, which has been amplified becoming dramatically damaging for the brand (brand hate).
The availability of a huge number of studies about the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for predicting consumer’s acceptance and usage of innovations in points of sale motivates writing of the ...present. Review, with emphasis on the new variables integrated in the traditional model. This is concerned with a synthesis of the current progresses in the field, thus offering a unified view of consumers’ behaviour towards new technical solutions. Such synthesis is achieved from an extensive literature analysis, including computer science, innovation, human-computer interaction, and technology management perspectives. For each case, both opportunities and issues are outlined in order to advance the current knowledge and highlight what practitioners and scholars should take into account for developing new and efficient corporate strategies.
Innovation drivers in retail industry Pantano, Eleonora
International journal of information management,
06/2014, Volume:
34, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
•The paper focuses on the importance of innovating also in retail industry.•The paper analyses the current approaches to innovation in retail industry.•The paper identifies the determinants of ...innovating in retail industry.•The paper underlines the role of consumers, progresses in technology and level of uncertainty as drivers for innovating in retailing.
Although in recent years research in innovation management in retail industries have increased drastically, most of these industries have focused only on addressing consumers’ acceptance of the most effective novel systems. For these reasons, a deeper understanding is needed in three main areas: the innovation management approaches in retail industry, the degree of innovation heterogeneity, and the innovation drivers. Starting from these evidences, this paper identifies to what extent there are similarities and differences in the main innovation drivers in retailing if compared to other sectors (i.e. education, game, etc.).
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