Customer Beliefs Research Articles

Examining the impact of trust on customer intention to use metaverse payments: A next-gen transactions strategic outlook

The emergence of the metaverse has prompted the growth of payment platforms to keep pace with virtual trends. This study seeks to identify the cognitive factors that influence customer beliefs regarding the adoption of the new payment method, metaverse payment, which refers to financial transactions conducted within virtual environments, often facilitated by digital currencies or blockchain technology. The study examines customers by conducting an online survey on the Google platform. The data were gathered from 253 participants born between 1980 and 2002 and had experience using mobile payments in Vietnam. The data met the minimum sample size requirement and were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicated that customer trust and behavioral intention to use metaverse payment were significantly influenced by perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, security, and privacy concerns. However, perceived ease of use did not significantly impact the sense of trust. The study elucidates the significance and influence of derivative attributes in promoting trust by utilizing the metaverse payment system while emphasizing the role of trust in embracing this novel payment system.

Cues to Action and Self-Efficacy in the Health Belief Model: Perceived Risk as Mediating Roles Towards Enhancing Customer Engagement

Understanding and predicting customer engagement (CE) is crucial, especially in the context of medical and health insurance (MHI). In the current global landscape, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, gaining insights into customer behavior is essential for shaping future decisions and strategies. This study aims to investigate CE in private hospitals in Malaysia by utilizing the Health Belief Model (HBM). The HBM offers a comprehensive view of how customer beliefs and behaviors affect CE, making it well-suited for this research context. The study employs variance-based structural equation modeling through Smart PLS 4.0, using a sample of 150 private hospital customers in Malaysia. The findings reveal a significant relationship between Cues to Action (CA) and Self-Efficacy (SE) on CE, while perceived risk (PR) does not mediate the relationship between CA and SE about CE.

THE ROLE OF FUNCTIONALITY AND QUALITY OF SERVICE OF INTERNET SERVICES IN IMPROVING THE BUSINESS EFFICIENCY OF PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES

With the continued growth of business-to-busines (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) Internet services, online providers offer an increasing range of services that support and improve their core products or services. In this article, we will explore Internet services in the pharmaceutical market in E-Pharma.The results of the field study confirm that the functionality and quality of the services provided by Internet services are important predictors of customer beliefs and behaviour, and have a significant impact on indicators of pharmaceutical company development as sales and advertising revenue. The constructed econometric model confirms that the monthly traffic of the Internet service is primarily sensitiveto the speed of order processing, i.e. a change in the speed of order processing will be reflected in the growth of traffic after a shorter period of time compared to other factors. The functional value is also confirmed, reflecting the usefulness of the Internet service in a practical aspect due to the influence of selected factors in the multiple regression model studied.The study allowed us to identify the most effective ways to develop Internet services in the E-Pharma market. These include: promotion of Internet services through social networks, which will ensure an increase in both the social and emotional value of the Internet values studied; implementation of other measures to increase public awareness of Internet services operating in the Russian pharmaceutical market; development of a loyalty programme for customers of a pharmacy organisation who purchase medicines through an Internet service, thereby contributing to an increase in their functional, social, and emotional value.

Securing public spaces: public willingness to sacrifice convenience and privacy for security at three U.S. public venues

The use of security countermeasures at public venues has escalated dramatically over the past 20 years. We present a study of public venue patrons (N = 1276) examining how public perceptions of efficacy and intrusiveness of four security measures deployed at three different public assembly venues in the U.S. impact planned attendance. Enhanced use of these countermeasures,—Closed-Circuit Televisions (CCTVs), security guards, metal detectors, and bag checks—was evaluated by customers for their effectiveness in ensuring safety against crime and terrorism. We found that the perceived efficacy of the countermeasure in reducing these risks was positively associated with an increased likelihood of customer attendance at the venue. Moreover, customer beliefs about the overall enhancement of venue security and the sense of personal safety offered by these countermeasures also predicted their likelihood of attending. Unexpectedly, the study found that attitudes towards the privacy and convenience aspects of the countermeasures were not significant predictors of venue attendance. Results indicated that both cost and the extent of risk reduction predicted willingness to pay for enhanced security countermeasures. As the cost associated with a security measure increased, customers’ willingness to pay decreased. Conversely, as the perceived risk reduction offered by the security measures increased, customers indicated an increased willingness to pay. We found customers’ beliefs, attitudes, and intentions towards security measures were generally consistent across all three venues, indicating generalizability of findings across a range of public assembly venues in the U.S. Overall, the study provides evidence that customers support security countermeasures and endorse their implementation, which offers valuable insights for venue managers and policymakers aiming to enhance security measures at public assembly venues.

Data‐enabled learning, network effects, and competitive advantage

AbstractWe model dynamic competition between firms which improve their products through learning from customer data, either by pooling different customers' data (across‐user learning) or by learning from repeated usage of the same customers (within‐user learning). We show how a firm's competitive advantage is affected by the shape of firms' learning functions, asymmetries between their learning functions, the extent of data accumulation, and customer beliefs. We also explore how public policies toward data sharing, user privacy, and killer data acquisitions affect competitive dynamics and efficiency. Finally, we show conditions under which a consumer coordination problem arises endogenously from data‐enabled learning.

Factors for Pricing Decision of Food Products in Mbeya City, Tanzania

This study examined factors in the pricing decision of food products in Mbeya City. It employed non- experimental research design where every participant had an equal chance of being selected in which a sample of 100 food vendors through a cross-sectional time dimension was collected using questionnaires at Mwanjelwa, SIDO, and Soweto markets in Mbeya City. Multiple regression techniques were employed in data analysis using both SPSS and STATA packages. Variable inflationary factors and link tests were used to predict multi-collinearity and model specification. Findings showed that dependents of food dealers were inversely correlated with the pricing of food products. Furthermore, the income level of customers was inversely related to the price of food products while the type of customers and customer beliefs were both positively related to the price of food. Study concluded that vendors’ dependents, income level of customers, type of customers, and customer beliefs on food vending services influence the pricing decision of food products. It is, therefore, recommended that local government authorities should empower food dealers on pricing decision of food products and services.

When hospitality brands go green: the role of authenticity and stereotypes in building customer-green brand relationships

Drawing on the logic behind customer-brand relationships, this study presents a model outlining the role of brand authenticity in the context of green hospitality brands. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 352 Korean consumers who visited green hospitality premises. The results indicated that functional qualities and stakeholder involvement are essential to building perceived green brand authenticity. The study supported that an authentic green brand is instrumental in increasing customer beliefs about its warmth and competence. Surprisingly, the results showed that evaluating a green brand as warm is the key to building green brand trust, while found a non-significant influence of green brand competence on green brand trust. This study also provided evidence that when green brand trust is formed, its effect on both green brand love and green brand identification is noticeable, which then translates into green brand choice. Overall, this study enriches the significance of the perception of green brand authenticity in fostering a favorable relationship between customers and green brands. In green brand management, brand stereotypes play a dual role in the brand choice formation. Furthermore, contextually induced green stimuli, which include operations, employee behavior, and customer engagement, are required to influence customer perception of green brand authenticity.

PENGARUH LOKASI DAN KUALITAS PELAYANAN TERHADAP LOYALITAS KONSUMEN PADA CAFE TITIK KUMPUL CAPORE SITUBONDO DENGAN KEPUASAN KONSUMEN SEBAGAI VARIABEL INTERVENING

Location refers to various marketing activities that have facilitated and facilitated the delivery or distribution of goods and services from producers to consumers. Service quality is something intangible provided by the service provider to its customers who are then compared the differences between the reality and the expectations they receive from the service. A consumer is said to be loyal or loyal if the consumer shows buying behavior on a regular basis or there is a condition where it requires consumers to buy at least twice in a certain time interval. In general, customer expectations are estimates or customer beliefs about what will be received when they use services with good or satisfactory service. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction of consumers is part of the consumer experience of a product or service offered. The purpose of this study was to analyze and examine the effect of Location and Service Quality on Consumer Loyalty at the Gathering Point Cafe, Capore Situbondo with Consumer Satisfaction.. This study uses a probability sampling technique with random sampling (simple random sampling). Data analysis and hypothesis testing in this study used the Structural Equation Model – Partial Least Square (PLS-SEM). The results of the direct influence hypothesis test using the Smart PLS 3.0 application, indicate that location has a positive but not significant effect on consumer satisfaction, service quality has a significant positive effect on consumer satisfaction, location has a significant positive effect on consumer loyalty, service quality has a significant positive effect on consumer loyalty, Consumer satisfaction has a positive significant effect on consumer loyalty, location on consumer loyalty through consumer satisfaction has a positive but not significant effect, service quality on consumer loyalty through consumer satisfaction has a significant positive effect.

Operation brand story: How to fix a broken brand when customer beliefs shift and brands do not

Customer insights underpin effective brand strategies and help organisations differentiate. However, research and data gathering takes precious time, money and resources. In many cases, brands facing disruptive pressures such as healthy competition, emerging technologies or rapidly changing customer needs are unable or unwilling to give brand strategy the time and space required. This paper outlines a unique, practical approach that helps leaders address these issues. It specifically addresses brands that consumers regard as broken, irrelevant or of no value.

Exploring consumer purchase intentions and behavior of buying ayurveda products using SOBC framework

The research intended to study the consumer's buying behaviour of Ayurveda products by examining factors that influence consumer's buying decision. Stimuli-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence (SOBC) framework was deployed to test 1316 responses collected using a structured questionnaire. Analysis was performed using CB-SEM method while demographic variables were used as moderator. The four dimensions used in the study, including Stimuli (Health consciousness, Product attribute); Organism (Product availability. Ethnocentrism and Environmental and Sustainability Orientation); Behaviour (Customer beliefs and Purchase intention) and Consequence (Buying behaviour) were found to hold positive association as hypothesized. House-hold income and educational qualification moderated the relationship between organisms and behaviour as well as behaviour and consequence. SOBC model is unique in context of traditional/culture oriented products. The constructs incorporated in the SOBC model provides novelty to the study. Inclusion of Ethnocentrism and Product Availability as Organism have not been examined in the previous studies. The study adds to current literature on consumer behaviour specifically in the context of traditional products. Identifying Health Consciousness in the context of generic Ayurveda products with a unique set of variables contributes to the literature.The identification of stimuli causing behaviour such as health consciousness and product attribute and organisms that influence behavioural response including product availability ethnocentrism as well as environmental and sustainability orientation provide consumer insights to marketers and firms dealing in traditional products. The perspective on consumer beliefs provide directions of policy formulation to governments.

How Digital Communication Accelerated and Internationalized the MSMEs During Covid-19

MSMEs are the driving Engines or backbone not only of economic but also of overall developments of countries. Digital Communication contributes to MSMEs in multiple ways like generating new kinds of employment, supporting sustainable growth, linking national and international markets, facilitating entrepreneurship development, creating and maintaining customer relationships, increasing Business to Business (B2B) cooperation national and international wide. Recently a considerable part of MSMEs disturbed by the covid 19 pandemic. However, exceptional businesses overcame covid 19 and captured the national and international markets by using digital Communication channels, changing their business approaches, and advancing customer relationships. Further, Covid 19 pandemic also changed the customer's beliefs and persuaded them to use a digital method of purchasing and dealing. Thus Covid 19 shaped the businesses and customer dealing and digitalized the transactions.

The impact of storytelling in creating firm and customer connections in online environments

PurposeOrganizations can benefit significantly from the growing capabilities of the internet. As the Web facilitates purchasing and reduces the costs of marketing, companies can connect with customers through the use of storytelling. This study aims to examine how small businesses leverage the use of storytelling to engage with customers and drive revenue and online reputation management.Design/methodology/approachBoth qualitative and quantitative insights are offered in two studies. In Study 1, interviews were conducted with business owners to explore the efforts made by their companies to connect and engage with consumers online. Study 2 builds on the findings from Study 1 and uses survey methodology to test a model which outlines how storytelling can foster engagement with customers.FindingsResults indicate that story content is positively related to emotional content and the personal connection an individual feels toward a firm’s products. Furthermore, user-generated content moderates the relationship between story content creation and personal connections. Findings also demonstrate that personal connection is essential to customer engagement. Ultimately, engagement can lead to revenue generation from social commerce as well as increased reputation management activity.Originality/valueThis research demonstrates how small businesses can use the power of storytelling to immerse and transport audiences in such a way that customer beliefs and attitudes toward the firm are impacted in a favorable way. By telling its brand story well, firms have the power to increase the value of their products.

Global high-value luxury brands manufactured domestically: customer beliefs and attitudes in low-income emerging economies

Faced with market saturation in developed countries, high-value luxury brand manufacturers are aggressively targeting populous emerging economies. Market development in these low incomes countries has been slow. Local production could reduce costs, improve price competitiveness and accelerate market development. However, customer proclivity to associate quality with a country's level of economic and technological advancement, symbolism associated with consuming imported brands and ethnocentric beliefs could constrain market development. Using car purchases by affluent customers in India as a surrogate indicator, this study analyses customer beliefs and attitudes towards high value luxury brand purchases manufactured domestically. The results reveal that customers are influenced by 'country-of-brand origin' rather than 'country-of-manufacture' or 'country-of-assembly' and do not have ethnocentric beliefs and attitudes. Consequently, high value developed country luxury brands can be manufactured and successfully marketed in low-income countries such as India.

Building customer loyalty in online shopping: the role of online trust, online satisfaction and electronic word of mouth

Various scholars have empirically investigated customer beliefs regarding satisfaction, loyalty and trust in the context of B2C e-commerce in several countries. However, the number of investigations into such important aspects of e-commerce in developing Arab countries, such as Jordan, is limited. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to explore the main factors that affect the degree to which consumers in Jordan are satisfied with, loyal to and trust B2C e-commerce. This research relies on previous and related literature to formulate a conceptual research model that proposes relationships between online trust, satisfaction and loyalty, and their determinants. To examine the proposed model, a self-administered paper-based survey questionnaire was issued to B2C e-commerce customers in a Jordanian private university. The findings suggest that customer loyalty to B2C e-commerce in Jordan is significantly influenced by online customer satisfaction, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and online trust.

An investigation of the effect of customer beliefs on the intention to participate in family Takaful schemes

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to apply the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in predicting the intention to participate in family takaful schemes (FTSs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One area of concern for takaful operators is their untapped market and lower market share compared to those of their conventional insurance counterparts. It is possible that the investigation of direct and indirect (belief based) measures of TPB could shed some light on these concerns and possibly offer some assistance to takaful operators.Design/methodology/approachInterrelationships among attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls (PBCs) and intention to participate in FTSs were examined. The relationships between behavioral beliefs on attitudes, normative beliefs on subjective norm and control beliefs on PBC were also assessed to fully identify the structures underlying factors measuring intentions. The respondents consisted of 175 Muslims in the UAE. Data were collected using an online survey and analyzed using SPSS.FindingsThis study found that attitudes, subjective norms and PBCs contribute to the prediction of the intention to participate in FTSs. This study used standard multiple regressions to identify an extensive set of specific belief composites this can be used in the prediction of direct measures of TPB and the intention to participate in FTS.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide useful information to takaful marketers on how to develop marketing strategies to increase FTS participation. This study suggests that informative and persuasive promotions can be used to improve the penetration rate of FTSs in the UAE.Originality/valueThis study provides insights into previously unaddressed FTS participation in the UAE. Prior work on determining FTS participation has not been applied to both direct and indirect measures of TPB to understand the phenomenon.

Can Promotions Mitigate Quality Variability? Pricing for Customers Who Act Risk-Averse

We formalize an understudied mechanism through which quality variability hurts firm revenues, analyze when and why this mechanism is important, and generate new insight into how dynamic personalized pricing strategies can mitigate the negative effects of quality variability. To do so, we model a firm that sells a service repeatedly with variable but stationary quality. Customers update their quality beliefs based on their experiences (exponential smoothing), and their purchase probability in each period increases with their respective beliefs about mean quality (logit choice). For any price, we show that quality variability reduces the firm's revenue and leads to a downward bias in customer beliefs about quality. These effects arise even when customers are risk neutral and update their beliefs symmetrically after good and bad experiences. We then investigate whether the firm can improve revenues through dynamic personalized pricing. We find that a fixed perceived surplus pricing policy--charging a lower price when a customer believes the quality is lower to induce a constant purchase probability--is not only optimal but can also match the optimal revenue when quality is not variable. The revenue gain from implementing this pricing policy (as compared with pricing) is greatest when quality variability is large, customers react strongly to recent experiences, and/or mean service quality is high. Our numerical results further show that firms can achieve significant revenue gains through dynamic pricing even in information-poor or low-price-flexibility environments. Finally, we extend our model to consider social learning as well as competition between two firms.

Incentive under market system along with informational symmetry to boost up customer attitude toward self-service banking: a proposal

With the aim to explore the implications of increased self-service banking, this paper argues that PCBs have failed to exploit the potentials of self-services. This is because it bases its customer-service designs on an incomplete business model. Offering incentive under market system along with informational symmetry can enhance self-services. This proposition ensures the business model to be complete and places itself as an add-on to behavioural intention theories in literature. Using economic theory of consumer choice and behaviour, the impact of value configurations of the proposal is evaluated and found it to be influential, over other forms, in changing customer's beliefs, intentions, attitudes and behaviours. Informational symmetry in this market may undercut possibilities of getting framed, which can further influence customer's desires for increased self-services. Under the proposed model, PCBs can marginalise its operating cost and users can gain monetarily in proportion to its number of transactions on monthly basis.

Blind Queues: The Impact of Consumer Beliefs on Revenues and Congestion

In many service settings, customers have to join the queue without being fully aware of the parameters of the service provider (e.g., customers at checkout counters may not know the true service rate before joining). In such “blind queues,” customers make their joining/balking decisions based on limited information about the service provider’s operational parameters (from past service experiences, reviews, etc.) and queue lengths. We analyze a firm serving customers making decisions under arbitrary beliefs about the service parameters in an observable queue for a service with a known price. By proposing an ordering for the balking threshold distributions in the customer population, we are able to compare the effects of customer beliefs on the queue. We show that, although revealing the service information to customers improves revenues under certain conditions, it may destroy consumer welfare or social welfare. Given a market size, consumer welfare can be significantly reduced when a fast server announces its true service parameter. When revenue is higher under some beliefs, one would expect the congestion to also be higher because more customers join, but we show that congestion may not necessarily increase. This paper was accepted by Teck-Hua Ho, stochastic models and simulation.

Predicting Internet banking adoption in India: a perceived risk perspective

The emergence of Internet banking has transformed the banking systems across the globe. As a channel to market, Internet banking allows geographical constraints to be overcome by offering various products and services at lower customer costs. An understanding of the factors influencing customer adoption of Internet banking is both relevant and timely. This study integrates technology acceptance model and perceived risk theory in understanding Internet banking acceptance among Indian bank account holders. Specifically, this study categorizes perceived risk as external risk and internal risk, and examines its influence on customer beliefs and adoption of Internet banking. Using two-step predictive analytics of structural equation modeling and artificial neural network analysis, the 270 responses reveal that both external risk and internal risk inhibit customer acceptance of Internet banking. More importantly, neural network analysis reveals that perceived ease of use and external risk are two important factors determining how well Internet banking is accepted by customers. The implications of the study findings and future research directions are presented.

The impact of communication channels on mobile banking adoption

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinct effects of different communication channels, particularly interpersonal networks, social media, and mass media on customer beliefs and usage intention in a mobile banking (MB) context. Design/methodology/approach – This study employed a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches with an exploratory sequential research design in two major phases: focus groups; and a large-scale survey among 183 New Zealand young adults. Findings – The most significant influential factor of usage intention was perceived usefulness, followed by perceived credibility and perceived costs. Face-to-face communication with bank staff and close acquaintances was perceived as the most reliable and persuasive sources of banking-related information. Moreover, mass channels were considered to be more important and trustworthy than social media in the MB sector. The research results revealed that the current status of MB diffusion in New Zealand is in the latter stages (Late Majority and Laggards) of the innovation diffusion cycle. Practical implications – In light of the research findings, bank marketers can make the right decisions on marketing actions to promote MB effectively as well as develop appropriate communication policies to speed up the consumer decision process. Researchers and allied industries (e.g. mobile commercial services) could also gain benefits from applying these results to understand the impact of communication channels on consumer perceptions and behaviours towards new technology acceptance. Originality/value – The research outcomes have served to broaden the knowledge into the distinguishing influences of major communication channels on customers’ beliefs and intention to adopt new banking services.