Tag Archives: digital

  • Are Multichannel Customers Really More Valuable? The Moderating Role of Product Category Characteristics

    Kushwaha and Shankar 2013

    by Tarun Kushwaha and Venkatesh Shankar

    The article is forthcoming in Journal of Marketing.

    How does the monetary value of customer purchases vary by customer preference for purchase channels (e.g., traditional, electronic, multichannel) and product category? The authors develop a conceptual model and hypotheses on the moderating effects of two key product category characteristics—the utilitarian versus hedonic nature of the product category and perceived risk—on the channel preference–monetary value relationship. They test the hypotheses on a unique large-scale, empirically generalizable data set in the retailing context. Contrary to conventional wisdom that all multichannel customers are more valuable than single-channel customers, the results show that multichannel customers are the most valuable segment only for hedonic product categories. The findings reveal that traditional channel customers of low-risk categories provide higher monetary value than other customers. Moreover, for utilitarian product categories perceived as high (low) risk, web-only (catalog- or store-only) shoppers constitute the most valuable segment. The findings offer managers guidelines for targeting and migrating different types of customers for different product categories through different channels.

  • First Mover Advantage in an Internet-enabled Environment: Conceptual Framework and Propositions

    Varadarajan Yadav Shankar JAMS 2008

    by Rajan Varadarajan, Manjit Yadav, and Venkatesh Shankar

    This article was published in the Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 36 (2008), 293-308.

    The competitive market environment has evolved from a physical market environment (PME) to an Internet-enabled market environment (IME) encompassing the physical and electronic marketplaces. At the same time, an increasing number of information products are available in both analog and digital forms. For information products in digital form, the IME also serves as a distribution channel. Such developments raise questions concerning the extent to which extant perspectives on first-mover advantage developed in the context of the PME hold in the IME, generally, and for information products specifically. We address this issue by developing a conceptual framework that focuses on selected sources of first-mover advantage delineated in the extant literature and advance propositions concerning sources that will have a greater or lower effect in the IME relative to the PME. A central message for first-movers in the IME that emerges from our conceptual analysis is to focus on achieving superior positions in resources that would enable them to get close to the customers fast, create switching costs, and retain them though ongoing investments in multi-faceted innovations. A second message that emerges for first-movers in the IME is they must take note of and make strategic adjustments for the potentially diminished significance of some traditional sources of first-mover advantage. These sources include spatial preemption, preemptive investment in capacity, and consumers’ choice behavior under conditions of uncertainty about product quality. We discuss the implications for further conceptual and empirical work in this area of increasing significance.

  • Online Trust: A Stakeholder Perspective, Concepts, Implications, and Future Directions

    Shankar_Urban_Sultan_JSIS_2002

    by Venkatesh Shankar, Glen L. Urban, Fareena Sultan

    This article was published in Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 11 (2002), 325-344.

    Online trust is important in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-business.  Consumers and businesses, feeling the pressure of economic downturn and terrorism, increasingly look to buy from and do business with organizations with the most trusted Web sites and electronic networks.  Companies’ perception of online trust has steadily evolved from being a construct involving security and privacy issues on the Internet to a multidimensional, complex construct that includes reliability/credibility, emotional comfort and quality for multiple stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, distributors and regulators, in addition to customers.  Further, trust online spans the end-to-end aspects of e-business rather than being just based on the electronic storefront.  Based on a review of selected studies, we propose a stakeholder theory of trust, articulate a broad conceptual framework of online trust including its underlying elements, antecedents, and consequences, and propose some promising future research avenues in online trust.  This paper will help information systems professionals better understand the online trust perspectives of multiple stakeholders, the antecedents and consequences, thereby enabling them to build more trustworthy Web sites.

  • Digital Business Strategy

    This course is designed to give you a good understanding of strategic digital business thinking for start-ups and bricks and mortar corporations (bricks and clicks businesses). It will cover digital business strategy formulation and implementation of programs to meet with the needs of the customers, while achieving the business objectives. The focus will be on understanding of the basic digital business concepts and frameworks and application of the concepts in the form of case analysis, discussion of real-world examples, and development and presentation of digital business ideas and plans. The course will emphasize the following key elements: 1. Strategic analysis of digital business opportunities: Issues of focal concern include analysis of the e-business space including markets, business models, company, competitors and customers, segmentation analysis, target segment selection, and product positioning. 2. Digital business steps: The important elements include digital business vision, digital strategy, digital business model, marketing, and organization in the digital environment. 3. Digital business plan: This includes the process of writing and presenting a business plan for a digital business venture. It involves your team coming up with a digital business idea or concept, writing and presenting a detailed business plan based on that concept. The course will also highlight special topics in marketing such as B2B, B2C and wireless in the form of cases and several industry examples. An innovative feature of this intensive course is a presentation of your business plan summary to venture capitalist(s) and to other digital business experts and an ability to receive feedback from them.

    Digital Business Strategy SYLLABUS Winter 2003