[AISWorld] Publication of Vol.12, No.1, 2011 issue of Journal of Electronic Commerce Research

[Melody Kiang]

Dear Colleagues,
    On behalf of the Journal of Electronic Commerce Research (JECR), I 
am pleased to announce that Vol. 12, Number 1, 2011 issue of JECR is 
now available at the journal web site: 
"http://www.csulb.edu/journals/jecr/c_i.htm". This is a regular issue 
guest edited by  Dr. Shirish C. Srivastava, Operations Management and 
Information Technology Department,
HEC School of Management, Paris, France.

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Bidding on the Buying Funnel for Sponsored Search and Keyword 
Advertising
Bernard J. Jansen     College of Information Sciences and Technology, 
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Simone Schuster      Department of Marketing, Smeal College of 
Business, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 
16802, USA   				 	    1-18
  
ABSTRACT

In this research, we evaluate the effectiveness of the buying funnel 
as a model for understanding consumer interaction with keyword 
advertising campaigns on web search engines. We analyze data of nearly 
7 million records from a 33 month, $56 million (US) search engine 
marketing campaign of a major US retailer. We classify key phrases 
used in this campaign into stages of the buying funnel (i.e., 
Awareness, Research, Decision, and Purchase) and then compare the 
consumer behaviors associated with each stage of the buying funnel 
using the critical keyword advertising metrics of impressions, clicks, 
cost-per-click, sales revenue, orders, and items sold. Findings from 
our analysis show that the stages from the buying funnel are effective 
for classifying types of queries, with statistically different 
consumer behaviors for all attributes among all stages. However, 
results also indicate that the buying funnel model does not represent 
the actual process that consumer engage in when contemplating a 
potential purchase, as the stages do not seem to be associated with 
expected consumer actions as predicted by the model. Results show that 
Awareness key phrases cost less and generate more sales revenue than 
Purchase queries, indicating that these broader phases can be a 
lucrative advertising segment for sponsored search campaigns. The 
results reported in this paper are important to researchers interested 
in understanding online consumers interaction with search engines and 
beneficial to search engine marketers striving to design successful 
advertising campaigns. Insights from this research could produce 
keyword advertising efforts being more effectively targeted to 
consumers in order to achieve campaign goals.

Keywords: keyword advertising, pay-per-click, PPC, paid search 
advertising, search engine marketing
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The Power of Many: An Assessment of Managing Internet Group Purchasing
Yujie Wei            Department of Marketing & Real Estate, Richard 
College of Business, The University of West Georgia, 1601 Maple 
Street, Carrollton, GA, USA
Detmar W. Straub     Department of Computer Information Systems, J. 
Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, 35 Broad 
Street, Atlanta, GA, USA
Amit Poddar         Department of Marketing, J. Whitney School of 
Business, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, GA, 
USA							   19-43

ABSTRACT

This article introduces Internet group purchasing (IGP) as a novel 
e-commerce phenomenon. Drawing on collective cognition and other 
relevant theories, we investigate the management of IGP by analyzing 
the four stages of IGP: (1) information accumulation, (2) interaction, 
(3) examination, and (4) accommodation. Netnographic methods were 
employed to collect qualitative data from eleven online group 
purchasing websites selected from hundreds of possible study websites. 
Analysis of the four stages of IGP lends support to the group-level 
cognition theory and makes contributions to collective cognition 
theory, especially as how it can be applied to the e-commerce context. 
It also situates group purchasing within the phenomenon of social 
networking marketing and discusses the symbiosis between IGP and 
businesses goals. Findings can help e-commerce practitioners to better 
understand online consumers and the manner in which they organize 
Internet group purchasing using social media. The research also 
provides managerial implications and directions for future research.

Keywords: Internet group purchasing, social media, collective 
cognition theory, netnography and hermeneutics
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An Investigation of Willingness to Spend Dynamics in Simultaneous 
Online Auctions
Mayukh Dass        Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University, 
Lubbock, TX 79409, USA	   44-60
  
ABSTRACT

Willingness to spend (WTS), as defined by the amount a bidder is 
willing to spend in a particular auction event, is a crucial component 
for an auction’s success. This paper investigates the dynamics of WTS 
of a simultaneous online auction of a specific genre of fine art 
called modern Indian art and compare it with the dynamics of 
cumulative Willingness to pay (WTP), using an innovative statistical 
method called Functional Data Analysis. Functional Data Analysis, 
which is fundamentally considered to recover the underlying WTS and 
cumulative WTP function curves of each bidder, is further used to 
examine the effects of current number of bids, current number of lots 
winning, pre-auction low estimate of the lots they are currently 
winning, bid time, and number of proxy bids on WTS and cumulative WTP 
dynamics. Results suggest that only current number of bids and bid 
time have significant positive effect on the bidder WTS, whereas only 
current number of bids have influence on cumulative WTP. Implications 
for auction house managers are further discussed in the paper.

Keywords: willingness to spend, functional data analysis, dynamic 
modeling, simultaneous online auctions, online fine art auctions
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Effects of Price Recommendations in Name-Your-Own-Price Auctions
Kholekile L. Gwebu    Department of Decision Sciences, Whittemore 
School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, USA
Jing Wang           Department of Decision Sciences, Whittemore School 
of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, USA
Andrew Wei Hao      Department of Management and Marketing, Barney 
School of Business, University of Hartford, USA
Michael Y. Hu        Department of Marketing, College of Business, 
Kent State University, USA	   61-77
  
ABSTRACT

This article examines how price cues can be used strategically to 
influence consumers' perceptions and bid judgments in 
Name-Your-Own-Price (NYOP) auctions. It focuses on three specific 
types of price cues: a low and plausible price cue, a high but 
implausible price cue, and a range price cue that is bounded at the 
upper end by the high price cue and at the lower end by the low price 
cue. A controlled experiment indicates that consumers perceive the 
range and low price cue as more useful in aiding their bidding 
decisions than the high price cue. The range and low price cue 
positively impact bidders’ confidence in winning while the high price 
cue reduces their confidence level. Interestingly, consumers’ value 
and bid judgments’ can be influenced by the high price cue even though 
they view it with skepticism.  The low end of a range price cue is 
found to have a greater impact on consumers’ perceptions and bid 
judgments than the high end, possibly because a range price cue has 
the potential to make loss aversion more pronounced.

Keywords: NYOP auctions, price recommendations, bidder perceptions
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Determinants of E-Commerce Customer Satisfaction, Trust, and Loyalty 
in Saudi Arabia
Mustafa I. Eid        Department of Accounting & MIS, College of 
Industrial Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, 
P. O. Box 5076, Dhahran 31261 Saudi Arabia
		  78-93

ABSTRACT

Managing customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty attitudes of 
e-commerce services is very important for the long-term growth of many 
businesses. Previous research has shown that e-retailers experience 
difficulty maintaining customer loyalty despite the recent rapid 
growth in Business to Customer (B2C) e-commerce applications. Numerous 
studies have empirically examined B2C e-commerce customer trust, 
satisfaction, and loyalty attitudes in various countries. 
Nevertheless, empirical research on these key constructs of e-commerce 
in developing Arab countries is generally limited. Thus, the main 
objective of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the 
extent to which Saudi consumers trust, are satisfied with, and are 
loyal towards B2C e-commerce. This study draws on previous research to 
build a conceptual framework which hypothesizes relationships between 
these three e-commerce constructs and their antecedents. A survey was 
conducted among B2C e-commerce customers in the eastern province of 
Saudi Arabia using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The 
findings of this study show that B2C e-commerce customer loyalty in 
Saudi Arabia is strongly influenced by customer satisfaction but 
weakly influenced by customer trust. The study limitations, 
implications, along with directions for further research are 
discussed.

Keywords: B2C e-commerce, e-retailer, customer trust, customer 
satisfaction, customer loyalty
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Culture and Localization on the Web: Evidence from Multinationals in 
Russia and Turkey
Serkan Yalcin	Boeing Institute of International Business, John Cook 
School of Business, Saint Louis University, 3674 Lindell Bldv, St. 
Louis, MO 63108, USA
Nitish Singh	Boeing Institute of International Business, John Cook 
School of Business, Saint Louis University, 3674 Lindell Bldv, St. 
Louis, MO 63108, USA
Yogesh K. Dwivedi	School of Business and Economics, Swansea 
University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK
Ali Riza Apil	Department of Business Administration, International 
Black Sea University, D.Agmashenebeli Kheivani 13km, No:2, 0131, 
Tbilisi, Georgia
Salavat Sayfullin	Department of Business Administration, International 
Black Sea University, D.Agmashenebeli Kheivani 13km, No: 2, 0131, 
Tbilisi, Georgia	 94-114

ABSTRACT

The broad goal of this study is to explore how the perennial debate on 
standardization and localization is being shaped on the Worldwide Web. 
More specifically, the study explores the depiction of cultural values 
on the web. With limited research investigating this issue, there is 
no consensus yet regarding whether multinationals depict local 
cultural values in their international web sites or design 
standardized sites for global audiences. In an attempt to broaden the 
empirical evidence from different cultural settings (Russia and 
Turkey) and to provide a regional perspective, we examined through 
both qualitative and quantitative analyses the international (Russian 
and Turkish) web sites of 115 multinationals from the US, Europe, and 
Asia-Pacific with respect to 37 cultural values in seven cultural 
dimensions. The results provided support for depiction of local 
cultural values; however, the multinationals utilize a multi-focus in 
their web communication strategies that include cultural (domestic and 
foreign) and marketing strategy elements.

Keywords: Standardization, localization, cultural depiction, the Web, 
international marketing communication strategy
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Dr. Melody Kiang
Co-Editors in Chief,
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research
Professor,
Information Systems Department
College of Business Administration
California State University at Long Beach
Long Beach, CA 90840
Tel: 562-985-8944
Fax: 562-985-5478