International Journal of Electronic Business (21 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Ascendancy of SNS information and age difference on intention to buy eco-friendly offerings: meaningful insights for e-tailers  
  by Shabnam Gulati, Gursimranjit Singh, Arvind Kumar 
  Abstract: Through the unparalleled espousal of theory of planned behaviour, this study intends to significantly add to the current knowledge on social networking sites (SNS) in eWOM information and its role in defining intentions to buy green products. In specie, this study seeks to first investigate the part played by attitude towards SNS information in influencing the acceptance of SNS information and then by acceptance of SNS information in effecting the green purchase intention. Besides this, it also aims to analyse the influence exerted by first credibility of SNS information on acceptance of SNS information and then by acceptance of SNS information on green purchase intention. In doing so, it also examines how well the age of the SNS users moderates all these four associations.
  Keywords: green products; social networking sites; SNS; eWOM; purchase intention; structural equation model.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10061502
   
  
• Exploring the impact of electronic marketing on firm e-sales performance: empirical evidence from B2C vs. B2B perspectives and future challenges  
  by Jie Chen 
  Abstract: Electronic marketing (eM) is a vital component of a successful sales strategy having the ability to reach a global audience, offer targeted marketing, provide data-driven insights, and foster customer engagement makes it a more powerful tool for driving sales performance and achieving business growth. This study attempts to examine the nexus among electronic marketing tools, i.e., mobile marketing, search engine optimisation, chatbot, email marketing, and social media marketing on organisational e-sales performance (ESP) from the perspectives business to consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). A total of 648 questionnaires for B2C and a total of 625 for B2B perspective were eventually considered for data analysis using SEM and SmartPLS. First, the study affirmed a positive connection between eM on e-sales performance from a B2C perspective. Second, the study confirmed a positive connection between eM on e-sales performance from the B2B domain. This study endows with insights into electronic marketing on how they may optimise the e-sales performance of the companies by utilising various technologies both B2C and B2B.
  Keywords: electronic marketing; e-sales performance; business-to-consumer perspective; business-to-business perspective; empirical analysis; innovation diffusion theory.
  
  
• Entrepreneurship vs. e-entrepreneurship: an evaluation of entrepreneurial orientations for social and economic development  
  by Liping Wang 
  Abstract: Entrepreneurship and e-entrepreneurship both are vital for fostering dynamism, adaptability, and prosperity in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. Entrepreneurship fuels innovation, job creation, and economic growth that support driving progress in various industries. However, e-entrepreneurship leverages digital platforms to reach global markets, fostering scalability, accessibility, and efficiency. This study specifically explores the nexus of both orientation modes toward corporate social and economic development in China, a developing nation. First, this study examines the correlation between entrepreneurship and social development (SoD). Second, the study explores the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development (EcD). Third, the study uncovers the relationship between e-entrepreneurship and SoD. Finally, the objective is to examine the relationship between e-entrepreneurship and EcD, respectively. The outcomes were obtained using a sample of 553 (N = 553) and utilising SEM method through SmartPLS. The study affirmed the positive relationships of entrepreneurship toward SoD and EcD. Likewise, this study assured the positive correlation of e-entrepreneurship toward SoD and EcD.
  Keywords: entrepreneurship; e-entrepreneurship; social development; economic development; structure equation modelling.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10063200
   
  
• The impact of emerging profit pools on the mobility sector: a system dynamics approach  
  by Steffen Kurpiela, Frank Teuteberg 
  Abstract: The current developments in the mobility sector have far-reaching impacts on the entire ecosystem and require new approaches also for strategic planning. Hence, it is important to understand the causes and effects of the ecosystem in order to support decision making processes or the simulation of scenarios. However, previous research has only developed models that consider single dimensions or profit pools of the mobility sector. Against this background, this study applies the system dynamics approach and provides a comprehensive causal loop diagram supported by the PESTEL-framework in order to present the central dynamic behaviours of the mobility sector under influence of the emerging profit pools based on the existing literature. In summary, 15 central loops were identified which describe main impacts of the emerging profit pools on the mobility ecosystem. Along with implications for research and practice, this paper provides a deeper understanding of the ecosystem of the mobility sector.
  Keywords: causal loop diagram; CLD; mobility ecosystem; emerging profit pools; strategic planning.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10062877
   
  
• Determinants of health apps’ demand: a study on Google Play Store  
  by Cândida Sofia Machado, Cláudia Cardoso, Natália Lemos 
  Abstract: Markets for health apps are complex, with multiple actors and interactions between them. Therefore, a successful business model must guarantee adequate revenues for app developers, and simultaneously value for users to guarantee demand. To a sample of 200 health apps in the Portuguese Google Play Store we applied ordinal regression models to understand what characteristics of health apps influence their demand, measured in terms of downloads. We find that monetisation strategies are crucial to explain health apps’ demand. Free to download, in-app purchases and in-app ads increase downloads. Additionally, the quality of the app is of significant importance to ensure users’ satisfaction and to enhance the visibility and demand of the app. By presenting a comprehensive analysis of the factors that impact the success of a mobile app, these findings should be of interest to researchers and app developers.
  Keywords: mobile apps; e-Health; demand for health apps; app characteristics; monetisation mechanisms; Google Play Store.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10063008
   
  
• Exploring the influence path of brand relationship quality of agricultural products’ regional public brand with a dual-attention perspective  
  by Yang Zhao, Yufang Wang, Jiangli Zhang, Jiawen Ren, Lin Wang 
  Abstract: The regional public brand of agricultural products is an important style of characteristic agricultural product brands. How to build the regional public brand of agricultural products has always been the focus of attention, and it is of great practical significance to explore the brand relationship quality improvement path of the regional public brand of agricultural products. This study adopts the fsQCA method based on the perspective of causal complexity configuration to construct the conditional configuration model of brand relationship quality for agricultural product regional public brands, using 30 agricultural product brand cases in the China Agricultural Brand Catalog 2019 Regional Public Brands of Agricultural Products as the research objects. The results show that there are five paths driving high brand relationship quality and six paths driving non-high brand relationship quality with causal asymmetry with the path of high brand relationship quality.
  Keywords: fsQCA; brand relationship quality; brand reputation; media attention; user attention.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10064001
   
  
• The effect of reward type on consumer recommendation intention in the C2C car-sharing context in China: the moderating role of scarcity cues  
  by Jiang Jiang, Yi Ding 
  Abstract: With the vigorous development of car-sharing practices and the rise of various platforms, competition among different car-sharing platforms is becoming increasingly fierce. Many platforms are using referral reward plans to leverage customer power to expand their consumer base. However, little knowledge exists about the effectiveness of different types of referral reward strategies commonly implemented by car-sharing platforms. Through two formal experiments with 652 accessed consumers who are experienced in C2C car-sharing services in China, we find that compared to indirect monetary reward (e.g., coupon), direct monetary reward (e.g., cash) is more effective in enhancing consumers’ recommendation intention. Adding scarcity cues of rewards helps promote recommendation intention and has a significantly stronger power in strengthening the positive effect of direct monetary reward on recommendation intention than that of indirect monetary reward. Our findings theoretically contribute to the research on sharing platform incentivised WOM, scarcity effect, and referral reward plans. We also bring insights for car-sharing platform operators to select effective referral reward plans.
  Keywords: sharing economy; recommendation intention; reward type; scarcity cues; China.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10064101
   
  
• Learning approach of customer journey analysis on digital start-up business performance through social practice theory  
  by Nia Kurniati Bachtiar, Arpasri Sothonvit, Nguyen Thanh Vu, Teara Noviyani Sekar Melati 
  Abstract: The digital industry is currently undergoing robust growth and promises significant future potential. However, launching a commercial venture in this sphere comes with a plethora of challenges, as evidenced by the lacklustre success rate of digital start-ups. Beyond the expected technical and technological hurdles, many start-ups falter in their early stages due to ineffective consumer engagement. This often stems from an oversight in crafting a meticulous Customer Journey Analysis (CJA), which can be pivotal for businesses aiming to accurately target their customer base. To delve deeper into this issue, this study employs the Social Penetration Theory (SPT) to probe the impact of CJA on the performance of digital start-ups. Data was collated from 101 start-up respondents for this research. The findings suggest that the influence of the pre-purchasing and post-purchasing stages on the Customer Journey was somewhat muted, likely due to the constrained application of SPT in these phases.
  Keywords: customer journey analysis; CJA; business performance; digital start-up business; social practice theory; SPT; pre-purchase stage; purchase stage; post-purchase stage.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10064882
   
  
• Predicting the intention to adopt mobile banking in Palestine: an extension of TAM with gamification, perceived mobility, and perceived enjoyment  
  by Rania Ahmad Mustafa Abdalla, Mohannad Moufeed Ayyash, Maan Ali Ahmad Alkhateeb 
  Abstract: Due to the proliferation of smartphones and the growth of the Internet, financial institutions now need to provide mobile banking (m-banking). The Bank of Palestine and the Arab Bank in Palestine have implemented these technologies. However, challenges such as institutional and regulatory restrictions, infrastructure issues, and public awareness hinder the development of m-banking. A study involving 172 customers analysed data using IBM SPSS 28.0 and Smart PLS 4. Gamification was found to significantly improve clients’ intents, demonstrating its effectiveness in promoting m-banking usage. However, perceived usefulness and ease of use had little impact on users’ intentions to use m-banking. Perceived enjoyment did not reach statistical significance, suggesting it may not be a key determinant of the desire to use m-banking. Perceived mobility had no real-world repercussions. The study offers recommendations for m-banking service providers and legislators to encourage user adoption and further research in the field.
  Keywords: mobile banking; m-banking; TAM; gamification; perceived mobility; perceived enjoyment; perceived ease of use; perceived usefulness; intention to use; Palestine.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10064989
   
  
• Webrooming and showrooming shopping behaviour: a bibliometric analysis  
  by Neha Rani, Harbhajan Bansal 
  Abstract: This article aims to use bibliometric analysis to create a framework for the body of literature and pinpoint research gapes in the field webrooming and showrooming. We retrieved 126 research papers from Scopus, published between 2012-2022. The R-based Biblioshiny package and VOSviewer are used to analyze and visualize bibliometric networks, respectively. The earliest article was published in 2012 and increased between 2017 to 2022. Findings revealed the most productive authors, countries, institutions, dominant keywords and core sources. The major limitation is the reliance on single database, namely Scopus, and the relevant studies that are not published in Scopus may remain eliminated. This is the first bibliometric analysis on the theme of webrooming and showrooming shopping behaviour that enables researchers to gather quantitative data related to authors, sources, keywords, citation counts, etc. This data, when linked together and properly analysed, can aid in charting the evolution of the topic.
  Keywords: multi-channel shopping; webrooming; showrooming; bibliometric analysis.
  
  
• Testing a structural model on impulse buying tendency, fear of COVID-19, economic anxiety, household income and quality of life  
  by Zübeyir Çelik, Ceyda Aysuna Türkyılmaz, Aypar Uslu 
  Abstract: Based on impulse buying and fear theory, the study examines which factors affect consumers' impulse buying tendencies. Data were collected from 546 participants through the survey. The research model was tested with process macro. The fear of COVID-19 decreases the quality of life while increasing the economic anxiety and impulse buying tendency. While economic anxiety and life quality factors separately have a negative mediating role in the effect of COVID-19 fear on impulse buying tendency, these two factors together have a positive mediating role. Because while economic anxiety reduces the impulse buying tendency, quality of life increases the impulse buying tendency. Economic anxiety and its interaction with household income cut down life quality. However, the conditional effects of economic anxiety on quality of life at different levels of household income are not significant. The negative effect of household income on life quality is insignificant. The study provides implications.
  Keywords: fear of COVID-19; impulse buying tendency; household income; quality of life; economic anxiety.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10064313
   
  
• Role of smart city for sustainable development: exploring the nexus among smart cities, e-governance and environmental development  
  by Hao Chen, Ze Su 
  Abstract: Smart cities and electronic governance (e-governance) emerged as a transformative concept in urban development, leveraging technology and data-driven approaches to enhance the quality of life for citizens. Smart cities integrate various domains such as transportation, energy, healthcare, waste management, and governance to create intelligent urban environments. Research on smart cities is emerging where experts are trying to uncover the influence of smart cities from various perspectives. This study endeavours to investigate the nexus between smart city capabilities such as smart homes, smart education, smart transportation, smart health, smart safety, and smart power with respect to environmental development (ED) along with moderation of (e-governance) with empirical analysis from the Chinese market. This study confirmed a positive connection of smart city applications on environmental development. Second, the moderating influence of e-governance was confirmed between smart city and ED. This study provides insights into smart cities and e-governance that how both can help to improve environmental performance of a nation along. The study provides various applications in terms of theoretical perspectives and managerial perspectives to better shape a society during the current era of artificial intelligence. The study states the drawbacks along with the future potential for future researchers.
  Keywords: smart cities; sustainable development; e-governance; environment perspective; empirical analysis.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10062780
   
  
• A study on users' self-disclosure on social networking sites: the roles of individual differences  
  by Quang Dung Truong, Nam Tien Duong 
  Abstract: This study, grounded in the theory of personal needs, aimed to understand how self-disclosure to friends within interpersonal networks formed on social networking sites is influenced by individual self-presentation and interpersonal relationship needs. Additionally, it sought to determine whether there are variations in self-disclosure due to personality traits. The study employed a questionnaire survey method for Facebook users, obtaining 513 valid responses, and analysed the data using PLS. The results indicated that personal self-presentation, expressed inclusion, and expressed affection have a positive impact on self-disclosure to both casual and close friends. Expressed affection positively influences self-disclosure with casual friends, while wanted inclusion negatively impacts self-disclosure with both casual and close friends. Lastly, personality traits with varying degrees of extraversion and narcissism also differentially affect users' self-disclosure.
  Keywords: individual differences; SNS; self-disclosure; relationship; friends.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10062047
   
  
• Enabling technologies in supply chain operations: an examination of smart technologies on supply chain performance with moderation of virtual reality  
  by Yajun Cheng 
  Abstract: Smart technologies play an essential role in revolutionising the supply chain industry by bringing myriad benefits that enhance efficiency, transparency, and competitiveness. Smart technologies empower corporates to optimise supply chain operations, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition to win over the market. This study reveals the impact of certain smart technologies (i.e., the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, cloud computing, and supply control towers) on supply chain performance (SCP) with mediating of virtual reality (VR) based on resource dependence theory (RDT). First, the study affirmed a positive connection between five smart technologies on SCP. Second, it is revealed that virtual reality capability moderates the correlation between the connection of smart technologies and corporates' SCP. This study endows with insights into smart technologies on how they may optimise SCP by utilising various technologies in supply chain operation, including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, cloud computing, and supply control towers along with virtual reality. Besides, this study provides several interesting implications for management along with future directions for worldly scholars to carry out similar studies with the Chinese market and across the globe for additional validations.
  Keywords: smart technologies; virtual reality; supply chain performance; empirical analysis; resource dependence theory.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10064316
   
  
• Technology acceptance in self-service banking of Pakistan: the role of innovative and individual attributes  
  by Masood Ul Hassan, Zeeshan Iqbal 
  Abstract: The current study investigated the role of individual differences and innovation features on the customers' attitude towards self-service banking (SSB), which in turn impact their intention and behaviour to use SSB in Pakistan. A survey questionnaire was designed for data collection and structural equation modelling (SEM) approach was applied by using SmartPLS software to examine the hypothesised relationships. The findings revealed that individual differences and innovation features have a significant influence on customers' attitudes to adopt SSB, which in turn significantly impacts behavioural intention. Finally, customers' behavioural intention to adopt SSB emerged as a significant predictor of customer behaviour with SSB. The most significant implication is that the banking sector should always strive to shape positive attitude of customers towards SSB, primarily, the banks must consider individual differences and innovation features while creating SSB modes.
  Keywords: self-service banking; SSB; technology acceptance model; TAM; theory of planned behaviour; TPB; UTAUT; diffusion of innovation; IDT; Pakistan.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10064314
   
  

Special Issue on: AI-Driven Sustainable Computational Social Networks for E-commerce Marketing

• A method for selecting multiple logistics sites in cross-border e-commerce based on return uncertainty  
  by Wang-xianzi Shen 
  Abstract: To reduce the location cost of cross-border e-commerce logistics sites, this article proposes a multi-logistics site location method based on return uncertainty. Firstly, a site selection model is established with the objective function of minimising site construction costs, transportation costs, return costs, and operating costs, and the constraint conditions of return recovery costs and delayed pick-up time; Then, using the Monte Carlo method to simulate the number of returned items, and using an improved chicken swarm algorithm based on simulated annealing, the cross-border e-commerce multi-logistics site location model is solved to complete the location selection. Experimental results show that this method can effectively reduce the related costs of cross-border e-commerce multi-logistics site selection. After applying this method, the total cost of multi-logistics site selection is 19.4 million yuan, while the total cost of the five comparative methods exceeds 20 million yuan.
  Keywords: uncertainty of return; cross-border e-commerce; multi-logistics sites; site selection method; Monte Carlo method; improved chicken swarm algorithm.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10062051
   
  
• Research on Weibo marketing advertising push method based on social network data mining  
  by Yanyan Zhang 
  Abstract: The current advertising push methods have low accuracy and poor advertising conversion effects. Therefore, a Weibo marketing advertising push method based on social network data mining is studied. Firstly, establish a social network graph and use graph clustering algorithm to mine the association relationships of users in the network. Secondly, through sparsization processing, the association between nodes in the social network graph is excavated. Then, evaluate the tightness between user preferences and other nodes in the social network, and use the TF-IDF algorithm to extract user interest features. Finally, an attention mechanism is introduced to improve the deep learning model, which matches user interests with advertising domain features and outputs push results. The experimental results show that the push accuracy of this method is higher than 95%, with a maximum advertising click through rate of 82.7% and a maximum advertising conversion rate of 60.7%.
  Keywords: social network data; data mining; Weibo marketing advertising; advertising push; graph clustering; attention mechanism.
  
  
• An effectiveness analysis of enterprise financial risk management for cost control  
  by Qing Cai, Xiangyin Qiu, Xiaojun Zhang 
  Abstract: This paper aims to analyse the effectiveness of cost control oriented enterprise financial risk management. Firstly, it analyses the importance of enterprise financial risk management. Secondly, the position of cost control in enterprise financial risk management was analysed. Cost control can be used to reduce the operating costs of enterprises, improve their profitability, and thus reduce the financial risks they face. Finally, a corporate financial risk management strategy is constructed from several aspects: establishing a sound risk management system, predicting and responding to various risks, optimising fund operation management, strengthening internal control, and enhancing employee risk awareness. The results show that after applying the proposed management strategy, the enterprise performs well in cost control oriented enterprise financial risk management, with a cost accounting accuracy of 95% and an audit system completeness of 90%. It can also help the enterprise develop emergency plans and provide comprehensive risk management strategy coverage.
  Keywords: cost control; corporate financial risks; risk management; effectiveness analysis.
  
  
• Risk evaluation method of electronic bank investment based on random forest  
  by Yi Tang, Jiaojun Yi 
  Abstract: Aiming at the problems of high error rate, low evaluation accuracy and low investment return in traditional methods, a random forest-based e-bank investment risk evaluation method is proposed. First, establish a scientific e-bank investment risk evaluation index system. Then, G1-COWA combined weighting method is used to calculate the weights of each index. Finally, the e-bank investment risk evaluation index data is taken as the input vector, and the e-bank investment risk evaluation result is taken as the output vector. The random forest model is established and the result of e-banking investment risk evaluation is obtained. The experimental results show that the maximum relative error rate of this method is 4.32%, the evaluation accuracy range is 94.5~98.1%, and the maximum return rate of e-banking investment is 8.32%. It shows that this method can accurately evaluate the investment risk of electronic banking.
  Keywords: random forest; electronic banking; investment risk evaluation; G1-COWA combination weighting method.
  
  
• E-commerce growth prediction model based on grey Markov chain  
  by Pengfei Wang, Shuaijing Yu 
  Abstract: In order to solve the problems of long prediction consumption time and many prediction iterations existing in traditional prediction models, an e-commerce growth prediction model based on grey Markov chain is proposed. The Scrapy crawler framework is used to collect a variety of e-commerce data from e-commerce websites, and the feedforward neural network model is used to clean the collected data. With the cleaned e-commerce data as the input vector and the e-commerce growth prediction results as the output vector, an e-commerce growth prediction model based on the grey Markov chain is built. The prediction model is improved by using the background value optimisation method. After training the model through the improved particle swarm optimisation algorithm, accurate e-commerce growth prediction results are obtained. The experimental results show that the maximum time consumption of e-commerce growth prediction of this model is only 0.032, and the number of iterations is small.
  Keywords: grey Markov chain; e-commerce; growth prediction; scrapy crawler framework; particle swarm optimisation.
  
  
• Study on operational risks and preventive measures of supply chain finance  
  by Cao Ma 
  Abstract: The operation of supply chain finance faces various risks, therefore, studying the operational risks of supply chain finance and corresponding preventive measures is of great significance. Firstly, classify the types of operational risks in supply chain finance; Secondly, based on the risk classification results, the decision tree method is used to evaluate the operational risks of supply chain finance; Finally, based on the risk assessment results, targeted risk prevention measures for supply chain finance operations are proposed, such as strengthening supplier management, optimising logistics and warehouse management, risk analysis and monitoring, and strengthening information security and data protection. The case analysis results show that the accuracy of the evaluation results of this method is higher, and the risk coefficient has been significantly reduced after applying this method, indicating that it can effectively reduce supply chain risk.
  Keywords: supply chain; financial operational risks; preventive measures; decision tree; pruning.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2024.10063138