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In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology is rewriting the way consumers shop as well as the retail operating models. In this context, investment in new technologies is a strategic imperative for retailers striving to remain relevant and profitable. Using Kahn's Retail Success Matrix as the conceptual framework, the aim of the study is to propose a classification of emerging technologies based on their potential for sustaining retailers' competitive strategies.

Following an initial qualitative study based on in-depth interviews and focus groups with 20 retail managers, the authors collected survey data from a sample of 168 retail and technology professionals. To achieve the research objectives, content, descriptive and multiple correspondence factor analyses were carried out.

The data analyses result on a map that plots the technological solutions that retail experts identify as enablers of four key competitive strategies: product superiority, enhanced customer experience, frictionless shopping experience and operational excellence.

This research work provides valuable insight into how retail companies can capitalise on technology to create or reinforce their competitive positioning. The framework acts as a guide for retail companies to assess their technology priorities.

This exploratory empirical study is the result of a collaboration between academic researchers and retail professionals. Thus, it addresses challenges experienced by key stakeholders. The encompassing classification enables a better understanding of the impact of technology on retailers' competitive positioning.

User acceptance is a necessary precondition to implementing self-driving buses as a solution to public transport challenges. Focusing on potential users in a real-life setting, this paper aims to analyze the factors that affect their willingness to use public autonomous shuttles (PASs) as well as their word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions.

Grounded on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), the study was carried out on a sample of 318 potential users in a real-life setting. The hypothesized relationships were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The study reveals that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and trust are significant predictors of PAS usage intention, which is, in turn, related to WOM communication. Additionally, the factors that impact the intention to use a PAS are found to exert an indirect effect on WOM, mediated by usage intention.

This study includes practical insights for transport decision-makers on PAS service design, marketing campaigns and WOM monitoring.

While extant research focuses on passengers who have tried autonomous shuttles in experimental settings, this article adopts the perspective of potential users who have no previous experience with these vehicles and identifies the link between usage intention and WOM communication in a real-life traffic environment.

若要引入自動駕駛巴士來解決公共交通的問題和挑戰,一個必不可少的先決條件是得到用戶的認可。本研究透過重點分析活在真實生活環境中的潛在用戶,來探討影響他們使用公共自動交通工具的意願和口碑動機的各個因素。

本研究以延伸整合型科技接受模式為基礎,對一個涵蓋處身於真實生活環境中318名潛在用戶的樣本進行分析和探討。研究人員以偏最小平方法的結構方程模型 (PLS-SEM), 去測試各個被假設的關聯。

研究結果顯示,績效期望、有利條件、享樂動機和信任均明顯能夠預測人們使用公共自動交通工具的意願,而人們使用公共自動交通工具的意願又反過來與口碑溝通有所相關。另外,研究人員發現,影響人們使用公共自動交通工具意願的各個因素,對口碑會產生間接的影響,而使用意願是會起著調節作用的。

現存的學術研究均聚焦分析那些曾於實驗設置下坐過自動交通工具的人士,而本研究卻採用從未坐過自動交通工具人士的角度來進行分析與探討,並且找出了於實際的交通環境裡、使用意願與口碑溝通之間的關聯。

本研究提供的啟示,對有關公共自動交通工具服務設計、市場營銷活動和口碑監督工作的運輸決策者來說頗具實務意義。

Aims to provide the entities and institutions that train retailers with a series of recommendations to improve the quality of the courses they organise and give, especially concerning the aspects where those actually receiving training detect the greatest shortcomings. Hence, the perceptions of the individuals attending the courses as well as the importance they give to each of the aspects considered to be relevant for evaluating the quality of training received have been analysed. To this end, a measurement instrument based on the SERVPERF scale has been developed and, according to the quality evaluations obtained, the retailers have been classified into homogeneous groups. Evaluating the quality of the training received, grouping the retailers, and detecting significant differences among the groups will enable the bodies organising and/or giving courses to diversify their offerings in terms of the characteristics of those receiving training. They will also be able to determine the strengths and weaknesses of these courses at an overall level as well as for each of the groups. Likewise, clues can be found to improve aspects of the training courses to which due attention may not be being paid at the present time.

Reports some findings with respect to the possibility of classifying service consumers on the basis of their quality expectations. After reviewing traditional types of market segmentation, two hypotheses related to the applicability of service quality expectations as a grouping variable are formulated. Then, findings from a study developed in the tourism industry are presented, using the Chow test to verify the mentioned hypotheses. The study indicates that the segmentation proposed is operational and that, in general, the aspects for which the customers have greater expectations are those which influence their satisfaction to a greater extent. Finally, managerial implications are discussed based on the results of the study

The purpose of this paper is to explore customer engagement in Twitter via data mining.

This study’s intended contributions are twofold: to find a clear connection among customer engagement, presumption, and Web 2.0 in a context of service-dominant (S-D) logic; and to identify social networks created by prosumers. To this end, the study employed data mining techniques. Tweets about IKEA were used as a sample. The resulting algorithm based on 300 tweets was applied to 4,000 tweets to identify the patterns of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).

Social networks created in IKEA’s tweets consist of three forms of eWOM: objective statements, subjective statements, and knowledge sharing. Most objective statements are disseminated from satisfied or neutral customers, while subjective statements are disseminated from dissatisfied or neutral customers. Satisfied customers mainly carry out knowledge sharing, which seems to reflect presumption behavior.

This study provides partial evidence of customer engagement and presumption in IKEA’s tweets. The results indicate that there are three forms of eWOM in the networks: objective statements, subjective statements, and knowledge sharing. It seems that IKEA successfully engaged customers in knowledge sharing, while negative opinions were mainly disseminated in a limited circle.

Firms should make more of an effort to identify prosumers via data mining, since these networks are hidden behind “self-proclaimed” followers. Prosumers differ from opinion leaders, since they actively participate in product development. Thus, firms should seek prosumers in order to more closely fit their products to consumer needs. As a practical strategy, firms could employ celebrities for promotional purposes and use them as a platform to convert their followers to prosumers. In addition, firms are encouraged to make public how they resolve problematic customer complaints so that customers can feel they are a part of firms’ service development.

Theoretically, the study makes unique contributions by offering a synergic framework of S-D logic and Web 2.0. The conceptual framework collectively relates customer engagement, presumption, and Web 2.0 to social networks. In addition, the idea of examining social networks based on different forms of eWOM has seldom been touched in the literature. Methodologically, the study employed seven algorithms to choose the most robust model, which was later applied to 4,000 tweets.

The current work aims to analyze the role of commitment perceived by the consumer in the maintenance of long‐term relationships. The context of analysis chosen is the tourism sector, more specifically the relationships that retail travel agencies establish with their consumers. The study tests a conceptual model via a system of structural equations using the statistics package EQS 6.1 for Windows. The results corroborate the importance of the consumer’s trust in the travel agency and the consumer’s perception of the firm’s commitment, because this commitment acts as an antecedent of trust and creates the conditions for the firm to achieve a stable portfolio of customers.

The purpose of this study is to introduce new tools to develop a more precise and focused bibliometric analysis on the field of digitalization in healthcare management. Furthermore, this study aims to provide an overview of the existing resources in healthcare management and education and other developing interdisciplinary fields.

This work uses bibliometric analysis to conduct a comprehensive review to map the use of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) research models in healthcare academic studies. Bibliometric studies are considered an important tool to evaluate research studies and to gain a comprehensive view of the state of the art.

Although UTAUT dates to 2003, our bibliometric analysis reveals that only since 2016 has the model, together with UTAUT2 (2012), had relevant application in the literature. Nonetheless, studies have shown that UTAUT and UTAUT2 are particularly suitable for understanding the reasons that underlie the adoption and non-adoption choices of eHealth services. Further, this study highlights the lack of a multidisciplinary approach in the implementation of eHealth services. Equally significant is the fact that many studies have focused on the acceptance and the adoption of eHealth services by end users, whereas very few have focused on the level of acceptance of healthcare professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to conduct a bibliometric analysis of technology acceptance and adoption by using advanced tools that were conceived specifically for this purpose. In addition, the examination was not limited to a certain era and aimed to give a worldwide overview of eHealth service acceptance and adoption.

Appropriate management of service failures involves a complex organizational response that allows an effective internal and external recovery, learn from mistakes and introduce future service innovations. Empirical evidence on the organizational recovery practices more suitable to achieve these objectives, leading to superior performance, is limited. The present work seeks to extend the existing literature by identifying the potential dimensions that constitute an integrated service recovery system (ISRS), introducing a strategic, proactive and relational approach to service failure and recovery management, and by proposing a causal model linking the ISRS with performance.

The ISRS dimensions and their attributes are derived from an extensive literature review and suggestions from academics and business experts. Structural equations modeling is used to test a model linking the ISRS (conceptualized as a second order construct), with client, employee and business performance indicators, using data from a Spanish sample of 151 Knowledge‐Intensive Business Services (KIBS).

Results confirm that the firms' ability to approach service recovery from a strategic, proactive and relational perspective allows improving performance among clients and employees, that is, the external and internal recovery to occur, which leads to a superior competitive performance.

The ISRS scale can provide managers with a diagnostic tool to analyze their recovery practices and to further improve their competitiveness in the long term.

The need to assess the integrative nature of effective service recovery systems has been claimed theoretically. An empirical study showing the link between comprehensive service recovery practices and performance was lacking.

The purpose of the present study is to test that perceived risk is a multidimensional concept both when it is associated to the purchase of store brands and national brands and analyzes the effect of perceived risk on store brands proneness.

In order to achieve its objective the paper used a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the proposed perceived risk scale and three regression analysis were carried out to evaluate the effect of perceived risk on store brands proneness.

The results of the study show significant differences between store and national brands and, on the other hand, it has been confirmed that these differences contribute to decrease store brand proneness, the latter being measured through three variables: actual store brands purchase, consumption intensity and future purchase intention.

Previous empirical research has focused primarily on the perceived risk associated with store brands individually. On the contrary, this paper considers the perceived risk difference between store and national brands, believing that the difference between brands is what will really make the consumer choose a store brand or a national brand. On the other hand, the present study will permit the evaluation of the effects of the evolution of store brands in Spain, effects that can be replicated in other Mediterranean countries.

The present study sets out to analyze the effects that a set of variables related to purchasing behaviour has on the difference in perceived risk between store brands and national brands.

The methodology proposed to achieve the objective consists of analyzing the existing relationship between different aspects relating to purchasing behaviour of the consumer and the difference in perceived risk between the two types of brands through a causal and integrated model. Such a model covers both the direct effects and the indirect effects caused by these variables jointly. In order to do so data were obtained from two groups of people, which has allowed for cross‐validation of the methodology used, which, in turn, permitted a greater generalization of the results.

The variables which have proven to be most relevant when explaining this difference are the perceived quality of the store as opposed to that of the national brands, familiarity with the store brands and confidence in the extrinsic attributes of the product to assess its quality.

Previous empirical research has focused primarily on the individual effects of these variables. A causal model is proposed capable of demonstrating that, besides the direct effect of a variable on the difference in perceived risk between store brands and national brands, there may be other ways for this variable to exercise its influence. This is important because of the implications for retailers when managing their own brands.