ABSTRACT
Purpose: Long sales periods (i.e. Christmas time, Black Friday, etc.) and the risk of contagion while shopping (i.e. during pandemics like COVID-19) showed the extent to which crowded shopping environments have negative effects on consumers' behavior. Hence, using terror management theory (TMT) and stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) approach, the authors aims to develop a new model to investigate the effect of crowd-checking technology on shopping anxiety, the perceived value of shopping experience and willingness to pay. Design/methodology/approach: Using a cross-sectional research design and with a help of an independent research company, the authors collected 1,000 valid responses from individuals residing in the UK. Findings: Results showed that crowd-checking technology cues reduce shopping anxiety, improve value perceptions and increase willingness to pay. In addition, the efficacy of technology in reducing shopping anxiety is moderated by customers' shopping orientation. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is the first one investigating crowd monitoring systems used at the initial stage of consumers' journey to show the number of consumers in-store in real-time. It contributes to the literature on technology applications in retailing by providing evidence that technology cues reduce shopping anxiety, which in turn enhances customer-perceived value from the shopping experience and increases the willingness to pay in stores with embedded crowd-checker technology. The study also extends the application of TMT in a new context. © 2023, Davit Marikyan, Eleonora Pantano and Daniele Scarpi.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a big impact on organisations globally, leaving organisations with no choice but to adapt to the new reality of remote work to ensure business continuity. Such an unexpected reality created the conditions for testing new applications of smart home technology whilst working from home. Given the potential implications of such applications to improve the working environment, and a lack of research on that front, this paper pursued two objectives. First, the paper explored the impact of smart home applications by examining the factors that could contribute to perceived productivity and well-being whilst working from home. Second, the study investigated the role of productivity and well-being in motivating the intention of remote workers to use smart home technologies in a home-work environment in the future. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. For data collection, 528 smart home users working from home during the pandemic were recruited. Collected data were analysed using a structural equation modelling approach. Findings: The results of the research confirmed that perceived productivity is dependent on service relevance, perceived usefulness, innovativeness, hedonic beliefs and control over environmental conditions. Perceived well-being correlates with task-technology fit, service relevance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude to smart homes, innovativeness, hedonic beliefs and control over environmental conditions. Intention to work from a smart home-office in the future is dependent on perceived well-being. Originality/value: The findings of the research contribute to the organisational and smart home literature, by providing missing evidence about the implications of the application of smart home technologies for employees' perceived productivity and well-being. The paper considers the conditions that facilitate better outcomes during remote work and could potentially be used to improve the work environment in offices after the pandemic. Also, the findings inform smart home developers about the features of technology which could improve the developers' application in contexts beyond home settings. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many organisations have shifted to remote working overnight. The new reality has created conditions to use smart home technologies for work purposes, for which they were not originally intended. The lack of insights into the new application of smart home technologies has led to two research objectives. First, the paper aimed to investigate the factors correlating with productivity and perceived wellbeing. Second, the study tried to explore individuals' intentions to use smart home offices for remote work in the future. 528 responses were gathered from individuals who had smart homes and had worked from home during the pandemic. The results showed that productivity positively relates to service relevance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, hedonic beliefs, control over environmental conditions, innovativeness and attitude. Task-technology fit, service relevance, attitude to smart homes, innovativeness, hedonic beliefs, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and control over environmental conditions correlate with perceived wellbeing. The intention to work from smart home-offices in the future is determined by perceived wellbeing. Findings contribute to the research on smart homes and remote work practices, by providing the first empirical evidence about the new applications and outcomes of smart home use in the work context.
ABSTRACT
The COVID19 Pandemic has highlighted our dependence on online services (from government, e-commerce/retail, and entertainment), often hosted over external cloud computing infrastructure. The users of these services interact with a web interface rather than the larger distributed service provisioning chain that can involve an interlinked group of providers. The data and identity of users are often provided to service provider who may share it (or have automatic sharing agreement) with backend services (such as advertising and analytics). We propose the development of compliance-aware cloud application engineering, which is able to improve transparency of personal data use-particularly with reference to the European GDPR regulation. Key compliance operations and the perceived implementation challenges for the realization of these operations in current cloud infrastructure are outlined. © 1997-2012 IEEE.