Impulse purchases during emergency situations: exploring permission marketing and the role of blockchain

Purpose: The paper explores how consumer behavior for purchasing impulse products changed in the complex and disruptive (emergency) situation of the COVID-19 pandemic when the customer is shopping in-home and not visiting the offline stores in an emerging economy context. This paper further explores how digital transformations like the use of blockchain technology can aid offline/omnichannel retailers in reviving sales via permission marketing for impulse products. Design/methodology/approach: The authors followed a qualitative research design and conducted 24 personal interviews with millennials and 15 interviews with offline/omnichannel retailers from an emerging economy. The data collected were analyzed using the thematic analysis procedure. Findings: The authors discuss their findings under three themes – customers' conscious impulse buying during the pandemic, customers' unconscious impulse buying during the pandemic, and a viable solution for retailers in response to the pandemic. Practical implications: The authors suggest that marketers primarily from an offline/omnichannel store should adapt to permission marketing and use technologies like blockchain for the digital transformation of their marketing strategies. Doing so can help offline retailers minimize future damages in the retail sector during emergency situations. Originality/value: This paper is one of the first that explores how impulse – pure, suggestion, planned and reminder – purchases got affected during the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in an emerging economy. This paper is also one of the first to explore the role of permission marketing and digital transformation by the use of blockchain in helping offline retailers in forming swift trust and practice trust-based marketing. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Impulse purchases during emergency situations: exploring permission marketing and the role of blockchain

Purpose>The paper explores how consumer behavior for purchasing impulse products changed in the complex and disruptive (emergency) situation of the COVID-19 pandemic when the customer is shopping in-home and not visiting the offline stores in an emerging economy context. This paper further explores how digital transformations like the use of blockchain technology can aid offline/omnichannel retailers in reviving sales via permission marketing for impulse products.Design/methodology/approach>The authors followed a qualitative research design and conducted 24 personal interviews with millennials and 15 interviews with offline/omnichannel retailers from an emerging economy. The data collected were analyzed using the thematic analysis procedure.Findings>The authors discuss their findings under three themes – customers' conscious impulse buying during the pandemic, customers' unconscious impulse buying during the pandemic, and a viable solution for retailers in response to the pandemic.Practical implications>The authors suggest that marketers primarily from an offline/omnichannel store should adapt to permission marketing and use technologies like blockchain for the digital transformation of their marketing strategies. Doing so can help offline retailers minimize future damages in the retail sector during emergency situations.Originality/value>This paper is one of the first that explores how impulse – pure, suggestion, planned and reminder – purchases got affected during the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in an emerging economy. This paper is also one of the first to explore the role of permission marketing and digital transformation by the use of blockchain in helping offline retailers in forming swift trust and practice trust-based marketing.

Broadcasters' expertise and consumers' purchase intention: The roles of consumer trust and platform reputation.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, farmer-assisted live streaming has become a hot topic in China. In this manuscript, we explore the ways in which broadcaster and platform characteristics jointly influence consumers' purchase intention. To examine our hypotheses, we distributed questionnaires to 261 Chinese consumers who viewed farmer-assisted live streaming. Correlational analyses, regression analyses, and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine our hypotheses. The results show that broadcasters' expertise is positively related to consumer trust and that platform reputation moderates this relationship. In addition, consumer trust mediates the positive relationship between broadcasters' expertise and consumer purchase intention. Furthermore, the theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Social CRM: linking the dots of customer service and customer loyalty during COVID-19 in the hotel industry

Purpose Social customer relationship management (SCRM) is an evolving strategy gaining prominence in the hotel industry by cultivating new, improved relationships through engaging customers on social media (SM) platforms. Accordingly, this study aims to assess the effect of SCRM on customer service and customer loyalty (CL) in the hotel industry. This study also explores the moderating effect of COVID-19 (EC) on the relationship between (customer engagement [CE] and improved customer service [ICS]) and (CE and trust [TR]). Design/methodology/approach This study develops and tests the SCRM model using structural equation modelling on a sample size of 214 responses. The questionnaire was administered online to the customers of five preselected global hotel chains. The criteria for selecting the participants were that they must have tweeted from their Twitter handle by using # (hashtag) hotel name to resolve any customer service issues. Findings Results denote that CE significantly impacts ICS. CE was also found to exert a substantial effect on TR. The moderating EC was also found to be significant, but the effect was weak. Although the customers were extensively impacted by the pandemic and were initially hesitant to visit hotels, SCRM proved to be a powerful tool to gain back customer trust (CT) and develop CL by upsurging the shadows of COVID-19. Practical implications This study suggests that viable enforcement of the SCRM system can assist in real-time monitoring and tracking of customers' activities. This can develop a more profound connection with customers through CE which can boost the co-innovation process. Originality/value This study denotes a pioneer attempt to investigate the relationships between SCRM, CE, CT, ICS, CL and COVID-19 in the same framework in a SM context.

Conceptualizing the role of blockchain in omnichannel healthcare: a Delphi study

Purpose>This study aims to identify the challenges in the healthcare industry as it adopts an omnichannel setup in an emerging economy context. Further, the study determines the scope of blockchain in addressing these challenges.Design/methodology/approach>The study uses a qualitative approach to understand the challenges in the omnichannel healthcare industry and know the scope of blockchain in building an omnichannel healthcare system. In the first stage, it did an in-depth analysis of the extant literature, followed by a Delphi study with 24 healthcare experts.Findings>The study presents the current challenges in the omnichannel healthcare sector in an emerging economy. Further, it develops a novel conceptual framework for blockchain adoption in the omnichannel healthcare industry. The study also presents propositions that will help healthcare service providers enhance decision-making concerning the adoption of blockchain in the healthcare industry.Research limitations/implications>The research results may lack generalizability due to the exploratory approach and emerging economies context. Theoretically, in this study, the authors extend the theory of swift trust and organization information processing theory in an omnichannel healthcare context.Practical implications>The propositions provided in this paper can help healthcare managers make strategic decisions on the scope of adoption of blockchain for omnichannel healthcare.Originality/value>This study explores the understudied area of challenges in omnichannel healthcare and the scope of blockchain for omnichannel healthcare in an emerging economy context.

Research on the Impact of E-servicescape on Consumers’ Behavior Intention in the Context of E-commerce Live Broadcast

In recent years, the development of China’s e-commerce live broadcasting industry has been developing rapidly. With the outbreak of COVID-19, Internet users have opened the shopping mode of live broadcast by e-commerce. As a more accurate and rapid way of content dissemination, e-commerce live broadcasting has built a new mode of communication between brands and consumers, narrowed the distance between consumers and goods during online shopping, and greatly improved the sales conversion rate. At this time, the research on the generation mechanism of consumer behavioral intention in e-commerce live broadcasting platform is very key. This paper introduces three dimensions: aesthetic appeal, functional layout and financial security, and constructs a research model of online service scenario on consumer behavioral intention in the context of e-commerce live broadcast. The empirical results show that the three dimensions of aesthetic appeal, functional layout and financial security have a positive impact on consumers’ behavior intention, and have a significant positive impact on consumers’ trust. Consumer trust has a significant positive impact on consumers’ behavior intention. This study takes the multi-dimensional e-commerce live broadcast e-servicescape as the starting point, provides more reliable basis for the study of consumer behavior will, and expands the application scope of e-servicescape. The research results have certain enlightenment to help the e-commerce live broadcasting platform accurately grasp the needs of users in the process of use and realize the conversion from platform use to purchase. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Peer-to-peer accommodation amid COVID-19: the effects of Airbnb cleanliness information on guests' trust and behavioral intentions

Purpose This study aims to explore the influence of different types of cleanliness information provided on the Airbnb platform (hosts' sanitation labels, Airbnb cleaning protocol and previous guests' reviews) on guests' trust and behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an online scenario-based experimental design. A two-step approach was applied to discover the proposed relationships by assessing the measurement model fit and validity of the constructs with confirmatory factor analysis and testing study hypotheses with structural equation modeling. Findings The results demonstrate that three types of cleanliness information (i.e. provided by Airbnb's hosts, platform and customer reviews) had statistically significant effects on customers' trust and behavioral intentions. Practical implications The research results provide practical recommendations for Airbnb hosts and peer-to-peer accommodation platforms on using several types of textual and visual cleanliness information to influence guests' attitudes and behavioral intentions. Originality/value This study advances knowledge by introducing new factors affecting guests' trust and behavioral intentions in peer-to-peer accommodation settings and differentiating the effects of different sources of cleanliness information and different types of guests' trust.

Impulse purchases during emergency situations: exploring permission marketing and the role of blockchain

Purpose The paper explores how consumer behavior for purchasing impulse products changed in the complex and disruptive (emergency) situation of the COVID-19 pandemic when the customer is shopping in-home and not visiting the offline stores in an emerging economy context. This paper further explores how digital transformations like the use of blockchain technology can aid offline/omnichannel retailers in reviving sales via permission marketing for impulse products. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed a qualitative research design and conducted 24 personal interviews with millennials and 15 interviews with offline/omnichannel retailers from an emerging economy. The data collected were analyzed using the thematic analysis procedure. Findings The authors discuss their findings under three themes - customers' conscious impulse buying during the pandemic, customers' unconscious impulse buying during the pandemic, and a viable solution for retailers in response to the pandemic. Practical implications The authors suggest that marketers primarily from an offline/omnichannel store should adapt to permission marketing and use technologies like blockchain for the digital transformation of their marketing strategies. Doing so can help offline retailers minimize future damages in the retail sector during emergency situations. Originality/value This paper is one of the first that explores how impulse - pure, suggestion, planned and reminder - purchases got affected during the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in an emerging economy. This paper is also one of the first to explore the role of permission marketing and digital transformation by the use of blockchain in helping offline retailers in forming swift trust and practice trust-based marketing.

Conventional or Organic? Motives and Trends in Polish Vegetable Consumption.

Vegetables constitute a major component of human food security. They are the main sources of essential nutrients including antioxidants, natural dyes, minerals, and vitamins. Eating habit issues related to the consumption of vegetables are gaining importance within the context of a healthy lifestyle, longevity, and physical fitness. Additionally, food quality is of primary importance, and so-called eco-food (defined as food as natural as possible, without fertilizers, pesticides, or preservatives) seems to be the most popular world-trend in healthy nutrition. Keeping these ideas in focus, research on vegetable consumption in Poland in the context of conventional or organic production was performed using online questionnaire surveys. The results revealed that the rate of vegetable consumption depended primarily on economic status, except for the potato, which was a staple cutting across all economic strata. Among the 108 analyzed respondents, 74% bought vegetables from certified organic farms. However, 59% bought organic vegetables "rarely" or "sometimes", and only 15% "often". Next, respondents chose to buy vegetables from fresh food markets (45%) and in local shops (41%). About 20% of the respondents acquired vegetables from their own farms. Among the reasons for choosing vegetables from certified organic farms, respondents mentioned in decreasing order: "desire for proper nutrition" (30%), "thinking that organic vegetables are healthier" (28%), and "organic vegetables are generally better" (7%).