Editor’s Introduction 24(1)
Vladimir Zwass
International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Volume 24, Number 1, 2020, pp. 1-13.
E-commerce has been gradually changing the nature of labor markets. The opportunities for international and national labor arbitrage, repackaging of the work units into modules that can be handled by various agents (including automated bots), co-creation by unpaid volunteers, emergence of purpose-oriented more or less temporary virtual firms, mass platform-run transportation and delivery services, and other phenomena that unmoor work from the brick-and-mortar abiding organizations can be expected to capture an ever-growing part of the labor markets. They also affect the traditional labor arrangements. Yet most of the research work on e-commerce marketplaces focuses on the sales of goods. The opening paper in this
Brands are created, developed, evolved, harmed, and sometimes killed by their posts on social media, and by the online reactions to these posts, which are the expressions of the engagement with the brand. As argue the authors of the second paper, the effectiveness of the posts would be affected positively if the brands differentiated the posts among the stages of the customers’ journey, from pre- to postconsumption. Joris Demmers, Jesse W.J. Weltevreden, and Willemijn M. van Dolen dichotomize the posts into informational and entertaining, along with their other differentiating attributes. The researchers present and test their model of consumer engagement, which is validated empirically in the context of the dominant social network site. The results show the value that the brands can draw from such a stage-based approach to engaging consumers with social media posts.
Multichannel approach has become almost de rigueur for retailers. Actually, there are many and various multichannel approaches, and a proper combination of and interaction among channel deployments sometimes makes (as opposed to breaks) the retailer. Cross-channel delivery, such as click-and-collect or order-in-store-receive-at-home (with a possible skillful upselling and cross-selling), is one broad method that has been found effective. Here, Anja Weber and Erik Maier study empirically just how effective it is in counteracting “research shopping,” that is, in preventing prepurchase competitive migration. The results surface the conditions under which the cross-channel delivery can indeed help to reduce the migration of a researching customer to a competitor.
Sponsored search advertising is a primary method of reaching customers. Nonparticipation may be another method of not being seen on the Web. In this form of advertising, typically an advertiser runs campaigns that organize selected keywords into ad groups. The decisions that go into keyword grouping are the subject of the paper by Huiran Li and Yanwu Yang. They rely on stochastic programming in their algorithm and use real data sets for their computational experiments in assessing the results. The authors’ approach to grouping is compared with several existing ones and found superior. Notably, they show that increasing the advertising budgets or the number of keywords does not necessarily lead to optimal results.
The concluding paper of the issue, by Yu Wang, Minqiang Li, Haiyang Feng, and Nan Feng, addresses through formal methods the best software-release strategy with the consideration of the word-of-mouth (WOM). In a duopoly setting, the authors compare the early release strategy (under the mantra of “release-early-release-often”), accompanied by the ensuing WOM, with the delayed-released strategy, adopted by a software supplier not expecting a positive WOM compared with the competitor’s. With four possible combinations of release strategy in a duopoly, the authors offer theory-based advice to software developers on the release strategy relative to the product quality.
The opening of the 24th volume of IJEC is an excellent opportunity to thank our referees who, along with the members of our Editorial Board, are the primary guarantors of the quality of the journal. Here are the names of our reviewers:
W.M.P. van der Aalst
Marc Adam
Hyung Jun Ahn
Jae-Hyeon Ahn
Sonia M. Camacho Ahumada
Tolga Akcura
Pervaiz Alam
Eleftherios Alamanos
Oliver Alexy
Hossam Ali-Hassan
Muhammad Aljukhadar
Tariq Al-Naeem
Paul Alpar
Reina Arakji
Ofer Arazy
Yoris Au
David Avison
Hyunmi Baek
Kallol Bagchi
Hillol Bala
Siva Balasubramanian
Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay
Youngsok Bang
Gaurav Bansal
Reza Barkhi
Clara Bassano
John “Skip” Benamati
Raquel Benbunan-Fich
Victor Benjamin
Bettina Berendt
Guido Berens
Amit Bhatnagar
Ganesh Bhatt
Martin Bichler
Ivo Blohm
Jesse Bockstedt
Waifong Boh
Indranil Bose
Nicola Breugst
Glenn Browne
Scott Buffett
Jinwei Cao
Lan Cao
Lanlan Cao
Yong Cao
Aihwa Chang
Hsin-lu Chang
Mohamed Hédi Charki
Debabroto Chatterjee
Abhijit Chaudhury
Sophea Chea
Ramnath Chellappa
Andrew Chen
Daniel Chen
Jianqing Chen
Jin Chen
Kuan Chen
Langtao Chen
Zeng Chen
Hsing K. Cheng
Xusen Cheng
Christy Cheung
Waiman Cheung
Lei Chi
Robert T.H. Chi
Roger Chiang
Chaochang Chiu
Kyungsub S. Choi
Zeng Chun
Wingyan Chung
John M. Clark
Theodore H. Clark
Randy Cooper
Nicoletta Corrocher
Geng Cui
Qizhi Dai
Robert M. Davison
Jason Dedrick
Elena Delgado-Ballester
Chrysanthos Dellarocas
Haluk Demirkan
Joris Demmers
Xuefei (Nancy) Deng
Charles Dennis
Douglas Derrick
Sarv Devaraj
Rajiv Dewan
Jasbir Dhaliwal
Tommaso Di Noia
Eugenio Di Sciascio
Francesco Donini
Georgios I. Doukidis
William J. Drake
Wenjing Duan
Robert Easley
Christophe Elie-Dit-Cosaque
Sean B. Eom
Chun-I Fan
Ming Fan
Weiguo Fan
Jiaming Fang
Xiaowen Fang
Yu-Hui Fang
Yulin Fang
Alexander Felfernig
Jane Feng
Xiao Feng
Daniel R. Fesenmaier
Pat Finnegan
Jerry Fjermestad
Shixuan Fu
Johann Füller
Brent Furneaux
Dennis F. Galletta
Bashar Gammoh
Dale Ganley
Guodong (Gordon) Gao
Roberto Garcia
Ina Garnefeld
Wei Geng
Xianjun Geng
Sonja Gensler
George M. Giaglis
Steven Glover
Janis Gogan
Kim Huat Goh
Sigi Goode
Dawn Gregg
Ulrike Gretzel
Bin Gu
Gitong Guo
Hong Guo
Xunhua Guo
Saurabh Gupta
Sumeet Gupta
Jungpil Hahn
Kunsoo Han
Shu Han
Dale Hanley
Matthew J. Hashim
Cheng Suang Heng
Tejaswini Herath
Thomas Hess
Traci J. Hess
Oliver Hinz
Lorin M. Hitt
Chin-Fu Ho
Susanna Ho
Christopher Holland
Yili (Kevin) Hong
Sarah Hsieh
Pei-Fang Hsu
Paul Hu
Qing Hu
Xi (Cathy) Hu
Chun-Yao Huang
Liqiang Huang
Qian Huang
Alexander Hübner
Kai Lung Hui
Wendy Hui
Yujong Hwang
Ghiyong Im
Bharat A. Jain
Radhika Jain
Jeevan Jaisingh
Bernard J. Jansen
Ashish Kumar Jha
James J.J. Jiang
Zhenhui (Jack) Jiang
Sung Jin
Alice Johnson
Jaehyun Ju
Wen-Sheng Juang
Arnold Kamis
Gerald Kane
Maurits Kaptein
Sabrina Karwatzki
Varol Kayhan
Weiling Ke
Tayfun Keskin
Freya de Keyzer
Lara Khansa
Moutaz Khouja
Melody Y. Kiang
Antino Kim
Dan Kim
Dongmin Kim
Hee-Woong Kim
Jung Seek Kim
Kwansoo Kim
Taeha Kim
Young-Gul Kim
Ruth King
Gary Klein
Ilsang Ko
Cenk Kocas
Chang E. Koh
Joon Koh
Rajiv Kohli
Marios Koufaris
Kevin Kuan
Christoph Kuhn
Ram Kumar
Jason Kuruzovich
Eric Kwon
Des Laffey
Hsiangchu Lai
Kee-hung (Mike) Lai
Michael Lash
Ulrike Lechner
John Ledyard
Brian Lee
Dong-Joo Lee
Dongwon Lee
Eun-Jung Lee
Gene Moo Lee
Ho Geun Lee
Hong Yoo Lee
Inseong Lee
Jungwoo Lee
Myung-Soo Lee
Sang-Yong (Tom) Lee
Yaobin Lee
Zach Lee
Christiane Lehrer
Chin Laung Lei
Jan Marco Leimeister
Lori Leonard
Bo Li
Dahui Li
Gen Li
Mengxiang Li
Shaojin Li
Shengli Li
Ting Li
Xin Li
Xinxin Li
Xitong Li
Yung-Ming Li
Huigang Liang
Paul Licker
Annouk Lievens
Aleck Lin
Chieh-Peng Lin
Fu-ren Lin
Jack Lin
Mei Lin
Yucong Lin
Zhijie Lin
Peng Ling
Charles (Zhechao) Liu
Jun Liu
Xianghua Liu
Ying Liu
Yipeng Liu
Eleanor T. Loiacono
Alexander Lopes
Paul Benjamin Lowry
Xianghua Lu
Yaobin Lu
Chuan Luo
Christoph Lutz
Xianghua Lv
Mark Lycett
Dan Ma
Xiao Ma
Scott McCoy
Pruthikrai Mahatanankoon
Adam M. Mahmood
Rolf Mahnke
Feng Mai
Ronald Maier
Stanislav Mamonov
Kent Marett
Panos Markopoulos
Sarit Markovich
Sean Marston
Nelson Massad
Christian Matt
Uwe Matzat
Kurt Matzler
Jerrold May
Lin Mei
Roberto Mejias
Thomas Miller
Vitaly Mindel
Dinesh Mirchandani
Sunil Mithas
Hamid Mohtadi
Alemayehu Molla
Ramiro Montealegre
Greg Moody
Andreas Munzel
Kichan Nam
Guofang Nan
Ravi Nararayanaswamy
Matthew Nelson
Rainer Olbrich
Peter Otto
Zafer D. Ozdemir
Zhao Pan
Jun Pang
Eun Hee Park
Insu Park
Sungjune Park
Craig Parker
Bhavik Pathak
Praveen Pathak
Ravi Patnayakuni
David Paul
Kenneth Peffers
Alex Pelaez
Kostas Pelechrinis
Patrick De Pelsmacker
Esko Penttinen
Christoph Peters
Christian Peukert
Chee-Wei Phang
James Pick
Roger A. Pick
Yves Pigneur
Huseyin Polat
Simpson Poon
Jaana Porra
Constance Porter
Key Pousttchi
Chris Preist
Zhilei Qiao
Liangfei Qiu
Lingyun Qiu
Elisabetta Raguseo
Vandana Ramachandran
Sridhar Ramaswami
C. Ranganathan
R. Ravichandran
Sury Ravindran
Gautam Ray
Louis Raymond
Fei Ren
Hyeun-Suk Rhee
Christoph Riedl
Suzanne Rivard
Lionel P. Robert, Jr.
Ko de Ruyter
Timo Saarinen
Khawaja Saeed
Rajib Saha
Sagar Samtani
Pallab Sanyal
Tobias Schlager
Christian Schlereth
Jochen Scholl
Petra Schubert
Carsten Schultz
Judy Scott
Isabella Seeber
Ravi Sen
Sagnika Sen
Mark Sena
Sanchayan Sengupta
Purvi Shah
Zhe Shan
Yung-Cheng Shen
Susan A. Sherer
Amit Sheth
Michael (Zhan) Shi
Savannah Shi
Zhan Shi
Hung-Pin Shih
Choon Ling Sia
Michael Siering
Param Vir Singh
Sanjukta Das Smith
Rajib Soha
Jai-Yeol Son
Amy Song
Peijian Song
Ryan Sougstad
William Spangler
Martin Spann
Bruce Spencer
Rajendra P. Srivastava
Thomas Stafford
Craig Standing
Charles Steinfield
Dennis Steininger
Stefan Stieglitz
Troy J. Strader
Bo-chiuan Su
Chandrasekar Subramaniam
Ashok Subramanian
Eung-Kyo Suh
Daewon Sun
Justin Sydnor
Chuan-Hoo Tan
Daisy (Jing) Tan
Yong Tan
Qian Tang
Xinlin Tang
Monideepa Tarafdar
Alfred Taudes
Orcun Temizkan
Ernie Teo
Thompson Teo
Ferdinand Thies
Ronald Thompson
Simon Thompson
James Y.L. Thong
Daniel Tolstoy
Noam Tractinsky
Manuel Trenz
Arvind Tripathi
Dimitrios Tsekouras
Yanbin Tu
Y. Alex Tung
Ofir Turel
Nicolas Turenne
Tuure Tuunanen
Nathan W. Twyman
Andrew Urbaczewski
Jean-Claude Usunier
Sonja Utz
Rustam Vahidov
Peter van Baalen
Sebastian Voigt
Nir Vulkan
G. R. Wagner
Eric Walden
Zhiping Walter
Alex Wang
Bin Wang
Edward Wang
Eric T.G. Wang
G. Alan Wang
Hui Wang
Kai Wang
Qiu-Hong Wang
Sophia Wang
Weiquan Wang
Deepa Wani
Sidne Ward
Sunil Wattal
Thomas Weber
K.K. Wei
Zaiyan Wei
John D. Wells
Hannes Werthner
Michael Wessel
Rolf T. Wigand
Fons Wijnhoven
Guido Wirtz
Christina Wong
Chuck Wood
Dezhi Wu
Ji Wu
Jianghua Wu
Ping Amy Wu
James Wyse
Lan Xia
Jianhui Xie
Chun-Xiao Xing
Jason Xiong
Jingjun Xu
Kefeng Xu
Yunjie (Calvin) Xu
Ling Xue
Dong Ling Xu-Priour
Ruiliang Yan
Christopher Yang
Kyunghoon Yang
Zhiyong Yang
Rebecca Yen
Denny Yin
Byungjoon Yoo
Chul Woo Yoo
Lingyao (Ivy) Yuan
Yufei Yuan
German Zenetti
Chun Zeng
Xiaohua Zeng
Alejandro Zentner
Cheng Zhang
Dongsong Zhang
Han Zhang
Ping Zhang
Xiaoquan Zhang
Yufei Zhang
Huimin Zhao
Kexin Zhao
Xia Zhao
Haichao Zheng
Xiao-Hui Zheng
Lina Zhou
Wei Zhou
Wenqi Zhou
Yilu Zhou
Zhongyun (Phil) Zhou
Hongwei Zhu
Youlong Zhuang
Now, let us turn to the papers.