Editorial

Citation

Phau, I. (2014), "Editorial", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 26 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-02-2014-0031

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Volume 26, Issue 2

In the second issue of the APJML for 2014, we present a series of papers from across the continent. Topics covered in this issue include: information technology and social networking, branding and retail promotions and consumer perceptions of green food. We hope the APJML continues to serve as a quality outlet for practitioners and fellow researchers to gain new insights and ideas within marketing and logistics.

Gao and Bai open this issue with a paper on mobile social networking services (SNS). They investigate the factors influencing mobile SNS users’ intentions to continue using these services. This study, conducted using an online survey in China, found that flow, perceived usefulness and satisfaction were key determinants in consumers’ continuance intentions of mobile SNS and that system quality significantly affects consumer satisfaction. Intense competition in the marketplace has made retaining customers a top priority for these mobile SNS providers, and findings from this study could provide mobile SNS providers with useful consumer insights to better develop their service offerings.

The next paper by Thaichon, Lobo and Mitsis sheds light on home internet services in Thailand. They investigate the antecedents of internet service providers’ (ISP) service quality, and evaluate the impact of service quality on customers’ loyalty attributes towards the ISP. An online survey was conducted using the customer base of a well-established ISP in Thailand, and the data analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Using their findings, they develop a research model for assessing the service quality of ISPs and while as yet untested outside Thailand, the authors anticipate that it would benefit ISPs in the region.

Prompted by recent advances in internet technologies, Gao and Bai bring us another paper on the internet of things (IoT), examining the factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of IoT technology. Adapting and expanding upon the technology acceptance model, Gao and Bai build an integrative model to examine the factors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, social influence, perceived enjoyment and perceived behavioural control and their effect on consumers’ intentions to use IoT technology. Using data collected from Chinese consumers, their results show that there is strong support for five of the six factors in predicting consumers’ behavioural intentions. Trust was found to be insignificant in its role in predicting intention.

Following this, Chen and Sun turn their attention to software and games and examine the impact of product scarcity and uniqueness in consumers’ purchase of limited edition games. Their findings revealed that perceived scarcity had a significant impact on assumed expensiveness, perceived quality and perceived uniqueness of the game, which in turn had significant influence on the perceived value of the game and thus motivated consumers to purchase the game. Their research suggests that game producers could capitalise on the scarcity of the limited edition games to motivate consumers to purchase the games. This perceived scarcity also helps them increase the consumer perceived value and uniqueness of their games, which could help in their marketing operations.

Moving onto branding, Quoquab, Yasin and Dardak embark on a qualitative study to understand the motivations behind consumers’ multi-brand loyalty in the context of mobile phone services market. Through a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews conducted in Malaysia, they identified six main factors that influenced consumers’ decisions to be polygamous in their choice of mobile phone service providers. "Financial benefits", "need for privacy", "attractiveness of promotional campaign" and "public self-consciousness" were some of the factors cited. Their findings further highlight the complex nature of consumer loyalty and present mobile service providers with a better understanding of multi-brand loyalty in order to develop better strategies and service offerings to compete in the marketplace.

Khare, Achtani and Khattar then explore the influence of shopping motives and price perceptions on Indian consumers’ attitudes towards mall retailer promotions. They also examined the effect of price discounts, gifts, coupons and rebates on consumer attitudes. Conducted across six cities in India, this study found that consumers’ attitude towards mall retailer promotions were influenced by shopping motives and price perceptions. Using these findings, Khare and Rakesh provide retailers with key consumer insights and suggestions on how they can tailor promotions to combine functional and hedonic benefits of shopping to encourage sales.

Next, Perrea, Grunert, Krystallis, Zhou, Huang and Hue present a paper on how Chinese consumers’ attitude towards green food is linked to higher-order attitudinal constructs such as attitude towards the environment and attitude towards technology. Specifically, they examine how these two attitudes are motivated from collectivistic and/or individualistic value structures and contrast their findings to past research in Western cultures. Their findings showed that while collectivistic values and environmental attitudes were still strong determinants of consumers’ attitude towards green foods, collectivism also influenced technological attitudes which also influenced attitudes towards green food and environmental attitudes. They conclude that Chinese consumers see technology as a positive determinant of both food safety and environmental friendliness in food production.

Finally, Koubaa, Srarfi Tabbane and Jallouli present a meta-analysis on the use of SEM in marketing image research. They examined the use of SEM across 99 models published in the past five years to quantitatively evaluate how SEM overall marketing issues have changed over time, and to provide a critical review of SEM application in marketing image research. The analysis landed three main conclusions: the study of homogenous samples of SEM models is required to get to accurate assessment of using the technique; SEM application is improving, probably as a result of learning from SEM reviews; and the reliance on a conjoint assessment of the various SEM issues is necessary to maintain accurate assessments.

Once again, we hope this issue has provided interesting insights to stimulate future research. We thank the reviewers and EAB for their timely reviews and contribution the APJML; and we thank the authors for submitting manuscripts of exceptional calibre.

Ian Phau