According to a global forecast by e-Marketer (2016), e-commerce sales are expected to reach $4 trillion by 2020 and 49.2% Statistica (2019) is forecasted to be generated from mobile commerce, m-commerce is a substantial and significant business channel that should demand every focus. The study of factors that impacted retail business performance has a long history. Kotler (1973) introduced the concept of atmosphericsÂÂ and suggested that retail stores should create the right atmospheres to proactively impact sales. Factors such as store layout, in-store music and scent on customers in-store sales behaviour were heavily researched and validated. (Turley and Milliman 2000). With the advent of internet and e-commerce, atmospheric factors derived from physical retailing were picked up and applied to virtual stores, e-commerce Manganari et al., (2011) and subsequently, m-commerce Um (2016) forming the prevalent methodology and frame of reference in the subject matter. At the same time, there were also findings from other non-atmosphericsÂÂ studies with various factors such as perceived usefulness Tan et al., (2010); security and site design Nilashi et al., (2015) that would impact m-commerce performance. Outside of the academia, practitioners were also pushing diverse views on e-commerce or m-commerce success factors that were influencing the industry in many ways. Given this context, the objective of this study is to find synergy from the current knowledge base and address the following research questions with a Mixed Methods research approach: 1. What is the impact and role of atmospheric factors on m-commerce performance as measured by metrics such as site visits, conversion and sales? 2. Can the above research question be validated with company-level performance data? The researcher initiated the qualitative research by synergizing the major learnings from literature from 2000 to 2018 and engaged a 10-industry expert panel to solicit their views on the research question. The content and points from these semi-structured interviews on the expert panel were further consolidated into a comprehensive 10-factor m-commerce performance scorecard as a testing instrument. The researcher then initiated the quantitative research and invited 3 industry experts to use this scorecard to rate site performance of the Top 200 m-commerce businesses in 2015-2016 according to Internet Retailer. Using these scores and corresponding financial and operational metrics such as visits, sales, and conversion available in the Internet Retailer database, the researcher further ran SPSS factor analysis and structured equation modelling SMART PLS analysis on 3 regression constructs. In addition, using sales volume figures as a proxy for company size, a supplementary analysis on whether company size will change the regression results was also performed. Finally, a model set of 3 factors (Social engagement, System stability and Mobile platform applications) impacting on the Site visits growth was proven to be statistically valid. This result was further analysed in triangulation with the findings from literature and expert interviews to formulate insights and discussions for the above-defined research questions. Managerial implications of these learnings have been suggested as well as directions for future research.
Date of Award | 1 Aug 2020 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | - The University of Manchester
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Supervisor | Judith Zolkiewski (Supervisor) |
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- m-commerce performance
- atmospheric factors
- impact of atmospheric factors
- e-commerce performance
- mixed-methods study on m-commerce
The Impact of Atmospheric Factors on M-commerce Performance â A Mixed-Methods Study
Chan, P. (Author). 1 Aug 2020
Student thesis: Doctor of Business Administration