| dc.contributor.advisor | Toporowski, Waldemar Prof. Dr. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ahrend, Nadine | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-02-27T09:20:21Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-02-27T09:20:21Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-02-27 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1735-0000-002E-E5AE-6 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-7312 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-7312 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | de |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject.ddc | 330 | de |
| dc.title | Desirable and Undesirable Effects of Product Presentation Tools on Online and Offline Behavior | de |
| dc.type | doctoralThesis | de |
| dc.contributor.referee | Hammerschmidt, Maik Prof. Dr. | |
| dc.date.examination | 2019-02-18 | |
| dc.description.abstracteng | Online retailing is lacking the opportunity to touch and try tangible products before purchase. Thus, a complete judgement of the main product characteristics is not possible and customers’ uncertainty increases. In case that the ordered products do not fulfill the expectations, consumers return the products. Product returns are highly problematic for retailers as they lead to additional costs which reduce their profitability. Thus, for the last years many retailers have been investing in product presentation tools (PPTs; e.g., product configurators) in their online shops. However, whether those tools are able to resemble touch-and-feel experiences of the physical world depends on their functional design characteristics. Vividness and interactivity have been identified as key design characteristics of PPTs. They determine the tools’ effectiveness and are highly configurable. However, the high expectations that such tools help customers to make better purchase decisions online seemed to be disappointed. Many retailers already withdrawn PTTs from their online shops, as the product return rate increased dramatically since their introduction. Thus, offering vivid and interactive tools seems to complicate the purchase process unnecessarily, instead of facilitating it. This does not encourage product returns but also increases the attractiveness of the offline channel for purchases after customers have informed themselves online about products using PPTs.
For an optimal design and effective use of PPTs, technology designers and retailers need to know their effects on behavior. In addition, the understanding of affective and cognitive mechanisms that influence this relationship is essential to explain the development of desirable and undesirable behavior. This aim is the center of attention of the dissertation, in which desirable and undesirable effects of PPTs on consumers’ behavior are investigated. A scenario-based experimental approach is used for the purpose of testing the conceptual frameworks. Paper 1 offers a holistic perspective on desirable and undesirable effects of PPTs. The results show that high vividness supports desirable behavior (increase purchases). Instead interactivity seems to be a potentially harmful design characteristic that favors undesirable consequences (increase product returns). Paper 2 intensifies these findings and demonstrates that interactivity is not a negative factor per se. Instead, the effect depends especially on its design. Paper 3 expands the perspective on the effects of PPTs on the offline channel. The results show the creation of desirable effects (increase online purchases) due to high vividness as well as the support of undesirable effects due to high interactivity (increase offline purchases). These negative consequences are reduced by a simultaneous use of product reviews.
For research, the dissertation creates for the first time a holistic perspective on the effects of PPTs across two channels. The undesirable outcomes are clarified by examining the direction of the behavioral effects of interactivity across varying levels of interactivity through analyzing potential nonlinearities in the functional relationships between interactivity and customer responses. By considering cognitive and affective mediating mechanisms the dissertation opens the black box between PPT characteristics and outcomes. The investigation of the influence of consumer characteristics on the desirable and undesirable effects facilitates a comprehensive understanding about the boundary conditions that determine the strength and shape of these effects.
In conclusion, this dissertation provides technology designers and e-commerce managers with precise guidelines for an effective design and successful implementation of presentation tools, taking into account retailers’ target groups and contextual factors. | de |
| dc.contributor.coReferee | Dannewald, Till Prof. Dr. | |
| dc.subject.eng | Product Presentation Tools | de |
| dc.subject.eng | Online and Offline Behavior | de |
| dc.identifier.urn | urn:nbn:de:gbv:7-11858/00-1735-0000-002E-E5AE-6-4 | |
| dc.affiliation.institute | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät | de |
| dc.subject.gokfull | Wirtschaftswissenschaften (PPN621567140) | de |
| dc.identifier.ppn | 1067044280 | |