Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service Decisions
With the development of Internet technology, online shopping has become increasingly popular. Owing to the improvement of living standards, the quality of e-service has become one of the important criteria for online shopping, with online shopping consultation being one of the key services. At the s...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/17/4/90 |
| _version_ | 1827638193369907200 |
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| author | Leilei Zhao Weiwei Wu Minghui Jiang |
| author_facet | Leilei Zhao Weiwei Wu Minghui Jiang |
| author_sort | Leilei Zhao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the development of Internet technology, online shopping has become increasingly popular. Owing to the improvement of living standards, the quality of e-service has become one of the important criteria for online shopping, with online shopping consultation being one of the key services. At the same time, the emergence of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligent (AI) has allowed online retailers to increase the availability of non-human online shopping consultation services. Therefore, this paper investigates the service decision problem between human and non-human online shopping consultation services for online retailers in the online duopoly market. By constructing a Hotelling improvement model and applying it in a new way, considering consumer preferences for human services, this paper explores the impact of the optimal service level of human online shopping consultation services and consumers’ sensitivity to the service level of human services on online retailers’ pricing, service decisions, etc. Our research results show that consumers’ sensitivity to the service level of human online shopping consultation services has an impact on the demand and profit of online retailers. In addition, human online shopping consultation services are not always beneficial to the profitability. Furthermore, when two online retailers compete, the utility of the non-human online retailer’s service to consumers can influence the service decisions of the other online retailer. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:13:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a44213a403c04c898eb54b534301dade |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0718-1876 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:13:05Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-a44213a403c04c898eb54b534301dade2023-11-24T16:04:39ZengMDPI AGJournal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research0718-18762022-12-011741791181110.3390/jtaer17040090Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service DecisionsLeilei Zhao0Weiwei Wu1Minghui Jiang2School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, ChinaSchool of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, ChinaSchool of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, ChinaWith the development of Internet technology, online shopping has become increasingly popular. Owing to the improvement of living standards, the quality of e-service has become one of the important criteria for online shopping, with online shopping consultation being one of the key services. At the same time, the emergence of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligent (AI) has allowed online retailers to increase the availability of non-human online shopping consultation services. Therefore, this paper investigates the service decision problem between human and non-human online shopping consultation services for online retailers in the online duopoly market. By constructing a Hotelling improvement model and applying it in a new way, considering consumer preferences for human services, this paper explores the impact of the optimal service level of human online shopping consultation services and consumers’ sensitivity to the service level of human services on online retailers’ pricing, service decisions, etc. Our research results show that consumers’ sensitivity to the service level of human online shopping consultation services has an impact on the demand and profit of online retailers. In addition, human online shopping consultation services are not always beneficial to the profitability. Furthermore, when two online retailers compete, the utility of the non-human online retailer’s service to consumers can influence the service decisions of the other online retailer.https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/17/4/90duopoly marketonline retailershuman serviceservice decision makingservice sensitivity |
| spellingShingle | Leilei Zhao Weiwei Wu Minghui Jiang Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service Decisions Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research duopoly market online retailers human service service decision making service sensitivity |
| title | Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service Decisions |
| title_full | Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service Decisions |
| title_fullStr | Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service Decisions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service Decisions |
| title_short | Human Services or Non-Human Services? How Online Retailers Make Service Decisions |
| title_sort | human services or non human services how online retailers make service decisions |
| topic | duopoly market online retailers human service service decision making service sensitivity |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/17/4/90 |
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